5 Synergistic Lineups for Standard Gauntlet

Hi, Random7HS here. I wanted to write about various lineups that I thought would be good in this week’s Standard Gauntlet. The decks and line-ups suggested here all take into account the recent nerf to Go Hard/Pack Your Bags.

Agigas previously wrote an article on RuneterraCCG about building classic best-of-three conquest-style tournament lineups. For Bo3 your goal is often to have three decks that all target one of your opponent’s decks. To win the series, the opponent has to win at least one game with each of their lists. By choosing the one target to ‘bully’, you’re heavily diminishing their chances to secure a win with that deck, which can eventually tank the whole Bo3 series for them.

The building process of best-of-one lineups for Standard Gauntlet is actually extremely similar. The biggest difference is that now your main principle is to have at least two decks that can beat two of your opponent’s decks. This way, after the ban phase is over, you will still have at least one deck that is favored into the two remaining decks of your opponent.

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1. Double Demacia

• Good against: Zoe Lee, Go Hard, Feel the Rush, Fearsome Aggro, Pirate Burn, Burn.
• Priority bans: Ashe Noxus, Ezreal Draven, Tahm Kench.

‘The Double Demacia’ lineups around Scouts and Fiora Shen have been one of the more common lineups in both tournaments and gauntlets over the last few weeks. This lineup is great for highlighting the key difference between Standard Gauntlet and Best of 3 tournaments/gauntlets.

These decklists above were used by Agigas last weekend to beat out 140 other players to win LORGA, a periodic community tournament.

Scouts and Fiora Shen, when teched as Agigas’s lists, beat both Go Hard and Zoe Lee. Unfortunately for this lineup, Go Hard has since been nerfed and we can expect a decrease in popularity of the deck. However, both Demacia decks still beat other meta decks like Feel the Rush and Fearsome Aggro. Tahm Kench further complements this lineup by beating Zoe Lee.

Additionally, Tahm Kench Soraka and Fiora Shen can often beat out Pirate aggro and other various burn decks with Broadback Protector and Fiora respectively. If burn is a concern, Tahm Kench Soraka can even slot in a third copy of Broadback Protector and Fiora Shen can slot in two copies of Spirit’s Refuge.

Unfortunately, both Demacia lists and Kench Soraka are unfavored against both Ashe Sejuani and Ezreal Draven. In tournaments and gauntlets that are best of 3, this is not an issue because you can simply ban one and beat their third deck twice.

However, because Standard Gauntlet is best of 1, if you ban Ashe and your opponent bans Kench Soraka, you’ll be left playing an unfavored matchup of Demacia versus Ezreal Draven. A week ago, this was not as much of an issue because Ashe Sejuani was a bit less popular, losing to Go Hard, Ezreal Draven, Asol, and Feel the Rush. With the nerf to Go Hard, I would expect to see the popularity of Ashe Sej to rise.

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2. Anti-Demacia Midrange

• Good against: Demacia, Zoe Lee, Discard Aggro, Tahm Kench Soraka, Fearsome Aggro.
• Priority bans: Feel the Rush, Draven Ezreal, Draven Swain.

This lineup is designed to target both ‘Double Demacia’ lineups, as well as lineups containing one Demacia list and Zoe Lee.

Swain Draven, recently popularized by Stan in last weekend’s Fight Night tournament, is extremely similar to Ezreal Draven, except it sacrifices some early game in order to significantly improve its Zoe Lee matchup. By playing Swain Draven and Tahm Kench Soraka, we can beat both Demacia and Zoe Lee. 

Ashe Riven is extremely similar to Ashe Sejuani, except it has more early pressure at the cost of some of the late-game removal. This difference in builds is mostly down to personal preference, so Ashe Sejuani is interchangeable with Ashe Riven in this lineup.

Ashe, Swain Draven, and Tahm Kench Soraka all beat Demacia. Swain Draven and Tahm Kench Soraka both beat Zoe Lee and Discard Aggro. Ashe Sejuani and Swain Draven both beat Tahm Kench Soraka.

Where this lineup might be lacking, is that unfortunately, Ashe and Ezreal Draven both lose to Feel the Rush and other control decks. Also, Ashe and Tahm Kench Soraka both lose to various Draven decks.

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3. Triple Control

• Good against: Feel the Rush, Ashe Sejuani, Targon, Draven Ezreal, Swain Ezreal, Zoe Lee, Discard Aggro, Fearsome Aggro, Tahm Kench Soraka.
• Priority bans: Scouts, Fiora Shen, Burn.

This lineup is specifically designed to target midrange decks, while still remaining slightly favored against Feel the Rush and some aggro decks.

