Changes:

September 1st 2016 - Overhaul

November 3rd 2015 - Changes to runes

9/29/2015 - Changes to item build and tool tips
- Changes to Match ups, more revised
- Updated text and more explanation on runes/masteries/items
- New section "mechanics and other things"
9/29/2015 - I recently go to plat and now I am plat 2 pushing for Diamond, I still use this same build with a few tweaks to my in game choices. Going for the hextech is still working extremely well even in higher ELO, The tidbit about this item and the core ideology behind this entire guide is that if you are ahead, and we are doing everything we can be to be ahead, hextech puts out the most damage on TF early on in the game while you are ahead. And this still remains true in high ELO.
6/4/2015 - Updated some things for season 5

Hey I've been playing CM since closed beta. I've played this champ religiously through all his ups and downs from the very beginning.

I have an intimate understanding of his mechanics and I have come to this build after years of revisions and balance changes and Nerfs. I will explain a few of the ideas and reasons why I use this build and why I believe this to be the most effective build for Twisted Fate if you have the mechanics to play it.

As a quick Warning, this build will not work or make sense unless you are already a Twisted Fate veteran, If you are new to the champion and trying to learn how to play him i recommend you find a different build because this build assumes you have the mechanics required to perform with the high movement speed glass cannon build.

This First video illustrates How movement speed can make the early lane phase really one sided for you. Most champs do not even get an opportunity to trade.

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This second Video shows a typical "first back" situation when playing TF, i outline a few key points.

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This third clip shows the Q+W wave clearing combo (essential for playing tf)

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In the fourth clip I am able to be extremely aggressive against a jungler on his tower due to my movement speed. It results in a kill but doesn't need to, Killing tower would have been the 2nd option had he of been more careful.

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In the last video It shows one example of the pressure you are allowed to abuse when you stack movement speed. I know they are underleveled and lee sin is legendary (mainly because of me) But those are just symptoms of playing well (also people being bad). Play Video

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Pros +Strong All Game +Farming Steroid +Long Range Poke +Self Sufficient +Global Ult

Cons +Squishy +Always Targeted First +Predictable Kit +Vulnerable to Ham +Slow base Movespeed

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Loaded dice is a passive effect that gives Tf bonus gold when killing enemies (much like )

Wild Cards is a long ranged nuke that passes through terrain and enemies in a three pronged cone. It has a 65% Ap Ratio

Pick a Card is an attack modifier that when is clicked again modifies the next basic attack. (This does not reset attack anmiation, however it does give it slightly more range and animation speed due to the attack becoming a spell. Spells are coded differentnly into the game so you get some wonky effects out of it. Sometimes the range will be longer than it should be the drawback is that it's cast time is set to your attack animation, which is improved when you level your e since attack speed effects the animation time.). Pick a card has a 50% Ap Ratio

+Blue Card Restores Mana and does the most damage out of the three choices.
+Red Card does aoe damage around the target hit and applies a slow. The slow duration remains the same at all ranks but the slow amount increases, does the second most damage of the three choices.
+Gold Card stuns the target, duration of stun goes up as you level, gold card does the least amount of damage out of the three choices.

Stacked Deck passively increases attack speed and makes your 4th basic attack do extra damage on hit, This extra damage does not get applied to Red cards aoe. has a 50% Ap Ratio

Destiny reveals all enemies on the map (unless they have , this will proc banshees veil but not reveal them).

+Gate becomes available while destiny is active, It allows Tf to teleport after a brief channel to a spot on the map (Gate can be interrupted)

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9 Mixed Pen reds - Mixed pen is becomming more popular than it used to be - go figure. Since half of your damage comes from an ability that requires you to auto attack, you will have to get used to auto attacking often on this mage, so the extra armor pen starts to add up better over the game compared to only magic pen.

9 Health Yellows - simply the most bang for your buck for a defensive slot in your runes

9 Flat AP Blues - Straight Damage

3 Movement Quints - Literally the most important part of the build. If you don't have these you can't play this build properly. I will get into why Movement speed is the most important stat on CM later on.

Sheen doubles your auto attack damage of your next attack, this works with pick a card. Basically doubles the ad scaling on the spell. Note that simply toggling the card shuffle of pick a card will proc sheen.

