[MtM] Lissandra Jungle
Hello and welcome to my first of (hopefully) many Method to the Madness posts! The basic idea is I'm going to try out a crazy idea (Madness) I've taken a liking to that has a small hint of viability (Method). This can range from ridiculous roles to cooky comps to downright bonkers builds. I’ll do my best to make it work and will also rate the idea 10 outta 10 on Method and on Madness as well as describe how the whole thing went! As the first post, I’ll give credit to JackAqua for providing me with the idea/inspiration to this post series.
#Method to the Madness #1
Lissandra Jungle 
##The Madness (Why this isn't a common pick)
Lissandra is a very CC oriented, short range mage who relies on minion waves to extend her Q’s range as well as reset her ‘next ability costs no mana’ passive. She is very squishy but can deal a decent amount of burst once she is 6, but not as much comparatively to a lot of other mages. Going jungle puts her against constant damage she cannot actively heal back, mana dependence to a stupid degree (no mana=no more clearing), and makes her incredibly vulnerable to invades if she is low. Her biggest enemy is the jungle itself, and will get ripped apart with even small misjudgement until she gets SS of the Spectral Wraith. As well as not being able to function well without taking blue herself (sry mid).
##The Method (Why this may work)
Lissandra jungle may not do well in clear time, or sustain, or in the jungle at all. But where she does excel is in-lane and because of this, and her stupidly long range blink, her ganks are easy to set-up and are nigh inescapable. Seriously, she can jump 2 walls in places and can appear behind enemy lines by blinking past wards with ease. Her mana issues are mitigated by spirit stone and by the popularity of AD mids (who usually don’t need blue), giving her that little bit of a push.
####Here’s what I focused on getting as my core build:
##The Results
###Madness Score (5/10) (!!!!!-----)
######1 = not surprising at all | 10 = “How does this even work??”
###Method Score (7/10) (!!!!!!!---)
######1 = “for the love of Helix don’t try this” | 10 = “This is a pro-team secret weapon somewhere”
Overall surprisingly good! Provided I got leash to blue without any hiccups (not getting blue will result in a very very difficult time) of course. I found ganking bot lane was the easiest out of all the lanes due to their false sense of security with wards (ty claw, hehe) and Lissandra’s AoE presence being much stronger than her 1v1 presence. Once you get Spectral Wraith the clear time is drastically increased, and the free AP bonus is very noticeable. This works very well if your teams is in need of both AP and teamfight presence, and they can afford to sacrifice a bit of their jungler’s frequency of ganks. The ability to bring in her ridiculous amount of AoE damage and CC is very much worth a try.
#####Have an idea for the next [MtM]? Post it in a comment! If it’s brilliant/insane enough I’ll try it out!
######Just be sure there is at least some reason for the viability, no AD Ahris or AP Rivens guys, sorry!
