Ivern gives a shield; Thresh gives a shield; Vladimir has healing; druids have healing; mountain gives a huge shield. Between these, you get an incredibly hard-to-kill comp and both times I ran it I did well--second place which I went almost the whole game without taking a single point of damage (I was literally 100 HP until the last three people alive at like...6-1), and first place.
It doesn't even need items.
Obviously if you get items with rods in them, ideally put them in ivern or thresh with the exception of gunblade (which you place on neeko or maokai), and similarly for spear of shojins. And you'll want warmogs, maybe thornmails, maybe maybe maybe dragon's claws.
But it works regardless of what items you get from what I've been seeing.
I need to investigate further to see how well it works for consistency.