If you're looking to qualify for Runeterra's Cosmic Creations Seasonal Tournament, then look no further than their Pick and Ban Gauntlet! Achieving 7 wins rewards players with Prime Glory - a free win for the Last Chance Gauntlet at the end of the season. Collect up to 5 Prime Glories for the best chance of qualifying for the tournament!
What is the Pick and Ban Gauntlet?
Introduced during the Call of the Mountain expansion, the pick and ban gauntlet has been the closest thing to a tournament mode Runeterra has to offer. In this gauntlet, players select three decks to bring that require certain rules:
- No champions duplicated between decks
- Different region combinations for each deck
- Maximum one deck without a champion
After matching with an opponent the player then reviews the opponent's regions and champions before choosing one of the decks to ban. After the opponent has returned the favor, the player then chooses one of the two remaining decks to use in a single match. Get 7 wins in a row and reap the rewards!
What's the Best Strategy?
In this article, we're going to dive into what the best strategy to adopt is, what decks to bring and what to ban!
Without a doubt, the best decks to bring to the pick and ban gauntlet are the current meta decks. Right now these include Fiora Shen, MF Scouts, Feel The Rush, Ez Draven, Leona Asol and, depending on how much the nerf impacts it, Go Hard. You can find a collection of these lists, and a few others, below.
This gauntlet is very similar to the format Runeterra implements in tournaments. Typically in tournaments, players use their ban as a build around for their decks. For example, a line-up that wants to specifically ban Fiora Shen might bring Go Hard, Feel The Rush and an aggro deck such as Fearsomes. All three of these decks have glaring weaknesses to Fiora Shen, but if you are always choosing to ban that deck, then there is no need to worry about facing it. This strategy gives the player the greatest chance of winning by reducing the number of bad match-ups.
But what if you don't know the exact decks you will be facing? Then, you should focus on bringing decks that cover more generic weaknesses. For example, if you are expecting a high amount of aggro decks in the gauntlet, which may happen after the recent Go Hard nerf, then you could tailor your line-ups to include a Targon Invoke deck for healing as well as a Feel The Rush deck for cards that deal with wide boards such as Avalanche and Withering Wail.
More Great Decks for the Pick and Ban Gauntlet
MF Scouts, Leona Asol, Daybreak & Nightfall Invoke
- The two invoke decks cover MF Scouts' weakness to Tahm Soraka and Ez Draven decks
- MF Scouts and Leona Asol run The Grand Plaza as well as useful early game cards to deal with aggression
- Look to ban fast aggro decks such as Discard Aggro or MF GP
Discard Aggro, Fiora Shen, Feel The Rush (teched for control)
- Fiora Shen and a teched Feel The Rush are useful against other Feel The Rush decks
- Discard Aggro and Feel The Rush cover Fiora Shen's weakness to Invoke decks such as Leona Asol
- Look to ban Go Hard
Tahm Soraka, Fearsome Aggro, Freljord Overwhelm
- Both aggro decks cover Tahm Soraka's weakness to Invoke and Feel The Rush strategies
- Tahm Soraka and Freljord Overwhelm are both useful against Ez Draven
- Look to ban Leona Asol
The examples follow the pattern of having two of the decks cover a weakness of the other, which reduces the different types of deck you'll need to ban. It is also good to make sure the strengths of each deck do not overlap too much, or your opponent will have an easy time banning your decks. Bringing either three of the same type of deck (e.g. control) or three decks with different gameplans will generally serve you better as well. Perhaps most importantly, you should make sure that you're comfortable playing all three decks that you bring in case your favourite one gets banned!
Hopefully, this gave you an insight into what decks to bring with you when the Pick and Ban Gauntlet is live. Do you have any three decks you think compliment each other well? Let us know what they are and what you would ban in the comments below!
Comments
A couple corrections:
You can retry as often as you want, and any 7-win run goes on your record as a “Glory”. However, you only earn a “Prime Glory” if you can do it on your first attempt of the weekend.
Getting 7 wins in a row is satisfying, but doesn’t give you any bonuses. (At least, not that I know of.) To achieve Glory, you want to win 7 times without ever getting 2 losses in a row. The only special exception is that you get a single chance to earn your seventh win.
Well spotted! Thank you for pointing that out, it should have been explained better.