Teemo Foundry 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 the other guides and a matchup table on this page.

This guide is dedicated to Teemo Foundry – a deck that is very polarized when it comes to its matchups, which makes it a perfect choice to attack the right meta full of slow decks.

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Playstyle: Burn/Stall.

This archetype is extremely unique and it is currently the most popular deck abusing the Hexcore Foundry.

In the early turns, it plays solid units and looks to find advantages while setting up for later stages with shrooms and Hexcore Foundry. Teemo can quickly accelerate the deck’s gameplan. Early units can trade well thanks to freezes, and if they deal some Nexus damage it will make the burn win condition that much easier.

Then, in the mid-to-late game, Teemo Foundry looks to stall with freezes and blockers. Thanks to the numerous extra draws, it continues to freeze the opponent’s units on each attack, all the while developing its own board and synergies. In the meantime, the shroom count continues to grow, and the opponent’s Nexus gets lower every turn thanks to the extra draws and shrooms.

Level 2 Ezreal is the way to finish the game. He can deal a lot of damage, often at Burst speed with freezes and Troll Chant.

Such a unique playstyle makes the deck quite polarized. It is generally very good against slow decks because it gets time to set up its win condition well and the Hexcore Foundry draws often end up overdrawing the opponent. However, it struggles a lot against faster decks, especially the ones with burn damage.

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General Tips

• Find the right time to play Hexcore Foundry. Depending on the context of the game, some of the times you might want to play out your Hexcore Foundry as soon as turn 3, and other times you’ll want to hold onto it longer.
  • Delay your Foundry when tempo matters, and/or when the opponent can make strong use of the extra draw. In these scenarios, you want to play units instead. A rule of thumb is to delay your foundry turn against aggro decks, and against decks that are able to play multiple cards each turn.
  • You want to play your Hexcore Foundry as soon as possible against slower decks that are looking to get into the late game. An early Hexcore Foundry will accelerate the game and make their time-window to overtake the game way shorter. Decks that tend to play one card a turn and/or have a lot of draw effects will often end up overdrawing.
• Find the right time to play your key units. Ezreal and Puffcap Peddler are powerful, but they need the right conditions to shine.
  • If you’re afraid that your Puffcap Peddler can get removed shortly, you might have to keep him in hand for a later turn, when you’ll be able to play enough spells the same turn you play him (often after you’ve played Chump Whump). But this is not a hard rule, and playing Puffcap Peddler early can allow you to put a lot of shrooms in the opponent’s deck if they can’t remove it quickly. Find the right approach depending on the situation.
  • A rule of thumb is to not play Ezreal until he is leveled up. There are exceptions, for example when it’s your first Ezreal and he will be able to hit face and generate a Mystic Shot. But be aware that level 2 Ezreal has a very high value alongside your cheap targeting Burst spells to push Nexus damage.

General mulligan tips:

• Always keep Teemo.
• Puffcap Peddler and Hexcore Foundry are generally good keeps, especially when you want to play them out early in the matchup.
• To make sure you get a good start, and maybe push some damage, early units should be kept unless you’re looking for something very specific. Once you already have early units, you can keep combat tricks to back them up.
• Removals are often good to keep. Think about how they line up with the opponent’s threats and how much they can hurt their gameplan.

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: Hexcore Foundry; Teemo, Veteran Investigator, Puffcap Peddler, Chump Whump – if you have Hextech Foundry; Elixir of Iron, Troll Chant – if you have Teemo of Puffcap Peddler.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup is sort of a race between the two players’ win conditions. Your opponent doesn’t have the aggression to prevent you from setting up your gameplan, but you don’t have healing to sustain Anivia‘s damage. Fortunately, your gameplan is way faster than theirs.
• Play Hexcore Foundry out as soon as possible. Their cards are on average very expensive, therefore the extra draws you give them will soon end up as overdraws.
• They have healing to sustain shroom damage.
  • Early shrooms are less valuable than late shrooms because if you slowly deal damage they’ll be able to negate it with healing. Ideally, you want to accelerate the shroom pressure very suddenly so it is too much to sustain with healing.
• Dealing with 3+ health units quickly can be difficult for them. Vengeance is expensive, and smaller spells like Avalanche or Vile Feast aren’t enough.
  • Use your protection spells to make them lose a lot of tempo.
• Removing Anivia is often counter-productive. Once you killed an Anivia it enables a lot of their synergies. Their most common way to kill Anivia themselves is with Glimpse Beyond, and you would be very happy to let them draw off of it. However, do look to kill the eggs.

