Standard Mono Blue Tempo Deck Guide

Deck List

Lands

18 Island

2 Otawara, Soaring City 

Spells

2 Spell Pierce 

2 Shore Up 

2 Slip Out the Back 

2 Fading Hope 

4 Combat Research

4 Consider

4 Impulse 

3 Make Disappear 

2 Essence Scatter

2 Negate

1 Ertai's Scorn

Creatures

4 Ledger Shredder 

4 Faerie Vandal

4 Haughty Djinn

Sideboard

1 Negate

4 Witness Protection

2 Disdainful Stroke

4 Thirst for Discovery

2 Overcharged Amalgam 

2 Field of Ruin 

Game Plan

The goal of this deck is to put Combat Research on an evasive creature and counter all of your opponent's relevant spells.  Use Impulse/Consider to find missing pieces, Spell Pierce, Shore Up and Slip Out the Back to protect your creatures, and Fading Hope/Otawara to push the final points or protect yourself.  It is very easy to win when you're drawing 2 cards a turn and getting progressively bigger creatures.

Opponents will typically have Cut Down and Voltage Surge, which you can outscale with all of the creatures in the deck.  You can protect yourself from sweepers/Liliana of the Veil with Slip Out the Back, targeted removal with Shore Up, and anything expensive with Spell Pierce or Make Disappear.

This deck is incredibly strong and unforgiving on the play, and not so good on the draw, much more so than other decks.

Differences From Delver

This deck is very similar to Delver, obviously with no Delver and no Tolarian Terror.  I don't like Delver because it doesn't flip naturally at a rate I'm happy with, dies to all of the commonly played removal spells, and requires you to play weak cards to flip it.  If I'm casting a Fading Hope or Otherworldly Gaze in hopes of flipping my Delver, I should just be doing something else.  Tolarian Terror often clogs up my hand during the key early turns of the game, and isn't strong enough even when it's really good.

Card Choices

18 Islands

2 Otawara

This deck only needs 2 lands to operate early on.  You draw lots of cards, loot often, and have a lot of selection.  Less lands means discarding more spells to Ledger Shredder, which also pumps Haughty Djinn.

2 Spell Pierce

2 Slip Out the Back

2 Shore Up

All generally function as protection spells here, but each has its own perks.  Slip is really awkward because of the way opponents will typically time their removal spell, meaning you can't block or won't draw a card from Combat Research, but it's incredibly versatile because you can remove one of your opponents creatures from play for a turn.

4 Ledger Shredder 

4 Faerie Vandal

4 Haughty Djinn

All of these creatures are surprisingly synergistic with each other.  Shredder triggers grow Vandal and often Djinn as well, Djinn makes it easier to cast 2 spells a turn, Vandal helps trigger Shredder on your opponents turn and reaps a lot of the benefits.  Flashing in a Faerie Vandal to sacrifice it to Make Disappear occasionally comes up and is incredibly nice.

Opening Hand

A good opening hand has a 2 mana creature, 2 lands, Combat Research, and a protection spell.  You should mulligan aggressively for a good hand, especially on the play.  Once you set-up Faerie Vandal + Research and protect it once, the game is generally over.  

One land hands on the play are not worth it no matter how many Consider, and aren't much better on the draw.  1 Island (not Otawara because of the risk of ruin) and 2 Consider I'd keep on the draw.

Hands full of air are auto mulligans.  3 Islands 2 Consider 2 Impulse?  By the time you find something to do, you're dead.

Same goes for hands full of creatures.  2 Islands 5 creatures, 3 Islands 4 creatures, etc.  Once again these hands do absolutely nothing.  If your hand needs to draw 2+ specific classes of cards (Combat Research, Protection Spells, Creatures, Cantrips) it sucks and needs to get sent back

Sideboarding

The entire sideboard is there to either increase your win % on the draw or pivot away from Combat Research post board against decks with tons of removal.  You also need to be better against Duress; most decks in Standard are Black and run anywhere from 2 - 4 copies.  Combat tricks like Shore Up absolutely suck vs. Duress, your opponent can easily strand them in your hand or set-up to retrick you with a removal spell.

General Sideboarding

In:

4 Thirst for Discovery

2 Field of Ruin

2 Witness Protection

Out:

4 Combat Research

2 Shore Up

2 Slip out the Back

Thirst for Discovery replaces Combat Research against removal heavy decks.  While they sit on Infernal Grasp, you're drawing cards at instant speed and playing the game on your terms.  

