Standard Deck Guide: Transform Archetype - Road to Masters!

As always, as soon as the ranked queue is open, I try to beat my personal record and get to Masters as fast as possible.

This season, I took 4 days to go from Platinum to Masters, using, in most matches, the Transform archetype — one of my favorite archetypes.

This is my complete guide on the 3 lists I used to reach Masters this season. I hope you like it!

I climbed mostly with Nidalee and Gnar, an extremely solid list that is great to punish the meta.

This deck's game rhythm is quite particular, and really different from the rest of the meta lists. It was the main reason why I chose to use this list to get to Diamond — more specifically, Diamond 1.

This "particular rhythm" is basically the way you'll develop your units throughout your match. Instead of playing on curve, like all other decks, you'll play your units based on their Ambush cost. With these Ambush spells, you'll Transform them into what they actually are later on, and this is why this deck's "rhythm" is different.

The secret to this archetype is to always bank mana to Transform your units on the same turn you play them as a Shadow in the Brush.

The problem is that this deck needs a few cards like Chief Nakotak on the board to make some combos work, and this will really break the rhythm of your Ambush plays. That is why its early game is extremely weak.

But, on the other hand, your late game is extremely explosive. With the new Story landmark, The Wingsgiving, you can Transform your units as if you were playing Timelines. This is what will make this archetype really adaptable to bad matchups, as you may Manifest new units with Elusive, Spellshield, or Challenger and Transform your followers into them.

Mulligan

The perfect starting hand should look like this:

Preferably, skip the first two turns to bank 6 total mana on turn 3, and then play Chief Nakotak. On turn 4, play Nidalee in the Brush and then Transform her to give her Impact and +1/+1. Only then play All-Terrain Trooper and Transform him.

If your opponent can't really interact with your board, you can play Nidalee in the Brush on turn 2, then Chief Nakotak on turn 3, and on turn 4 Transform your Nidalee and then play All-Terrain Trooper and Transform him. The difference from this play to the one above is that you won't pass priority to your opponent twice on turn 4, which, in most matches, makes all the difference in the world.

Main Win Condition

This list has 3 win conditions: Nidalee, The Wingsgiving, and the combo Big Game Tycoon + some card with Overwhelm or Elusive.

Nidalee is perfect against opponents that don't interact with your board; she'll probably be the biggest unit on the board and force them to block her most times. Eventually, she'll level up and deal a lot of damage to the enemy Nexus with Overwhelm.

As for The Wingsgiving, it is perfect in control matchups because you can Transform your units into better ones with defensive keywords or just a lot of life.

Finally, Big Game Tycoon is that type of unit that needs to be answered and removed; otherwise, he'll win the game on his own. Each time you Transform a unit, he doubles its stats. If you play The Wingsgiving on turn 5 and activate its acts every turn, on turn 7 you'll double the stats of one of your followers on the same turn you play Big Game Tycoon.

Any time you reach Diamond 1, the game gets extremely hard - even more so on the first few days of the new season because most players are in this rank by then. So, you'll face a gigantic variety of new decks. Not to mention, you'll also face strong players that may even be competitive legends.

In this rank, I played two lists - Norra Teemo and Morgana Vayne.

Let's start with Norra Teemo.

Norra Teemo

This deck is wonderful, and also abuses Chief Nakotak's effect. Any time you Transform an ally, he'll give it +1/+1 and Impact.

He is the absolute star of this deck, and without him the list doesn't work all that well. This is the only problem this deck has: without Nakotak, it isn't really much of a deck.

Mulligan

Your perfect starting hand while playing this list should look like this:

As we mentioned, without Nakotak the deck doesn't work, so you must hard mulligan (swap all your cards) if Chief Nakotak isn't in your starting hand.

Main Win Condition

Regardless of the unit you have in play, be it Teemo or Norra, you must Transform it into a Chief Nakotak using Shady Spectacles. Use Discreet Invitation to create a Shady Character and also Transform it into Chief Nakotak.

And always use Malmutation on your Chief Nakotak that has more Impact, or more health, to play around removal.

This way, you'll always have gigantic units on the board with lots of Impact. It will be so much Impact that, after you use Malmutation, you'll most likely win the game with a single attack.

Always try to use Malmutation on turn 5 or 6 to win the game as fast as possible because this deck loses gas fast.

The rest of the list are cards that draw other cards so we can find the pieces of this combo.

The last tip I'll give you is to use Soaring Cartographer Updrafting cards that cost 2 and choosing the option to draw a card that costs more than 2. This way, you're more likely to draw your Chief Nakotak, which costs 3 mana.

Morgana Vayne

This was the deck I got Masters with. This is a mixture of the classic Vayne Aatrox with Jax Vi Timelines: you'll develop aggressive units as if you're playing Vayne Aatrox, but you can Transform them like you're playing Timelines.

Like many of my friends have told me already, this list is ugly. If you look at the list itself, you'll get scared and ask yourself how this bunch of cards works. But, as you play, you'll understand exactly what it does. That being said, it is still extremely difficult to pilot if you're not used to playing Timelines.

Mulligan

Its perfect starting hand should look like the following:

Rissu, the Silent Storm is this archetype's main card. Without this follower, you'll hardly win games.

You must combo Rissu, the Silent Storm with both landmarks in this deck to get the most out of him.

As for Vayne, she'll give you a Tumble, and block enemy units well early on. Her Tumble will let you put pressure on your opponent with a unit you Transformed, or with your Stormcloud.

Main Win Condition

This list has 4 win conditions.

The first is just attacking the enemy Nexus with your units. Stormcloud has 7 attack power and 3 Impact, which means, it, alone, can deal 10 damage to your opponent's Nexus, which is half their total life. Not to mention, you also have Tenor of Terror, which summons a Bass of Burden that has Impact and 3 attack power. We also have Blocking Badgerbear, which has 4 attack power - and all of these units are very strong.

Secondly, we have The Wingsgiving and its Transform interactions. This is the hardest part of this deck if you have never played Timelines. You'll Transform your units into other ones that might (probably) be better. This allows you to have on your board units with keywords like Spellshield, Elusive, and Overwhelm, which may guarantee your victory.

Remember: according to the rules regarding Transform mechanics, Transformed units keep the bonus they get from any effect while they're on the board. This means Stormcloud will still have 3 Impact when you Transform it, and will also keep the stats it gained from Altar to Unity.

Thirdly, you have Cithria, Lady of Clouds, which doubles your units' stats.

And finally, we have Morgana, who'll control the board, heal your Nexus, and deal damage to the enemy Nexus directly.

This is a very well-rounded list.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you liked this article.

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See you next time!