Fizz/Twisted Fate Deck Guide & Matchups

Hello, Agigas here! I am a Master player since beta with several #4 peaks and tournament wins. I love sharing my knowledge about the game and I have been a regular writer at RuneterraCCG. I write in-depth deck guides, articles for tournament players, and curate our constantly updated Meta Tier List.

This particular guide you’re reading is part of our on-going series of guides on meta decks. You can find all the other guides and a matchup table on this page.

This guide is dedicated to Fizz/TF – a deck that appeared seemingly out of nowhere right amidst Cosmic Creation season and rose to the top of the meta in a blink of an eye.

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Playstyle: Elusive/Combo.

Fizz/TF is a deck with a very unique game plan. It plays a lot of small Elusive units to damage the opponent’s Nexus. Then, in the mid-game, it draws a massive amount of cards for cheap (Rummage, Pick a Card…) to get access to even more Elusive units.

Because you draw a lot and play a lot of spells, you can discount Wiggly Burblefish to 0 mana quickly. Towards the end of the mid-game, the deck is able to flood the board with Burblefishes thanks to the 0-cost Burblefish + Iterative Improvement combo. This massive gain of tempo allows the deck to push a lot of Nexus damage.

Among your Elusive units, Fizz is a particularly daunting one for a lot of control decks. His ability to survive targeted removal makes him hard to deal with. Some matchups are quickly won by a Fizz buffed with Suit Up.

But Fizz/TF is not only an Elusive deck – it’s also the best deck at leveling up Twisted Fate. With Pick a Card, Rummage, and other cheap draws, Twisted Fate can often level up one turn after you’ve played him.

One of Fizz/TF’s biggest strengths is its variety of win conditions. Decks struggling to remove a sudden flood of Elusive units will have a lot of trouble to survive the Burblefish turn. Decks with a lot of targeted removals can find themselves in a tough situation against Fizz, and decks without access to enough removal will have a hard time dealing with TF before he levels-up.

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General Tips

• Plan ahead how you intend to level up Twisted Fate. You should actively look to level him up. One pattern to know and use is: Pick a Card + Twisted Fate (Blue Card) on turn 4, then on turn 5 Rummage alongside a draw 1 effect (discard Stress Testing, or play Zaunite Urchin, Zap Sprayfin, or another Rummage).
• Make good use of Discard fodder. You have a lot of discard effects (Poro Cannon, Get Excited, Rummage, Zaunite Urchin, Pick a Card to an extent), you need to use them on low-value cards: fleeting cards you won’t play, cards that are bad in the current matchup or situation. If you don’t have any low-value cards to discard, it might force you into a bad position where you need to burn one of your higher-value cards instead.
• Draw aggressively. Don’t wait until you’re out of cards in hand to start using effects like Pick a Card and Rummage. Cycling through your deck very fast will get you to a powerful Burblefish turn faster. Don’t be afraid to play Pick a Card even as soon as turn 4 – especially when quickly getting to that Burblefish turn is an effective win condition. Even if you draw fleeting cards you won’t play, you can still use them as discard fodder or shuffle one of them back with another Pick a Card.

General mulligan tips:

• Twisted Fate is very flexible, and if the opponent lowers their guard you can easily level him up. He is a good keep unless you’re looking for something else, and he is the card you’re looking for in matchups struggling to remove him.
• Fizz is a strong keep whenever you have a good hand, want a 1-drop, or play against a deck that struggles against him.
• Ballistic Bot is often a great keep unless you are looking for specific cards.
  • If you have Ballistic Bot, cards with a ‘discard 1’ effect become more valuable as potential keeps (Zaunite Urchin, Poro Cannon, Get Excited).
• Pick a Card is a great keep then you have Twisted Fate in hand, or when you want to cycle to your Burblefish turn as soon as possible.
• Mystic Shot is a good keep if it has valuable targets in the opponent’s deck.

