Silverfuse
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7 Min read The NA Cosmic Creation Seasonal Tournament was Riot’s second seasonal tournament.
This Seasonal brought an array of talented players who competed in the Top 32.
There were several top ladder finishers as well as tournament players who had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in community tournaments.
Some names such as GlopNA, Kevor24, and even Magic Hall of Famer Wrapter, better known as Josh Utter-Leyton.
The players brought the usual suspects, but there were also plenty of surprises and even a never-before-seen Riven and Vi discard deck by Wrapter.
I will be breaking down different decks and tech choices as well as unique deck choices.
It was no surprise that Twisted Fate was the most common champion in each tournament lineup.
In fact, 27 of 32 players (84%) brought Twisted Fate.
Twisted Fate was most commonly paired with Fizz (19) as well as Aphelios (4) and TF Go Hard had a return to the seasonal with 3 players adding it to their lineup.
Aphelios was the second most brought champion in the tournament as 19 players (59%) added him to their lineups.
Aphelios was paired with a variety of champions such as Twisted Fate, Aphelios, Tahm Kench, Lee Sin, Zoe, Diana, and Karma.
Ideally, Aphelios wants to be paired with the powerhouse Twisted Fate, but due to the tournament rules, once you use a champion once, you cannot use them in another deck.
In this format, each player gets one ban and has to win with the other two decks.
Most players chose to split the two champions up by putting Twisted Fate with Fizz.
Let’s go over MajinBae’s tournament-winning lineup as well as Iannogueria’s second-place finish lineup.
The three decks Majin brought were Aphelios/ Tahm Kench, Twisted Fate/ Fizz, and Lee Sin / Zoe.
[See Majiinbae’s Aphelios Kench deck details]
[See Majiinbae’s TF Fizz deck details]
[See Majiinbae’s Lee Zoe deck details]
Iannogueria brought Ezreal /Draven, Twisted Fate/Fizz, and Zoe Aphelios Bilgewater.
[See Iannogueira’s Ez Draven deck details]
[See Iannogueira’s TF Fizz deck details]
[See Iannogueira’ Zoe Aphelios BW deck details]
It probably comes as no surprise that Twisted Fate and Fizz were in both player’s lineups.
It has been a known Tier 0 deck that has been in part of almost every winning tournament lineup in community tournaments.
The ability for Twisted Fate to level so easily due to the draw available especially through PNZ’s discard draw options.
Ballistic Bot was a huge addition to the deck as it allowed direct damage but more importantly discard fodder for the deck.
Burblefish is also a critical tool to the deck as it allows the deck to vomit Burblefish onto the board and replicate more of them as 4|2s with Iterative Improvement.
Enough about Twisted Fate and Fizz but it is also important to note that both players brought Aphelios lists too.
One was paired with Tahm Kench while the other was paired with Zoe.
Both Aphelios decks used Boxtopus as their only two drops.
This allows Crescendum to pull a 3|4 Boxtopus with Challenger as a 2 mana unit.
This is what has propelled Aphelios and Bilgewater in the meta. This isn’t a new deck, so I won’t spend much time on it.
Finally, both players brought something different for their third deck.
Majin opted for the Lee Sin / Zoe which has been a known, strong performer in the Runeterra tournament scene.
Due to the amount of aggro that has sprouted in tournaments, a lot of players have been dropping it from their lineups in fear that triple aggro lineups might take them over.
However, these players knew their competitors in the Top 32 so this could have certainly influenced Majin’s decision to go with a deck that many players had dropped after the Swiss round.
However, 8 of the 32 players still decided to bring Lee Sin to the tournament (7 with Zoe and 1 with Aphelios).
Iannogueria brought Ezreal Draven as his final deck.
Draven and Ezreal’s popularity jumped up in the Top 32 quite significantly.
Generally, Ezreal/ Draven has a tough time outvaluing Targon decks, but most players were only bringing one Targon deck in the form of Aphelios which many players were opting to ban.
Ezreal / Draven has a solid anti-aggro match-up due to efficient removal.
When looking at the lineups, both players brought the two strongest champions in the game and then had different focuses after.
Where Majin has an anti-control Lee Sin Combo deck and Iannogueria has an anti-aggro Ezreal Draven list that also can fare well against control lists as well.
Other notable decks where that 10 players brought Fiora / Shen.
Two players brought Ashe/Riven decks after no one had qualified with Ashe or Riven during the Swiss rounds.
Four players brought a type of Miss Fortune Quinn Scout Decks.
Four players brought Pirate Aggro, and 3 bought 3 Noxus Freljord Overwhelm decks.
Five players brought Ezreal and Draven lists one which featured Swain!
There was also a sprinkle of mushroom decks with Ezreal and Teemo.
One of my personal favorites is that Henneky brought Nightfall and put up results with the list.
It was cool to see the deck in competitive play.
The deck that had everyone talking was Wrapter’s Riven and Vi deck.
[See Wraptero Riven Vi deck details]
Wrapter brought this list with one idea and one idea only.
He wanted to beat Twisted Fate and Fizz.
Wrapter said that he accepted that he would lose against Targon or have the opportunity to ban it out.
However, knowing that almost every player would have Twisted Fate and Fizz as part of their lineup, he wanted to bring a deck that could consistently beat it.
It was incredible seeing this deck perform the way Wrapter intended.
It is rare to see a completely new deck in a “solved” format.
Seeing a deck that used two champions that hardly anyone played to beat up on a tier 0 deck was the spice that everyone watching the tournament needed!
This list was something new that everyone was looking for.
Wrapter’s list used Riven support cards such as Blade Squire and Runeweaver.
It also takes advantage of the strength of Ballistic Bot, Rummage, and Stress Testing Discard Draw package.
The deck even includes Augmented Experimenter which before had only really seen play in Discard Aggro with Jinx/Draven.
Another interesting inclusion in the deck is 3 copies of Survival Skills.
Survival Skills can be pitched with a discard card to save Vi or Riven.
It also has the option to be hard casted which we saw in Wrapter’s game vs Kevor.
Twisted Fate / Fizz decks don’t have anyway way to interact with a hard casted Survival Skills which means that TF/Fizz units are forced to block and not trade into Riven/Vi’s high damage units.
When this list drew Riven and Vi, it was almost unstoppable.
Riven’s Blade fragments gave access to Overwhelm and Quick attack.
In most games that Wrapter played (and won) with the deck, he didn’t even play the full blade because it wasn’t necessary.
The deck was quite fast and was able to take down any list with low interaction.
Wrapter recognizing that most decks had low interaction against aggro/combo decks such as Vi/Riven was the biggest highlight of the tournament as it shows that players can be rewarded by creating new decks that target already established decks.
It is something that aspiring tournament players and deck builders should use as inspiration to know that it is possible!
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