How to Draft in Clash: Team Compositions

Now that we discussed flex picks that you can use to confuse and outdraft enemies, it’s time to look at team compositions. They arguably affect your gameplay more so than flex picks do, as team compositions determine your win condition. We will take a look at the primary types of such comps as well as examine when you may want to just pick whatever you want. 

Do we even need a team composition?

Broadly speaking, you should strive to build a team composition. It gives you a clear win condition as well as a general plan for the game. Team compositions in League of Legends are an expanded game of rock-paper-scissors, so you will be able to identify a clear weakness for your team and try to make up for it. 

However, not all Clash teams are born equal. You may have a different level of play or not even know each other before the first match. Here are some things to consider before you commit to building a team composition.

Team compositions require solid champion pools. You may build something to accommodate than one-trick-pony Yasuo of yours, but if everyone can play only 2-3 champions, you’d be better off sticking to them. If some teammates struggle to execute their abilities, you will definitely struggle to execute a team composition as well.

Comps work best without huge skill gaps. If you have a dude ready to smurf on those Bronze fools (which is, by the way, a bannable offense), leave him to his favorite picks. Similarly, if you have a particularly weaker player on the roster, let them play whatever they’re most comfortable on. You can still strategize around other positions.

Team comps live and die by the meta. For example, hard scaling Protect the Carry compositions are extremely hard to pull off in early Season 10 meta. By the time your main damage threat is done ramping up, enemies may already have the Dragon Soul and serious map control. If you’re playing Clash just to have fun or goof around with random picks, a defined team composition is probably not the way to go.

Team Composition Balance

For the sake of convenience, let’s settle on five types of team compositions. Like I mentioned, they match similarly to shapes from rock paper scissors, where you are bound to defeat some options and lose to the others. I like the classification from Randomonium (see the graph below). Each arrow is coming from the stronger composition toward the weaker composition between the two. The colors are used to denote various compositions and not the degree to which they are stronger/weaker.

Attack Team Composition for Clash

Attack compositions are the easiest to pull off, as they are what you’d otherwise call wombo-combo compositions. You have one or two champions that jump onto multiple enemies and have the rest of the team throw their stuff at caught enemies. 

Your aim is to fight as much as possible whenever your ultimates are up. Once enemies are dead, you are free to push and/or take neutral objectives. There’s very little siege or ambush involved: just run at the enemies and pray that everyone lands their abilities.

The weakness of attack compositions is that some enemies are too slippery and/or smart. If you can’t get a good drop on enemies, they are free to do more things on the map than you can.

A model attack composition would be Malphite/Jarvan IV/Orianna/Miss Fortune/Zyra. There is a lot of mixed damage involved as well as multiple ways for one champion to enable the abilities of the others. Few Clash opponents would have the mobility not to get caught by all those nasty ultimates.

Catch

Catch compositions are built around the idea of annihilating individual targets to get the upper hand and make enemies choose between a 4v5 fight or giving up objective(s). Stun, kill, capitalize, repeat.

Your aim is to spread the fog of war by destroying wards and getting early turrets. Enemies are then forced to walk in blindly or risk missing out on an objective.

The weakness of catch composition is that they are much weaker in organized play. Enemies may end up too disciplined to walk without a unit. If they force you into a 5v5 scenario, your lack of AoE damage may cost you an objective and eventually the game.

A model catch composition would be Heimerdinger/Nocturne/Ahri/Jhin/Blitzcrank. No single target will get away from that amount of burst and crowd control.

Protect the Carry

Such comps are built around a glass cannon that shreds enemies but can be shredded just as easily. As a result, they require multiple peel champions to guard the weapon of mass destruction.

Your aim is to contest objectives as five and win team fights. Note that having the carry survive the won team fight is more important than with other compositions, especially early on. It would be awkward to get a few kills but not have enough damage for Baron

The weakness of Protect the Carry is that you have only one damage threat. There is much more responsibility on a single person than usual, and one mistake on their part could lead to a loss.

A model Protect the Carry composition would be Maokai/Sejuani/Lulu/Twitch/Janna. This example, however, is a bit extreme, as both amateur and pro players prefer to have more damage than this. Still, if you get a Twitch rolling with a supporting cast this big, he will be extremely hard to shut down.

Siege

Siege comps want to stick together, but it doesn’t mean that they want to fight. It’s all about wearing the opponents down with poke.

Your aim is to get turrets without getting caught up in team fights. Once you open up the map, use the superior map control, vision, and safe damage to get neutral buffs. 

The weakness of Siege is that they are extremely demanding when it comes to playing the map and interacting with enemies. You absolutely cannot and should not fight for the sake of fighting. One unnecessary team fight that you lost hard is very likely to lose you the game.

A model siege composition would be Jayce/Trundle/Lux/Caitlyn/Brand. This squad has enough disengage and almost free damage to discourage enemies from jumping on you.

Split

Unlike with Siege, you want to push two lanes at a time. This should create uneven fights in either lane.

Your aim is to force uneven fights so that you win them and/or pressure enemies away from the contested objective(s). For example, your duelist wins their 1v1 fight while you’re engaged in a 4v4 dance in the middle lane. Later on, enemies catch the wind of it and send two people to Top, but now you have a 4v3 in your favor around Drake.

The weakness of Split is the high number of risk factors involved. Your duelist can lose the lane and ruin the game plan, you may fail to disengage a 4v4 fight, enemies could be more coordinated than you are. 

A model split composition would be Fiora/Wukong/LeBlanc/Sivir/Taric. Fiora should be able to win most 1v1, while you have plenty of tools to win a 4v4 and avoid a 4v5.