Be aware that these are just the general guidelines to help you understand the deck’s gameplan. Mulligans are very matchup-dependant – please refer to the matchup section below for more specific advice on mulligans against different meta decks.

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Matchups

Click on the box to read detailed info about a matchup of choice:

Mulligan for: Fizz, Twisted Fate, Mystic Shot, Pick a Card; Zaunite Urchin, Ballistic Bot, Poro Cannon, Get Excited – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• They have no way to block your Elusive onslaught, and it’s hard for them to go through your chump blockers. They also have no healing (though some versions play Kindly Tavernkeeper).
• Their best way to steal the game is with a well-timed Reckoning. Try to play around it when possible.
  • If you go fast enough and force them to cast it early, you might be able to remove their 5-attack unit to make Reckoning fizzle.
• Ashe‘s level-up is their best way to disable your chump blockers. She is a priority target for removals. You can also target their Challenger units so they can’t force trades on your Elusive units.
• Without the attack token, their only ways to remove TF are Culling Strike and Reckoning.
• They’ll use their Frostbites on your attacking Elusive units to survive longer. Use Suit Up after they’ve frozen your unit to still be able to push damage.

Mulligan for: Ballistic Bot, Pick a Card, Fizz; Poro Cannon – if you have Ballistic Bot.

Matchup tips:

• Their main win condition is to fully stack their landmark, Star Spring. However, this isn’t as fast as your game plan, and they struggle to defend themselves against your Elusive units.
• Avoid interacting with their board whenever possible. The more you damage their units, the more it will enable and accelerate their synergies.
  • Don’t block unless you have to.
  • Don’t try to remove a unit, unless they have 1 or less mana so it’s guaranteed the unit will die.
• Ballistic Bot is very powerful in this matchup. It gives you fuel to rapidly discount your Burblefishes while burning their Nexus, and it grows rapidly so they can’t block it without losing a unit.
• They don’t have any Elusive units and have very limited ways to remove them.
  • Chip away at their Nexus health with Fizz, Poro Cannon, and Zap Sprayfin.
  • Set up your Burblefish turn as quickly as you can. In order to do so, you want to draw quickly and cast as many spells as you can.
• When they have a big Star Shepherd, you want to have a blocker for it. Be aware they can pull away some blockers with Boxtopus and Shakedown.

Mulligan for: Fizz, Twisted Fate, Pick a Card.

Matchup tips:

• They don’t have any out-of-combat way to remove a unit. Therefore, it is extremely easy and safe to level up TF with Pick a Card against them.
  • Be careful to not get your TF down when they still have the attack token – they can give him the vulnerable keyword to challenge him.
• They don’t have elusive blockers either, so you can keep pushing strong elusive damage. They don’t have any healing either so they won’t be able to sustain the damage for long, and you can finish them with burn spells.
• What they do have are powerful Overwhelm units backed up by powerful combat tricks. You don’t have a very good way to stall out Overwhelm units, especially if you don’t have TF, so if you give them enough time they will kill you eventually.

Mulligan for: Fizz, Ballistic Bot, Get Excited; Poro Cannon – if you have Fizz; Zaunite Urchin – if you have Ballistic Bot.

Matchup tips:

• They have a lot of targeted removals but can struggle against Fizz. Their only Elusive blocker is Ezreal.
  • Fizz buffed by Suit Up can push a lot of damage, and will often be your way to victory.
• Despite their high amount of removal, they are not a control deck. They can push a lot of damage rapidly. Be conservative with your Nexus health.
• While they can have removals for your Burblefishes, you might still be able to push some damage with them because they’ll run out of removals and/or mana.
• They have no healing or counterspells. Burn spells can easily finish them once you’ve pushed enough Elusive damage.
• Get Excited is a strong answer to Draven or level 1 Ezreal.
• TF is pretty hard to level up because they have a lot of removals.
  • However, if they tap out you can level up TF over 1 turn with Pick a Card and Rummage.
  • TF’s Red Card gets their units in-range of your Mystic Shots.
• They can finish the game very decisively with Captain Farron, level 2 Ezreal, and tempo gain through Tri-beam Improbulator.
  • You need to find the right balance of aggression. If you block too much with your Elusive units it might slow you down and give them too much time, but if you don’t block enough they might get you in range of their burn spells.

