Vayne Illaoi to Top 17 Masters – Everything You Need To Know!

Introduction and Stats

Hey there, Raphterra here again! In this article, I’m sharing my guide for Vayne Illaoi midrange, the deck that I used to climb from Platinum to Diamond at 87.5% winrate (14 wins, 2 losses). I did this climb during Day 2 of the expansion, and the meta has shifted since then. With this in mind, I tried playing 10 games with the deck now that I’ve reached master rank. The deck still performed well as I had a score of 7 wins and 3 losses in Master rank, peaking at Top 17 Masters (55 LP, still relatively low since it’s still very early into the patch).

Illaoi has been stuck in the bottom tiers ever since the nerf to Bard back in Patch 3.13. This list features Eye of God, a fresh new card that allows the Spawn archetype to compete in the new era of equipments. With this new support card, Vayne Illaoi should be a very decent mid-tier deck in the current meta. So far, I’ve been able to beat the prominent meta decks like Aatrox midrange, Ruinous Acolytes, and Champions’ Strength swarm.

If you want to see the deck in action after reading this article, check out my full video guide!

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Vayne Illaoi Deck Build

Vayne Illaoi is a deck that wants to Spawn a big Tentacle through cards like Watchful Idol and Eye of Nagakabouros. Once you have a Tentacle with high stats, you can start ending games with Overwhelm damage from Illaoi or The Sea’s Voice.

Illaoi struggles a lot when you’re not able to maintain a Tentacle on board. Eye of God helps out a lot in this regard, because it’s a recurring Spawn enabler for the deck. It’s also very synergistic with Vayne, one of the best champions currently in the game. Using Vayne‘s Tumble with Eye of God can be very strong on units like Illaoi, Ranger-Knight Defector, or The Sea’s Voice. Cataclysm is another alternative way to get free, cheap attacks for scenarios where you don’t have Vayne.

I’m running two copies of Champions’ Strength as the deck’s alternate win condition. For utility, we have Silence and Suppress to counter equipment decks, Concerted Strike for removal, and Eye of Nagakabouros for card refill. The rest of the deck is built to fill out our curve and to increase the deck’s synergy with equipments: The Darkin Aegis, Steadfast Elkin, Petricite Broadwing, Combat Cook.

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General Mulligan For Vayne Illaoi

For the mulligan, you should always keep Watchful Idol, Eye of God, and Vayne. Petricite Broadwing is generally fine to keep against decks where you need an early drop. If you already have a good hand of early Tentacle generators, you can also keep Illaoi and The Sea’s Voice.

If you have an established hand for your early turns, you can also think about keeping some combo pieces and utility cards:

• Ranger-Knight Defector is great to use with Eye of God against decks that can’t answer it on Turn 4.
• Concerted Strike is great against champion-centric decks like Kayn Aatrox.
• Champions’ Strength can win you the game if you have the hand to establish a wide, early board.

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General Gameplay Tips For Vayne Illaoi

• Protect your Tentacle.
  Spawning a large Tentacle is very important to close out games in the mid-turns. Play very safe with your Tentacle if you can afford to, try not to lose it to cheap spells like Drop the Bomb or Mystic Shot.

• Use Tumble on the right targets
  Think carefully when before using Tumble. It’s often best used on a unit with Overwhelm like Illaoi or Overwhelmed Tentacle, but Scout units like Ranger-Knight Defector are good targets too.

• Prepare for your lethal turn
  If you’re ready to present lethal damage with your Tentacle or Illaoi, plan ahead and save mana. Make sure that you have enough mana for Champions’ Strength, Tumble, or Cataclysm.

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Meta Matchup Tips

Ruinous Acolyte Swarm

Mulligan: Vayne, Eye of God, Watchful Idol, Petricite Broadwing. Steadfast Elkin if you have Eye of God. If you have early Tentacle generators: Illaoi, The Sea’s Voice.