Stock sideboarding is really tough for this deck past this advice.  For example, sometimes you'll play against Esper Raffine and they have 0-1 Void Rend and your combat tricks are awful, but if they have 3/4 they're the best cards in your deck.  Opponent aggressively plays around "Counter unless you pay 2" effects like Spell Pierce?  Board them out.  In match-ups like Gruul/Mono Red, I'll board in Field of Ruin just to make it less likely I miss land drops because those match-ups are so good that's typically the only way I can lose.

Speaking of Field of Ruin, I rarely if ever activate it, and it's generally nothing more than basic Wastes.  When taking out 4 one mana spells and adding 4 3 mana spells that make you want to discard lands, you really want more lands.  Pro tip for post sideboard games, play out Otawara/Field of Ruin and hold basics so that you can discard them to Thirst.  It sounds trivial but that's what this deck is all about.

Overcharged Amalgam often comes in with Thirst as a counter spell that can't get Negated, and is another huge reason to add lands.

Problem Cards

Raffine, Scheming Seer

This deck often beats people up with creature sizing and needs to be able to deal combat damage in the air.  A flying 1/4 definitely mucks that all up.  Counter on sight.

Liliana of the Veil

If you are considering any play and it's bad against Liliana, don't do it.  Casting a 2 drop on the draw and then getting Liliana -2'd the following turn is insurmountable.  You're better off not casting anything at all and hoping they don't play it.

Void Rend

Uncounterable, enough said.  Terrible against the combat tricks though.

Graveyard Trespasser

Eats away at Haughty Djinn's resources, can drain you out at a low life total, if you want to bounce it you discard a card.  Another counter on sight.

Otawara, Soaring City

Like Void Rend, this is uncounterable unless you have Overcharged Amalgam, and unlike Eiganjo you can't just outgrow it.  People only play one, but sometimes it just kills you.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

A resolved Sheoldred is as close to unbeatable as it gets.  Always try to save Otawara or Fading Hope for Sheoldred, and remember that you can Slip out the Back her in your opponents upkeep to stop them from gaining life or hurting you for a full turn cycle.  This card is MUCH harder to resolve against you in practice than you'd expect, but it's the reason you're always boarding in Witness Protection.

Tricks/Set-Ups

Haughty Djinn

Unless you're playing against an opponent that can't kill it or are desperate, do not play this on turn 3/with 3 lands.  Play it with protection available.  Almost everyone can kill it once, killing it twice is much more difficult.

Be very mindful of how big Djinn is and how many attacks it'll take to kill your opponent.  You can often drastically shorten the clock by spewing your spells; casting Spell Pierce on things it won't counter, aggressively discarding them to Consider/Shredder, end step tricks that you also counter.  

Thalia is not a commonly played card right now but Djinn will offset Thalia's tax cost.

Faerie Vandal

Play it before your Combat Research trigger goes off for the counter.

If you want to counter an opponents spell and control a Ledger Shredder, cast Vandal, then the counter the spell.  If your opponent casts anything else, your 2nd Shredder Trigger gives you a Vandal counter.  Really nice when there's any sort of counter war.

Ambush!  If your opponent sequences poorly, which will often happen because of how people try to play around counter spells, you can cast Vandal to block an X/1.

Ledger Shredder

Be mindful of how you stack the triggers with multiple Shredders.  You'll often have one Summoning Sick, one not.  If you save the second loot for the non-sick Shredder you can almost always get it a +1/+1 counter.

Shredder prison.  If you control multiple Shredders/Vandals, your opponent gets severely punished for casting 2 spells in a given turn.  Games that stall out, which is rare, typically end up with you having this type of board.  Try to force your opponent to get into counter wars/have to do multiple things on their own turn for maximum punishment.

Combat Research Priority

Faerie Vandal --> Ledger Shredder --> Haughty Djinn

Faerie Vandal does nothing on it's own, you often take on the least risk putting an enchantment on it.  Haughty Djinn is already a removal lightning rod, don't put all of your eggs in that basked it you can avoid it.

Set 6.5: Navigating a Midset Downgrade

Set 6.5 is not it.  It hasn't even been a full week since release and nearly every complaint the set deserves has been said.

