MetaTFT Tierlist - 13.18b Set 9.5
The recent b-patch gutted the overpowered units and traits and completely changed the landscape of the meta. In this article, I’m going to show you my tierlist for the current meta, take a look into each of the comps mentioned, and explain the best strategies to climb on this patch.
S Tier
Sorcerers are the best comp in the meta. This comp stabilizes too hard on level 7 with Vel'Koz 2, Swain 2 and caps incredibly high with Silco and Ahri. The only condition to play this comp is to have multiple mana items for your backline carries.
Gunners are the best AD option in the meta. This is the standard comp to play from a Piltover cashout, but Piltover isn’t necessary at all. When playing Gunners, you have many options: you can play Jinx reroll or Jayce reroll and roll for 3-stars, or just play into the standard Aphelios Sejuani board.
A Tier
Cho'Gath Reroll is the best 1-cost reroll comp in the meta, but it’s incredibly conditional. You have to have a good opener: ideally Cho'Gath 2 on 2-1, so you can start stacking him as soon as possible. You also want good items for him.
Challengers are back in set 9.5 but are a much more conditional comp than before. This comp really struggles from behind, and it’s necessary to hit fiora 2 on time and have good items for her. This comp still has a really high ceiling, but its floors are much lower than before.
Rogues are still strong even after some big nerfs in the b-patch. This comp isn’t really forceable anymore though, so you should only play it from good spots. Having good Ixtal is very important with this comp, so avoid playing the useless ones.
Noxus Mordekaiser is a great option if you can manage to get a Noxus emblem or scoped weapons, but you can only play this comp from ahead without them. This comp caps extremely high around legendaries like Aatrox and Sion, and Mordekaiser can often become a 1v9 carry with the right items and augments.
Strategist Azir received some heavy nerfs in the most recent patch, but it’s still playable on this patch from ahead. This comp is pretty flexible on level 7 and 8, but you eventually want to land on 4 Juggernauts when you hit Aatrox.
Other playable comps that are in b tier are Ionia vanquisher Xayah, Bilgewater Nilah, and Invoker Karma. Ashe reroll and Samira reroll are underexplored options that can be stronger than b tier under the right conditions, but they are very niche relative to the other comps on this tierlist. Lastly, ravenous hunter Warwick is the other S tier comp in the meta, it’s just tied to his specific hero augment.
Strategy for climbing
The best legend on this patch by far is Ornn. Many of the Ornn items are overtuned, and there’s really only 2 items that are below average, which are gold collector and goldmancers staff. Manazane and Zhonya’s are likely going to be nerfed in the next patch, and Sniper’s, DFG, Eternal Winter, and Anima Visage are all great options as well. Other playable legends are Urf and Lee Sin, but if you are seriously trying to climb, Ornn is the best and most simple route.
As far as the meta goes, most comps have certain conditions that make them strong. Because of this, you should generally default to the strongest comps when you have no direction. The first thing you should do is identify if you have a good spot for Cho'Gath Reroll or Rogues, depending on your opener, items, and 2-1 augment. Usually you won’t so you should play towards a 4-cost carry instead. If you have AP items, you have two real options: Sorcerers, which you should generally lean towards, and strategist Azir, which you should only play when you don’t have mana items or are already leaning into a Juggernaut/strategist frontline. If you have AD items, you should look to play Jinx, Jayce, or Aphelios if you have the proper spot and items. You can also play Bilgewater Nilah or Vanquisher Xayah, but they are weaker comps in the meta right now.
If you have a good mix of AD and AP items, specifically BT, Shojin, and Night Harvester, you should look to play towards Challengers. If you manage to hit a Noxus +1 or scoped weapons, you should force Mordekaiser in vertical Noxus, but you can also index more into Slayers if you just have good items like RFC and Nashors and can play around secondary carries like Quinn and Rek'Sai.
