Did any of you catch the first game of the UOL vs. TSM series at IEM San Jose 2014? R.I.P. solo queue. UOL jungler Kikis introduced a surprising pick during champion select with a jungle Twisted Fate. As wild as it may sound, there is actually some good reasoning behind the pick and uncommon build that Kikis used to help carry UOL to a strong win against TSM in their two-game set. In this breakdown, I'll be going into how this preemptive pick affected picks and bans, the middle lane matchup, and the overall result of this matchup. After, I'll be going over jungle Twisted Fate specifically as a jungler and how you can use it to easily dominate your opponents all over the map.
First of all, it should be noted that Bjergsen is undeniably TSM's strongest and most valued player. His ability to single-handedly put TSM on his back with his exceptional middle lane play while making great decisive calls are what led TSM to the Season 4 World Stage (albeit with less than desirable results). And with the way champion select played out, it's easy to see that UOL knew this as well (as should most people). UOL's strategy had two main points to it. The first was to outban Bjergsen (but not so many middle lane bans that they outban their own mid-laner). The second was to shut him down even harder by baiting out a pick from Bjergsen early in the champ select and then countering him later in the pick phase. It's clear that UOL wanted to reign in Bjergsen and make him have zero effect on the game.
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| UOL vs. TSM - IEM San Jose 2014 - Game 1 |
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| UOL vs. TSM - IEM San Jose 2014 - Game 1 |
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| UOL vs. TSM - IEM San Jose 2014 - Game 1 |
This is where it all goes downhill for Bjergsen (and TSM). UOL locks in a LeBlanc for PowerOfEvil pick to counter Bjergsen's Xerath. In this matchup, Xerath gets absolutely destroyed. Xerath does not have the mobility nor the stats to do well in this matchup, even with defensive Summoner spells such as Barrier or Heal.
Another thing to note is that with the previous nerfs to Chalice of Harmony (price raised from 880 gold to 1000) and Athene's Unholy Grail (Magic Resistance reduced to 25 from 40), it's nearly impossible to purchase enough Magic Resistance in the early laning phase to help survive in the early laning phase.
This nerf indirectly buffed middle lane assassins such as LeBlanc that could adapt to these changes and utilize items such as Morellonomicon as a first purchase and not feel the effect of the Magic Resistance nerfs to Athene's Unholy Grail due to their playstyle in matchups where LeBlanc can quite literally dance around their opponent. LeBlanc could easily poke in with her Distortion (W) and even couple it with her Mimic (R) to dodge anything that Xerath throws at her while dealing tons of damage (reminder: Xerath is all skillshots) and receiving minimal damage back.
This is a brutal matchup and the uncertainty of what a jungle Twisted Fate could bring to the table made it even more of a problem for Bjergsen and the rest of TSM.
So why Twisted Fate in the jungle? Other than the reasons given above, what can Twisted Fate provide to a team from the jungle? Twisted Fate has only seen competitive play as a middle laner and never in any other role due to his ability to make game-changing plays with his Destiny (R) from the moment he hits level six.
One of the reasons he can do well in the new jungle is that he provides lots of utility in ganks with his Pick A Card (W) ability. If played correctly, Twisted Fate can provide a consistent stun and/or slow while contributing heavy auto-attack damage during the course of a gank, usually resulting in Summoner spells burned by the other team or kill(s). With Twisted Fate's Stacked Deck (E), he can scale incredibly well with attack speed. It's also important to note that Stacked Deck (E) provides bonus attack speed per level and a passive that contributes magic damage every fourth basic attack. Essentially, you can theoretically stack attack speed and never have to build any high damage items but still contend with the carries on your team for highest damage dealt in the game.
If you take a look at Kikis' build from his game against TSM, you can see that he went with the Devourer enchantment and also a Wit's End. Between these two items, he gets exactly 100% bonus attack speed. Damage-wise, he gets bonus damage from both items since the Devourer enchantment gives 40 bonus magic damage on each basic attack plus your Devourer stacks and Wit's End giving 42 bonus magic damage on it. So the passive from Stacked Deck, Devourer enchantment and stacks, and Wit's End will make Twisted Fate a true threat with only two items finished. This is why you can go straight tank items after these two purchases if needed (just as Kikis did).
Another reason why he does well in the new jungle (should be clear to you now) is that he can easily sustain in the new jungle just as other true junglers can. The utility of the his Pick A Card (W) and every fourth basic attack from Stacked Deck gives him great clear speed if associated with the correct runes and masteries.