Rehashing Said Complaints

• 3 Trait units, their abundance in general, especially at lower costs (Sejuani, Rek'sai)
• Augment Power level, True Two's and Rich Get Richer are both gold augments. What.
• Bad designs.  Silco. The Colossus trait, which is exactly what should be removed during mid-set.
• Awful balance.  Syndicate units are awful across the board, Hextech units are broken across the board.

If you're trying to win, the bad aspects of the set are really important to know.  It's easy to say "unit X is broken" hyperbolically, meaning it's a good unit.  Here, "Silco is broken" is not hyperbolic at all, there's no other way to describe him.  Hextech is broken.  Once again, zero hyperbole.

The Early Game

Never buy Darius.  Do not buy Brand.  Do not buy Caitlyn.  If it's not an Innovator or Hextech, don't buy it.  Yordles are alright if you're in a good spot to play Corki, Illaoi for Mercs, and I've found Kassadin to be extremely strong now that he has Protector built in and gained the Scholar tag.  Twitch?  A good itemholder at 2 star and good for the reroll comp.  Camille?  Only if you're playing Innovators.

• Ezreal, Singed, Twitch --> Innovators, Twitch Reroll, Renata
• Nocturne, Jarvan IV --> Hextech Sivir
• Ziggs, Poppy --> Corki Reroll
• Kassadin --> Strong as a random unit, Mutants has the potential to be strong in some games

This covers every playable comp right now.  Notably absent are Syndicate, 5 costs, Debonair, Assassins.  With the augment system, everything has its moments, so don't ignore that VIP Draven just because generally Debonair comps are bad.

The most important item is Statik Shiv.  I blame this item for most of the sets problems.  How oppressive would Hextech be if it didn't effectively give true damage on hit?  How dangerous is Silco's attack speed buff without an item that procs every 3rd attack?  Item priority in the early game is heavily warped by Shiv.

From Top to Bottom:

Tear

Bow

Rod

Glove

Sword?

Belt

Chain

Cloak

I'm not confident in Sword's placement, I think it might actually be dead last but it feels weird to put it there.  Everything else is solid.

Tear is number one because of Shiv, but also because of Blue Buff, which multiple comps want, and Redemption, which is the best defensive item this patch.  The only bad item is Frozen Heart, which is still strong on Ekko and Nocturne, units you'll often be playing without trying too hard.  Every comp wants multiple Tears.

The Mid Game

There's a substantial amount less to say about the midgame, as it's largely about fleshing out your early game, and will change dependent on everything that happened then.  

Leveling/Rolling at 3-2 is pretty common,  I suggest doing it so that you don't take 40 damage on stage 3.  If you have 0 pairs and don't have a clear, likely unit you can hit (for example, a Gnar to enable 4 Striker, not a specific 4 cost), don't roll, save your money/HP the best you can, and assume you'll have to roll deep on 4-1 or 4-2 if you need to level to 8.

Econ Augments suck at 3-3, so don't be taking Rich Get Richer, ever.  Sivir is so broken that if you have a Shiv it's worth holding at a substantial cost to you, but it's probably even better on your board.

I'll reiterate:  Silco is broken.  If you spike a Silco on 7, it is going on your board.  Twitch Reroll/Vertical Hextech might not want him based on your spot, but you'll probably want to put him in as soon as you hit 8 anyway.  If you catch yourself thinking "Silco doesn't seem that good here", or "I don't think I can fit Silco", this is a good indication that you're doing something wrong.  

The Late Game

Sivir 2 is better than Jayce 2.  Don't expect to spike a 2 star 5 cost at 8, Renata/Sivir are better than everything you could even hit, anyways. Viktor 2 is good but only with a good supporting cast.  Galio is nearly useless, as is Kai'sa.  Zeri is very strong even without VIP, but is only going to better than Sivir at 2 star with Sniper turned on.  Zeri/Jayce/Cait/Vi and then 5 other upgraded expensive units.

In terms of win conditions, a lot of the usual suspects don't work this patch.  You can't expect to make a 3 star 4 cost most of the time because the units are all so contested; this goes for Vi, Sivir, Irelia, and Renata.  I haven't experimented with making a random Orianna/Seraphine 3 Double Up style, but it's REALLY hard to have enough money to put a 2 star 4 cost on your bench, and then hit 6 more copies.

