Sivir Tristana Deck Guide

Sivir Tristana is a deck that caught my eye when I was playing the open rounds for the seasonal tournament. It surprised me when I played against it. Long story short I was 1-1 against a guy whose name I don’t remember and I died from 18 nexus health in one turn even though I had lethal next turn. At this moment I thought: “Huh, that seems pretty strong I’m gonna try it out”. So here we are.

Sivir Tristana is a deck that utilizes Bandle City’s card generation, early game units, and discounts to swarm the board early game, dealing damage to your opponent and leveling Sivir in the process. Eventually, you will have either a leveled Sivir or Tristana from playing multi-region followers and you finish the game with either The Absolver or Shell Game on one of your two champions.

CARD CHOICES

3x Tristana: She has great synergy with the multi-region package and levels up pretty fast in this deck. Remember your multi-region followers get I +1/0 if Tristana is on the board and impact on top of that if she is leveled, so keep that in mind when planning out your turns. 

Usually, you want to play Tristana when she is leveled as she can get removed by cards like Buster Shot in her unleveled form and she doesn’t get a lot of attack power until later in the game so it is usually not worth to play her on turn three.

3x Sivir: She is your main finisher, this is because she can give all attacking allies her keywords when leveled. This means if you cast Shell Game on her all your allies get elusive and if you cast The Absolver every unit will get overwhelm. 

Be careful when playing Sivir because if she gets removed before you can make a big swing you lose one of your win conditions.

3x Proto Poro: Solid one drop, usually does two damage to the nexus on turn one and advances Tristana’s level up.

3x Treasure Seeker: Very good one drop. It generates a Waking Sands which is great to play in combination with Tenor of Terror on turn four for a huge tempo swing.

3x Bomber Twins: Good multi-region two drops that generate a random landmark. This card is usually a keep against fearsome units as Bandle City does struggle to get fearsome blockers.

3x Loping Telescope: Amazing two drops for this deck. Generates a card while also advancing Tristana’s level up. 

3x Bandle City Mayor: Your main value engine in the deck. Generates a multi-region follower while discounting all multi-region followers. 

3x Tenor of Terror: Amazing card in this deck. Has synergy with almost the whole deck as it summons two multi-region followers, leveling Tristana super-fast while dealing seven damage if they both strike advancing Sivir’s level up.

Waking Sands into Tenor of Terror is a great power play in this deck and you should always save two mana for turn four if you have Tenor of Terror in hand.

2x Poro Sled: Good unit that is very hard to deal with because of its five health stat line. Can be discounted by Bandle City Mayor and gets double impact if played with leveled Tristana on the board.

3x Pokey Stick: Good cycle card that also deals one damage to remove small units.

3x The Absolver: One of your finisher spells. Requires a leveled champion which can be easily achieved with Tristana. Mainly you want to target Tristana or Sivir with it as Tristana has a very high attack in the late game while Sivir can give overwhelm to all your units.

3x Buster Shot: Easy auto-include in this deck as it costs two mana most of the time and helps you remove dangerous units such as Poppy.

3x Shell Game: Your second finisher spell. The same thing as with The Absolver, try to use it either on Tristana or Sivir for the most damage possible. One thing to keep in mind is that Shell Game refills your spell mana. This means that it essentially only costs two mana to play when you open an attack so it can be used in combination with The Absolver to get some out-of-nowhere lethal attacks.

3x Minimorph: Staple Bandle City card. Helps you deal with big units such as Sion or Sejuani to buy you some time to close out the game.

GENERAL MULLIGANS

Against faster decks: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick and Buster Shot.

Against slower decks: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Sivir (if you attack on evens) and Tenor of Terror (if you attack on evens and have Treasure Seeker).

MATCHUPS

Draven Sion (50/50):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick, Buster Shot and Minimorph.

This matchup comes down to who can kill who first. In the early game you want to generate a bunch of units to chump block their low health units and use Buster Shot to deal with Draven.

