Lissandra Trundle vs Zoe Lee Sin: Play-by-Play Match Analysis

Hello everyone, Sorry here! I’m a competitive Legends of Runeterra player and captain of team Lebanon, which also includes Reaper and Champion Unknown.

Lebanon is currently competing in the LoR Masters Europe: Chronicles of Shurima. We managed to qualify through the group stage with a score of 4-2 and advanced into the Top 8 bracket.

Today I wanted to share and break down a game we had during Group Stage Week 2 against team Germany where we piloted Lissandra Trundle against Zoe Lee. I’ll go through the pick and ban phase that preceded the game, explain our thought process behind our plays, and potential alternative lines we could have taken.

Previously I’ve also covered an Overwhelm vs Lissandra Trundle game using a similar format – to read that breakdown, click here.

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Bans, Picks and Game 1 Recap

• Lebanon: Draven Ezreal, Renekton Sivir Sejuani, Lissandra Trundle, Ashe LeBlanc, Zoe Vi, Nasus Thresh.
• Germany: Irelia Azir, Lissandra Trundle, Nasus Thresh, Shyvana Aurelian Sol, Zoe Lee Sin, Sivir Renekton Sejuani, Ashe LeBlanc.

In the LoR EU Masters format, each team brings 7 decks and is allowed to ban 2 champions from the opposing lineup. Just taking a look at Germany’s lineup, we noticed that they’re hard-targeting Nasus Thresh.

Lebanon banned Azir Irelia and Lissandra Trundle. Our lineup doesn’t do well against those two decks and isn’t teched for them. Germany banned Azir Irelia and Ashe LeBlanc.

The fact that they’ve chosen to ban Ashe LeBlanc over Lissandra Trundle SI gives us some clues on what Germany is considering to play. Now, for game 1 of the series, we were expecting them to open with a Targon deck or Sivir Renekton Sejuani Overwhelm because the banned Ashe LeBlanc was solid into both those decks.

So, for game 1 we had two choices: 1) either play Lissandra Trundle which has a good matchup against most of their decks – but risk matching into Sivir Renekton Sejuani, which is an unfavored matchup for us; 2) open with Ezreal Draven and have an almost even matchup against all their decks. We picked Ezreal Draven. Germany picked Sivir Renekton Sejuani. Germany won and took a 1-0 lead in the series.

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Lissandra Trundle vs Zoe Lee Sin Play-by-Play

That takes us to game 2 which we will break down in detail in this article. Now that Germany can’t play Sivir Renekton Sejuani anymore, Lissandra Trundle is the ideal pick for us. We are favored into most of their remaining four decks – Nasus Thresh, Shyvana Aurelian Sol, Zoe Lee Sin, and Ashe LeBlanc. They’ve chosen Zoe Lee Sin.

This matchup depends on which deck can set up their combo first and end the game. Lee Sin will be looking to one-shot the Nexus with the help of the Overwhelm keyword that Zenith Blade provides, while Lissandra Trundle will be setting up for the Watcher combo to obliterate the opponent’s deck.

Both decks run tools to prolong the game. On Lee Sin’s side, cards like Hush and Concussive Palm help slow down the Watcher plan. As for Lissandra Trundle, cards like Vengeance and The Ruination help remove Lee Sin off the board. The deck also runs Flash Freeze that will shut down a one-shot attack from Lee Sin.

Cards like Trundle, Spectral Matron, Fading Memories, and Lissandra are key in the matchup because they are needed to set up the Watcher combo. Lissandra is the crucial part of our combo as it creates Watcher in hand once she’s leveled up. Trundle will generate an Ice Pillar that’ll help level up our Lissandra. Fading Memories can be played on either an Ice Pillar, Watcher, or Spectral Matron depending on the state of the game. Spectral Matron is basically our tool to pull out an Ephemeral Watcher onto the board.

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• Mulligan Phase

Our hand consists of Vile Feast, Spectral Matron, Flash Freeze, and Trundle. A solid hand to start setting up for our Watcher combo.