Augment stats are back with set 9.5, and having a rough idea of the best augments is key to placing higher and climbing up the ranks. As we can see a lot of the best performing augments are specific for certain comps. This means that tailoring your board is crucial to getting higher placements. This means that if you want to play Sorcerers, you need to have Sorcerers active on stage 3-1 and 4-1, so that you can receive Sorcerer specific augments on 3-2 and 4-2.
Now, let’s go into more detail for each comp:
Sorcerers
Our first comp is Sorcs. This is a 3-cost and 4-cost carry comp, so you want to mainly roll on level 7. Rolling on level 6 early stage 3 is a great option for this comp sometimes as there’s often a lot of ways to spike your board. If you hit a Sorc Emblem, you should usually put it on Shen, but it can also go on your Multicaster if you are carrying Vel'Koz. All 3 carries generally use most of the same items well, so you should itemize your strongest carry first, whether it be Vel'Koz 3, Silco, or Ahri, but usually it’s going to be Silco. While rolling on 8, you should hold as many Swains and Vel'Kozs as possible and make the decision whether you are going to push for a fast 8 or roll for Swain 3 and Vel'Koz 3 once you stabilize. The main priority for this comp is to build Ionic Spark and a bunch of mana items to itemize multiple carries, with Blue Buff being the best, Adaptive Helm second, and Shojin the worst. The best damage items are JG, Guardbreaker, Giant Slayer, and Deathcap. As a final note, this comp is especially overpowered with Manazane, which is the best Ornn item, so you should usually be hard forcing this comp if you have it.
Gunners
There are a few ways to play Gunners in the current meta, but the best is to play it from a Piltover cashout and carry Aphelios and Jayce, itemizing whoever you upgrade first, and eventually both of them. When you play this, you want to open fort until 3-5, level to 7 and roll all of your gold to make sure you cash out within the next few turns. You can also play this comp without Piltover; just drop Ekko from this board and play flex frontline units. Jarvan is a placeholder for any frontliner like Nasus, Nautilus, Aatrox, or Shen. Drop Vi when you hit Sion and Graves when you hit Gangplank. Jayce and Aphelios have similar itemization, but both like attack speed and damage amp, like Rageblade, QSS, Last Whisper, Giant Slayer, IE, and Runaan’s. Deathblade and Gunblade are also good options. The other way to play Gunners is Jinx reroll, where you slowroll on level 6 for Jinx plus frontline, usually some combination of Warwick, Vi, Sett, and Nautilus. This comp is especially good with +1 Zaun or +1 Gunner, as it’s much easier to fit everything on 6. Once you hit, push for 4 Gunner and 4 Zaun. The best Zaun mods for Jinx are Robotic Arm and Shimmer Injector. Jinx’s best items are Runaan’s and Last Whisper, and the best third item is Gunblade, Guardbreaker, or IE. Rageblade is actually a bad item on Jinx, so try to avoid making it if you can, or put it on Jayce or Aphelios.
Cho'Gath
Bruiser Cho'Gath is a 1-cost reroll comp that changes depending on your opener and what units you hit. You always want to econ up until 3-1 and then hyperroll on lvl 4, usually until 30 gold, then slowroll level 5 until you hit. Your backline carry should either be Malzahar or Cassio, depending on who you find more of on stage 2. If you hit Cho'Gath 3 and aren’t close to 3-star Malzahar or Cassio, you can push levels for more Bruisers and play around Silco as your secondary carry. If you get an early Shurima Spat, you can put it on Cho'Gath and play vertical Shurima. The best augments for this comp are Bruiser +1, Titanic Strength, Endurance Training, Impenetrable Bulwark, and Stable Evolution, so keep an eye out for those. Cho'Gath's best items are Redemption, D-Claw, and Bramble. If you can get an Anima Visage or Radiant D-Claw, your Cho'Gath often becomes unkillable. Put any extra tank items on Renekton if you 3-star him, otherwise put them on Sejuani. If you are ahead, consider going for Rek'Sai 3 and itemizing him to cap out. His best items are Titans, BT, Sterak’s, and Night Harvester.
