Deck of the Day: Twisted Fate Sejuani

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Twisted Fate Sejuani created by Morppadorp • last updated 2 years ago

Regions

Types

Rarities

Mana Cost

Champions (6)

followers (25)

Black Market Merchant

Spells (9)

Origins

Twisted Fate Sejuani, also known as “Turbo Sejuani”, or “Sivir Killer”, is a midrange deck that was first conceptualized by Swim at the beginning of the Call of the Mountain season. At the time, Plunder Sejuani decks tended to use Gangplank as the secondary champion, but Swim felt that GP was a “win-more” card that put you further ahead when you were already winning and did nothing to help you come back when you were behind.

Additionally, Swim did not like how GP clogged the pool of units that Babbling Bjerg could tutor. As a result, Swim swapped GP for Twisted Fate; TF helped improve the deck’s aggro matchups (Red Card/Gold Card) and also helped the player refuel their hand and dig for their win conditions if they did not have them yet (Blue Card).

Red Card can also be a damage trigger for Sejuani’s level-up condition or act as a Slow speed Plunder trigger for Black Market Merchant, Monster Harpoon, or a leveled Sejuani to freeze the enemy board. The optimization of swapping GP for TF would contribute to my 3rd place finish in IQ Qualifier #1, using Twisted Fate Sejuani in my lineup alongside Scouts and Karma Ezreal.

Gameplan

The most important thing to keep in mind about Twisted Fate Sejuani is to ensure that Sejuani levels up at a reasonable pace; this means that we should be trying to damage the enemy Nexus each turn whenever possible.

As a result, games generally start out with the player attempting to sneak in damage by going wide quickly, giving key units Vulnerable with Hired Gun to make future attacks better, and making use of Monkey Idol. Prowling Cutthroat is also a great way to ensure that Sejuani will level up quickly, as very few units in the game can block her.

Starting on turn 4, the player is incentivized to use Babbling Bjerg to look for Sejuani or Riptide Rex, as well as play Yordle Grifter in order to create Warning Shots that will allow Sejuani to freeze the enemy board at Burst speed once she is levelled. Twisted Fate is also a great card at this point of the game to stun a beefy midrange unit with Gold Card, clear an aggressive board of x|1s with Red Card, or dig for your win conditions with Blue Card.

Beginning on turn 6 or 7, Sejuani should be levelled. It is at this point where the end starts to draw near for most opponents, as they can no longer play to the board effectively whatsoever as long as we have enough Warning Shots for our non-attacking turns and sequence our attacks correctly (from left to right: Powder Monkey, Prowling Cutthroat, Sejuani, everything else) in order to ensure that Sejuani will freeze the board before our units are struck by enemy blockers.

If our opponent was able to survive despite losing board control, a Riptide Rex will often be enough to seal the deal or pave the way for a lethal open attack down the line.

Mulligan tips:

Aggro – all units that cost 3 or less, Twisted Fate, Make it Rain. I would not keep Make it Rain against Scouts due to their access to Ranger’s Resolve, however.

Midrange: all units that cost 3 or less, Twisted Fate, Monster Harpoon. Sejuani is a considerable keep if you have a hand that ideally consists of at least one 1-2 drop and a Monkey Idol; otherwise, getting the ticks on Sejuani with early units is more important.

Control (including Draven Ezreal): all units that cost 3 or less, Babbling Bjerg, Riptide Rex. Black Market Merchant can be a rare keep if you have enough early pressure and a Rex.

Note that you can always keep Warning Shot if your opening hand also has Jagged Butcher in it; 1 mana 3|3s are pretty good.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

With Make it Rain’s recent revert to 2 mana, the addition of extremely efficient removal in Monster Harpoon, and Shurima’s rise to dominance, Twisted Fate Sejuani is a criminally underplayed and underrated deck.

With its ability to freeze entire boards while ignoring Spellshield, TF Sejuani possesses a unique niche as perhaps the only deck that can stonewall what many people believe to be the best deck in the 2.12 meta: Akshan Sivir.

TF Sejuani also has great matchups across the board, especially against many aggro and board-based midrange decks like Pirate Aggro and Shen J4.

Its only truly unfavorable matchup is against Zoe Lee Sin, where Sejuani simply gets shut down by Hush; however, a well-timed Monster Harpoon and the looming threat of Riptide Rex may allow you to push through regardless sometimes.

If you are interested in learning how to play this deck at a high level, stop by my streams! I will be using this deck to climb to Masters in the coming days, and I will likely also be playing this deck in some upcoming community tournaments. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the Burst speed board freezes!