Mulligan for: Fizz, Ballistic Bot, Pick a Card; Poro Cannon, Iterative Improvement, Get Excited, Zaunite Urchin – if you have Ballistic Bot; TF – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• Neither of you has healing, and both of you have a lot of burn damage. Be conservative with your Nexus health, each point of HP will matter in the end game.
• They’ll fill your deck with shrooms and force you to draw with Hexcore Foundry. You have a lot of draw-effects yourself and you can easily contribute to your opponent’s gameplan if you’re not careful.
  • Ideally, you want to draw while the shroom counter is still low, and slow down the draw as much as possible once it gets high.
• Puffcap Peddler can quickly and easily raise the number of shrooms in your deck, he is a priority target.
• If they manage to get you low enough, a leveled-up Ezreal can finish the game at Burst speed.
• Be aware that they can delay your Elusive damage with freezes.
• Because burn damage is precious, Ballistic Bot is powerful in this matchup. Use Ignition to lower their Nexus health.
  • To gain a lot of pressure, don’t be afraid to use Iterative Improvement on Ballistic Bot so you get more Ignition faster. While they can remove or freeze your Elusive attackers, they can’t prevent Ignition damage.
• To deal damage with an Elusive through their freeze, use Suit Up after they’ve frozen it.

Mulligan for: Ballistic Bot, Twisted Fate, Pick a Card; Get Excited, Mystic Shot – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• In this matchup, Aphelios is your priority target. If you let him live, he will give them an access to removals and Challengers to contest your board, as well as lifegain to stay alive.
• Their TF is also important to remove if he gets closer to level-up, but be aware that they are a lot slower than you at achieving his level-up condition.
  • Because you can remove him with Mystic Shot and he is slow to level up, their TF is more often a removal than a win condition. Be careful to not play right into the Red Card.
• They do have tools to deal with your early Twisted Fate, but you can navigate around them to make the level up easier.
  • Their main way is with Boxtopus – they often tutor him as a 3/4 with Aphelios’ Crescendum. To play around it, you simply need to play TF once they tap under 2 mana with no Boxtopus on board, or, more often, when they don’t have the attack token.
  • Another way is with their own TF’s Gold Card. To play around it, you just need them to tap under 4 unit mana. Other ways are to have a 2/3 Ballistic Bot so he takes the hit instead of TF, or to have a Suit Up to protect TF.
  • If they’ve cast a Solari Priestess, they might have Falling Comet or Meteor Shower. It is hard to play around those outside of waiting for them to tap under 5 mana. On the bright side, using this kind of removal on TF is mana-negative for them.
  • One small trick to play against Meteor Shower is to only have Fizz and TF on board. In that case, they can’t cast it without targeting Fizz – and Fizz will make the whole spell fizzle if they try to.
• Even if you can’t level up Twisted Fate, you are still favored in the matchup. Your Burblefish turn is hard for them to deal with. While they do have their own Burblefishes, they simply have less of them because they don’t have Iterative Improvement.

Mulligan for: Twisted Fate, Pick a Card; Mystic Shot, Poro Cannon, Zaunite Urchin, Rummage, Ballistic Bot – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup often comes down to a race. You need to kill them before they are able to kill you with their Lee Sin.
• They struggle to deal with TF (their ways are Lee Sin, Zoe’s Sleepy Trouble Bubble, Lee Sin’s Sonic Wave, and The Serpent). They often won’t be able to remove him early and/or when they don’t have the attack token.
  • You can easily level TF up with Pick a Card.
  • Hush can prevent level 1 TF from leveling up, but can’t be used against Pick a Card. Later on, it can remove level 2 TF ability for a turn.
• They don’t have strong answers to your Burblefish flood at the end of mid-game. This is most likely how you’ll finish the game.