Challengers
The next comp is Challengers. This is a 4-cost comp that relies heavily on hitting 2-stars, so you almost always want to fast 7 and roll aggressively. If you have +1 Challenger, consider going 8 earlier if you think you’re stable enough so you can fit your board. There are multiple ways to fit your board on level 7: you always play 4 Challenger plus Nasus or Aatrox, then you either play 6 Challenger with Samira and Irelia, 4 Juggernaut with Sett and Nautilus, or 3 Demacia with Jarvan and Quinn. Fiora’s itemization is much more important than Kai'Sa's: her best items are BT, Night Harvester, and Titan’s, but you can get away with other AD items sometimes. You should generally plan on playing Demacia for the Radiant Sterak’s, prioritize BT plus one damage item. Kai'Sa's most important item is Shojin; after that, any AP items are good, like Deathcap, JG, Guardbreaker, Giant Slayer, and Archangel’s.
Rogue
Rogues are the other strong reroll comp in the meta. You have a few options with this comp: if you natural a bunch of Graves and are playing from a loss streak, you can reroll Graves on level 5 then reroll the other Rogues later. The standard way to play this comp is to reroll for Qiyana 3 on level 6 and Ekko 3, Kat 3, and Neeko 3 on level 7. You generally want to play this comp when the Ixtal is good: the best two are Wood and Ice. If the Ixtal is Fire or Electric, you should usually drop out of Ixtal and play something else like 3 Noxus. If you get a Slayer Spat, put it on Katarina, and if you get Rogue Spat, play for a 3 item Rogue Mordekaiser on level 7. Qiyana’s best items are IE, hoj, Steraks, BT, and Night Harvester. Kat and Ekko’s best items are Spark, Crownguard, Gunblade, Hoj, JG, Deathcap, Giant Slayer, and Night Harvester.
Noxus Mordekaiser
Noxus Mordekaiser has one of the highest caps in the game under the right conditions. This comp is especially good with Noxus +1 so you can easily fit 7 Noxus. The best holder is Aatrox, but Nilah, Qiyana, and Nasus are serviceable until you hit him. A lot of times, you’ll want to roll on level 6 for 5 Noxus on stage 3-2, as it’s a big spike for your board. By 4-1, you must roll on level 7 to hit Mordekaiser and stabilize your board with at least 5 Noxus; 7 if you have the Spat. If you don’t have Noxus +1, consider playing 4 Slayers with Quinn as a secondary carry. Mordekaiser needs either scoped weapons or RFC to be a real carry; ideally two RFCs, while the third item can be any damage item like Giant Slayer, Night Harvester, Deathcap, JG or Nashor’s. Healing other than Gunblade isn’t that great on him as he is already insanely tanky, steals HP from getting kills, and gets innate healing from Slayer. You should never itemize Darius as a carry when playing this comp unlike last set, as he has received a bunch of nerfs. Itemize Swain with tank items, and Aatrox and Katarina with any leftover carry items.
Strategist Azir
Strategist Azir is the weakest A tier comp in this article, but it’s still good from the right spots. This comp Shines especially with Zhonya’s hourglass on Azir and Manazane on Silco. The nerfs to strategists hit this comp hard, so you should be more flexible with your board when you are rolling down. The only units that always stay on your board are Azir, Nasus, and Jarvan. You always want a secondary carry in either MF or Silco. Consider playing 4 Juggernauts as it provides you with much more frontline especially if the Zaun is virulent bioware for your Silco. If you hit Aatrox, you should always play 4 Juggernauts, as he is the best unit in the game. Azir’s best items are Attack Speed items like Nashor’s, Guardbreaker, Rageblade, and RFC and AP items like Shiv, Giant Slayer, Gunblade, Archangel’s, and Deathcap. Silco and MF always want a Mana item, preferably Blue Buff or Adaptive Helm, and any AP items like JG, Giant Slayer, and Guardbreaker. Antiheal is incredibly important for this comp, so you want to make sure to build a sunfire for your frontline or a Morello on Silco.