Going 9 is pretty pointless because everything you want is available at level 8, and there's generally nothing special you can fit at 9 aside from 4 Enforcer or a random Jayce 2.  Tahm Kench is also not the greatest wincon because of all his nerfs during Set 6, but will carry the game once in a while.  My "go 9" process generally involves a long win streak, and I'll flesh out and upgrade my board heavily at 8 before I go 9.  There's no reason to go fast 9 unless you have the Level-Up augment.

A Quick Note on Augments

Augment power level is all over the place this set, and Hextech is broken on this patch.

• Take Hextech Augments.  The Silver and Gold +1 Hextech augments are insanely strong, and Stored Power is strong as well as long as you have some Hextech units early on.  Note that it doesn't work during the creep round, no clue if it's a bug or intended.
• Knife's Edge is substantially less good in this set.  Striker's already have 30/65 flat AD, more AD isn't an efficient way to get more damage.  Challengers want Draven this time around, who really doesn't want to be in the front two rows.
• Second Wind is awful.  I'm not sure if they were too conservative with the numbers, or if it's a metagame thing, but every time I see this augment it doesn't do anything.

Combat augments seem to be so strong, that if you take an econ augment you can never make up the difference and you're forced to sacrifice the short term.  Junkyard/Thieving Rascalls are exceptions, as it's very easy to turn extra items into something as strong as an augment.

I've been doing pretty well this set so far, so hopefully this won't be my one article of the set and I'll have more to say this time.

Kevin

Tristana Flex ---> Masters

Getting to Masters this set took eternity, but I did make it, largely off of the back of this comp:

Here is a pretty basic Trist carry level 6 board. Janna is not consistent because she's a 4 cost, but all of the other units are 1's/2's.  Not pictured is the 3* Ziggs on my bench to force the Yordle Trait to generate 2/3 gold a turn.

Trist comps rarely if ever win, but consistently top 4.  According to my lolchess, 85% of the games where Trist is on my end game board, I top 4 the game.  High-end Arcanist/Challenger/Fast 9 legendaries boards typically edge you out and push you into 2nd and 3rd.

Why Trist?

This comp is very strong against Melee units, Trundle, Yone, Warwick, and yes even Katarina.  Trist's 3* ult knocks back 3 hexes, and if you can get the fight into overtime, Rageblade means that you instantly win against any melee units; they can't close the gap.

Consistency is your second big benefit.  As long as you can get Yordles active early (no later than 2-5), the units find themselves, and the extra money acquired allows you to transition into other comps/builds as needed.  While trying to play Trist, I find it easy to get into Arcanists or other AD carries, Jhin especially.

Carousel Priority

Unit is more important than your starting item here, as the earlier you can put Yordles together, the higher your chance to succeed.  Ziggs/Poppy are of equal value, the tiebreaker being if they have an item they could use, Poppy with Belt/Chain, Ziggs with Bow/Sword.  Even though Bow is the best starting item, I would only take Bow on a non-Yordle if it forced me to take Tear, this comp can only use Tears for Redemption or Shojin Cait.

Starting Item Priority after unit:

Bow > Sword > Glove > Belt/Chain > Cloak
If you start Tear or Rod, do not play Trist.

Bow Ziggs/Bow Poppy are optimal starts.

Socialite

Only play Socialite if it's in the back row.  Moving up a hex hurts Sniper, and is only good if it's one of the far side spots.  No other Socialite hexes are good for you.  Always try to scout the Socialite Hex early, when it's in a good spot Taric is an insane unit.

General Strategy

95% of your games you're going to try to lose streak.  Put in whatever units you can to make Yordles at 2-1 or fish for it in the next few rounds.  Don't put items on Ziggs because they're going to get stuck on your bench.  Don't feel bad if you take 38 damage on Stage 2, once you stabilize you are hard to stop.  Don't level early unless you are streaking/can streak, typically this means you spiked an early Trist/Poppy 2 with a Rageblade.  Level to 5 as early as you can without breaking 50, sometimes this will be at Krugs, sometimes this will be at 3-1/3-2.  

Trist 2 with a damage item is enough to stop taking 10 damage every round, as long as you have Poppy 2/Blitz.  Runaan's/Rageblade are highest priority, IE/DB/GS are decent but not as strong early, HOJ/Last Whisper are pretty terrible, none of the units you care about killing have more than 50 armor and HOJ is just a terrible item that no one should build unless forced to.  Runaan's helps you not get stuck on Vex against Arcanist players, and Rageblade + a Healing item allows you to outrace.

