3 LoR Decks That Counter Go Fish (Twizz)

How to Counter GoFish Twizz

Howdy folks, Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson here with another counter-deck guide.

There’s a new public enemy number one about since this last patch and it’s been tearing up the ladder something fierce.

With approximately 1.2 billion different forms of card draw, leveling Twisted Fate, dropping huge boards full of Elusive beaters, and finishing games with giant Mind Melds backed by burn, it looks like Go Fish is here to stay.

People have lost so often with decks that supposedly counter this I’ve heard the dreaded term “tier-zero,” starting to circulate.

Deck Code: CECAGAYEAUGREBACAYNCMKZOAIAQIAJHAEBQMEIEAEBQIGICAIDA4KQBAECDIAICAQBQA

[See Go Fish deck details]

Never fear though, to every problem there exists a solution, and today I’ve got three different ones for you.

1. Feel The Rush

Let’s kick it off with old reliable out of a different meta, Mr. Feel the Rush.

Deck Code: CEBQKAIBAMGBIJZSAIAQKHJIAIBQCBQWAECQCBIBB4JRSIIDAEBQKAQBAEASUAIDAEEA

[See Feel The Rush deck details]

The Game Plan

Against TF/Fizz, there are only really two paths to victory.

Either murder them ridiculously fast before their engines turn on, or weather the storm for the first six-seven turns and turn the tables quickly before you are buried under an avalanche of card draw and happy Burbling.

For this teched-out version of Feel the Rush we’ve ditched basically all of our creature-based frills.

No Yetis, no Wildcats, just a few early blockers, Ledros, and the Trundle-Tryndamere Overwhelm combo to close out games.

What this lets us do is run a truly unreasonable amount of mass removal.

Between Avalanche, Wail, Box, Ruination, and even Icequake, small creatures are going to have some serious problems sticking to the board.

Pick your moments to drop your clears, try to keep your life total out of burn range, and wait for nine mana when Ledros or your namesake card comes down to finish out the game, occasionally accompanied by an Atrocity for extra speed.

The Mulligan

Avalanch is far and away from your best card in this matchup. It answers the whole board along with Twisted Fate.

If we could run six copies of this card we would. Unfortunately, those kinds of theories make the rules of Runeterra get a bit grumpy so look to keep Box, Catalyst, and if you can’t find anything else even Withering Wail in your opening set of cards.

Resist the urge to keep any of your big men early and trust that they will make it back to you in time to shine.

You’re really not looking to drop Trundle or Tryndamere on the curve and apply pressure in this matchup, just bide your time and end it all in one fell swing at the perfect moment.

Tips

The open pass is your friend here.

Whether you actually have that Avalanche, Box, Wail, or whatever else your opponent is scared of, they don’t know that.

Making them take smaller, or even occasionally no attack at all is a huge advantage to you.

Don’t get carried away and accidentally let a Twisted Fate level Up, but remember that usually all you need to win is being alive and relatively healthy on nine mana.

If your opponent does miraculously level their Twisted Fate, don’t despair.

While that is one of the few ways they can beat us, a Feel The Rush backed by an Atrocity will often still be enough to kill, pushing a huge Overwhelm unit through a Gold Card and then throwing it at them the next turn.

Don’t underestimate their burn range.

Between Get Excited, Mystic Shot, and their ridiculous amounts of card draw, try to stay above eight life if at all possible.

It is surprisingly easy to find yourself dead to burn just when you thought the table had finally turned.

2. Ledro-Temple

Next in line is going to be another variation on the theme.

That them being “Kill Twisted Fate, stay alive, send them into the Shadow Realm around turn eight or nine.”

Welcome the new kid on the Atrocity block, Ledro-Temple.

Deck Code: CEBAQAYJBERUSVCW3AA5SAO5AEBQCBITDEOQEAQBAUQSEAIDBHNQCAIBAMEWI

[See Ledro-Temple deck details]

The Game Plan

Our basic theory here is going to look relatively similar but our execution will differ slightly.

You’re still trying to survive till you play either Ledros or a large unit off of Star Shaping, and then throw it at their head with an Atrocity.

The differences lie in where we are focused.