Mulligan for: Mystic Shot, Twisted Fate; Get Excited, Pick a Card – if you have a good hand

Matchup tips:

• They do have answers for your threats – Single Combat for Twisted Fate, and Challengers for your Elusives. However, they don’t cycle through their deck nearly as fast as you.
• Try to overwhelm them with threats. Because they don’t cycle through their deck, they can easily lack the right answer at the right time.
• Mystic Shot is a very powerful spell against them. If you can remove their important units, they can struggle to set up a powerful gameplan.
• Try to play your most important units (TF in particular) right after they attack so they can’t be challenged.
• If you are able to force them to use Sharpsight to save their unit from a removal, it will allow an Elusive unit to hit their Nexus later.
• In the late game, they don’t have a great answer to a sudden flood of Burblefish during your attack turn. They will have to take a lot of the damage, allowing you to finish them with burn spells.
• Be mindful of their Fiora win condition, she is a priority target for your removals.

Mulligan for: TF, Fizz, Zaunite Urchin, Ballistic Bot, Poro Cannon, Mystic Shot; Pick a Card – if you have TF; Get Excited – if you have Ballistic Bot.

Matchup tips:

• In the early turns, take as many trades as you can. If you can limit their board, it will make some of their synergies weaker (Crowd Favorite, Arena Battlecaster, and Vision).
  • Don’t be afraid of trading your Fizz with their 1-drop on turn 1.
  • The exception to the rule is with 1-health units when TF is coming down. However, be careful to not let them the opportunity to play a big Crowd Favorite.
• TF’s Red Card can cause huge damage to their board. They have a lot of 1-health units, and it will also get their level 1 champions in Mystic Shot’s range or level 2 champions in Get Excited’s range.
• Their answers to TF are Get Excited! and Jinx’s Get Excited!. If he levels up before you get in their burn range you’ll be in a great spot.
• Once you stall out their early aggression and stabilize, you need to watch out for Jinx. She is their way back into the game, so you need to have a way to remove her or win quickly.

Mulligan for: Ballistic bot, Mystic Shot, Pick a Card, Twisted Fate; Fizz, Zaunite Urchin, Poro Cannon – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup can be very grindy. You both have high amounts of draw and can block each other’s Elusive units.
• Ballistic Bot is a key card to make a lot of value (it creates a lot of discard fodder throughout the game) or to accelerate towards the Burblefish turn.
• TF should not be able to level up, both of you have removals for him (TF’s Gold Card, Mystic Shot, Get Excited). If he does level up he is likely to win the game quickly.
• Daring Poros have more value than usual in this matchup – they are great blockers against Burblefishes.
• In the mid/late game, a TF Red Card can be very impactful.
• If you can get to your Burblefish turn earlier, it can allow you to push a lot of damage – especially if there are no Daring Poros.
• Neither of you has life gain, and you both have burn spells. Being low on Nexus health can be very dangerous.
• If neither of you finds a way to get a decisive advantage, the game can go to decking. Death Ray – Mk 1, randomly generated from Burblefish, can buy you some precious turns in that case.

Mulligan for: Ballistic Bot, Twisted Fate, Pick a Card, Fizz; Suit Up if you already have Fizz.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup can seem very difficult because of their numerous cheap board wipes. However, you can outplay it, especially against versions running a bit low on board wipes, thanks to your impressive value.
• Fizz with Suit Up is a very powerful play to save him from an AoE spell and get at least 1 attack on their nexus.
• Don’t overextend into their board wipes, especially in early/mid-game. You want to make a board that requires an answer, but that is awkward to use an AoE spell on.
  • Fizz or TF are particularly good at forcing out an answer without having to overextend.
  • You don’t need to play many units at the same time to force out a spell. You want to apply a somewhat slow but steady pressure, to out-grind them and then play powerful Burblefish turns later when they start running out of aoe removals.
• Keep your Mystic Shots and Get Excited to burn their nexus once you got them low enough with your pressure. You can kill them from a very high amount of nexus health.
• Taking things too slow can get punished by their Watcher combo. However, it’s hard for them to set it up because they need a lot of board space. In most scenarios, they will use level 2 Trundle as their finisher in this matchup.
• Even though the Watcher isn’t likely to be their finisher, Lissandra is still extremely dangerous because of her level 2, providing Tough nexus and free Ice Shards. Unfortunately, it is hard to remove her, but if they damage her in combat or with their Avalanche/Blighted Ravine you can try to finish her with a removal. They don’t have protection spells.