Flash Freeze and Vile Feast are the two cards we considered removing but decided to keep both. Flash Freeze ensures we survive an extra turn when Germany goes for their one-shot Lee Sin combo. As for Vile Feast, Germany is attacking on evens – so Vile Feast is a good early answer for Zoe, and it’s important we deny Zoe from generating a Supercool Starchart, that can find answers for Watcher (Equinox, Crescent Strike).

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• Round 2

Germany played Zoe. We waited until they attacked with her before casting our Vile Feast – in case they have a second Zoe in hand, we needed to make sure they’ve used up their attack token for the round. We were of course still playing into Pale Cascade, but we had to go for the risk.

Vile Feast went through and Zoe was dead. Denying the Supercool Startchart is crucial in this matchup as it can generate answers for our Watcher combo. Cards like Equinox and Crescent Strike can delay or even shut down our attempt to obliterate the opponent’s deck.

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• Round 3

We drew our Lissandra – this means we have all the cards we need for the Watcher combo, and we are on our way to pull off the game-winning combo first.

We attacked with our Spiderling to pass the initiative while also bluffing Avalanche by keeping 4 mana up. Germany decided that they can’t play around Avalanche so they dropped their second Zoe followed by Eye of The Dragon. We have no answer so we just pass.

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• Round 4

Entreat is a good draw for the turn – picking up either Lissandra or Trundle off of it later on can be valuable. We do prefer picking up a second Lissandra as her champion spell Entomb can come in handy to survive a Lee Sin kick.

Germany attacked with Zoe and generated a Supercool Starchart, after which we immediately played our Blighted Ravine to remove her. We can’t afford to allow them to generate any more Supercool Starcharts.

Germany played their Supercool Starchart – we noticed that they are taking time thinking about what to choose from their pool of Celestial cards offered. For us, this could mean two things: either they found neither Equinox nor Crescent Strike, or they found both and are discussing which one to choose.

Germany then played a Guiding Touch, possibly to look for a Lee Sin and we both ended our turns.

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• Round 5

We drew the second Trundle – this increased the odds of us drawing a second Lissandra off of Entreat.

We played our Trundle – but I believe open-passing was probably the better play as it bluffs Vengeance and Germany wouldn’t be able to play their Lee Sin this turn.

Germany went for a 3-mana Deep Meditation followed up with The Messenger. Now we’ve gained additional information on their hand: there’s a possibility they do not have a Lee Sin in hand and also they certainly missed on picking up an answer to Watcher off of Supercool Starchart.

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• Round 6

It turns out Germany did in fact have Lee Sin in their hand and so they dropped him onto the board. We decided to cast our Entreat and we ended up drawing our third Trundle – not what we really wanted. We passed afterward with 7 mana up, bluffing a Vengeance in hand.

Germany passed. In that spot, we decided to cast Avalanche. We really wanted to remove both Eye of The Dragon and The Messenger and possibly start applying pressure next turn.

The Avalanche play would’ve put Trundle in range of their potential Lee Sin attack, but we know Germany will not want tp kill our Trundle. Playing the second Trundle will create a second Ice Pillar for us, which is an essential card for our Watcher combo.

In the end, we got punished for this play – Germany had their third Zoe in hand, played it, attacked, and generated a Supercool Starchart.

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• Round 7

We drew a Vengeance! It’s an important answer for Lee Sin if they don’t have a Deny in hand. But our previous play with Avalanche made our current turn a little awkward – we had two champions on board we needed to remove, Zoe and Lee Sin.

We open-attacked with our Trundle, fully knowing Germany won’t block. Germany took the hit and then cast a Zenith Blade onto the Lee Sin.

At that point, we had two options: either play our Vengeance right that moment and attempt to kill Lee, or play Icequake and remove the Zoe. We decided that we can survive another turn against Lee Sin and set up for Watcher on the following attack turn. As for Zoe – she had to die right now so she doesn’t generate any more answers for our combo.

Note that we’re also making sure to keep enough mana to play Vengeance + Flash Freeze on Round 8 if we need to. However, the ideal scenario for the next round for us would be to make so that Lee has to kick our Trundle. We would then play our second Trundle and generate an additional Ice Pillar.

So we cast Icequake, Zoe died. Then, Germany played Supercool Startchart that summoned Claws of The Dragon from their hand. This caught us off guard – we did not know they ran that card in their deck. Now there was a possibility Germany will go wide with units and threaten lethal next turn.