This is your level 8 board, try to end up here.  Tank items on Poppy 3, Damage items on Tristana 3, extra carry items on Jhin, Utility on Lulu.

Set 6 Initial Impressions

Set 6 is great.  Easily the best set thus far, even if we were forced to play the initial patch for the next 3 months.  The only true balance outlier is Twisted Fate, who egregiously has extra Armor/MR.  Yone is too forgiving, Fiora too weak, Lux too punishing.  A few of the augments are not balanced very well (Phony Frontline especially).  This is my entire list of gripes.  I only hope the high complexity and sheer amount of reading don't scare off the casual players.

I hope to see the following for accessibility's sake alone.

• Socialite and Mutant need to be revealed at the start of the game.  It's not fun to repeatedly have to figure these out, especially when they drastically change the power level of affected units.  I am OK with the second Socialite hex staying hidden because revealing will probably just confuse people.
• The first augment should be on 2-1, not 1-3.  Too many of the augments are really committal, and you're often forced to take a massive risk at the very beginning of the game.  

My core argument in favor of these is fun.  Clerical work is not fun.  Having to take a massive risk before the game really begins is not fun.

Twisted Fate

Twisted Fate is probably the best unit that's ever been in TFT.  1 cost, 1 auto to first cast, huge AOE, reasonable base damage, Range, good traits, decent base HP... AND 5 EXTRA ARMOR AND MR?  Something always slips through the cracks early in a sets life cycle, and here it's TF.  Unlike set 4.5's Rakan, who basically made every fight go to overtime and killed the entire team with Sunfire Cape at 2 star, TF is a fun unit to play with that's just too powerful, nothing egregious.  Maybe it's a little egregious that 2 star TF is an acceptable carry into the end of the game, especially with Morello and maybe a GA too, but he's certainly not shining at that point.

If you get the privilege of starting Rod/Belt TF so that you can fish for early Morello, you're really doing it.

I think you might be able to play Vanguard/Mystic this set with Braum/TF/Darius, filling out the rest of your comp as needed, but only because TF is so overpowered.  Hopefully I'll get to try it once.

No More Demotion

One of the best general changes this time around.  Demoting sucks, and it's a huge incentive for people to stop playing or make alt accounts and grief bad players.  Especially with end of season cosmetic rewards on the line, this is a fantastic change.  Everyone has gone on that awful streak where they play 20 games while tilted, drinking, limit testing, and demote from Master to Diamond or worse.  I personally know someone who demoted from 750 LP GM to Diamond 1 in the span of a week.  Their (I)dentity is safe with me.

Quick Thoughts:

Best/Worst Unit by Cost

• (1) Best: TF, obviously.
     Worst: Ziggs, can lose to creeps
• (2) Best: Swain, CC/Good Traits/Resilient.
       Worst: Kog'Maw, 30 AD KEKW
• (3) Best: Zac, great CC/Good Traits
       Worst: Lissandra, buggy and narrow
  
• (4) Best: Yone, stupidly forgiving
       Worst: Fiora, stupidly low damage
• (5) Best: Yuumi,  Good at everything except actually killing units
       Worst: Viktor, takes 8 years to cast, bizarre ult targeting

Item Priority

1. Rod:  Morello and Spark are the best items.
2. Belt:  Strong and versatile.
3. Sword/Glove:  Comps that want these items really want them.
4. Bow:  Similar to Sword/Glove but worse.
5. Cloak/Tear:  Usually easy to come by later in the game if you need them.  Largely taken to insure Bluebuff or Runaan's respectively.
6. Chain:  None of the chain items are good except for Titans.

Until next time,
Kevin

Set 5.5 Quick Thoughts

Haven't written in FOREVER so here's some quick thoughts on set 5.5 patch 11.18.

Starting Items

Tear > Sword/Belt > Bow > Chain > Cloak >>> Rod

Rod is awful, do not start it.  The only early item you can make with it that's not overly comital is Rageblade.  Spark is an underpowered item and requires a 2 star tank, Gunblade is weak early, Locket is a weak item at all stages, Archangel is really comital and only good on Vlad and a few others.  Morello is a good item but isn't going to save you HP early unless you have something that pairs really well with it like 4 Knight/4 Brawler/Abom.

