Annie Ezreal Deck Guide

Annie Ezreal is one of the best performing decks in Patch 3.8, the Noxus Piltover and Zaun deck relies on Ezreal as a burn win condition late game but can present an aggressive game plan mid-game with the stun mechanic.

Early game you want Annie on the board as soon as possible to start working on her level-up. The neat thing about Annie Ezreal is that spells and skill effects (Spell Slinger and Arachnoid Sentry) advance the level-up condition of Annie, Ezreal, and Ravenbloom Conservatory all can be problematic for your opponent to deal with once you fulfill their requirement and advance your game plan.

Although leveling up Annie and creating a Tibbers in hand can set you ahead of your opponent, it’s not really your aim or your winning play.

Your two important cards are Tybaulk and Ezreal, once Tybaulk hits the board, all your damage spells will deal an additional +1 damage. This is your core game plan that enables you to start burning down your opponent along with a leveled-up Ezreal on the board.

The deck runs a lot of tools to help control the board and prolong the game until you can set up your win condition. Cards like Disintegrate, Ravenous Flock, and Stun units can slow down your opponent’s game plan until yours is online.

The deck can run out of gas pretty fast if you don’t find Ravenbloom Conservatory, but Piltovan Tellstones‘ ability to create a Progress Day can solve that problem of yours with the additional card draw!

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Techs and Options

• Scorched Earth:
  Is a consideration if you’re looking to stomp matchups that rely on Landmarks such as Thralls. With the many ping spells in your deck, Scorched Earth fits perfectly to kill off a unit. Don’t run more than two copies as they can end up being a brick in your hand, especially since your deck runs Disintegrate.

• Thermogenic Beam:
  A damage spell that is useful both early and late game. It also advances the level-up condition of both your champions and advances Ravenbloom Conservatory. Don’t run more than two copies of Thermogenic Beam.

• Whispered Words:
  A cheaper card draw spell than Progress Day. Not more than two in the deck!

• Aloof Travelers:
  Offers card draw, a unit on the board, and discard the highest cost card in your opponent’s hand. No more than 2 copies, you can cut Ferros Financier for it.

• Station Archivist:
  The main reason you’d run Station Archivist is to find spells from your deck that might be needed in a specific scenario. It’s basically a pure-value card. You can cut House Spider or Ferros Financier for Station Archivist.

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General Tips

Ezreal is the MVP of the show late game. Try and hold onto him until he’s leveled if you’re playing against a deck that can kill him easily. Ezreal can burn down your opponent pretty quickly especially if you’ve played a Tybaulk.

You’re able to push a lot of damage with the assistance of your stun units. Unit damage can accelerate your winning play tremendously, having to not rely solely on Overwhelm and Spell damage. Arachnoid Sentry and Spell Slinger can stun opponent’s blockers and set up for a solid attack.

Hold onto your damage spells if possible until Tybaulk hits the board. You want to get maximum value out of your damage spells. The +1 damage will allow you to remove the opponent’s units much easier and deal more Nexus damage as well.

Disintegrate doesn’t necessarily mean you have to damage a unit with one of your spells. Blocking the unit, Annie’s skills effect or your opponent damaging their own units with a card like Avalanche can trigger your Disintegrate.

Video Deck Guide

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Matchups

Annie Jhin – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, House Spider, Ferror Financiar, Mystic Shot.

• You’re against an aggressive deck with burn potential. Try to keep up with your opponent’s board, block as much damage as possible, and use spells to kill Annie or any of the units with a damage skill effect.
• You don’t run any healing but luckily cheap cards like House Spider, Ferros Financier, and Spell Slinger will make sure you don’t get aggroed early on.
• Save damage spells like Mystic Shot to interrupt a Noxian Fervor. You cannot stop a Decimate from being cast, you can play around it either by open attacking before they can play the slow spell, or burn them down before the spell is resolved.