Next, Germany developed and Eye of The Dragon, followed by Sparklefly and a Moonglow on the Lee Sin. They were setting up for a scary attack on turn 8, and it didn’t seem anymore like we’ll be able to stick to our initial plan.

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• Round 8

They played a Sonic Wave, targeting Lee Sin with a Resonating Strike, leveled him up, and were now threatening a lethal attack. With a Spellshield on Lee (from the Moonglow), our only option was to remove the Spellshield with Flash Freeze and Vengeance the Lee Sin.

This meant we automatically lose if they have a Bastion or a Deny in hand, but at this point in the game, we were out of options. Luckily, Germany had neither of those two cards and we managed to remove Lee Sin and live an extra turn.

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• Round 9

We drew The Ruination! This is would be our next answer for Lee Sin – almost guaranteed especially now that we know they don’t have a Deny in hand.

The game now has shifted in our favor. We dropped the Ice Pillar and attacked with our Trundle, using Vulnerable to remove Claws of The Dragon off the board and chip some Overwhelm damage onto the Nexus.

Germany decided to play Zenith Blade on their Sparklefly. It’s important to note that when they’ve played Zenith Blade triggering Daybreak, they did not draw another copy. This means that one of the cards in their hand is the third Zenith Blade.

We are forced to pass and keep 9 mana open for The Ruination – if we allow them to drop a second Lee Sin this turn, the game is over.

Germany played Mentor of The Stones – now the Sparklefly could become problematic next turn since we don’t have a way of removing it aside from Ruination. But if we use our sweeper now, we’ll be in trouble if they have a Lee Sin as a follow-up. Playing Blighted Ravine was not an option either – removing Mentor of Stones means they’ll have 3 Gems in hand that can push extra damage with Sparklefly.

We decided to pass again since their open attack next turn was not lethal and we can set up for the combo play on our own attack turn after that. Germany passed back, taking us into Round 10.

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• Round 10

We’ve drawn Fading Memories for the turn – a crucial pick-up that ensures we will obliterate Germany’s deck if we survive this turn.

Germany went for an open attack – we took the hit and dropped down to 6 health. Their deck has no means of burning us down so we’re currently safe.

We played Fading Memories on the Ice Pillar and followed it up with Lissandra who leveled and gave us Watcher.

Germany went for a Hush on our Ephemeral Ice Pillar – a smart play to deny us the Spectral Matron combo. Hushed Ice Pillar has lost the Ephemeral keyword for the current turn – it means it will not die at the end of the round and will remain on board next turn so that we won’t have enough board space for the Spectral Matron + Watcher play.

Here, we’ve been left with one seemingly crazy play… Which is to cast The Ruination, clearing the whole board for space. We’ve already established that Germany does not have a Deny, one of the cards in their hand is a Zenith Blade, which leaves us with 3 unknown cards,

To prevent us from winning next turn, Germany would need two of those cards to be direct answers to Watcher. Spells like Concussive Palm and Hush will delay our combo – but we were running out of time and had to go for it – we Ruinated the whole board.

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• Round 11

We drew Spirit Journey – another tool for us to survive a Lee Sin kick in case we won’t be able to end the game right this turn.

We opened with Spectral Matron on Watcher, Germany answered with a Hush. At that point, we were discussing if we’re sure they’ve played all their Celestial cards and there is no possibility of them having an Equinox in hand. After we’ve established that there can’t be any Equinox, we dropped the second Watcher.

Germany surrendered and we took the win. For deciding game 3, we picked Ezreal Draven, and secured a victory against Dragons.

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Closing Words

Playing in the European Masters has been a completely different experience than what I’m used to in competitive Legends of Runeterra.

During the game all three teammates are on the same call – opinions are being shared and you have to consider them all. The games are very close and performing on the big stage adds a lot of pressure on the players.

Nonetheless, the experience so far has been spectacular, I enjoy competing against top players and I believe I have a lot more to learn and improve on.

The Runeterra community has been astounding! The support team Lebanon has been receiving even people from rivaling countries has been wholesome and all three of us appreciate it all.