Road to Seasonals 5/4 Winner’s Lineups

I've heard the Shuriman desert is vast, but this is ridiculous! Wednesday's Road to Seasonals tournament had thirty-eight competitors. In the top cut we saw a whopping EIGHT Shurima decks, with two lineups being nearly identical! Lets take a look at what all made the cut deck by deck. You can find the full decklists of everyone in the tournament here as well https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KJfZp3tAKnPaaNIQFtIDSoMazSxB-bxGH1R-6TjPNsQ/edit#gid=0

1st Place - Prodigy1097

Azir Xerath

We're going to see this deck a few times today, so I'll keep this brief. Prodigy's version is angled to be the best possible version of the deck based on their winner's interview. Having two clockwork curators does let it go off faster than lists that try to avoid adapting to the nerfs. That fact even came up in the finals where Curator won them game three!

Viego Shurima

This list echews the typical inclusion of Ionia and Kindred to basically run like a Nasus Thresh deck with Viego as the sole top end. You get out the boy and start chowing down on your units to turbo grow your Encroaching Mists and flip him asap.

Taliyah Ziggs

Rounding out their lineup we have more sand, acting as a powerful tempo list that aims to make huge swings with Desert Naturalist and trample over your opponent's units with an overwhelming Champion.

2nd Place - Kannan171 of the Wobbly Wombats

Azir Xerath

Kannan's version of the list is more aimed at consistency than speeding up their disc. It incorporates more Ancient Hourglasses and Rite of Callings over the curators to help protect and find your champions. It is more well rounded but is worse in the mirror.

Pantheon Yuumi

This is a normal version of the typical Fated Pantheon type deck except for one notable cut; Golden Aegis. Rather than the full rallies, Kannan has opted for a full three Cataclysms and two Bastions to keep their threats from folding to a singular vengeance.

Taliyah Ziggs

Their Taliyah Ziggs list is a bit more geared to get moving quickly with a full three Alchemists and no Herald of the Magus. They look to get things popped as soon as possible, also using a full set of Unraveled Earths to keep the opponent in an awkward position.

3rd Place - Friend of Zoe, of team Icy Gaming

Azir Xerath

Their sun disc deck has cut out Rite of Calling entirely to up their count on Golden Ambassadors and add in one Desert Naturalist. This is likely them expecting a bit clunkier and slower of matches where they can make use of the bonus stats from the Ambassadors. Or possibly it's considering the option of fighting through their disc being destroyed.

Taliyah Ziggs

I'm noticing a trend here... FoZ's version of the deck has cut Desert Naturalist entirely to up the count of some utility spells. Notably, they are the only one of the the top 4 to include unleashed energy in their version.

Viego Shurima

FoZ's Viego deck is card for card the same as Prodigy's, not much to say or add here aside from 'wow there's a lot of shurima in today's top 4'.

4th Place - DREvander51

Jayce Elise Vi Sentinels

A notable inclusion for this sentinels list is Forge of Tomorrow; with the Cast/play change Forge has gotten a bit of a bump since you get the mana and space instantly. This version also runs three Albus Ferros, looking to run similar to a tribeam gameplan of throwing everything at the opponent's units then playing out a huge tempo swing in the form of the old boat who pings for 5+ when he attacks at that point.

Lux Aphelios

As standard as a toolbox type deck can be. DREvander's version has one Shield of Durand to ensure target unit doesn't die, and two Sunbursts as good catch-alls for removal. They also have one copy of Blind Mystic to shut down big fated units that have spiraled out of control.

Veigar Senna Darkness

This darkness list looks to maximize it's different forms of answers, having three different spells to protect their champions, two forms of aoe removal, then as harder removal a Minimorph, Vengeance, and Piercing Darkness. Their higher number of Wallops make it feel like they feel confident in delaying the enemy and winning through Darker means.