Zed Bard – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financier, Spell Slinger, Ravenous Flock

• You’re against a deck that wants to buff up their units and slam your Nexus. The biggest threats are Elusive units like Shadow Assasin, Greenglade Duo, or a buffed-up Esmus, Breath of the World. Use your removal tools to take them out while you continue chomp blocking the non-Elusive units.
• Zed is a nuisance early game, have a stun unit ready like Spell Slinger or Arachnoid Sentry to halt the champion before killing it with a Ravenous Flock.
• They don’t run any removal tools outside of the possibility of teching a Sonic Wave. This means a leveled-up Ezreal can wreak havoc, burning down their Nexus with not much of counter play they can do.
• Annie is pretty easy to level up, Tibbers can be useful to either set up an AoE 2-damage to opponent’s units or stun a key unit on the board.

Lurk – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, House Spider, Ferros Financier, Mystic Shot

• Lurk relies on board units to push Nexus damage. They want to keep buffing their Power by activating Lurk keyword. Make sure to block and kill the Lurkers early on before they swarm the board.
• If your opponent has only one unit on the board that is capable of activating Lurk (For example they play Xer’sai Caller and predict) you can stun that unit on spot with Archanoid Sentry or Spell Slinger, shutting them down from activating Lurk and that predicted card could potentially be a Rek’Sai or Pyke.
• On your attack turns watch out for a Snapjaw Swarm, have a unit ready to block and kill it!
• Save an Archanoid Sentry or Spell Slinger for Rek’Sai, stunning her will prohibit her from attacking which stops her from leveling up and she’ll go back to the opponent’s deck.
  Disintegrate can be another answer for Rek’Sai, but make sure to play it before your opponent commits their attack to deny Rek’sai’s level up.
• Ezreal can burn your opponent down pretty quickly and your opponent doesn’t have many answers to him. The only cards to watch out for are Depth from Below and Bone Skewer.
• Do not allow your opponent to go wide with Lurkers. On turn 8+ they’ll be setting up a Jaull-fish that can take out your units!

Yuumi Pantheon – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, House Spider, Ferros Financier, and Spell Slinger, Ravenbloom Conservatory

• Arachnoid Sentry and Spell Slinger can set up for a strong attack if you stun their units. Your opponent can’t drop many units and contest the board if you start setting up your stuns.
• Level up Annie to create a Tibbers in hand. Tibbers’ ability to stun key units can come in clutch for protection purposes or to set up a strong attack.
• If you’re planning to attack with Ezreal keep in mind that they can commit a Sharpsight and block him.
• Disintegrate is an important card that shuts down your opponent. Wait until your opponent has committed spells on their Fated unit. especially Zenith Blade before playing the Disintegrate and killing it.
  It’s also a reliable answer to kill Pantheon – a champion that can solo carry the matchup.
• Single Combat, Concerted Strike, and Cataclysm are all tools to kill off your Ezreal. You can either save Ezreal by killing the unit or at least get value out of Ezreal by pushing as much burn as you can.

Viego – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financiar, Arachnoid Sentry, Ravenous Flock, Ravenbloom Conservatory

• Your opponent is looking to buff up their Viego and level him up. From there they want to take control over the board. Your main objective is to kill Viego.
• Ravenous Flock and Disintegrate are your best removal tools to deal with Viego. They do run protection cards like Rite of Negation and Ancient Hourglass.
• Invasive Hydravine is another unit you want to just kill, the summoned Encroaching Mists can end up being problematic.
• Your end game plan is to burn them down, Tybaulk accelerates that and allows you to close out the game faster.
• Watch out for Atrocity, if your Nexus is low enough and you commit all your mana, your opponent may take the opportunity to destroy your Nexus.