Here, more than anything, we need to make sure that Twisted Fate dies.

To do that we’ve brought three Boxes, two Black Spears, and more danger-noodle generators than you can shake a box of sticks at.

As long as you can keep your Fate untwisted then your value engines of Zoe and Aphelios will run them down and keep you in business until it’s time to drop the bomb on them.

The other cool thing about this list is that it has a true one-turn kill available starting on turn nine.

If you have the Veiled Temple in play and full mana on nine the play sequence goes thusly.

1. Moonsilver your Ledros in hand, reducing its cost to eight mana.
2. Play Ledros, leaving yourself three spell mana and one normal mana.
3. Temple triggers, buffing Ledros to ten power, giving you two mana, and making Ledros a 10|7.
4. Ledros triggers, dropping your opponent to ten health.
5. Atrocity Ledros at opponents nexus.
6. Profit.

The Mulligan

The most important card in your deck is the Box because that is your most consistent answer to Twisted Fate.

Beyond that, I would only keep champions, and maybe Black Spear if you have a Zoe or Sketcher ready to help you activate it.

If you already have a Box then you can be much more liberal with your keeps, going as far as to keep Duskbringer and even Withering Wail to help trigger Aphelios and keep you alive against the inevitable Elusive onslaught.

Tips

This deck has to be a bit more proactive than Feel The Rush, but it excels at doing so.

Zoe and Aphelios both put on amazing amounts of pressure, so don’t be afraid to turn the dial-up and play like an aggro deck if you see an opportunity.

Also, remember that your Crescendum’s will often cost you zero mana, so take advantage of that for huge tempo swings with Aphelios.

If your opponent has four mana, you do not tap below four mana.

I don’t care if you want to level an Aphelios, drop a Temple, or rescue a nearby cat from a tree.

If you have The Box, you need to be able to box Twisted Fate.

If you don’t have The Box, you need to make them think you do so you get time to draw it.

3. Discard Aggro

Finally, sometimes the answer to your opponent getting up to unreasonable shenanigans is to just shoot them in the face.

Indiana Jones anybody?

What better way to do that than dropping your entire hand onto the field and sending it in on turn three.

Whaddya’ know, it’s Discard Aggro.

Deck Code: CEBQCAYECIDACBABBQOCOKBNAUAQGBYJCQTTOAQBAEBSGAIBAQGQA

[See Discard Aggro deck details]

The Game Plan

Flood the board with tiny men, buff them up, swing for the fences, and hope you’re looking at lethal damage on turn four to five because you’ll have used all your gas except perhaps a random burn spell.

If that didn’t work drop one very large man or one very crazy woman with Crowd Favorite or Jinx and hope they don’t have the answer as the overwhelming power of rockets beats down upon their last few life points.

Last but definitely not least, Rummage your way over to an Augmented Experimenter and refill one last time to try to throw one more board full of nonsense at a particularly resilient opponent.

The Mulligan

Draven, the glorious executioner, is what this deck is all about.

That said, with Draven’s Biggest Fan helping out we’ve got five copies of him in here so he’ll be finding his way onto our board quite a bit.

Beyond that look for early discard synergies such as Zaunite Urchin plus Jury Rig and if you already have a Draven consider keeping a Jinx to back him up.

With his help, she can level as early as a turn four and happily bring down the rocket hammer on a board of unsuspecting fish.

Tips

Remember above all that you are playing the living embodiment of “make them have it.”

You are not playing this deck to go down super complicated lines and try to play around all your opponent’s options.

By god, you’re here to attack a lot and fry some fish.

That said the one point where it can be important to consider your opponent’s options is when and how to level Jinx.

You don’t want to go all-in on her only to be left with no Jinx and an empty hand.

The good news is that in this matchup in particular you get to level Jinx at burst and it takes your opponent two whole cards to remove her that they often simply won’t have.

Really the only thing worth paying attention to on your opponent’s side of the field is their Twisted Fate.

If it looks in danger of leveling and you can’t burn them out, seriously consider dropping a Get Excited! on it.

Lastly, always check to see how good your open attacks are before potentially developing into a Gold or Red card.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (around 10AM PST basically every day).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx around 10AM PST every day