Hail, Champions! We wanted to share with you some of the winning decks from this weekend's GiantSlayer Fight Night events. Remember that Fight Night is a "bring 2 / best of 3" format -- in other words, there's no banning, so the strategy is slightly different than what you might see in gauntlets and other tournaments. There are also now two independent events, one earlier in the day with European competitors and another later for the Americas. There are a ton of really strong decks from both, so let's jump right in!
zTurtlee's Lissandra + Trundle Ledros TLC
The European event was saturated with "TLC" (Trundle Lissandra Control) decks. zTurtlee took home the crown using a Fiora + Shen deck and his variant of that archetype, which utilizes a Commander Ledros + Atrocity combo rather than the Spectral Matron version which is proving more popular on ladder.
Mezume's Sivir + Garen Midrange
Mezume placed 2nd in the EU event, bringing a Diana Aphelios "Slow Nightfall" deck and the only high-placing Shurima deck, this spicy Sivir Garen midrange deck. In general, it promotes a direct, "SMOrc-y" game play, but cards like Exhaust and Rite of Negation give it some interesting counter-plays.
CosimoLeo's Lissandra + Trundle TLC Matron
3rd place when to CosimoLeo, who brought TF Fizz and this variant of TLC. Unlike zTurtlee's version above which featured Commander Ledros, CosimoLeo leaned hard into the potential Spectral Matron/Watcher combo for its win condition.
Hollow's TF + Aphelios Temple
Hollow claimed 4th place in the EU event, bringing yet another TLC deck (his was a middle ground between zTurtlee's Ledros-focused version and CosimoLee's Matron-focused version) and a Veiled Temple deck. It's a relatively new archetype we saw from just before the release of Empires of the Ascended: get a Veiled Temple on board with either TF or Aphelios to generate additional cards and create a "snowball" effect with the +1|+1 buffs.
Garretz's TF Fizz Burblefish
Whereas the EU event was overflowing with TLC decks, TF Fizz was the "deck de jour" in the Americas event. All top 4 participants brought a version and all were almost identical; this is 1st place winner Garretz's version who brought this and a Fiora + Shen deck.
STAN's Zoe + Aphelios Invoke Atrocity
Besides his aforementioned TF Fizz deck, STAN brought an updated Targon allegiance deck which helped him place 2nd. This deck includes the new card Startipped Peak; it otherwise looks for value generation through its champion and invoke cards and a potential finishing move with Atrocity on one of the big celestials from Starshaping.
XxWhatAmIxX's Fiora + Shen Aegis
In 3rd place, XxWhatAmIxX was one of 3 finalists to bring a Fiora + Shen deck, all of which include the new spell Golden Aegis. While many were originally skeptical of the potential of a slow-speed barrier spell, it hass proven itself reliable in both protecting your challengers and giving you a rally, oftentimes being able to decide the game.
Shadawx's Diana + Aphelios Slow Nightfall
Shadawx took 4th place in the Americas using yet another TF Fizz deck and this "Slow Nightfall" deck. Unlike the aggressive Diana + Nocturne decks of old, this new archetype looks to generate value through mana generators like The Sky Shadows and The Veiled Temple and card generators like Aphelios and Invoke units.
All Top 4 Decks from Both Events
That will do it for now; thanks to everyone who participated and of course to Giant Slayer for hosting these events. You can watch their casting of both events on their YouTube channel or the videos embedded below.
Comments
To add to Minuano28, we should notice something. This is a list of all decks from the top 4 players in the tournament.
There are 4 TF/Fizz decks there. Every player in the top 4 had TF/Fizz.
I wonder which deck is still too strong?
Well this confirm what most player have been saying :
- Lissandra is the most competitive champion from the expansion.
- Fiora and Twisted Fate have dodged the nerf hammer for far too long already.
- Reducing the health of Aphelios by 1 is pointless since he is part of the region that have the best protection spells in the game.
- Contrary to what some player have been suggesting, Shurima is not a overpowered region.
HOT TAKE: TF is not the problem in Fizz TF. It was the power creep of card draw that made TF ridiculous, aswell as Stress Testing that nullifies the drawback of his catalyst cards like Pick a Card.
Ok let's go back in time and take a look at the various meta we had.
TF/Swain was one of the tier 1 one decks during Rising Tides and early Call of the mountain. He lost that spot during the dreaded Lee/Sin meta but then came the KD/A expansion and what was the best deck from that expansion? TF/Go Hard followed closely by Feel The Rush/control. Go Hard got nerfed but the deck was still competitive. Then we had the Aphelios mini expansion and what was the best deck from that expansion? TF/Fizz.
Now ask yourself this. What did all these top tier deck have in common? Was it Fortune Croaker? Stress Testing? Nope it's Twisted Fate that's where the problem lies.
That’s all fair. I’d add Wiggly Burblefish to the list alongside Fiora and TF.