Okay, bottom line: Twisted Fate is simply awesome.

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Item build:

Doran's Ring+HP Potion
(at level 6 port back to fountain and grab Boots of Speed and Mana Crystal and use gate to gank; you'll need the extra mana pool and speed)
Boots of Swiftness
Sheen
Mejai's Soulstealer
Lich Bane
Zhonya's Ring
Haunting Guise/Rylais

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Skill Build

Pick A Card

Wild Cards

Wild Cards

Gate

Wild Cards

Destiny

..after this, max Wild Cards, Followed by Pick A Card, and then finally Gate.

Get Destiny whenever possible.

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Explanation and playstyle:

Doran's Ring is the best item in the game. Period.

Boots of Swiftness is simply the best, as TF needs to be as fast as possible in order to catch up to foes/escape after a successful gank.

Sheen makes your cards hit a lot harder.

Mejai's is simply way too good on Twisted Fate.

Lich Bane is after you get that Mejai's charged up a little.

Zhonya's is just to amplify your late game damage.

Haunting Guise for a little bit more magic pen, or Rylais for that extra beef.

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Summoner Skills:

Flash

One of flash's best uses is to Gate into the opposing base, kill someone, and then flash out.

Clair

Clair is simply one of the best summoner skills. Maphack ftw. Use it often.

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Runes:

Magic Pen Marks

Scaling HP @ 18 Glyphs

Scaling Mana Regen @ 18 Seals

HP Quints

Twisted Fate really needs the extra HP to stay alive, as well as the extra mana regen for staying power.

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Typical game as AP Twisted fate:

1. Tele in.
2. Kill people.
3. Accumulate over 600+ AP late game.
4. Completely dominate.

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This guide assumes that the player knows how to get gold cards.

Hmm, at level 18 I'll have around 2,000 HP with my whole setup.

I find that getting RoA slows down my early/mid game damage.

While Twisted Fate is admittedly on the squishy side, his ability to get in and out of battle quickly, along with Boots of Swiftness and Flash, and his map control with Clairvoyance allows a Twisted Fate player to choose battles wisely.

I don't allow myself to get focused too much, as my role in the team is to get in there, score a quick kill, and then get out while priming my second gold card+wild cards combo.

Hmm, I'll have to take that into consideration.