You always want to keep one Minimorph if you see it in your opening hand as it is your only answer against Sion.

Keep Bomber Twins in your opening hand over the other two drops as these are fearsome blockers that can save you a lot of nexus health against Risen Rider.

Save Pokey Stick specifically for Boom Baboon as it is their highest attack one health unit.

Darkness (Unfavored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Sivir (if you attack on evens) and Tenor of Terror (if you attack on evens and have Treasure Seeker).

The main reason this matchup is so difficult to deal with is that we have no good ways of dealing with Veigar on turn four. If they have it on turn four is probably going to stick for the rest of the game thanks to cards like Stress Testing and Rekindler.

This is problematic as their Darkness is going to grow indefinitely so they only need a ping plus Darkness to kill Sivir.

Darkness can only target one unit at a time and slow speed, unless they have Senna on board. So, try to go for wide boards to swarm your opponent. A card that helps a lot with this is Tenor of Terror.

Always have a two-attack two drop in your opening hand to trade with Twisted Catalyzer as he can be quite problematic if he gets two strikes in.

Aim to finish the game before turn six if possible because Ixtali Sentinel can shut you down if you don’t have a huge lead by then. She removes a unit while healing your opponent. If she gets dropped your best bet is to OTK your opponent which is quite difficult with the amount of removal in their deck.

Poppy Ziggs (slightly unfavored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick and Buster Shot.

Their deck is too fast so you want to concentrate on surviving and making value trades. In this matchup, you want cards that can block while generating some sort of value. Loping Telescope and Tenor of Terror are great for this in the early game as they generate a lot of blockers for your opponent to deal with.

Buster Shot can help you deal with Poppy on turn four for a huge tempo swing as you pay two mana to deal with a four-mana threat.

Pokey Stick can help you deal with their one drops but it is better to play minions in this type of matchup as Pokey Stick can be too slow.

Nami Zoe (Unfavored)

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Sivir (if you attack on evens) and Tenor of Terror (if you attack on evens and have Treasure Seeker).

Nami Zoe is a bad matchup for this deck as you have no way to deal with elusive units or remove Nami. Your best bet against this deck is to deal as much damage as possible before they can find Nami and force them to block with their elusive units to stay alive.

Pokey Stick is a good keep if you already have a good hand to deal with Zoe and make your opponent choose to either lose Zoe or level up Nami in later turns. 

A good combo to pull against this matchup is Waking Sands into Tenor of Terror if you attack turn four as it exerts a lot of pressure.

Akshan Sivir (slightly favored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick and Buster Shot.

Akshan Sivir is a faster deck than you most of the time so you will want to concentrate on generating chump blockers to survive the early game. Cards that help you achieve this are: Bandle City Mayor and Loping Telescope. 

Your main problem in this matchup is that since a lot of their units have quick attack it is tough to level up Sivir.

Try not to play Sivir too early in this matchup as she can get vulnerable by Merciless Hunter or challenged by Fleetfeather Tracker.

They have a lot of combat tricks to keep their units alive so try to swarm them instead of making value trades. 

Their only way to deal with elusive units is Sharpsight so try to force those out in the early game so you can finish the game later with Shell Game. They won’t be able to deal with a full board of elusives in the late game so try to play for Sivir plus Shell Game combo.

Try to keep enough blockers for rally turns if your opponent has three or four mana open as they run cards such as Relentless Pursuit and Golden Aegis.

Lurk (Favored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick, Buster Shot, and Minimorph if you have a good hand.

No surprise here, most Bandle City decks have a favorable matchup against Lurk this is mostly due to the ability to swarm the board with chump blockers that trade well into lurk units as they often have low health. You can also deal with both their champions, Pyke gets dealt with Buster Shot and Rek'Sai with Minimorph since she can’t open attack to level.

Lurk deck runs about eight one drops so you want to have a Proto Poro or Treasure Seeker in your opening hand to chump block if possible. 