Mulligan for: Twisted Fate; Ballistic Bot, Pick a Card if you have TF.

Matchup tips:

• In this matchup, it can be difficult to forego interaction and kill them with Elusives. Their early/mid-game units ask for answers, and if you take too long to close out they will play Pack your Bag.
• Leveling up TF is the extra boost you want, it will help you to both survive their units and close out faster.
  • On turn 4 avoid playing TF into their TF Gold Card. You either want to play TF alongside a bigger unit (like a buffed Ballistic Bot) or after they play their own TF.
  • Suit Up on TF is a huge boost for his survivability – they’ll often need to Vengeance him. Hence, don’t be too afraid to delay your TF by a turn if it allows you to protect him.
• If they still have 5+ mana, Withering Wail can counter your Burblefish flood.
  • Withering Wail with a Powder Keg will clear your whole board. When you flood the board, try to save mana to Mystic Shot their Keg.

Mulligan for: TF, Pick a Card; Get Excited, Mystic Shot, Rummage – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• In a fair game, this matchup can be very difficult. They are too aggressive for you to rely entirely on the Burblefish turn.
• Level 2 TF is your way to make things unfair and bridge through the mid-game until your Burblefish turn. They can’t remove TF without the attack token (their only way to gain one is Relentless Pursuit). You must actively try to level him up.
• They can level up Miss Fortune very quickly with Scout attacks. She is a priority target for your removals.
  • Be aware that they have protection spells (Sharpsight, Ranger’s Resolve, Riposte, Brightsteel Protector).
• If you manage to get to your Burblefish turn there isn’t much they can do to protect their Nexus health. Their only way to block an Elusive unit is Sharpsight and they have no removal.

Mulligan for: Zaunite Urchin, Fizz, Poro Cannon, Ballistic Bot, Twisted Fate; Pick a Card if you have TF.

Matchup tips:

• Pirates Aggro is a very explosive deck looking to put a lot of pressure with aggressive units, use this pressure to push a lot of damage, and close out the game with burn spells.
• Because you have no healing and can struggle to slow down an aggro deck, this matchup tends to be difficult to win. Be very conservative with your nexus health.
• TF is your best way to upset the matchup. Look to set up a powerful Red Card on the opponent’s board, then quickly level him up to accelerate the game in your favor.
  • Their only removal for an early TF is Noxian Fervor.
  • Gold Card can also find great uses against their powerful Overhwelm units, Gangplank and Farron.
• Once you stabilize the board, you need to be able to finish quickly before they find more ways to push damage (Burn, Gangplank…).
  • In the late game, look to make their Noxian Fervor fizzle with your removals to make them lose some precious points of burn damage.
• They can level-up Gangplank rapidly. Ideally, you want to prevent them from spreading Nexus damage dealt to you. To do so, you can for example force their Noxian Fervor or kill their Legion Grenadier on a turn you already took Nexus damage.

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Closing Words

After the nerf of TF Go Hard, Fizz/TF quickly became one of the top dogs. After a period of domination, it now seems like it found a solid spot in Tier 1, despite some counters of the deck that have emerged as well. Fizz/TF gains a lot from having an access to several win conditions. It is a very flexible deck with a massive amount of draw.

If you have a question, want to share feedback, or discuss this guide, I’ll be happy to answer you in the comments below and in this dedicated Reddit post! 😉

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Thanks for reading!