Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Best LoR Decks – Return of the Weaponmasters
As of Thursday, after one week since the LoR Variety Patch landed, these are the 6 most popular LoR decks according to Legna the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players) and Legna's data (which samples High Diamond & Masters players) – both sources in turn get their data directly from Riot (via Riot's API).
Overall LoR Ladder Trends
Demacia, paired with 
Piltover & Zaun or just by themselves, keep their steely grip on the LoR meta – yet we have a new contender, rising through the ranks: Jax
Ornn
, which made a bit of a splash last patch before petering out, is now back in full swing, and as we'll see in detail it's the most played specific deck right now.
Other growing trends, as you dig deeper into the LoR data:
In spite of Demacia's dominance, the scariest decks out there right now are Taliyah
Ziggs
and Annie
Jhin
,
Lurkers never go anywhere and remain popular even if metas that don't quite suit them, but this time around they are a very good choice,
Kai'Sa
is thus far Evelynn
's most popular partner, yet both Lucian
and Viego
remain very good choices,
LoR Meta FAQs
Where does this data come from?
Directly from Riot (via Riot's API) – Liver, our wonderful coder and unsung MaRu 🐐 (also in charge of designing the website) makes the data automagically appear in our meta tier list and meta stats page, and all-around LoR 🐐 Legna shares his data (from the same source, although following a different set of players) with us too.
What are the best decks in LoR?
Short answer: Depends on how you define "best", of course! =)
Much longer answer: Check the Technical Note at the end of the article, above all about the differences between "archetypes" and "decks" in Legends of Runeterra's data.
Practical answer: As of today, Jax Ornn, Garen Jarvan, Jayce Lux, Annie Jhin and Taliyah Ziggs
Which is the highest win rate deck in LoR?
Among all decks showcased today: Annie Jhin – bullet buff and blazing brat are punching above the 60% win rate mark, which in technical terms is known as "friggin' crazy." Which both Champs are, no doubt!
Taliyah Ziggs would be the second highest.
Among decks with more than 2,100 games played in the last three days: It's currently a tie between Garen Jarvan and Jax Ornn.
How do I beat…
How do I beat Elite decks? Your best bet is Heimer Jayce. Jax Ornn and Jayce Lux work very well too, and Taliyah Ziggs is another excellent option.
How do I beat Jayce Lux? Jax Ornn! It brutally demolishes the Big Spells duo. Taliyah Ziggs or Evelynn Kai'Sa are other good options.
How do I beat Jax Ornn? Heimer Jayce, Gangplank Sejuani, and above all Annie Jhin. You could also bring Ryze (which is, technically, the very best deck against Jax Ornn) but it's not a good deck overall.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks
Here we showcase LoR decks with more than 2100 games in the last three days, and good-to-great win rate – the best tried-and-true tools the LoR meta has to offer!
The Weapon Forge: Jax Ornn
Weaponmaster and Hammer God were not a thing in the early post-patch days – but since the weekend they've been gaining steam fast. They currently are the most played specific deck in LoR according to MaRu's LoR stats, and the third most popular (after both versions of Elites that we'll see right next) according to Legna's data.
These two Champs have spread across all servers, and Jax Ornn's best deck is also the most played in all three shards – while this early on in a patch cycle no deck can be said to be "solved", this sure looks like a well-refined powerhouse already:
27 cards
13 cards
23 700
The above build punches above the 56% win rate mark (usually known as "bonkers" in technical parlance) across 2,500+ games.
Forge God and Weaponmaster demolish Jayce Lux, reliably beat Elites, crush all Evelynn flavors into a bloody pulp, and steamroll Taliyah Ziggs – but they are not without their weak spots: Heimer Jayce is quite a bad matchup, and both Annie Jhinn and Ryze are spectacularly awful.
Lone Demacia: Garen Jarvan
Single-region Demacia, with its staple Vanguard Bannerman
making big stuff bigger thanks to the Allegiance mechanic, seems the way to go for Elites (rather than pairing them with Kayle, as we'll see next).
Stats from MaRu and Legna show a near-perfect overlap for the best Garen Jarvan deck, with win rate above 55% across 2,500 games.
