Caitlyn Teemo Deck Guide

Hello there! In this article, I’ll be featuring Teemo Caitlyn Poison Puffcaps deck.

The archetype isn’t a popular meta pick up but it is one of the most enjoyable decks to play on ladder for me. The mushrooms win condition can be high variance – either stealing wins for you or leaving you devastated.

Teemo Caitlyn’s objective is to plant Poison Puffcaps and Flashbomb Traps in your opponent’s deck. Poison Puffcaps act as your primary win condition that deals damage to your opponent’s Nexus whereas Flashbomb Traps are more of a removal tool for low health units.

Cards like Teemo, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle, and Ava Achiever are your main tools to plant Poison Puffcaps into your opponent’s deck.

While you’re working on your Mushroom-planting, your opponent will look to end the game as soon as possible. Stinky Whump acts as an early chump blocker that also helps with Poison Pufffcaps.

Caitlyn is a solid 3-drop champion that provides Flashbomb Traps which will come in handy to control the board. Leveling up Caitlyn in this deck isn’t a difficult task either, after which she will become the main threat for your opponent and will force an answer out of them.

Once you’re done with your Puffcaps planting it’s time to accelerate things a bit.

The deck runs two methods to get those Puffcaps triggered. First, Corina, Mastermind allows you to activate all traps in the top 5 cards in your opponent’s deck, can be a winning play if you’ve planted a lot of Puffcaps.

Second – forced card draw. The deck runs a lot of cards that make your opponent draw, like Veteran Investigator, Aloof Travelers, and Insider Knowledge, which will all trigger the Poison Puffcaps.

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Techs and Options

• Puffcap Pup: A good early unit that can plant Poison Puffcaps onto the opponent’s deck, the Quick Attack allows the unit to go in aggressively in the early game. You can cut Stinky Whump for Puffcap Pup if you favor planting more Puffcaps early on.

• Get Excited!: A more burn approach to close out the game, can also come in useful to remove certain units off the board. It’ll be diffcult though to find a card to discard from your hand. Can be ran in the deck instead of Poison Darts.

• Thermogenic Beam: a removal tool that can come in handy to keep control of the board, the spell also triggers your Puffcap Peddler‘s ability as well. You can cut Poison Darts for it, but usually, you don’t want to run more than two as it can be a brick.

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General Tips

• Keep your Puffcap engine safe. Puffcap Peddler is your opponent’s worst nightmare.
  They’ll be looking to remove it as soon as possible. Outside of Stress Defence, your deck doesn’t run any protection tools, so don’t risk losing Puffcap Peddler in combat. Avoid blocking with him unless it’s necessary.

• Make sure to plant Poison Puffcaps before going for card draw.
  The more Puffcaps you plant in the deck the more likely your opponent will draw more per card, forced draw is the way to accelerate the damage your opponent takes, use it wisely.

• Leverage Caitlyn’s pressure. Leveling up Caitlyn in this deck is quite common.
  Her damage potential can be increased if you play Corina, Mastermind, or force your opponent to draw cards, hence activating the traps in the deck.

• Ava Achiever is a game-winning card. If you have an Ava Achiever on the board it will double all the traps activated. Combined with Corina, Mastermind, and card draw, Ava Achiever can close out the game pretty fast.