Bandle City Mayor is a cracked card in this matchup as they have no efficient way to deal with him besides making him vulnerable. Play as many mayors as you can and you should be able to block all of their attackers.

You always want to have a Minimorph and a Buster Shot in hand to deal with their champions in this matchup. If you have a good opening hand don’t be scared to keep either of those as it can shut down your opponent very hard.

Gangplank Sejuani (Unfavored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Pokey Stick, Buster Shot and Minimorph.

This is a very tough matchup because if your opponent gets a leveled Sejuani on board and you don’t have Minimorph is over. 

What you need to do is try to negate as many plunder triggers as you can. This means playing units on curve and blocking until eventually, you get to pull your combo off.

Use Buster Shot to get rid of Monkey Idol as it levels up both Sejuani and Gangplank very fast.

Gangplank Twisted Fate (Slightly Unfavored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Buster Shot.

This matchup is very manageable if you keep cards that generate chump blockers such as Bandle City Mayor and Loping Telescope in your opening hand. The reason is that GP TF is an aggro deck and wants to rush you down as fast as possible and these cards allow you to mitigate a lot of damage.

When going wide be careful of keg combos as they run cards such as Make it Rain and Twisted Fate which can wipe your board. It is a good idea to keep a Pokey Stick to get rid of the Powder Keg just in case.

Save your Minimorph for Gangplank as he is the biggest threat in their deck and their main finisher.

Bomber Twins is a good keep as it trades well with Stone Stackers on turn two.

Fizz Poppy Bandletree (Slightly favored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Buster Shot, 

Bandle City Mayor, Sivir (if you attack evens) and Tenor of Terror (if you attack evens and have Treasure Seeker).

You can mulligan a lot greedier in this matchup as they usually lack a lot of pressure to kill you in the early game unless they draw Poppy.

Basically, in this matchup, you want to level up Sivir as fast as possible to set up a combo before they can win with The Bandle Tree. You do this by applying a lot of pressure with Bandle City Mayor and Waking Sands into Tenor of Terror.  

Buster Shot is a great card to keep in this matchup as it gets rid of their Bandle City Mayor and Poppy slowing them down a lot.

Play Tristana only when she is leveled as she can be dealt with easily with Buster Shot.

Lee Sin Zoe (Favored):

Mulligan: Proto Poro, Treasure Seeker, Bomber Twins, Loping Telescope, Bandle City Mayor, Sivir (if you attack on evens) and Tenor of Terror (if you attack on evens and have Treasure Seeker).

This is a very easy matchup as they have no way to deal with your champions and Bandle City Mayor outside of Sonic Wave.

Lee Sin Zoe has an easy time dealing with big units but they don’t do too well against a lot of cheap units. Try swarming them with Bandle City Mayor, Loping Telescope and Tenor of Terror to force them to block or go very low on nexus health. Doing this will level up your Sivir while dealing with your opponent’s blockers.

Even if your opponent has Dragonlings on board it is a good idea to attack just for the Sivir level up. If you manage to level up Sivir and cast Shell Game on her, your opponent won’t be able to deal with a wide board of elusive attackers, so play for this win condition.

Tristana is not too good in this matchup as she can get stunned or silenced easily so only play her to grant impact to your multi-region followers.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Sivir Tristana is a very fun deck and I recommend trying it out for some very fun OTKs your opponent won’t expect. This deck is not too good on the ladder. The reason is that a lot of current ladder decks counter it. This deck however is very good in a tournament setup because it goes toe to toe against Sion Draven and it beats almost all of Sion Draven’s counter matchups which show up a lot in tournaments.

This deck could be a potential powerhouse next patch as I don’t believe Tristana, Sivir or Bandle City Mayor will be nerfed (although I could be wrong).

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lot of fun with this deck!

Wamuu

Top 200 Master LoR player. I have a lot of passion for this game and love sharing my thoughts and game knowledge through deck guides and articles for competitive play.

If you would like to watch me play you can follow me on twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/elwamuu

If you would like coaching from me you can dm me in Discord at: Wamuu#7531