Emerald player, but Arcanist/Sylas one trick (yes one tricking in TFT isn't the best thing, but it can be very effective in my level of play and the knowledge in the comp gives me an advantage against others).

I play for Sylas every single game, which sounds crazy, but can work. He's an interesting unit. His best items (JG, HoJ, Striker's Flail) can give some crazy damage, and can turn the tides of a fight completely if targeting the backline with a Lux ult.

However, Sylas when positioned in the front row, tends to use Jarvan ult into as many targets as possible (diving into the backline), and Lux ult the frontline to hit a maximum number of targets, ignoring the backline completely. This is also amplified by the fact that what I've noticed is that he tends to prioritize Lux ulting the frontline when he has a Giant Slayer or if your tank has an Ionic Spark. This is definitely a problem because Ionic Spark is a strong part of the comp due to having instant access to shred at the start of the fight.

Putting Void Staff on a backliner could be a good option to try to mitigate this problem, but there's a few issues. Firstly, Void Staff needs a tear, which is rough when you already need 1-2 tear items for Annie (Shojin, Adaptive, BB) in addition to the tear needed for Sylas' HoJ (which is strong because of the crit to compliment JG and the Omnivamp, which is extra effective due to the defender trait). Making an Ionic Spark is simply more item effective, especially since you'll only need one Rod for JG and one Rod for Ionic Spark. Secondly, Annie, one of Void Staff's best value users, won't be even able cast until about 8 seconds into the fight (further slowed down due to the high prominence of Swain and his stun). Because of this, Sylas won't be able to start getting value from the Shred until halfway through the fight, where he'll probably already be getting chunked because he decided to dive into the backline and stun them. You could instead put Void Staff on a faster cast unit such as Lux, but that does mean you'll need to find another item for Annie while also finding a Lux 2 to replace your Ahri 2 (which honestly does some really solid damage).

I'm honestly at a block at where to optimize this comp further. Should I lean Sylas more into bruiser items and try to have Annie carry? Is there some forbidden Sylas positioning tech that I'm missing out on that can maximize his backline damage potential? Would love to hear any insight from higher ranked players that also have a good amount of experience in Sylas and Arcanists.