One fact is that in Teamfight Tactics Season 5.5, the Armored trait is becoming extremely popular. Essentially, this is a great tool for players to counter strong physical damage compositions. Moreover, players can combine the Armored trait with various types of carries while still ensuring power, so units like Rell, Nautilus, and Jax are being widely purchased in the current meta.
Despite having many strengths, the Armored trait still has weaknesses, particularly against magic damage and compositions with wide-area control. The Mage – Zombie composition can effectively meet both conditions as Vel’Koz remains a dominant magic carry. Meanwhile, Volibear, the Abyssal Zombie, and Zyra are all units with excellent crowd control abilities.
In terms of building the composition, Kalista is a champion you should prioritize buying in the early levels to ensure that you have a good enough carry unit. After that, if you receive Nunu & Willump from a loot box, be sure to buy Brand and activate the Zombie trait as soon as possible. If not, the usual starting method with Knights or Brawlers in the front line combined with Legion is a common choice.
Moving to the mid-game phase, what you need to do at this point is buy all the units Nunu & Willump and Brand from the shop to gain the Zombie effect. Additionally, Ziggs and Zyra are also units you should invest in to gradually build a Mage lineup in the backline. If you can upgrade Sett in the mid-game, you can look to activate the Dragon effect to quickly upgrade Zyra.
The advice for the late-game phase is that you should not buy Rell like the old Mage – Zombie composition in Season 5. The reason is that this unit is highly contested, and it will be very difficult for you to upgrade it to 2 stars in the current meta. Instead, investing in other units like Fiddlesticks, Volibear alongside Vel’Koz is a much more reasonable choice.
For building items, just think simply that Vel’Koz will need the Shojin Spear along with 2 items that increase magic damage and versatility. Therefore, you can use many items like Rabadon’s Deathcap, Hextech Gunblade, Guardian Angel, and Justice Hand (both normal and Light versions) without being constrained by any template. For Zombie champions, tank items are the most suitable to enhance the durability of the Abyssal Zombie.
One tip for positioning your team in the late game is to place Ziggs and Kalista (the 1-cost champions that don’t have much value in terms of damage) in the front line. Having these 2 units knocked out early in the late game will help you summon the Abyssal Zombie as quickly as possible to increase crowd control capabilities.