Tahm Kench
Since the launch of Teamfight Tactics Season 6, Mercenaries have always been considered the worst composition for climbing ranks due to their heavy reliance on “luck.” Just activating the 3 Mercenary threshold early on is already quite challenging, and acquiring additional augmentations for this trait is also extremely hit-or-miss. With a composition that relies on losing streaks to gain extra resources like Mercenaries, if you don’t manage it well in the mid-game, you can easily get eliminated early.
However, with the presence of Tahm Kench, the Mercenary trait is still a viable option in the late game as this unit provides too many resources for players. Just the ability to disable a frontline unit by swallowing it is already enough to make Tahm Kench highly favored. This unit is even strong enough to warrant strategies that use only Tahm Kench as the main carry instead of relying on the Mercenary composition.
Braum
Perhaps realizing their mistakes from Season 5, Riot designed simpler and more “one-dimensional” defensive traits for Season 6 of Teamfight Tactics. However, this inadvertently reduced the value of a purely defensive trait like Guardians quite a bit. We can clearly see this as players rarely use the 4 or 6 Guardian thresholds, usually stopping at just 2 of these units.
Among the frequently used Guardian units, Braum is the most highly valued champion. This unit possesses excellent durability and, above all, a very strong area control ability. Perhaps because of this versatility, players have realized that simply using Braum along with 1 Guardian unit is already sufficient for durability. In the context of the upcoming reduction in the 5-cost champion rate in patch 12.2, meaning the chances of obtaining Galio will continue to decrease, Braum will still be the most favored Guardian unit.
Vex
Although Vex is just a 3-cost unit, she possesses immense power and makes both the Mage and Yordle compositions extremely troublesome. Vex is the most crucial factor in allowing the Yordle composition to survive in the meta as she plays a significant role in absorbing damage and protecting other backline units. In fact, upgrading Vex to 3 stars is the most important winning condition for the Yordle team.
Looking back at the Yordle units, most of the 1-2 cost champions are quite weak compared to other units of the same value. However, Vex, with her powerful shield creation ability, gives the remaining units a lot more time to deal damage. In fact, in non-Yordle compositions that also use Vex, players incorporate Scholar and Sorcerer units to find every way to help this champion survive and create shields. Indeed, without Vex, the Yordle team would likely have been “out meta” a long time ago.