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Matchups

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Your opponent’s main win condition is through The Bandle Tree, you’re going to have to close out the game before they play 10 units of different regions.
• Try to remove Bandle City Mayor off the board as soon as possible to prevent your opponent from swarming the board, Mystic Shot can take care of the job.
• Do not block with Puffcap Peddler as it’ll make it vulnerable to Ravenous Flock or Pokey Stick.
• It’s fine going low on health in this matchup, outside of Pokey Stick your opponent does not run cards that can burn you down.
• Preventing Bandle Commando from hitting your Nexus and creating a Hungry Owlcat is important as it makes it harder for your opponent to play a unit from the Ionia region.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Teemo is great early game, it serves two purposes, plant Poison Puffcaps into your opponent’s deck and blocks Zoe from attacking.
• Zoe striking your Nexus means they could potentially create an Equinox off Supercool Starchart. Equinox can shut shutdown your Puffcap Peddler.
• Play Aloof Travelers before your opponent has the chance to drop their Lee Sin. Discarding Lee Sin can slow down their game plan by a lot.
• Once you’ve planted enough Poison Puffcaps, Ava Achiever along with a Corina, Mastermind can deal a lot of damage, your opponent does not run removal spells to take out Ava Achiever.
• Stress Defense is usually saved to stall the game, if your opponent goes for the one-kick combo with Lee Sin, Stress Defense can stop the incoming damage.
• Keep in mind your opponent runs Deny and Nopeify! that can deal with Corina, Mastermind and Insider Knowledge.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• This matchup isn’t aggressive early on, you’ll have time to set up your Poison Puffcap engines and start planting mushrooms in your opponent’s deck.
• Your opponent does run a lot of removal tools, cards like Poison Dart, Death’s Hand, and Ravenous Flock can threaten to remove important units on your side of the board.
• Wait until turn 7, or turn 8 if you have the attack token to play Aloof Travelers. This will increase the odds of you discarding their The Leviathan. If you have more than one Aloof Travelers in hand, make sure to play both of them before they have the chance to play Leviathan.
• Teemo Swain does not run any healing cards, the damage you push in with your units or from the Poison Darts can be valuable later on in the game.
• On turn 8 they’ll be looking to set up their Leviathan along with Swain to lock-stun your board – start activating your Poison Puffcaps with Corina, Mastermind.
• Hold onto your Insider Knowledge until you’re certain that this is the decisive turn. You can play Insider Knowledge if you’re running out of value in hand as well.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Try to kill Jayce before he gets to level up. Your opponent might opt to go for the Challenger keyword on Jayce to remove units like Puffcap Peddler and Teemo.
• You might find yourself on the burn plan as your opponent does not run any healing cards in their deck. The Poison Darts can go directly towards the Nexus.
• Keep in mind your opponent can remove two units at the same time with Shock Blast. Ideal targets for them would be Puffcap Peddler and Caitlyn.
• Stress Defense to save a key unit might be worth it in this matchup, especially if it’s Ava Achiever.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Stinky Whump, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Kill Twisted Catalyzer the first chance you get, you don’t want your opponent to buff up their Darkness spell too much. A Mystic Shot or Stinky Whump can deal with Twisted Catalyzer.
• Your main Poison Puffcap engines are Puffcap Peddler and Lecturing Yordle. outside of Darkness or Minimoph, it’ll be difficult for your opponent to commit a reliable removal to deal with them.
• Killing Veigar is your top priority, once leveled up he can threaten to end the game with Darkness.
• If your opponent goes to remove your Ava Achiever with a Darkness you can play Insider Knowledge in response to force card draw and double the Poison Puffcap damage.
• Stress Defense comes in handy to keep one of your Puffcap engine units alive or to prevent healing from Ixtali Sentinel.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Your opponent can block your Teemo with a Sharpsight.
• Your main objective is to plant Puffcaps, keeping Puffcap Peddler alive for as long as possible is essential for your game plan.
• Two removal cards your opponent runs are Single Combat and Concerted Strike, which they will most likely be used to remove your Puffcap engines.
• Remove Herald of Dragons as soon as possible to slow down your opponent’s Dragons deployment.
• Aloof Travelers should be played just before their Aurelion Sol turn in order to discard it from the opponent’s hand.
• Be wary, your opponent can close out the game if they’ve developed high stats Dragons and commited a Dragon’s Clutch on them when they go for an attack, the Overwhelm damage can threaten to close out the game.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle, Mystic Shot.

