This guide was originally written as our initial impressions of Set 18 at the time of its reveal, prior to the PBE launch. Blackthorn (formerly Eldritch) has received significant changes from its original reveal to PBE/live, so take all impressions with an extra grain of salt. For up-to-date guidance, click on any champion links below for more details.
Blackthorn lets you sacrifice a unit to strengthen the rest of your board. Your team gains Health, while Blackthorn champions receive extra stats based on the sacrificed unit’s role, star level and cost.
Choosing your sacrifice is a key part of building the comp, as you’ll want its bonus to suit your main carry. Rerolling a low-cost unit can make that bonus stronger, giving you a reason to keep it as your board develops. Below, we’ll cover how Blackthorn works, its champions and some comps you can build around it.
This guide was written by Silverfuse.
Blackthorn Meta Comps
When playing around Blackthorn, look for a sacrifice that also completes useful traits for your board. A Blackthorn Emblem gives you more carry options, letting units such as Yunara benefit from the sacrifice alongside your other Blackthorn champions.
Here are a few comps that play around the Blackthorn trait.
Spikes and Soldiers
Our Spikes and Soldiers comp plays around Azir and Rammus, with Zyra adding damage later. Reroll at level 7 and aim to sacrifice a 3-star Teemo on the Blackthorn hex to strengthen Azir even more.
A Blossom opener with Karma holding Azir’s items works well, or you can play Blackthorn if you find Azir early. Early Rammus copies and AP components also help point you towards this board.
Item Extraction is a particularly strong indicator. Give your sacrifice a Rod as its only component to generate three extra Rods over your first three sacrifices, helping you finish items for Azir and your other AP carries.
As you need multiple units three star Prismatic Ticket can come in clutch with this board.
Carries: Azir, Rammus and Zyra Leveling: Level 7 Slow Roll
Kill, Stack, Repeat
Our Kill, Stack, Repeat comp builds around Veigar, LeBlanc and Ornn. Once Blackthorn is active, sacrifice your Elderwood Lifebloom plant to give Veigar Mana Regen and Damage Amp while keeping your champions in the fight.
An early Veigar with AP items is ideal so he can start stacking. Pair him with Ornn, LeBlanc and Alistar, then slow roll at level 5 for Veigar and Ornn 3-star before moving to level 6.
Natural Veigar and Ornn copies are good indicators. Dawncore or Luden’s Tempest are strong Artifact pickups especially when Ornn has completed his quest. Consuming Flora is also great giving Veigar a Flora Fatalis Emblem for extra mana from takedowns.
Carries: Veigar, LeBlanc and Ornn Leveling: Level 5 Slow Roll
Yunalistar
Our Yunalistar comp plays around Yunara and Warwick, with Alistar as your main tank. Slow roll at level 6 and collect Murkwolf copies too, as you’ll sacrifice it at 3-star to give Warwick and Yunara a buch of stats/
Start with Yunara in a Blossom opener alongside Karma and Yorick, or play Blackthorn around Warwick and Rek’Sai. Focus on Yunara’s damage items and tank items for Alistar as you build towards your reroll board.
A Blackthorn Emblem on Yunara is the biggest reason to play this comp, as letting her share the sacrifice bonus with Warwick is huge. Early Yunara and Alistar copies help, while Heroic Grab Bag or Pandora’s Bench can make your 3-stars easier to hit.
The ally on the Blackthorn hex is sacrificed at combat start, granting your team Health.
Blackthorn champions gain additional stats based on the sacrifice's Role, Star Level, and Cost.
(2) 175 Health
(4) 350; Bonus is 30% stronger
(6) 600; Bonus is 60% stronger
Blackthorn Champions and Synergy
Blackthorn has no natural synergies, but it does have 6 units with potential to make trait webs plus two units that have multiple traits to help tie in trait webs!
As a one gold Brawler, Rek’Sai will likely find her way onto a lot of boards in the early game and potentially be a rerolled unit.
The ability, Uproot has the passive of restoring health each second tripled for seconds after casting. The active is to lunge out of the ground, stunning adjacent enemies for a second and dealing magic damage to them.
Veigar is a one gold Spellweaver with the ability Primordial Burst. Primordial Burst is a low cost spell at only 30 mana where it launches a giant blast at a target that deals magic damage, increased to if they’re below max health. If they die, permanently gain Ability Power!
Veigar is a lot of fun as scaling 1 cost units is always fun if you are able to get an early 2 or 3 star of it. This is a potential hyper carry of the comp as you can reroll Veigar and Rek’Sai together.
Veigar will want to cast a lot with a 30 mana cost, so expect a lot of mana as well as potentially adding critical strike potential and maybe additional flat AP to ensure he can start stacking AP nice and early on top of pairing him with a Spellweaver to have additional ability power!
Warwick has the ability Jaws of the Beast. The ability gets him to bite the current target, dealing physical damage and healing for the damage dealt. He gains attack speed for the rest of combat.
With Ravager Warwick can be paired with Akali (1G), Camille (1G), Murkwolf (2G), Diana (3G), and Brambleback (4G). We will have to see if we have another “War-Week” with Warwick!
Azir is 3 gold with a cheap ability of 35 mana called Arise! With Arise, Azir gains attack speed and summons soldiers for the next number of attacks. These attacks are replaced by commands which direct each soldier to deal magic damage per attack.
Azir can be paired with several Executioners including Yunara (2G), Ezreal (4G), Soraka (4G), and Kennen (5G).
Malphite is essentially a traitless unit. Monolith is only on Malphite with the passive ability that Monoliths gain armor and magic resistance for each enemy targeting them.
It is essentially having a Gargoyle Stoneplate on a unit but as a trait! With his ability Petrified Bark where he gains a shield for seconds and becomes petrified. When the shield breaks, it unleashes a wave of dark energy, dealing magic damage to enemies within hexes.
Lux’s Blackthorn Bonus is to stun all targets hit for a second. This is very strong as she casts for only 60 mana so she will likely get multiple casts off and stun several units per a cast. This crowd control will be game winning in a lot of cases!
Lux’s ability Final Spark also has a passive where on cast all allies that share a trait with Lux gain mana. WIth her active, she fires a laser towards the largest group of enemies that deals magic damage, reduced by each enemy hit.
Thanks for reading! If you want to try creating your own team comps for Set 18, check out our Team Builder. For a full overview of the new set, check out our TFT Set 18 Reveal Page, or explore all of the new Set 18 traits here!