Mulligan for: Hexcore Foundry, Teemo, Puffcap Peddler, Thermogenic Beam, Mystic Shot.

Matchup tips:

• Before Lee Sin comes down, it is quite hard for them to interact with your key units. You can put a lot of shrooms in their deck with an early Puffcap Peddler.
• Remove Zoe with your Thermogenic Beam or Mystic Shot. She can find Equinox in the Celestial pool to answer Puffcap Peddler, and if she levels up she can grant board-wide lifesteal to their units. Removing Lee Sin is very hard, therefore she is your priority target.
• You want to play Hexcore Foundry early. It can quickly make them overdraw, and will ensure that you find freezes to not die to Lee Sin.
• Once you enter the mid-game and Lee Sin comes down, your most important task is to make sure Lee Sin doesn’t kill you. Harsh Winds and Flash Freeze are your key cards.
  • They can pre-emptively use Bastion to prevent the freeze. Keep your Troll Chant to break the SpellShield.
• Be aware that they can Hush your Ezreal. Be careful when attacking with him and when setting up a lethal.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Hexcore Foundry, Thermogenic Beam; Puffcap Peddler, Iceval Archer, Veteran Investigator, Troll Chant – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• Aphelios is their key unit. If you let him live he will net them a ton of value, tempo, and flexibility. Crescendum will pull a 3/4 Boxtopus from their deck, and Calibrum is their best removal for Puffcap Peddler. Focus on removing Aphelios as soon as possible with a Thermogenic Beam.
• Twisted Fate can also level up given enough time, especially if you make them draw. They don’t have a lot of tools to level him up so you’re not in a rush to remove him in most situations.
  • Be careful to not play into their Red Card when there is no TF on board.
• It can be tough for them to deal with Teemo early – their best way is Boxtopus, and you can protect him with your spells. However, they can block Teemo in the mid/late-game with their own Elusive units.
• They rarely finish the game rapidly, but rather build incremental advantages to raise the pressure. Hence, you can often stall them for long enough with freezes so that they die from shrooms and Ezreal.
  • Their best way to finish more decisively is Mind Meld. Icevale Archer and Harsh Winds are valuable cards to make it easier to survive.
• They don’t have a lot of direct damage – only TF’s red card and sometimes a random Wiggly Burblefish spell. You can go low on Nexus health if it benefits your gameplan.
• Be very careful when attacking with Ezreal in late-game, they can silence him with Hush or Moonlight Affliction.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Hexcore Foundry; Brittle Steel, Thermogenic Beam, Mystic Shot, Veteran Investigator, Puffcap Peddler – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• While an early Teemo can be annoying for them, be aware they have the ability to freeze him.
  • When Teemo is level 1 and you can level him up at Fast or Burst speed, you can play around a freeze by attacking without leveling him up. If they use a freeze, you can then level him up so he gains 1 point of attack and so his Nexus Strike effect triggers.
• Playing an early Hextech Foundry is very strong against them. You want to ‘turbo’ into your win condition. They have no healing or ways to bypass freezes, so if you go fast it will be hard for them to win.
• Reckoning can do a lot of damage to your board. Fortunately, you have ways to play against it.
  • Use freezes and Troll Chant so their Reckoning kills some of their own units, or to straight-up make Reckoning fizzle if they don’t have enough 5+ attack units.
• Culling Strike is very good at taking care of Ezreal or Puffcap Peddler quickly.
  • In most situations, wait on your Puffcap Peddler to cast some spells in the same turn when you play him so he still gets value if they remove him. You should also keep your Ezreal safe in your hand until you can level him up.
• Their main win condition is to level up Ashe and prevent blocking. You can usually survive one full attack to your nexus thanks to your freezes, but it will be hard to live through another one.
• Captain Farron can also push burn damage, which is a lot harder for you to play against. When possible, stay above 8 Nexus health points.

Mulligan for: Mystic Shot, Thermogenic Beam, Teemo, Hextech Foundry, Brittle Steel, Icevale Archer, Veteran Investigator, Puffcap Peddler; Troll Chant – if you have Teemo or Puffcap Peddler.