• Remove their Elusive units like Young Witch and Greenglade Duo with your removal spells. Your opponent though does run a variety of protection tools to keep their units alive.
• It’ll be difficult to commit with the Poison Puffcaps plan as your opponnent will be aggressive in this matchup.
• Caitlyn’s Flashbomb traps can come in handy in this match to remove low health units. Corina, Mastermind can activate those traps for you if you manage to play her safely.
• If your opponent is holding on 4 mana, they might be setting up for a Rally play.

Mulligan for: Stinky Whump, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle, Mystic Shot.

• Match their early board aggression, in this matchup, you’ll find yourself forced to block with units you rely on for your traps engine. Preserving the health of your Nexus is crucial.
• It’s difficult to deal with your opponent’s burn plan once they’ve dealt enough damage to your Nexus. You can potentially stop Noxian Fervor if you kill the unit it’s played on with a removal spell. As for Decimate, the only way to deal with it is by playing Aloof Travelers and discard it out of the opponent’s hand.
• Caitlyn’s Flashbomb Traps might be able to remove 1 health units, you can force your opponent to draw them faster with Aloof Travelers or Veteran Investigator.
• Remove Bandle City Mayor as soon as possible to prevent your opponent from swarming the board with multi-region units.

Mulligan for: Stinky Whump, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Keep a Pokey Stick ready incase your opponent buffs the damage of their spell with a Powder Keg.
• Block early damage and prevent Plunder triggers from unts, it’s important to slow down the level up of Gangplank.
• Stress Defense can either be played to save an important unit or to prevent lethal damage from an attacking Gangplank.
• You can counter a Double Up play by killing your own unit with a Mystic Shot or playing Stress Defense on it.
• Do not kill Twisted Fate immediatly if you don’t have to, you want to prevent your opponent from playing another Twisted Fate that could affect the state of the board with their skill ability.

Mulligan for: Stinky Whump, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Trade with their early Lurkers when they attack before they gain a lot of Power. Caitlyn can act as a blocker as well – if she survives the block.
• Your opponent doesn’t run ping spell removals, so value blocks are important for you.
• Pyke leveling up could clear your whole board, make sure to work on killing him with Poison Dart + Mystic Shot before that point or play Stress Defense to stop him from killing a unit once he leveled up which will prevent his ability from going off.
• Stress Defense on a Rek’Sai can stop her from leveling up.
• If your opponent played a Predict card and is setting up for an attack, playing Aloof Travelers or Veteran Investigator can potentially ruin your opponent’s plan to lurk a Rek’Sai or Pyke.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Stinky Whump.

• Block early incoming damage, your opponent will try to drop you down in health early on and set up for a Sion finisher. You might find yourself forced to block with Caitlyn or Puffcap Peddler.
• Stress Defense is a good answer for a Sion attacking, it will buy you enough time to continue planting Puffcaps.
• Keep in mind that Aloof Travelers might discard a Lost Soul, which renders his ability useless. You can wait until your opponent discards a Lost Soul before you play Aloof Travelers in the hope of discarding a Sion.
• You don’t have an answer when your opponent goes for their burn cards, you could play Insider Knowledge as a last resort to force the Puffcaps out of your opponent’s deck.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Caitlyn, Puffcap Peddler, Lecturing Yordle.

• Try and prevent your opponent from activating Plunder with their units. You want to prolong the level up of their champions and force them to commit spells to activate Plunder.
• Watch out for Make it Rain, don’t have multiple units with 1 health on the board as it’ll give more value to their Make it Rain.
• Pokey Stick can come in handy to kill a Powder Keg if needed to stop the damage buff of a spell.
• Stress Defense is useful on either Gangplank or Sejuani if you want to preserve your health.

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Closing Words

Teemo Caitlyn isn’t a popular deck in the current meta, it has a lot of unfavored matchups but it’s an enjoyable archetype to run if you’re a Teemo fan.

The Bandle City region offers a lot of supporting cards for your Poison Puffcap plan, although it lacks the defensive prowess the old PnZ Freljord version offers, it compensates with the mushroom engine package.

The deck can sneak in wins with Poison Puffcaps, Ava Achiever feels so satisfying when it doubles the damage of your traps!

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