Comps that need Rods either need one for Rageblade or two for Deathcap (Karma).

Tear

I really like starting Tear right now because comps that use Tear can use a pile of them, with spreads like Blue Buff HOJ Karma with Redemption frontline (4 whole tears!).  The best early game openers right now involve Ziggs and Brand, who absolutely excel with Blue Buff.  You get griefed if you open Tear and hit Cloak/Bow but then you can make a Runaan's and play Jax/Kayle/Lucian (it's actually good I swear).

Best Comps

The best things to play right now are Yasuo, Aphelios, Karma; Lucian and Kayle are good but are a step below.  Nocturne/Sins is insanely good but is too reliant on Sin Spat/Radiant RFC, with the added fail rate of, woops I didn't hit Nocturne 3 guess it's an auto 6th.

Yasuo: Runaan's/JG/Flex, Legionnaire 2/Nightbringer 4 is important and it's pretty flexible after that.  You don't have to go for Yasuo 3 if you're not hitting a lot of Yasuos, but unless you're really high HP it's probably going to be a bot 4/4th.  Yasuo was probably broken in half when everyone was playing Lucian Galio and people either were missing something or playing it wrong, and now it's even better.

Aphelios: Deathblade is like playing a different unit, other two items are more flexible.  Akshan 1 isn't always better than Aphelios 1 because reasons, despite being a legendary AD carry that uses 95% of the same items.

Karma: Blue Buff/Shojin are absolute requirements, and one good damage item like Deathcap or Giant Slayer.  2 Item Karma will work for way longer than it has any right to, as long as you have a lot of frontline Karma will do well.  The dream is stacked Garen 2 but Galio 2 is very good as well.

Jax/Draven/Lucian: All of these comps are backup plans for Aphelios, or if you hit them early/2 star them early.

Rerolling

Most batches of early units can be successfully rerolled if you have a bunch of copies of them.  I've had success/seen other people succeed with the following:

Gragas/Sej/Vlad/Soraka

I've seen Khazix used with Gragas as well.  Soraka is the carry here and needs Archangel or Morello (an item that scales with fight length that isn't Rageblade)

Olaf/Irelia/Senna

Olaf 3 is a monstrosity of a unit but REQUIRES Runaan's.  He has a tendency to get glued to a tank the entire fight, and his passive healing gets doubled with Runaan's.  He plays like weird Jax but the units you can pair him with are better.

Hellions

Tristana is a pretty functional carry but so are Kled and Ziggs.  Ideally you get strong enough to go fast 8/9 and pivot into something else, or play an entirely golden board with MF/Thresh at 6.

Vayne

Needs to be hit reasonably early as the primary strength here is streaking through the end of stage 3 into the beginning of stage 5 easily.  Vayne like Olaf needs Runaan's (it's as close to double damage as it gets while allowing you to not get stuck on a drain tank like Hecarim/Galio/Jax).  Vayne does mostly physical damage because of Forgotten, but is better with items like JG compared to Last Whisper because of the passive. Ideally you want to secure Runaan's/Rageblade and a Trapclaw, with either a good damage Radiant for Vayne or a good tank one for Hecarim

Closing Thoughts

This patch feels pretty skill rewarding and balanced, although I wish Velkoz and Heimer were SLIGHTLY better.  I'm sitting around 590ish LP right now and have felt pretty competitive in all of my games despite being easily the lowest LP player in all of my lobbies.

Don't be a Dirty Wukong Purchaser

DON'T BE A DWP

 Sometimes I'm furiously hitting the 1 key to scroll through opposing boards, and a certain gigantic golden monkey will catch my eye.

Please, for the love of god, stop buying this chosen.  Seriously.  Enough.  It doesn't matter if it's Vanguard, it doesn't matter if it's Divine, it's not a remotely playable chosen.

Back before the 11.6 changes, the chosen chance was 33%, and you had to be a lot less discerning with what chosens you bought.  I'll admit, I used to be a Dirty Wukong Purchaser, or DWP, but back then we were desperate.  If you didn't buy that Chosen Wukong, you might not see anything better for the entire stage.  Wukong might as well have had the tagline, "Hey, at least it's not Fiora"!  We live in a different world now, with Cultists and Brawler chosens ruling the early roost, and everyone else opting for some sort of Spirit or Fortune opener, many people choosing not to play units whatsoever.  