Matchup tips:

• Your freezes are very strong in this matchup. They can protect your Nexus from damage but also help taking good trades and protect your key units from Challengers and their removals (Single Combat, Concerted Strike).
  • They can play around freezes with Sharpsight and Riposte.
• Avoid playing Hextech Foundry too early. It would give them a tempo advantage, which they can often snowball on. Use your early turns to develop units and take strong trades with your cheap protection spells and removals.
• If you keep removing their important units it can be hard for them to build a strong gameplan.
• Be careful about Sharpsight when attacking with Teemo or Ezreal.
• Aim to play Hexcore Foundry once it doesn’t cost you tempo.
  • Once you play it, it will help them draw into a lot of useful resources. However, if you’ve managed to get a good enough control and set-up in the early turns, you should be able to stall with freezes and blockers until they die from shrooms and Ezreal
• If they played out Rivershaper, you should let it live if your gameplan is already online with Foundry and shrooms. Letting them draw even faster can help your shroom win condition.
• When they go for a large attack, be very careful about Shen’s Stand United on Greenglade Caretaker.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Puffcap Peddler, Thermogenic Beam, Mystic Shot; Brittle Steel, Troll Chant – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• Both of you have a lot of burn damage with shrooms and Ezreal, and no healing. Therefore, this matchup is all about the Nexus race.
• In the early turns, Teemo and Puffcap Peddler are the priority targets, remove them so shrooms don’t stack quickly.
• It is very important to not take any Nexus damage from units – every health point you lose matters. Use freezes or Troll Chant to enable good trades and prevent damage. If you can get a board advantage and use it to push for chip damage it can heavily favor you in the end-game.
• If you’re afraid that your Puffcap Peddler will be quickly removed, you can hold on to him and play him out later when you can cast a lot of spells (often Chump Whump’s Mushroom Clouds) in the same turn.
• Playing Hexcore Foundry is not only a loss of tempo, it also helps the opponent just as much as it helps you.
  • You can still play it later if you’re ahead in the Nexus race and want to accelerate the game.
• Getting a leveled-up Ezreal before the opponent is a decisive advantage. Ezreal can close the game very quickly.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Hexcore Foundry, Puffcap Peddler, Mystic Shot or Thermogenic Beam; Brittle Steel, Veteran Investigator – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• Both of you have no healing and a lot of burn damage – every health point will matter.
• In the early turns, you have an advantage in trades thanks to Brittle Steel. If you can force them to block with a Ballistic Bot it will make the game easier.
• They draw a lot. Try to get shrooms fast in their deck so their draws come with a heavy tax.
  • Because they draw a lot, Hexcore Foundry can often make them overdraw.
• They can level-up Twisted Fate very quickly – he is a priority target for your removals.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Veteran Investigator, Puffcap Peddler; Hexcore Foundry, Brittle Steel, Troll Chant, Elixir of Iron – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• TF Go Hard is a deck that draws a lot to cycle through its Go Hard. On one hand, it means that it enables you to kill them with shrooms, but it also means that you help them cycling faster to Pack Your Bags.
  • Every time they cast a Go Hard, they shuffle in two new copies of it into their deck, thus diluting your shrooms.
• They can put a lot of pressure on you with a wide board of good midrange units. It will be hard to freeze them all, so you need to have a good board of your own, taking strong trades using your freezes.
• They have a good amount of burn damage with Pack Your Bags and Doombeast, be conservative with your Nexus health.
• One major way to upset the matchup is to play Teemo on turn 1 and hope they don’t have Go Hard to answer it. If so, not only it will make your gameplan much faster, but also it means that their gameplan is much slower without an early Go Hard.
  • If you’re attacking on evens and have an Elixir of Iron or Troll Chant, play Teemo on turn 2 so he can survive an eventual Go Hard.
• Be careful to not play into Twisted Fate Red Card and Withering Wail.
  • Powder Keg‘s can make those spells very impactful so take time to deal with kegs.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Hexcore Foundry, Veteran Investigator, Puffcap Peddler; Troll Chant – if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup is a race between two players’ win conditions. This race is a bit skewed toward them because they can play Broadbacked Protector to sustain some of your shrooms damage, whereas you can’t interact with their Star Spring win condition.
• They take the first few turns to set up their synergies. Use those turns to push early damage and, ideally, play an early Teemo.
  • Boxtopus and Shakedown are their best ways to remove your key units early (Teemo, Puffcap Peddler), but you can counter those with Freezes or Troll Chant.
  • Later, Tahm Kench gives them a way to reliably remove your key units, but it’s only one per turn starting on turn 5.
• Avoid interacting with their units (in combat or with removals) when it doesn’t kill the unit. The more you give them ‘wounds’ to heal the faster they’ll achieve their Star Spring win condition.
  • Take the opportunity you get to remove their unit when they’ve tapped out. Broadbacked Protector is a priority target, try to remove him as soon as possible with a Thermogenic Beam.
• When you go for the Ezreal finish, be aware they can use Hush to buy themselves a turn and block Ezreal if you attack with him.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Thermogenic Beam, Mystic Shot, Icevale Archer, Veteran Investigator; Brittle Steel – if you have early units.