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| Runes used for Kikis' jungle Twisted Fate - Marks: Attack Speed x 9 Seals: Armor per level x 9 Glyphs: Cooldown per level x 9 Quintessences: Attack Speed x 3 (credit: Kikis via Reddit) |
If you're not used to seeing these types of runes on not just a jungler, but any role, it's understandable. Kikis' runes (specifically his Seals and Glyphs) are tailored towards competitive play where games are almost guaranteed to last longer than at least 35 - 40 minutes, hence the scaling runes. The scaling cooldown runes help Kikis to be able to constantly use Destiny (R) resulting in more playmaking later in the game. If you look closely at his rune page, you'll actually notice that there's no Magic Resistance runes. Kikis' thought process behind his rune page was that he was going to be stacking MR with his build early on, specifically his Wit's End rush, so no MR was needed immediately in the early game. It's also important to note that there was no outright AP threat from TSM that would have hindered Kikis' early game enough to completely shut him down. As these Glyphs are situational, I would advise taking some MR runes and substituting the scaling Cooldown per level with flat Cooldown runes (flat Cooldown x 6 and flat Magic Resistance x 3 is what I would personally use against a mixed threat composition).
As for masteries, Kikis was kind enough to also provide what he exactly uses along with his rune page.
Kikis runs a pretty standard mastery page for this specific Twisted Fate build. This is the tried and true mastery page for many of the solid jungle picks that have ruled the jungle role throughout many patches, albeit, with some variations. These picks include Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, Xin Zhao, and of course, the recently released, perma-banned, but almighty Rek'Sai. I personally take 1 mastery point out of Fury (-1.25% Attack Speed) and put it into Feast (+killing a unit restores 2 Health and 1 Mana). Although the Health and Mana gained from this mastery point may be negligible in the early game, it could mean all the difference between surviving an enemy jungler invade and coming out on top or dying to the enemy jungler and losing your buffs and camps. The bonus Attack Speed that you lose will barely be noticeable with the amount of Attack Speed you eventually get through your Stacked Deck (E) and your items.
Optimal skill ordering for this build is pictured above. Prioritizing Stacked Deck (E) will give you the bonus Attack Speed that you need along with more damage on hit. Notice how no point in Wild Cards (Q) is put in until you're forced to. This is because with the item build that you will be using, your Wild Cards (Q) will barely do any damage since it scales with Ability Power (AP). Also, remember to never be so adamant with your skill ordering! If your team is invading, it is okay to take Pick A Card (W) for the stun. This concept also applies to item builds, decision-making, jungle routes, etc. Always adapt to the given situation.
"How to jungle with Twisted Fate by Kikis" - 2:29
The video above, posted by Kikis on his YouTube channel, shows the most efficient way to jungle Twisted Fate. In the video, he displays how to perfectly "juggle" each camp in order to minimize the damage taken. If you can't understand what's happening, Kikis walks to the very last tile that the camp would go to before resetting and he keeps auto-attacking from the same tile so that he leashes it back and forth. Since the camp is prioritizing its moving animation, he ends up taking no damage because the camp is too busy moving! Just remember to make sure to stand exactly where Kikis stands (and pings) and you should achieve the same results. Although his video shows where to stand on Red side, it will work for Blue side as well; just go into a Custom game and mirror the tiles that he stands on (on Blue side this time) to make sure you know where to stand. It is important to note that a camp will completely reset, as in gain its Health back and return to its original position, after 10 soft resets so make sure to change your position after abusing the 10 soft resets to avoid hard resetting the camp.
As for the actual jungle route, a standard route would be the following:
Blue Side
- Gromp
- Blue Buff
- Wolves
- Razorbeaks
- Red Buff
- Krugs
Red Side
- Krugs
- Red Buff
- Razorbeaks
- Wolves
- Blue Buff
- Gromp
Summary: Twisted Fate is a great surprise pick that has the ability to catch the enemy team off guard. In the right hands, he can absolutely demolish the other team with his great map presence and ability to lock down enemies so easily. He's also a great champion to spend lots of game time on as he teaches many important aspects of the game through his unique kit and playstyle. The biggest aspect he can teach you is map awareness. With the ability to globally (well, almost) teleport, it's important to be consistently paying attention to each skirmish happening around the map, enemies unknowingly walking through warded areas, and chances to turn a gank on your top lane, bot lane, or invade on your jungle in your team's favor. Mechanically speaking, Twisted Fate is also great at teaching you this aspect of the game. His Pick A Card (W) requires good and consistent timing and the ability to read the play beforehand so you know what card to use. So what are you waiting for? Go instalock that jungle Twisted Fate, have your team complain at you, carry your team to victory, then report all of them! I may or may have not done the same. Kappa.
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