SET MECHANIC:
Wisps are basically a reiteration of Charms from Set 12.
During planning rounds, your right most slot will contain a wisp that grants you either economy, some sort of combat power or temporary + permanent items.
This doesn’t eliminate the potential champion in that 5th slot, but you have to either buy the Wisp or let the round start without buying it to reveal that champion.
Every other shop will contain a wisp, so if you don’t like a particular wisp and are fishing for something better (usually this is relevant to fish for a combat wisp late game), you can roll to look for an acceptable one.
After Stage 5, every other Wisp is tailored to be a combat Wisp. This is because usually at that point people’s boards are approaching finality and combat Wisps are increasingly more valuable and potent. However, if you are paired up on units and are in need of upgrades/leveling then there’s still resource Wisps!
*You can’t buy a wisp mid combat round so you have to buy it in the planning phase. If there’s a particular wisp you really like but can’t use until next round, you can lock your shop and the wisp will remain usable next planning phase! 😀
EARLY GAME BOARDS:
The items shown here are idealistic for convenience purposes, you should think of them categorically as AP caster, AD caster, AD autoattacker, AP autoattacker, AD Fighter, AP Fighter and Tank.
Mages/AP casters in these images have Spear of Shojin, Jeweled Gauntlet and Striker’s Flail across the board because I believe that to be the strongest flexible AP caster combo. However, you can very well have items like Void Staff, Morellonomicon + Adaptive Helm as your caster items because they are also caster items.
Varus, though best with something like Spear of Shojin, Deathblade + Infinity Edge, can also use the Guinsoo’s Rageblade + Kraken Slayer combo as he can also benefit from the attack speed scaling.
Additionally, what’s strong in the meta also influences what units/items you want. For example, if it’s a primarily AP meta, then AP units are more valuable early game and the same applies to AD as well. A really good example is Riftbeasts. Because Riftbeasts are really strong at the moment, holding them early is pretty important as it’s easy to play as well with many various potential carries/tanks.
NON TYPICAL OPENERS (TO DEMONSTRATE THE FLEXIBILITY OF EARLY GAME):
These are basically boards made on the fly to show that you should think of early game moreso of frontline + backline rather than specific units, because you won’t always get that Yorick 2* or Rek’sai 2* as your main tank. You might miss another 2* unit that serves as frontline.
That broadens the type of units you should be buying/holding in Stages 1 and 2, but items heavily influence the type of units you should be holding. For example, if you have a Rod, Tear and a Glove component, you are heavily leaning towards AP as you have neither a bow nor a sword, which are good for AD comps. In this case, you should be holding AP carry 1/2 costs like Karma, Veigar, Teemo, etc.
In this example if we’re not able to get the 3 Riftbeast 2 Juggernaut early game package but we have a 2* Cinderling with AD items, we have to think about alternative ways to make a decent board!
In this instance, Brawler is our early game frontline because we hit a 2* Rek’Sai, and since we want to play around our upgrades, Caitlyn is there to give Hunter to Cinderling and Kobuko is there to give Brawler to Rek’Sai!
Typically if you’re trying to play towards Aphelios Vanguard, you would usually use Xayah, Varus or Mama Beak as item carriers until you reach level 8, but this example goes to show you can think outside the box a little bit as long as the items are usable on your units. Yunara can absolutely use Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Last Whisper, Deathblade, Infinity Edge, Giant Slayer, etc. so this is another example of playing flexibly in terms of front and backline.
Early game flexibility in real time:
Say we have an unconventional Karma opener because these are the units we’ve upgraded. We have so much room for flexibility within later levels. I’ll show you potential level 5 boards here:
Oftentimes you will end up on Aphelios so you have to be conscious of the transition, but you can see why this works if the game gives it you!
EARLY GAME TIER LIST:
S tier openers:
Karma Blossom
Cinderling + Frontline, ideally Riftbeast juggernaut with scuttle
Camille + Akali + Either frontline and/or Inferno/Adaptor
Random Rengar off box
A tier
Xayah Elderwood
Leblanc Elderwood
Veigar Blackthorn Spellweaver
Warwick Blackthorn Ravager
Pebbles Riftbeast Juggernaut or Invoker + Frontline
SETTING UP YOUR GAME:
TFT is extremely item dependent in terms of comp selection, so once you realize that certain lategame carries utilize certain items better, your understanding of early game and transitioning broadens dramatically!
EXAMPLE OF SETTING UP A TYPICAL AD AUTOATTACKER GAME:
With these item setups im already planning my lategame in my head. First, I think how viable it is to get to level 9 to play all 5 costs. This usually depends on if I meet at least one of these two requirements: Having a strong early game board to preserve HP, or having at least 1 strong econ augment. If I meet them, I’m looking to play for Draven + Elder Dragon because it’s the highest cap with these items.
If I feel like I’m losing too much HP early/mid and don’t have lots and lots of gold, I need to adapt my gameplan to play around 4 cost or reroll options that use the same items. For this example I’m going to play for 4 costs.
Expanding upon the Varus Inferno early game example, this is something that you can play at level 7. The thought process for early/mid game is you want to buff your strongest/itemized carries + tanks in terms of adding traits, so since Varus, Akali and Shen are my main units, I want Rapidfire, Ravager and/or Adaptor and Defender as supplemental trait units.
This is the typical level 8 board you want to play into with the starting items shown above. If you’re a flexible player like me, you might be tempted to pivot into the Sivir + Nidalee line as these items are usable on both, but the main caveat is that the backline items are really subpar statistically on Sivir, so attempting to pivot will lower your cap significantly.
What helps the transition to something like this from an Inferno or Elderwood opener is to hold supplemental units like Hecarim, Diana + Mama Beak as you’re approaching Stage 4-2, as that’s when you usually level to 8 to start rolling for your board.
If you’re unable to fully transition to the Draven + Apex Predator final board but can afford some 5 costs splashed in, this is the way to optimize the Aphelios board. Notice how we dropped 4 Vanguard and Zyra as they were temporary units to stabilize our Stage 4 and 5.
If you’re rich enough, however, you can either transition into this boad from the Aphelios board or jump straight to this from your early/midgame board. Whenever you have the opportunity you should play for max cap. What you’ll notice here is that I’ve replaced the Quicksilver with an Infinity Edge for Elder Dragon as it’s a much better DPS item for him, and moved it over to Ivern who uses Attack speed better.
EXAMPLE OF SETTING UP AN AP CASTER GAME:
