When you think of AP casters, what names come to mind? Annie? Anivia? Brand? What if I told you that a man who deals his damage with wax paper cards can hold his own in League's most popular lane? Twisted Fate first found himself as an AD Carry in the early days of Summoner's Rift's Heal/Poke Meta, but when League introduced bulkier characters with gap closers aplenty, Twisted Fate found himself switching tactics, and now can be found as an AP Caster. Here are a few reasons why Twisted Fate should be your pick in the Mid Lane:

TF's Pick-A-Card is a Bag of Tricks

Twisted Fate's W Ability, Pick A Card, gives Twisted Fate three vital abilities in the tune of different colored cards. These cards flip in a specific order, allowing players to specify which card they would like to use. These abilities include:

• Red Card - Twisted Fate's Red Card applies an AOE damage while also applying a slow surrounded by the opponent he decides to hit. Red Card is used primarily for farming Caster Minions in a flash or applying poke damage on multiple champions during team fights.
  
• Blue Card - Twisted Fate's Blue Card when hitting an enemy gives back 65% of the bonus damage as restored Mana. Blue Card is a vital component for AP Caster Twisted Fate as it allows nearly free casts of Pick A Card and is particularly useful when restoring mana after using Wild Cards as part of your poking game in lane.
  
• Gold Card - Twisted Fate's Gold Card is the one card your enemies will remember the most, as Gold Card applies a stun of 1-2 seconds (dependent on level) along with a bit of damage to the victim. This is your bread and butter for keeping enemies from leaving ganks, picking out primary targets to focus, and initiating ganks in combination with Destiny. you can also use Gold Card as an escape mechanism when faced with 1v1 situations you know you won't win.

Twisted Fate's Destiny to Dominate

Twisted Fate's R Ability, Destiny, grants Twisted Fate vision of all enemies on the entire map, including stealthed champions like Evelynn, Shaco, and situational stealthers like Akali and Talon. Using Destiny can hand your teammates valuable information such as possible incoming ganks, if the enemy team is currently doing Dragon or Baron Nashor, or if an enemy champion is out-positioned and can engage on the over-pushed champion. This is where Destiny's second ability comes in, which allows Twisted Fate to teleport anywhere within a 5500 range, almost the length between lanes, giving Twisted Fate the important element of surprise. Combining Destiny with a Gold Card from Pick A Card can instantly put a team fight or lane confrontation in your team's favor, giving the team not only an HP advantage from the initial damage from Pick A Card, but also the focusing possibilities with the enemy champion stunned. Using Destiny appropriately to gank other lanes will most certainly give Twisted Fate a sizable advantage against his Mid lane opponent.

Built for Hybrid, but Shines as a Caster

As Twisted Fate has had a few different roles throughout his League career, he has settled down with his kit being more tuned towards and on-hit/caster hybrid. With his E Ability, Stacked Deck, Twisted Fate gets an extra dose of damage on his 4th attack, while receiving a passive Attack Speed increase and decreased Cooldowns on higher levels. Stacked Deck allows Twisted Fate who has a high Attack Speed rate to stack damage with quicken auto-attacks. Combining this with items like Wit's End, Ionic Spark, and Guinsoo's Rageblade will provide a surprising burst to auto-attacks that enemies may not expect.

But as much as Twisted Fate is Hybrid built, his role as a AP Caster out-shines all other builds. Even though Stacked Deck has Hybrid tendencies with it being effective with high attack speed, the passive damage burst also runs an AP ratio, allowing careful combos of Pick A Card - Gold -> Wild Cards -> then auto-attacking to proc Stacked Deck can be extremely devastating against opponents. Also know that when using Pick A Card primarily when you're stacking attack speed and passive damage procs to maximize damage, your go-to damage spell as an AP Caster is your Wild Cards. With a high base damage and a decently high AP Ratio as well, planting one of the three cards thrown when cast will shred opponents who lack the Magic Resist to defend against it.

Twisted Fate's slow transformation from being on the front lines to fighting in the back has his character in a much safer position. Given Twisted Fate's squishy demeanor, being able to dictate fights with Pick A Card, doing serious poking damage with Wild Cards, and the passive benefits from Stacked Deck help Twisted Fate become the exclamation mark on any team.

It also doesn't hurt he gives his team +2 Gold for every minion kill. Nothin' like Loaded Dice on a Gamblin' man.