It is a fact that in this season 2 of Teamfight Tactics, when building a team composition, especially in terms of damage-dealing carries, players tend to focus more on the traits or classes of champions rather than their origins. Compositions like Mages, Marksmen, Blademasters, and Berserkers have become powerful and widely used throughout most of the game’s meta.
However, this inadvertently overshadows the strength of the origins in the game, with players only remembering the Light composition that utilizes winning conditions from an origin. It wasn’t until Marksmen and Blademasters were nerfed, and Mages and Berserkers became too difficult to build that players began to pay attention to the origins, one of which has become incredibly strong just days after being discovered: the Shadow.
So what makes the Shadow so strong? It’s not because they were overly buffed or have increased damage; the main reason is the introduction of Senna. Although frequently used in a protective role for Lucian in the Light composition, Senna is also an incredibly strong standalone unit, with the additional magic damage from her Shadow Piercing skill also triggering effects from her items.
This means that with just a single item, the Morellonomicon, Senna can provide the entire team with the ability to prevent healing for the whole enemy team. This synergizes perfectly with the effects of the Shadow origin; by stopping the opponent’s healing, you cause enemies to be taken down faster, extending the damage sustainability from the origin.
Currently, the two strongest Shadow compositions are 6 Shadows and Shadow – Reincarnation; in reality, how you build these two compositions depends on your “luck”. If you are lucky enough to get Master Yi early, 6 Shadows will be extremely devastating with the sustained additional damage. Furthermore, with the addition of Annie and Yorick from the Reincarnation system, the 6 Shadow team is not too worried about facing Assassins.
Meanwhile, the Shadow – Reincarnation composition utilizes cheaper units like Nautilus and Thresh to support continuous troop summoning from the Reincarnation units. If you are building 6 Shadows but can’t find Master Yi, it’s best to switch to playing Shadow – Reincarnation instead. Regardless of which composition you play, Kindred remains the main carry; however, make sure to use AP items to increase immediate damage, thereby extending the Shadow buff longer.
In summary, the Shadow is currently an extremely strong composition, easy to play and rewarding, which is its greatest advantage. In the latest statements from the lead designer of Teamfight Tactics, Riot Mortdog, he mentioned that they will consider nerfing the Shadows in the upcoming 10.4b patch. Players might want to take advantage of this time to climb ranks before the Shadows are nerfed.
