Week 1 Lineup Ideas & Tourney Pointers

New cards, nerfs, and no data - the holy trinity of ‘what do I even play this weekend’. 

Luckily for you, it’s no worries - here’s three lineup ideas to help you storm the gauntlet gates or crush a community tournament (Like the Mastering Runeterra Daily $100 tournaments starting on Monday). 

Solid Smorc Strategy

Normally, I tend to prefer midrange or control decks, but in week one of a format I’ve found going face is a nice place to be at. 

While other people are trying out their cool new decks, this lineup looks to capitalize on the inefficiency of the young format through fast and hyper consistent play. Your opponent’s Galio isn’t so good if they never get to live to turn seven. 

Playing some of the most successful decks of the first few days of the expansion (Gnar/Ziggs 59.99 % ladder winrate, Lulu/Fizz 57.55 % ladder winrate), this lineup is more versatile than the traditional triple smorc combination and has significant game into most aggressive and midrange strategies you’ll encounter. You will want to watch out for those control gamers though….

Control Gamers Only

Winning the first widely open NA tournament of the season last night was WhatAmI with a lineup only a true control player could love: 

This lineup predicts that the week one tournament field will be widely comprised of archetypes made better by the new expansion - namely, aggro + midrange. With Gnar revitalizing Bandle Burn and the formidable mechanic (mostly Petricite Broadwing churning out new takes on Demacia, it is no surprise that control lineups are seeing early success as a way to punish this metagame as it slants aggressive. 

And while Lee Sin and Trynademere might not be afraid of Decimate, I do know there is a certain (Bandle) Tree they are afraid of…

The ‘Still Good’ Lineup

Coming off of an incredible showing in NA Seasonals last weekend, Bandle Tree is back in full force. With Gnar coming as a significant upgrade to the Frejlord requirement to win via tree (RIP Proto Poro) and the deck rocking an over 60% ladder winrate in the early days of the season, Bandle Tree is one of the most competitive decks for this weekend. 

Joining Tree is another deck that was highly represented in the last seasonal tournament: Darkness. Avoiding the nerf bat and remaining unchanged since last season, Darkness is a highly competitive deck everyone should have on their radar. 

This combination of Tree + Darkness is a potent strategy for dealing with Lee Sin and SI control, while boasting relatively flat matchup spreads against the majority of the projected field. If you want a lineup with a high skill cap favored into opposing control decks, this lineup might be for you. 

Other Week 1 Tips

The Bandlewood is vast and there are undoubtedly huge numbers of lineups that have yet to be explored. The above three lineups are great jumping points to get a leg up on the competition, but for those who like to build their own lineups, here’s some tips:

• Play Established Archetypes: Unless you think that deck you made is week 1 Azir/Irelia or Kennen/Ezrael level of good, I would avoid playing new decks if the goal is to optimize for winning. While other people are playing unrefined lists, playing decks that have already had months of iterations is a sure way to boost win percentage. 
• Don’t Target Decks: Many people build lineups with the idea of targeting a specific deck. In a week 1 environment, anything can show up and by targeting a specific deck you leave yourself open to getting crushed by that random thing you never expected anyone would play. 
• Be Proactive: Play decks that make your opponent have to have the correct answers. In a budding format, being the player to ask the questions often leads your opponent to not having the correct answers. Play decks with defined win conditions that are capable of presenting threats. This doesn’t necessarily mean to play aggressive strategies - decks like Feel the Rush and Lee Sin make the opponent have specific answers in a timely manner. It does mean to maybe leave that durdly Catalogue of Regrets or Targon Invoke pile in the collection this weekend. 

Whatever you play, this looks to be a fun tournament environment with multiple layers that will need to be parsed over the season. Stick to these ideas and you shouldn’t get too lost in the Bandlewood this weekend.