I am about to drop $10 to craft the full popular list.
Looking for tips on how to play it.
what to mulligan for?
also what are the good and bad matchups?
stuff like that
any tips on playing it really.
You mulligan based on the match ups.
Against aggro you want Blighted Ravines, Ice Shards, Wails, Avalanches Vile Feasts etc.
You generally keep Lissandra in all match up since she is good even against aggro decks.
Babbling Berg pulls out Matron always but you only want to use Matron for the Watcher OTK combo.
For the combo you need Ice Pillar from Trundle as well which means getting both Trundle and Lissandra, which is why Entreat is run in the deck. Against control/slower decks you want to have both Champions + Matron combo pieces.
The combo is play Lissandra, play Trundle, play Ice Pillar, Fading Memory on Ice Pillar, summon another one, this will flip Lissandra giving you Watcher, then use Matron on the Watcher for the "OTK". Sometimes you can get to the combo in other ways if Lissandra was already flipped.
The worst match up is definitely combo decks that can kill you before you get your combo off. The worst one being Lee Sin but you probably won't see it too much online. All the Freeze spells plus Three Sisters help against Lee Sin. The other bad match ups are board independent aggressive decks like Lucian Azir or some type of burn decks. Decks that can do damage even with few units on board through stuff like Emperor's Dai or over the top finishers. Beefy mid range decks also give Lissandra Trundle trouble as with only only a few Vengeance you can't remove the big units like a buffed Renekton or some of the Demacia units. Good match ups are board based aggro decks like Discard Aggro or any deck vulnerable to board sweeps. Also slower decks since with the Watcher combo you can kill them before they get their control condition online.
Another tip for the Watcher combo is that you want to use it when they don't have a Champion on board because even if they don't have a deck, then they can simply cycle their champion into their decks repeatedly. This doesn't come up that often but it is something to consider... Champion spells keep duplicating and putting Champions into the deck which become the champion spells on draws.
For play patterns you want to be playing as reactively and stall heavy as possible (in most cases). Use the Pass button aggressively, bank spell mana and always be the last one to make an action. This deck isn't easy to play and you will mess up a few times early on. Against aggressive decks, don't shy away from playing Fading Memories on smaller units like Sentry and Tavern Keeper to stabilize.