Wukong, irregardless of positioning, will lose to a similar strength Cultist board.  He will die to either Sivir or Kalista before he does much of substance.  Wukong also loses to Brawlers, they have too much health and will always outlast his Divine passive.  Forget it if there's a Shyvana involved, he's getting toasted even with far greater cash on board.

One of the biggest ways to define the impact of a specific unit is if it can allow you to beat or lose well against boards that have more money/resources on them.  Wukong will not do this.

That leaves us with Fortune and Spirits, both of which actively want to lose.  And the maniacs who don't play any units.  Which would lose to a Fiora 1 board.  

The cost to play Wukong is that you can't hit another chosen.  No chosen 2 cost high rolls, no Cultist Twisted Fate or Elise.  You're stuck with Wukong.  There's no reroll potential after the nerfs, where it barely existed originally, it's totally absent now.  Buying a Wukong chosen gives you a near guarantee of an awkward WWLWL path into Krugs, which will costs you huge amounts of gold in the long term.

In terms of other, more insidious costs to pay, you won't win out in Carousel priority, and you won't adequately save HP.  In bad match-ups, you get absolutely smoked.  In good match-ups, you would have won with no chosen at all.  Wukong only really sends you towards Neeko or Kayle, because he is good with Divine and Vanguard units, respectively, but otherwise offers no direction.

Obviously there's an exception to every rule, and playing your best means knowing when to break them.  If I could put 4 Vanguard together, I would probably buy Vanguard Wukong, and the same goes for 4 Divine.  If I had a Nidalee 2 and a Tristana 1, I would probably buy either one because I'm in the classic "just add frontline" spot.  Would I ever buy Wukong at 1-2 or 1-3, something I see happen in more than half my games?  Absolutely not.  You don't even have a fully established board yet, and you're already hitting yourself in the shins with a hammer.

Please keep Wukong Chosen in the shop, where he belongs.

TL;DR Wukong chosen guarantees a mixed streak to Krugs, has no reroll potential, and deprives you the ability to hit better chosens.

Set 4.5 Hardstuck's Guide Part 1, the Early Game

Set 4.5, a Hardstuck's Guide Part 1

If you can't seem to climb, or even learn, you're not alone in Set 4.5.  This set is obtuse and has variance jacked up to 11.  While I'm no expert at this set, I've managed to stay in NA GM, and I have a few things that seem to work consistently.

Starting Items:

Bow is the best opener, it's not even close, but you shouldn't start it every game.  Bow is so contested that you can expect all 7 other players in the lobby to all go for a single bow, this is a frequent occurrence especially once you get higher up the ladder.  First Carousel is mostly RNG once you're competing for an item.  Even if you are clicking faster, or even substantially faster than your opponents, clicking to move at the exact right moment is an ever-shifting 1 frame input influenced by unit collision and your ping.  I like to solve this problem with basic math, am I willing to go for 50% or 33% of a bow, or is 100% odds of  Rod/Chain/Sword better?  If you lose Carousel, you are likely going to get stuck with Tear/Belt/Cloak, which has the potential to really hurt your equity in the game, meaning your average placement in the game will likely be lower.  If there's minimal contest, or only one other player going for bow, go for bow. 2 is sketchy but up to how you're feeling, and 3 other players means avoid.  There's numerous things that go into playing opening Carousel, but that's a subject for another article.  My item priority would be.

Bow >>> Sword > Rod/Chain > Glove > Cloak > Belt > Tear

The basic methodology for what to start and why is a combination of how good the item is in multiples, or how important an item that you get to build from that component is.  Bow is highest priority because of RFC, which often can go together with Runaan's Hurricane, meaning you'll want a whopping 3 Bows for a unit like Olaf.

Reroll Comps:

The first real decision you'll have in a given game is whether to play a reroll comp or not.  Reroll comps are popular, meaning that each player playing for reroll in a given game will help each other hit desired units.  9-18 one cost units missing from the pool is a huge help in hitting the 1 cost you're looking for.  Multiply this by 3 or 4 depending on the lobby's population of reroll players, and you get anywhere between 27 - 72 units missing from the pool, the equivalent of 3 entire 1 cost champions getting deleted from the game.