Gameplan:

• This matchup is slightly unfavored, but you can win by racing them down with a big Tentacle, Illaoi, and Tumble/Cataclysm.
• Keep your Tentacle safe as it’s one of the few units that can outscale Ruinous Acolytes. Don’t hesitate to trade Vayne early with Ruinous Acolytes. Killing one Acolyte is often the difference between winning or losing.
• Take advantage of the fact they they need 2 actions to play Ruinous Acolytes with Acolyte’s Reliquary. You can often Spawn and apply pressure while they don’t have multiple Tentacles on board yet. I highly recommend watching my video guide if you want to see this in action.
• Beware of Drop the Bomb and Rite of the Arcane in the early game. If they’re able to kill your Tentacle with those spells, you will probably lose the game.
• Silence and Suppress can also effectively remove an Acolyte, which might just be what you need to delay them winning by a single turn.

Decks that you can apply the same strategies: Mono Shurima with Ruinous Acolytes.

Aatrox Kayn Midrange

Mulligan: Vayne, Eye of God, Watchful Idol, Petricite Broadwing. Steadfast Elkin if you have Eye of God. If you have early Tentacle generators: Illaoi, The Sea’s Voice. If you have a good hand: Champions’ Strength, Concerted Strike, Silence and Suppress.

Gameplan:

• Similar to the matchup against Ruinous Acolytes, this matchup is also slightly unfavored but winnable with the right hand and the right play. The Unforgiving Cold is a hard counter to our big attacks.
• Grow your Tentacle and apply pressure before Aatrox comes down. If they’re able to play Aatrox safely, you will likely lose the game. Champions’ Strength is a great way to apply a lot of pressure. Force them to spend mana on spells early by attacking continuously with Tumble.
• They don’t have good answers to an early Eye of God; you’ll often be able to get free attacks in the first three turns.
• Silence and Suppress can shut down their early game completely. I often save it for Ranger-Knight Defector + The Darkin Harp, but shutting down other early Cultist units is also fine.

Decks that you can apply the same strategies: Aatrox Vayne, Vayne Quinn, Vayne Kayn.

Piltover & Zaun Champion’s Strength

Mulligan: Vayne, Eye of God, Watchful Idol, Petricite Broadwing. Steadfast Elkin if you have Eye of God. If you have early Tentacle generators: Illaoi, The Sea’s Voice. If you have a good hand: Champions’ Strength.

Gameplan:

• The matchup against Champions’ Strength swarm is favored, unless they get the high-roll of having a full board of units + Champions’ Strength on turn 5. If they happen to have the high-roll hand, just accept the loss and go next.
• Pressure pressure pressure! Your units are bigger than theirs. Play your usual gameplan. They won’t have units to stop big Overwhelm attacks from Illaoi or The Sea’s Voice.
• Keep their board narrow by forcing them to block with their small units. If they have enough mana to cast Champions’ Strength, consider open-attacking to prevent them from having a buffed board.
• An early Eye of God increases your chances of winning tremendously. They will have a difficult time trading against a large Tentacle in the early game. Ranger-Knight Defector + Eye of God on Turn 4 wins games on the spot. They have nothing to stop the multi-spawn.
• Elusive Poros and challenger units are your priority targets for Silence and Suppress.
• Casting your own Champions’ Strength to nullify theirs is also a play you can go for.

Decks that you can apply the same strategies: Norra Demacia, Jinx Demacia, Leona Demacia.

Feel The Rush Control

Mulligan: Vayne, Eye of God, Watchful Idol, Petricite Broadwing. Steadfast Elkin if you have Eye of God. If you have early Tentacle generators: Illaoi, The Sea’s Voice. If you have a good hand: Champions’ Strength.

Gameplan:

• You are a midrange deck, and you will usually feast on slow, control decks like Feel The Rush Control or Seraphine Barkeep.
• Follow the usual gameplan. Spawn, apply pressure, and don’t let them reach the late game!
• Champions’ Strength in the mid game can win the game, but be wary of board wipes like The Ruination and Buried in Ice. If you have a wide board and Champions’ Strength in hand, it may be better to force them to spend mana by open attacking, then rallying after.

Decks that you can apply the same strategies: Seraphine Barkeep, Anivia Control.

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Closing Words

That’s it for the guide! Hope you enjoy playing Illaoi again in this fun, midrange meta. Stay tuned for the next one! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on YouTube, Discord, or Twitter!