Set 13 Early Game Boards

Welcome to the Arcane! Set 13 has started, and with the new set comes a lot of new units. Today we are going to take a look at the early game units of 1, 2, and 3 costs to try and assemble the best early game boards possible. However, in the early game remember that it is best not to force a specific board, but play the 2 star units you get.

Building an Early-game Board

The ideal thing to have to try and win the early game is one 2-star frontline unit, one 2-star backline unit and an item that matches one of them. If you get a tank item, a damage item for your backline and activate synergies for both of them you will have a successful early game. For example, while it might not be ideal, if I have 2-star Irelia and Singed with a Maddie equipped with Infinity Edge in the backline it will still be really strong for the early game, but just not as strong as a Maddie with the bruiser frontline because it gives her Enforcer for free since you get to run Steb.

To sum this up, just try to get a 2-star frontliner and 2-star backliner then change up your board later on. With that out of the way, let us get into some well-performing early-game boards.

Maddie + Bruisers

Maddie with a bruiser frontline is performing great in the data. Put in Zeri or Kog’maw for sniper. Then for the frontline, you can add a Steb to activate enforcer and any other bruiser (Trundle, Sett, Nunu, Renni). Put your AD items on 2-star Maddie and you will be on your way to winning the early game.

Watcher frontline for Maddie can also work with an early Kog’maw for automata. A good thing about this opener is it can hold every type of item. You can put tank items on Amumu, melee items like Bloodthirster on Darius, AP items on Kog’maw, and AD items on Maddie.

Family Reroll

This opener is to set up for a reroll comp that has recently seen success in the first b-patch of the set. Violet is a great melee carry right now and paired with Draven in the backline has been extremely successful. While you may not win the most rounds in stage 2, this board will win a lot after you start hitting the 3-star units. If you get a lot of copies of these units, keep family reroll in mind. Remember that even if you run this early game you can still pivot off into a higher-cost board and are not committed to family reroll.

Rebels

One of the biggest winners from the B-patch is rebels, and while 3 rebels is not that strong of an opener, if you manage to get an early Ezreal and 5 rebels early it is extremely strong. Usually before you hit 5 rebels, you can pair this board with a sentinel on the top right of the example. Put AP items on Vex and AD items on Ezreal, then transfer them to Zoe and Jinx later in the game.

Zyra Lux Sentinels

For an AP opener, try this board. Put your AP items on whichever Sorcerer you 2-star first and tank items on either sentinel. This board is easy to find because it is all 1-cost cand you can replace them with higher cost sentinels later. This is also a great opener to transition into a meta composition, which is sentinel Heimerdinger.

Black Rose

With an early Cassiopeia, you can run Black Rose early game. As the summon trait of the set, it is one of the stronger openers. This early game is commonly paired with Amumu or Darius, but that spot is highly flexible. Tank items can go on Vladimir or one of the watchers, and you can put your AP items on 2-star Morgana or Cassiopeia. From there you can reroll Cassiopeia or transition into a Heimerdiner/Elise AP carry.

4 Enforcer

If you manage to find an early Loris or Twisted Fate. Four Enforcer is a strong early game with AP items on Twisted Fate, AD items, Tank Items on 2-star Steb or Loris, and Melee items on Camille. This opener can also transition into multiple reroll comps, being Camille Ambusher reroll, as well as Twisted Fate with quick strikers.

Good Luck

We hope this guide helped you out. If you subscribe to the Patreon at metaTFT, you can access more early-game stats here. You can subscribe and learn more about the Patreon benefits here. 

Remember that these of course are not all the early-game boards and you should play the units you hit with the items you are given. For example, if you are offered a Lux pair and Maddie pair in the shop and you have a sword and glove on your item bench, it is probably better to take the Maddie as you can make Infinity Edge on her to attempt a win streak if you hit Maddie 2-star, whereas if you hit a Lux 2-star it will be more awkward to make an Infinity Edge on her. Thank you for reading and good luck on the climb!