Where am I getting 18 units from?  It should be your goal when playing a reroll comp to both 3 star your chosen unit, Nidalee, Yasuo, Nasus, and also 3 star some filler unit, like Garen, Fiora, or Wukong.  While spending gold to reroll, it often only takes a bit more mental effort to pay attention to another unit, and nothing more.

Reroll Position:

In order to play a reroll comp you need to be in reroll position.  This means that at the start of the game, you're only looking to keep units that directly support the comp, and otherwise you make maximum interest gold each round.  If I am playing Nidalee, I will only keep Nidalee, other Warlords and Sharpshooters, but if I can make 20 Gold vs. 19 by selling a Garen, I will.

DO NOT LEVEL.  Once in a while, you will have already leveled early, and you hit a Chosen Nidalee while you already have a Nidalee 2 in play.  In this instance, it's a good idea to transition toward Nidalee reroll, meaning selling other units to make interest thresholds, and keeping all Nidalees/supporting units.

At 3-1, you have your only major decision point in a reroll comp, whether to "hyper roll", meaning you roll until you hit your 3 star Chosen, or "slow roll" meaning you only roll until you hit 50 gold to maintain maximum interest income.   The typical bar is 6 of the unit, meaning that if you have 6 or more Nidalees, you hyper roll, 5, you slow roll, 3/4 at 3-1 you shouldn't play it and you abandon rerolling to go fast 8/9 instead.  Nidalee in patch 11.3 is a special case, and I would still try to reroll for Nidalee at 3/4 Nidalees if I was uncontested with no more than 1 Nidalee user in the lobby.  Nidalee 3 is better than most 3 star 4 costs, the unit is legitimately broken.

My tier list for 1 cost chosens:

SS: Nidalee (Either)

Nidalee Best in Slot: Spear of Shojin, JG, Flex item such as QSS, Gunblade, IE, Second SoJ/JG

S: Nasus (Syphoner)
S- Nasus (Divine)

Nasus Best in Slot: Titan's, JG, Flex item such as Second  Titans'/JG, IE, Bramble, DClaw, GA

Nidalee is more broken than Nasus, but Nasus is also insanely broken.  It's not uncommon for Chosen Syphoner Nasus to winstreak through stage 2 without leveling or sometimes even making any items at all.

A: Yasuo, Wukong

Yasuo Best in Slot: IE, Titan's, Flex item like Hurricane, Last Whisper, Deathblade, Second Titan's.  QSS is essential in some lobbies, worthless in others.  Adept is the main reason to want QSS because it drastically slows how fast Duelist can ramp up. 

Wukong Best in Slot: Hurricane, Deathblade, RFC.  BT is also good, multiple Hurricanes is good, HoJ is good.  QSS is not good, neither is GA.

Strong, but reliant on hitting specific items/specific other units and you also don't have the luxury to spend too much gold looking for them, because you need to hit level 8 for Yone/Lee Sin/Ornn

B: Fiora 

Fiora Best in Slot: ???  The strength of Fiora as a reroll is that she works surprisingly well with random items.  I've seen Shojin's, Gunblade, Sunfirecape, JG, and numerous other items used.

Still better off not playing this as a reroll comp.  Fiora is bugged and frequently casts at improper timings (such as without enough mana to cast, it's bizarre, or gaining mana while not taking damage with Riposte).  This unit is incredibly strong in either iteration, but you'll need a trait bot for Duelist/Enlightened respectively, she sucks without both.

F:  Brand/Tristana

Neither of these units are playable as a reroll comp, but I see my opponents try often.  You need to hit the respective units without rolling at all, and you also need perfect items.  If you find yourself in such a situation, by all means play them, but know that you only will be in a situation to play them by playing the game incorrectly.

Trista Best in slot: Rageblade/QSS/Hurricane

Brand Best in slot: Luden's/Blue/QSS

 Not Rerolling:

If you don't plan to play a reroll comp, you should plan to level after 2nd Carousel, and again either at 3-1 (if on 3/4/5 Winstreak) or 3-2 (if not).  If you're trying to lose with Fortune and don't have a solid loss streak established or a high gold opener, do not level in stage 3 because you'll be too broke. 95% of games should involve leveling at 3-1/3-2.  If you don't think you can figure out when to level, just level at 3-2, it's a safe default that can't go that wrong.