Vanguard Aphelios

Vanguard Aphelios is played as a fast-8 board — its power is concentrated in the four-cost slot, so reaching level 8 with gold left to roll is the whole plan. It currently grades out at Tier C in TFT Set 18, with a 4.78 average placement over 15,354 games.

Placement-wise that makes it #37 overall out of 57 comps we track — 2nd inside its 14-comp tier, 0.14 clear of the 4.92 that marks the middle of Tier C. A 1.29% pick rate (median 0.89 percent) makes it neither a crowd favorite nor a secret.

Brambleback holds item priority, and recorded games favor Rapidfire Emblem, Quicksilver, and Sterak's Gage on it, averaging 3.93 when completed. After that, spare components go to Sentinel.

Trait-wise you are holding Vanguard 4 as the anchor of 8 active synergies, and Riftbeast (3) close behind. Mama Beak marks this comp out — only 2 other tracked comps field it. One synergy is still switched off: Invoker, at 1 unit, so a Invoker Emblem turns it on at the 2-piece tier.

Our model's emblem pick for this exact roster is Invoker Emblem — then Lunar Emblem. The inverse view backs that up: it places 13th of 19 comps scored for Invoker Emblem holders.

Rapidfire Aphelios and Lunar Aphelios build around the same Brambleback core as Vanguard Aphelios — two boards chasing one carry thin out the late-game shops fast.