Matchup tips:

• Your usual gameplan of forcing the opponent to draw is very difficult to set up against them. Playing Hexcore Foundry gives them a tempo advantage to push damage faster, and they can use the extra draws very effectively.
• They don’t have a lot of good early answers to Teemo – only Get Excited! or buffing Flame Chompers!‘ attack early, Jinx’s Mega Death Rocket! and Augmented Experimenter later. Poro Cannon can provide them Elusive blockers. Leveling Teemo and pushing a lot of damage this way is your best way to upset the matchup.
• You need early units and removals to be able to contest the board early.
  • Use your freezes to set up favorable trades.
  • You want to force trades as much as possible. If you can limit their number of units it can help you contain their synergies (Arena Battlecaster, Vision, Crowd Favorite).
• While you can stall their unit damage with freezes, you can’t prevent burn damage and you have no healing.
  • Avoid getting too low on Nexus health else then can finish you with Get Excited.
  • Jinx is a must-remove – if you let her live her Mega Death Rockets and the extra draw will make quick work of you. She is the priority target for your Thermogenic Beam.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Thermogenic Beam, Brittle Steel, Troll Chant; Icevale Archer, Veteran Investigator – if you have Teemo.

Matchup tips:

• Because they can put huge pressure on you quickly with a wide board, it can be tough to contain them.
• To accelerate your gameplan and upset the matchup, playing Teemo early and protecting him from Challengers with removals and combat tricks is often the way to go.
• They can level-up Miss Fortune very quickly with Scout units, and her ability makes it a bit harder to protect Teemo. She is the priority target for your Thermogenic Beam.
  • Be aware they have some protection spells (mainly Sharpsight, Ranger’s Resolve)
• While their aggression is powerful and hard to contain, they will struggle to interact with your gameplan if you manage to not fall behind too quickly. They have no healing and no removal, and you can protect your units from Challengers with freezes.
• Be aware they can rally with Relentless Pursuit, so it can be dangerous to tap out even during your turns.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Thermogenic Beam, Icevale Archer, Puffcap Peddler; Troll Chant, Elixir of Iron – if you have Teemo; Brittle steel if you have enough units.

Matchup tips:

• This matchup is very tough because they can put a lot of pressure on you, easily remove your key units, and they have burn damage to finish quickly.
• They don’t have life-gain, but shrooms are too slow to deal a lot of damage in this matchup.
• Playing a Hexcore Foundry early will give them a tempo advantage they can abuse and snowball on.
  • Be aware they can remove Hexcore Foundry with Scorched Earth.
• Your best way to upset the matchup is to play early units and push damage with them or take strong trades with freezes. If you can pull ahead, during the time they will take to take back control of the tempo you can set up your win condition.
  • As the case in other matchups, an unanswered early Teemo is a strong way to accelerate your gameplan.
• You want to level up Ezreal quickly. If they are out of removal because of all your Teemos and Puffcap Peddlers, a level 2 Ezreal can quickly finish the game.

Mulligan for: Teemo, Iceval Archer, Thermogenic Beam; Brittle Steel, Puffcap Peddler, Troll Chant if you have a good hand.

Matchup tips:

• Pirates Aggro is a very explosive deck looking to play aggressive units and finish with burn damage. Because you don’t have any healing, your usual gameplan of making them draw faster gets invalidated.
• Your best fallback plan is to play an early Teemo. It is hard for them to deal with him, and will accelerate greatly your gameplan so you have a chance of racing them.
  • Noxian Fervor is their best way to remove Teemo. While Teemo is level 1 he is hard to protect from it but once he gets to level 2 an Elixir of Iron or Troll Chant will get him safe.
• Use your early unit and combat tricks to stall them out on the board while your Teemo does the heavy lifting.
• Noxian Fervor is their only 3 mana cost spell. If they play Zap Sprayfin, you know they have at least one in hand (note: some version play a copy of Brother’s Bond).
• 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

Teemo Foundry is one of the most polarized meta decks. It can to prey on slow archetypes, making it a great choice when the meta revolves heavily around those types of decks.

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