This is an amazing item for TF, it effectively grants your pick a card spell with bonus range making it even easier to safely engage/catch enemies. This item gives you movement speed as well. The combination of movement speed and the greater range gives you a HUGE boost to your abilities



Luden's Echo Replacing Stattick Shiv, Ludens echo provides the movement speed that shiv granted, and it also gives you a similar on hit effect that scaled with ap. It's pretty much the ap version of stattick shiv which is really nice

Rylais Is one of the most cost effective items in the game so it is good to get mid game. It provides health, Ap, and makes your spells slow. Note: Stacked Deck does not proc the slow.

Rab Is the core ap booster item for all ap champs, getting this brings the scaling of all your other ap items up. Getting this first however without any other ap items doesn't provide you with a power spike. So i recommend getting this when you have around 250 ap already. It's fairly expensive and takes a few to many item slots to buy it early game for my liking. You need it, just not immediately.

ROA ROA is an interesting item. The catayst can give you some health back in clutch situations. Which is hard to predict. buying this item is only viable when you are sure that you will not be able to snowball. This is an investment that says im going to farm for 30 minutes and be safe. Only do this against a team that has several counters to you.

A few months back, riot removed a lot of movement speed from the game because people started to realize how powerful it was on certain champs. Lol. Just trust me, movement speed will get you more kills, get you out of ****ty situations, prevent you from dying, enchance your farming, enhance your map pressure, and ultimately - makes the game more fun for you.


Movement speed = Damage
- The only thing stopping Tf from doing damage is running up to the opponent. If you can safely land a gold card, you get a free q off and an auto attack. Having movement speed increases how many of these Gold Card/Q combos you can get off therefore increasing how much damage you do. If you have 800 AP but 350 move speed, you might get one combo off and than die, or you might not get any combos off because you can't catch them. But with 300 AP and 470 move speed you can consistently combo over and over again.

Movement speed = Map Control
- Being able to move quickly around the map goes without saying. But what really makes this give you actual map control is how in lane you can control your lane by checking the bushes and running up to see if your opponent is heading bottom or top if they go mia. It also allows you to get into range to cast your ultimate since it isn't global anymore.

Movement speed = Money
- With movement speed you can visit the wraiths and be back in lane in time to hit the creep wave, You can run top to cover tower and get there before the minions are all dead from the tower, you can run up to a wave before it hits your own and use your redcard+Q To one shot them before they get out of formation by aggroing and spreading out on the minion wave. It also allows you to run around the map and help your team with objectives faster. Place wards to stop players. You can run from mid to bottom in a few seconds and pretty much be able to provide pressure better than your opponent.

Movement Speed = Defense
- What kills a tf? Getting stunned or jumped on by champs with high dmg and jumps, like diana, lee sin, pantheon, ect. If you have high movespeed it makes any skill shots harder for your opponent to hit on you (assuming you dont stand still) It also allows you to disengage simply by running if you do get stunned. If you never get hit by cc, you cant really die unless you choose to trade wrong. Also a side effect of this massive move speed will give your a team an advantage, because the opponents will have to burn flashes to actually get to you.

Movement speed = Cooldowns
- In the same was as above, if you have high movement speed you can combo an enemy, than you can back off slightly so they do not trade, and than you can move close to them while waiting the 3 or so seconds to get a stun up again. If you can keep yourself in constant range of your enemy but at a safe distance you can pretty much kite and stun lock them when it matters.

Movement speed is everything on Tf.

During early game, you want to go straight to lane and just cs. Use your auto attacks, blue cards, 4th hit from e, and occasionally q, to last hit minions. Sometimes you can use red card to get a few at a time but its best to do one minion at a time with either blue card or your 4th hit. I tend to auto attack constantly while I am in lane to keep the lane alive sort to speak. This way you can keep moving and be unpredictable and also work the space you control by constantly moving and attacking. You want to do this in order to get your 4th hit up more often to last hit with it because against some opponents, when your blue card is down they will strike.

