Taric Poppy Deck Primer

Hello all, it’s DragonGuy here today to bring you a new take on the ever present Poppy deck concept. For this deck, I’ve combined her with Taric to create a deck that has an incredibly potent win condition: Going face!

Decklist

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Taric Poppy – Beyond the Bandlewood

Regions

23

17

Types

6

20

14

0

0

Rarities

6

2

5

27

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

4

Poppy

3

4

Taric

3

followers (20)

1

Fleetfeather Tracker

3

1

Solari Soldier

3

2

Brightsteel Protector

3

2

Tyari the Traveler

3

3

Laurent Protege

3

5

Mountain Sojourners

2

5

Screeching Dragon

3

Spells (14)

2

Guiding Touch

3

2

Pale Cascade

3

2

Sharpsight

3

4

Riposte

2

5

Golden Aegis

3

Origin

Taric Demacia has existed in the past, and is incredibly strong due to Taric’s interaction with Golden Aegis, which allows you to rally twice if you are able to successfully support with Taric. The deck has seen some play in the past, with the most popular version combining Taric with Jarvan IV.

These decks never gained much traction, however, which meant they were not very prevalent. With the release of Beyond the Bandlewood, Taric received a new partner in Poppy, who synergizes with our attack-centric game plan.

This caught the attention of Agigas, who had featured a version of the deck in this post. I was inspired to try this list, and after making some minor adjustments, brought it to the ladder.

Game Plan

The goal for this deck is to develop a strong board early in the game, and then leverage our strong board position to end the game with rallies or an attack too large for the opponent to answer. Both of our champions contribute to this plan. Poppy is powerful in every deck she is in, and her board wide buff is just as strong in this list as it is in every other. As for Taric, he gives our units more survivability with his support effect, and lets us double up our combat tricks if we use them proactively. To get extra value from our champions, we run 3 Golden Aegis, which has amazing synergy with both of our champions. Golden Aegis protects a unit to attack again, and with Taric allows you to double rally and double barrier, which will end many games.

While powerful, the Golden Aegis interaction requires us to have other units to generate value and end the game. We run early units like Fleetfeather Tracker and Laurent Protege to pressure the opponent’s board thanks to their challenger keyword. Brightsteel Protector offers great survivability for our units with barrier, whether used defensively to punish a development or aggressively to let a unit swing in.

On top of this, we also run additional support units in Tyari the Traveller and Mountain Sojourners. Not only do these units help progress our Taric level up, they also buff our units on board to make it difficult for opponents to favorably trade their units with ours, or remove them with damage based removal. When using our support effects, it’s important to consider which units to buff for the attack, as it can differ based on the matchup and board state.

In some matchups, you want to prioritize keeping challenger units alive to keep forcing trades with backline units. Other times, it’s more important to buff our other units out of removal range and sacrifice the challengers. Additionally, with Mountain Sojourners you want to order your support units for maximum value from the support buff chain, as it can quickly turn your units into game ending threats.

We are also running the standard combat tricks from these regions in Sharpsight and Pale Cascade, both of which fulfil important roles in the deck. Sharpsight is imperative in this meta with many elusive units as it is our primary way to defend against them. Pale Cascade replaces itself with nightfall, and with Taric allows you to double draw for card advantage. Guiding Touch also gives card advantage with Taric, but can also be used to heal our units or face when needed. Finally, Riposte acts as an on demand barrier for any damage to our unit, and can be used to push extra damage.

Verdict

I personally believe this deck is incredibly strong. I started playing this deck at Diamond 3, and was able to climb with it all the way to Masters with over 200 LP. The deck has game into every deck in the meta, and very few decks have an answer to the Golden Aegis Taric combo. As a trade-off for trying to go at a faster pace, however, this deck lacks interaction outside of combat. While this can definitely matter in some matchups, you have the ability to race down your opponent with your units, buff effects and rallies.

If you are looking for a competitive Taric deck, or just want to try out a new Poppy pile, then I would highly recommend trying out this Poppy Taric deck!