Hail, Champions! It's Wednesday, and we've got another weekly Runeterra deck spotlight for you today. Since we've been covering some off-meta decks in recent spotlights, we thought we'd look into something more mainstream this week. We also wanted to feature Aphelios, and while there's still a lot of debate over what the "best" Aphelios deck is, many players have been finding success with Aphelios + Twisted Fate. So with no further adieu, here's streamer eMOEtional's Aphelios TF deck. 

Aphelios Twisted Fate Strategy

Aphelios Card Image Twisted Fate Card Image The Veiled Temple Card Image

This is an extremely difficult deck to pilot. This deck's potential comes from its flexibility -- Aphelios lets you choose between 5 Moon Weapons, L1 Twisted Fate lets you choose between the 3 cards, and Solari Priestess's + Starshaping's Invoke let's you chose between celestials. Its other major strength is value -- you have a lot of ways to draw small-cost/big-impact spells that synergize well with both Aphelios and with The Veiled Temple, which often will make your 2nd card "free". Also, never forget that Temple can instantly give your strongest unit +1|+1 -- sometimes, that's enough to save a key unit from dying. 

This deck wants to be a reactive deck that abuses the value generated from Aphelios and The Veiled Temple. Sunblessed Vigor can produce some incredible saves and Pale Cascade is being primarily used as "heal 1 + draw 1". Twisted Fate will rarely level; he's mostly used for his L1 Play ability. You do want to try to keep TF alive in your backfield, however, as he represents a threat that your opponent does have to deal with.

Duskpetal Dust Card Image Crescendum Card Image Boxtopus Card Image

Playing the optimal Moon Weapons from Aphelios is critical. If you need a refresher on how Moon Weapons and Phasing work, try reading our announcement article on Aphelios. A lot of this deck's success comes from its Crescendum -> Boxtopus combo -- Boxtopus is the only 2-mana follower in the deck so you'll always hit him, and since it summons Boxtopus instead of playing him, he doesn't damage himself and resolves as a healthy 3|4 Challenger. Ideally you go into Round 3 with a Duskpetal Dust and Aphelios in hand: for 5 mana, you can develop a 3|3 and a 3|4 Challenger and create a huge tempo swing.

After opening with Crescendum, you're going to want to mostly cycle between Calibrum (3 damage) -> Gravitum (stun) -> Crescendum again. Severum (lifesteal) is usually only useful against aggro decks, and Infernum (overwhelm) is usually only good for threatening a lethal attack. These are just rules of thumbs, however -- don't ignore this deck's flexibility and ability to adapt. Below is a chart of Moon Weapon phase orders to help remember what all the options are.

Moon Weapon Chart

 

You have a few methods for closing out the game. If you level Aphelios, he will generate 2 Moon Weapons a turn which should grind down most opponents if left unchecked. You also have The Veiled Temple which can steadily pump +1|+1 into your strongest unit; every unit in this deck other than Duskbringer and Priestess is a big threat if it grows too large. Wiggly Burblefish + Zap Sprayfin provide some elusive damage. The Targon staple Starshaping can let you invoke a finisher. And finally, there's a 1x Mind Meld which should allow you to push all your units into double-digits -- if at least 2 make contact with the nexus, they will OTK your opponent. 

Aphelios Twisted Fate Mulligan Guide

We can't phrase the mulligan guide any better than Moe does in this video.

Quote From eMOEtional

Aggressively mulligan for your champions. Don't keep anything in your hand that's not an Aphelios, a Twisted Fate, or a Lunari Duskbringer. Those are the only cards you need in your opening hand. If you can find any combination of those…

Any combination of those three – Lunari Duskbringer, Aphelios, and Twisted Fate – you're winning the game.

Aphelios Twisted Fate Decklist

eMOEtional's Aphelios + TF Temple
A Runeterra Deck created by . Last updated 3 years, 9 months ago
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Aphelios Twisted Fate Substitutions

  • 3x Aphelios & 3x Twisted Fate are your champions, and they are excellent investments. You can probably get away with interchanging Zoe, though, who will provide similar value
  • Wiggly Burblefish & Zap Sprayfin are similarly valuable both to this deck and to your collection. The deck requests 3x of both. If we had substitute in for some of these Epics, we'd go with some combination of a 2nd Spell Thief and some copies of Gifts From Beyond. 
  • Mind Meld is a controversial card. Moe likes that it can sometimes win you a game out of nowhere and we agree, but it's definitely a dubious crafting recommendation. If you're tight on resources, you might want to save your wildcard and try one of the above substitutions instead. 

That wraps our Aphelios Twisted Fate deck spotlight. Our thanks to eMOEtional; you can follow him on Twitter, Twitch, or YouTube.

Did you find it helpful? Do you want more Aphelios guides? Or are you so sick of seeing Aphelios on the ladder that you want anything but Aphelios? Let us know below!