Elise Viego – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financiar, Arachnoid Sentry, Ravenous Flock, Ravenbloom Conservatory

• This matchup resembles the popular Viego Shurima. The main difference is that Viego Noxus doesn’t run any protection tools to keep their Viego on the board but they do run removal cards that we’ll talk more about.
• Elise Viego does though run another threat that you have to watch out for. Legion Deserter can turn to a win condition once it gains a lot of stats, the Overwhelm keyword takes advantage of those gained stats.
  You’re able to kill it off with your Disintegrate but be careful of an Atrocity answer that could potentially close out a game.
• Viego Noxus does also run removal spells like Ravenous Flock and Disintegrate, basically cheap answers to deal with your Ezreal.

Ezreal Caitlyn – favored

Mulligan for: Annie, House Spider, Spell Slinger or Arachnoid Sentry and a Ravenous Flock, Ravenbloom Conservatory.

• Will be difficult to level up Annie in this match. Focus on killing off their champions while taking the least amount of damage to your Nexus.
• Tri-Beam can be a board swinger, they’ll most likely will save it for Ezreal or Tybaulk.
• Once Tybaulk hits the board the Overwhelm damage can be massive if it hits the Nexus. Regardless, the additional +1 damage on your spells will put you ahead of your opponent.
• You want to kill both their champions, Caitlyn will put traps into your deck that can be problematic later on in the game. As for Ezreal, he can turn into a win condition so you want to kill him the second he hits the board.

Illaoi Jarvan – slightly unfavored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financier, Ravenblood Conservatory, Spell Slinger, or Arachnoid Sentry with a Ravenous Flock

• Petricite Broadwing can kill your Annie for free. A Mystic Shot on the challenging unit is enough for Annie to see another day. If you manage to level her up, Tibbers can be a tad bothersome to your opponent with the stun effect.
• The Sea’s Voice will turn the buffed-up Tentacle into an Overwhelm threat. Stun or kill The Sea’s Voice on the spot before it becomes problematic.
• At turns 6-7, expect a burst speed Jarvan IV to hit the board on your opponent’s attack turn. Have a ping ready like Static Shock to remove the barrier.
• Disintegrate is the perfect answer for Illaoi, if she’s left unanswered the Overwhelm damage she deals can close out a game.

Thralls – unfavored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financier, Ravenbloom Conservatory, and Piltovan Tellstones

• Piltovan Tellstones is important in this matchup because it can create an Aftershock! Wait for your opponent to commit resources on their Frozen Thrall like Clockwork Curator, Time in a Bottle, or Promising Future before you destroy the landmark. Try to destroy it before Taliyah hits the board and creates a copy of the landmark.
• Disintegrate is an amazing spell to kill the Frostguard Thrall before it slams your Nexus with the overwhelm damage. Be warry of Rite of Negation which can shut down your play.
• Ravenous Flock can kill a damaged Frostguard Thrall or set it up to die to any ping.

Deep – unfavored

Mulligan for: Annie, Ferros Financier, Ravenbloom Conservatory, Ezreal, Mystic Shot or Static Shock

• A difficult matchup with Mugatuskar’s healing ability Deep now runs. Undergrowth is another new card that basically stops your plan to level up Annie.
• Playing Ezreal and creating Mystic Shots is totally fine, but have an answer ready for Jaull Hunters that will try to challenge and kill your Ezreal.
• Don’t allow Maokai to stick on the board for too long, a stun unit played on him followed by a Ravenous Flock should do the trick. You want to deny as much toss as possible to slow down your opponent’s game plan.
• Burn is most likely the way this matchup will be closed down, keep in mind that they can play a Devourer of the Depths to obliterate your Ezreal.
• Disintergrate Nautilus on spot! Cheaper Sea Monsters will take over the game if you allow it.
• Try to keep your Nexus’ health about 13, the reason behind that is to not allow an Atrocity play to close out the game.

Closing Words

Ezreal Annie quickly rose in popularity becoming one of the top played decks in the meta.

In my opinion, it is the superior Annie version of a deck out there, yes better than Annie Jhin. It feels more versatile and capable of adapting to a lot of matchups.

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