Taric mid and Master Yi jungle.
Let’s get this out of the way first—we know you’re either a troll, a sadist, or both. So you don’t have to pretend you’re not or say something to your friends like “Oh, I’m just looking it up because it’s funny, haha.”
No.
You’re here because you tuned into the stream of a top-tier player or Michael “Imaqtpie” Santana, and you saw someone run this absolutely 100 percent troll build. You’re going to grab a buddy, convince them to be an asshole with you, and eventually hit the Rift. You’re going to piss off your teammates, the enemy team, and disappoint your parents all at once, and you’re alright with that.
You’re not just okay with it, you’d prefer it that way, and this strat was made for you.
Alright, now that that’s over with, here’s how it works.
Runes are dumb
Yeah, you read that correctly. Runes are dumb. They’re stupid, because they allow crap like this to happen.
There are runes in the Resolve tree that, when combined with items like either the Relic Shield or Doran’s Shield, allow any champion, including extremely weak or off-meta choices, to remain safely in lane and eventually make it to when they can actually have an impact. Taric in the mid lane is one of these ridiculous choices.
Having Bone Plating, Second Wind, or Revitalize somewhere in your rune path opens up Taric to survive laning phase while holding his farm for Yi and waiting to roam. It even allows you to run ridiculous Keystone runes that also help out Yi like, and we’re not joking here, Press the Attack. Press the Attack mid lane Taric. We’re beyond redemption. Well, we are, but Taric can still buy it (heh).
Essentially, using these runes Taric is able to freeze his lane while withstanding punishment from his lane opponent. While it’s frozen, Master Yi shuffles through, takes the wave(s), and heads back into his jungle. Yi gets huge without needing early, snowballing kills, and Taric will still be useful later on for his heal, shield, and ultimate ability.
The current meta is a diverse and wonderful place
Sike! Yeah, we just recycled an old ’90s catchphrase, but even that’s not as annoying as this strategy. The meta in its current state heavily favors junglers that can duel around Scuttle Crabs, as well as mid laners that can clear a wave in the blink of an eye and start roaming to help out with those same crabs. This has narrowed the mid and jungle metas considerably, and the Taric/Yi combo works perfectly right in the middle of it.
Not only is Yi a duelist, but he’s a duelist that scales obnoxiously to the point that he can carry a game by himself. In this strategy, Taric will sacrifice all of his resources to get Yi ahead and he’ll even take Smite to help with the crab. On top of giving Yi farm and crabs (heh), he’ll also itemize strictly to cater to him as well. Taric’s first item should always be the Ardent Censer so he’s essentially a big buff-bot, and then he’ll move onto the Banner of Command.
Why the Banner of Command, you ask? What, it’s not enough that the Banner is an annoying item and therefore fits into this annoying strat? Fine, you’re right, there’s practicality at work here.
Getting a semi-early Banner allows Taric to buff a minion, making it much, much harder to kill. This will slow down his lane opponent considerably, forcing them to stay in lane longer to clear their waves. This limits how often they can follow Taric when helping Yi and how often they can roam. After these items are built, Taric is not only giving all of his resources to feed Yi right before your eyes, but it’ll also be incredibly hard for you to pressure. This is the kind of thing that creates supervillains, people.
Now you have the tools to insta-lock Master Yi and Taric in duo queue. Go ahead, ruin everyone’s day. We’re not stopping you.
