Deck of the Day: Twisted Fate Bandle Tree

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TF Tree created by random7 • last updated 2 years ago

Regions

5

35

Types

4

22

11

3

0

Rarities

4

6

11

19

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (4)

1

Teemo

2

4

Twisted Fate

2

landmarks (3)

4

The Bandle Tree

3

followers (22)

1

Proto Poro

2

2

Bandle Commando

3

2

Bomber Twins

2

2

Marai Warden

3

3

Arena Kingpin

2

3

Bandle City Mayor

3

3

Loping Telescope

3

4

Aloof Travelers

2

4

Tenor of Terror

2

Spells (11)

1

Group Shot

2

2

Pokey Stick

2

4

Buster Shot

2

6

Hidden Pathways

2

6

Minimorph

3

• Origins

Hi, Random7HS here with a Deck of the Day article on Twisted Fate Bandle Tree.

Recently Mezume wrote about Noxus Bandle Tree, which is currently the most popular version of the archetype deck.

However, there’s a lot of room for alternative Tree builds – and they can come up especially useful in tournaments and Gauntlets, where you can bring a lineup featuring three The Bandle Tree decks, as long as you use different champions and region combinations.

While preparing for Worlds Qualifiers, I ventured to find the best Bandle Tree lineup.

One thing I quickly realized was that in my games with this archetype, my opponent would oftentimes have a board with several units that were left alive at 1HP. I considered adding in Make it Rain, but I disliked the RNG aspect of it – so I decided to go with Twisted Fate instead and immediately went on an 8-2 run on ladder with this build.

I ended up bringing a lineup consisting of Twisted Fate Bandle Tree, Noxus Bandle Tree, and Ionia Bandle Tree to Worlds. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the Top 16, finishing at 2-2 in matches. However, the Twisted Fate Bandle Tree deck did very well, going 4-0 in games.

Another player, RealKey, actually did make it to the top 32 with a triple Tree lineup, playing Bilgewater, Noxus, and Freljord.

• Gameplan

Twisted Fate Bandle Tree plays extremely similarly to a standard Bandle Tree.

Mulligan for any 1-drop, Loping Telescope, and Bandle City Mayor. In matchups in which you need to remove a 3HP unit, keep Buster Shot.

In matchups in expect to see early 1 HP units from your opponent, keep Group Shot and Pokey Stick. It’s fine to keep Twisted Fate as well – if you think you can get a good Red Card off early.

Against decks that either rely on a specific unit to win such as Lee Sin, or run an extremely hard-to-remove threat like Sion, keep Minimorph. Against slower decks like Senna Veigar, it’s fine to keep The Bandle Tree.

In the early game, you want to summon low-cost units and try to swarm your opponent with cheap replaceable bodies like Marai Warden, Loping Telescope, and Bandle City Mayor, while removing their units with Group Shot, Pokey Stick, and Buster Shot. Mayor allows you to flood the board much faster than your opponent and generates you an additional multi-region follower.

Transitioning into the mid-game, if you can see an avenue to win via damage, you take it, but if this is not a vialbe win condition, you want to start using your near-infinite supply of units to chump block while you set up a Bandle Tree win. If your opponent has a win condition based on a specific unit, try to save Minimorph mana up at all times to remove it.

Where this deck differs from other Bandle Tree decks is the addition of Twisted Fate. Many of our units have low attack values. Many times, when we attack with a full board, it gives the opponent an opportunity to strategically block our board leaving their own units at 1HP.

With the threat of Twisted Fate, our opponents will now have to choose between taking less favorable blocks or getting blown out by a Red Card. Against decks that naturally run a lot of 1HP units, e.g., Pirates, Red Card can blow them out even without forcing trades.

Through the use of Gold Card, Twisted Fate can also be used as a surprise Arachnoid Sentry against Gangplank, Sion, Lee Sin, and other threats that need to attack.

Although this does not come up often in the current meta, leveling Twisted Fate can also be used as a third win condition in matchups where the opponent does not have much removal, such as against Lee Sin. We do run draw in the form of Hidden Pathways, Aloof Travelers, and Pokey Stick.

• Verdict

I personally think that TF Tree is one of the best Tree decks you can play right now. Against certain decks that either cannot easily remove Twisted Fate or decks that lose to Red Card, I believe that Twisted Fate Bandle Tree is better than Noxus Bandle Tree. Against decks like Lee Sin, Pirates, or Lulu Zed, I would prefer to play Twisted Fate over Noxus.

By giving up Noxus, we are primarily giving up Ravenous Flock. This makes matchups in which we need to remove a key card much worse. For example, against Veigar Senna and Poppy Miss Fortune, we would much rather play Flock over Twisted Fate.

I think the biggest draw to this deck is that it enables a triple Bandle Tree lineup so well, which can terrorize tournaments and Gauntlets with an extremely polarizing matchup table.

Like always, thanks for reading!