Once in a while, depending who you are against, you can harass them with blue card and 4th hit combos, continue to cs like above but when you are on your 2nd hit, position yourself close to the enemy, back up do your 3rd hit to last hit, than move forward and double tap w to lock in a card and instantly attack the enemy. This is a good way to harass since 90 percent of the time the enemy wont trade back and you wont miss cs or really lose much mana. If you double tap a gold or red you can follow up with a q or another auto.

If doing the above set of things gets your opponent below half, and you have flash and ignite up, you can try to go for a kill, if you get a bit of harass in to lower them below 50 percent. you can flash a gold card with q and ignite and generally get a kill pre 6. Note if they have barrier or heal it prob wont work. this works best if you prime your blade weaving before flashing in.

At 6, go back and get items, your 2 dorans rings are best unless you got a kill pre 6 than go for gunblade or sheen. at this point of the game you want to be more focused on the rest of the map. You sorta float around mid, csing like normal but try to keep an eye out on the other lanes. Going bottom is the best, because you can put 2 players behind and get 2 players ahead. but ganking any lane is better than not. try not to display to the other mid that you are ganking, run till you are in range and tele in for a kill if they are low or if a fight is going on. The procedure for doing this is to run till you are in range, hover your mouse over your ult while looking at the lane you want to go to and move until the range just covers the area you want to go. take a half second before you click gate to see how the champions react to your ult. and place yourself in the best area depending on what you want to do. here are some basic tips for using your ult positioning:

1. if you are going to kill the enemy in one combo, try to land right on there feet.
2. if the enemy you are going to kill has a jump or a stun, make sure you land right on there feet, right click continually while your gate is channeling on the opponent to throw the gold card as soon as possible. if you need to flash because they flash be prepared to do it.
3. if you cannot kill them in one combo, make sure you land somewhere safe where you are not going to die right after your combo.
4. Try to get yourself in a bush or slightly out of sight if you are trying to gank a losing situation. this will give your team more time to react to you being there.
5. Always go for the target that will die the quickest, not matter who they are, the whole point of the ult is to get you fed.
6. Never click under tower unless you are certain that you can kill both or all enemies instantly or else any bit of cc will kill you.
7. lock your gold card while the channel is going, not before, this will ensure the card doesn't expire before you can throw it.
8. chase down enemies after your combo, but don't auto attack if you know you cannot kill them without your next combo, when you auto attack while running you lose ground on your opponent, instead just run next to them until w is up, its usually not long. getting 2 combos off will do more damage than 1 combo and 4 auto attacks.
9. Most importantly, take the kill. if you use your ult and you don't net a kill, it's really bad, because you need to get ahead of your opponent to beat them, and your resource for getting ahead is your ult. If you don't get a kill its not good.


Now, depending on what happens you go from there but generally you go back to base and buy more items. go back mid and either push tower, kill your opponent, be ready to get ganked, or do dragon. basically you do all the normal things you would normally do until your ult is back up. you can even run to lanes to gank because people won't expect you to gank when your ult is on CD. top is easiest to gank by running because you are going to be pretty fast at this point.

In early team fights, if you are ahead, you want to be aggressive, flash to stun someone out of position, poke a lot, be in there face. If someone tries to hit you with something, use your movement speed to dodge it, people will throw everything they have at you, if you can survive it or dodge it, your team is going to win the fight. Put out as much damage as you can, especially if you are fed. you are the vanguard for your team, be there first and make the fights happen. Use your movement speed to keep distance and time your cool downs right. If you are behind, stay near the adc, use your spells to peel for the team and the adc and try to get as much damage in as you can safely. wait until you can get ahead again. But generally if you are behind you need to try and get farm or wait for a kill with your ult.

Remember, the more fed you are the more you can abuse the map. your damage output and movement speed will keep enemies off of you and you can generally dispatch anyone who risks getting too close. you can take towers fast with sheen procs. use your q to proc sheen when taking a tower. you can split push or go solo, they will take a few people to kill you and your team will be able to deal with the others.

If you start to get behind, rethink your positioning and play differently. Build a defensive item ONLY after you have your rab/ludens/boots/lich not before. Opportunities will arise for you to get kills without defensive items.

Final Thoughts

Tf is still incredibly viable. Not much has changed in terms of his game play or place in LoL.

Movementspeed is still the superior choice over simple Magic items.