Feel the Minah was a deck I wrote about previously during a Feel the Rush, Ashe Sej, and Lee Sin meta. That meta quickly transitioned into a Go Hard meta, and Feel the Rush became an even scarier deck. Last weekend, Adel won a community invitational tournament, RCO EU, with Feel the Minah, while I finished in fourth place with the deck.

Anivia is a deck that we haven’t seen as much of lately. In the lineup I registered for last weekend, I played Zoe Asol, Feel the Minah, and Go Hard. With the nerfs to Go Hard, Anivia can take its place as an anti-midrange deck.

Specifically, Feel the Minah and Anivia both beat Discard Aggro, Ashe Sejuani, Go Hard (if there are any left), Swain Draven, Ezreal Draven, Harrowing Demacia, and most Targon decks. Feel the Minah and Zoe Asol are both favored versus Fearsome Aggro, Feel the Rush and Tahm Kench Soraka.

Anivia and Feel the Minah are both also slightly favored against Zoe Lee. A few months ago both decks were very heavily favored because Frostbite would completely negate Lee Sin’s Dragon Rage. This balance somewhat shifted recently, but still, because both decks can remove Lee Sin through SpellShield and Deny, I would say that Anivia and Feel the Minah are slightly favored against Lee.

Unfortunately, Anivia and Feel the Minah both lose to Scouts Aggro and Fiora Shen. However, with the nerfs to Go Hard, Demacia lists may not be as common because their counters are significantly better now.

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4. Targon + Feel the Minah

• Good against: this lineup is intended to be flexible, most of your matchups would be decided by skill.
• Priority bans: Anything with Twisted Fate, Feel the Minah.

Trivo made the top 8 of LBR last week playing a triple Targon lineup of Zoe Asol, Diana/Leona, and Veimer. Triple Targon has less of a benefit in gauntlet as compared to running double Targon + one other deck because whatever the deck your opponent bans, you are still able to play a Targon list.

Targon-based lineup is a bit unique in that most matchups, outside of Go Hard, are even and skill-based. Now that Go Hard has gotten nerfed, the deck has almost no bad matchups. I replaced Veimer with Feel the Minah because as mentioned earlier, there aren’t many benefits to playing triple Targon in Standard Gauntlet.

As mentioned above, Feel the Minah is very strong against midrange decks and will be a priority ban for your opponent if they brought any midrange deck, such as Fiora Shen. After that ban, you can play whichever Targon deck you are more comfortable with and think is better into your opponent’s lineup.

Targon does have some bad matchups though. It has no answer to Twisted Fate outside of Invokes and Demacia cards – Twisted Fate can often level in these matchups. Additionally, tempo decks like Feel the Minah can sometimes outrace you.

Overall, I would recommend this lineup if you want less polarizing matchups and are confident in your ability to outplay your opponent.

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5. Top-Tier Standard

• Good against: Scouts, Ashe Sejuani, Feel the Rush.
• Priority bans: Tahm Kench Soraka,  Zoe Karma.

In this format, you can’t really go wrong just playing the top three decks. This lineup is similar to the Targon lineup in that you will end up playing many even matchups.

However, this lineup does also have good matchups. Ezreal Draven is favored against all Demacia decks and Fiora Shen is either favored or even against Demacia decks. Zoe Lee and Ezreal Draven both beat Ashe Sejuani. Fiora Shen and Zoe Lee both beat Feel the Rush.

Against aggro decks, Fiora Shen is usually favored with Spirit’s Refuge, and the other two decks should go even into aggro decks – if played correctly.

Unfortunately, this lineup also has bad matchups. Both Zoe Lee and Fiora Shen loses to Tahm Kench Soraka. Both Zoe Lee and Fiora Shen loses to Zoe Karma.

Overall, I would play this lineup if you are confident in your ability to play the top tier meta decks and outplay your opponents in even matchups. I would also recommend this lineup if you spend a lot of time laddering with these decks and aren’t as comfortable with the other previously mentioned decks.

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Conclusion

I think that all of these lineups have a really good chance of securing a Prime Glory if piloted correctly. In general, I would recommend playing whichever lineup you feel most comfortable on, even if some lineups are theoretically better than others. 

Personally, I would play Feel the Minah, Zoe Asol, and Anivia this week because I have been playing some combination of Feel the Minah, Zoe Asol, Anivia, and Go Hard for the past month or so.

Hopefully, you’ve found this article useful and it will help you win some games with one of these lineups. As always, thanks for reading, and any comments, feedback, or questions on this reddit post will be greatly appreciated!