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21 100
Demacia Elites tend to be slightly the underdog against Jayce Lux, Jax Ornn and Kayle Elites, and lose quite badly to Heimer Jayce and Taliyah Ziggs – on the other hand, they have a huge advantage against Ryze, Azirelia, Kayle Leona and Kalista Nocturne, with also a slight edge versus Annie Jhin, and mercilessly steamroll weaker decks that stand in their way.
Garen Kayle, ft. Jarvan
Thus far, data from both MaRu and Legna show Kayle Elites a bit below "Kayless" Elites in performance – only a bit according to Legna, and by quite the gap (a win-rate drop of more than 3%) by MaRu, suggesting in both cases that Elites are better alone than paired with 
Targon.
Still, Garen Kayle is quite a punchy deck, mind you – above all if you look at Legna's data (which tracks players in High Diamond and above), where Garen Kayle shows a 55% win rate.
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3 cards
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When looking at matchups, the difference with Lone Demacia Elites is not trivial: Kayle's version does much worse against Jayce decks (both Lux and Heimer), loses badly against Lurkers (while the Kayless version is slightly favored), and does slightly worse against Jax Ornn. As a trade-off, the Kayle version beats Eve Kai'Sa (which the Kayless version loses to), has a bigger edge on Annie Jhin, and perhaps most important: when facing its Kayless sibling, Kayle's version wins more often than not.
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Meta Decks
These Legends of Runeterra decks have between 900 and 2100 games in the last three days – solid picks for climbing the LoR ladder!
Evelynn Kai'Sa
After some ups and downs during this patch's early days, Evelynn and Kai'Sa have found their stride and are the most-played deck in our Heavyweight category.
In fact, there are two different builds with play rates over 1,000 games in the last three days – while fairly similar in their followers, they differ quite a bit in their Spell composition, and one uses Landmarks while the other prefers Equipment. The latter, seen below, looks thus far the best (win rate near 56% in 1,200+ games – near perfect overlap between MaRu & Legna), but here's the other version (52% win rate) in case you'd like to compare.
26 cards
14 cards
30 500
Kindred Nasus Senna
Not exactly a meta-breaker, according to current data, but here's a fresh take on an old classic: Senna
has joined the Undying gang in a perfect 2:2:2 threesome, and they are bringing three copies of Castigate
to the fray.
Kindred Nasus Senna shows a near-perfect overlap between MaRu's & Legna's data (in this case a solid 52% across 1,700 games), and has a very interesting matchup spread: demolishes all versions of Elites, has a tiny edge over Jayce decks, beats Lurkers and can go toe-to-toe with Jax Ornn, while losing quite badly to Eve decks, Ryze, and Annie Jhin.
29 cards
11 cards
33 500
The Six-Plus Pair: Jayce Lux
Now, time to talk about the six-mana elephant in the room!
While the most popular archetype by a landslide, Jayce Lux is also one of the most "scattered" (as in, has tons of different, high-play-rate builds) – case in point, there are no less than six different builds today with more than 1,000 games played in the last three days (as per MaRu's data). The interesting news, though, is that pilots seem to be converging to the best build, since the most popular Jayce Lux deck also shows the highest performance (56% win rate, yet again with perfect accordance between MaRu's & Legna's data):
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12 cards
26 700
As preached and practiced by the Aspect of Expensive Spells, the secret to Jayce Lux is no Forge of Tomorrow, and never leaving your lab without Formula.
Last week, Jayce Lux's selling point was its lack of strong predators: back then, only Taliyah Ziggs could reliably beat it. Things have changed now: Eve Kai'Sa has good odds against the Big Spells pair, Annie Jhin is also rough, and Jax Ornn is downright a nightmare for Jayce Lux. On the other hand, Jayce Lux still consistently beats Elites, Heimer Jayce, Ryze, Lurkers and Eve Lucian, and as witnessed by its stellar win rate it wipes the floor with weaker brews.
Lurkers, aka Pyke Rek'sai
The most aptly-named deck in LoR's history, Lurkers are always there, even when the meta is decidedly against them. The latter is not the case now, though: Pyke & crew are an excellent choice against the current field, with their best deck packing a 54% punch across 1,700+ games. Amazing odds against Ryze, Kayle Elites and Eve decks; not too happy to run into Jayce, Taliyah Ziggs and Kayless Elites.
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15 cards
27 500
Annie Jhin
Aaand they are back to 'Powerhouse' status – it's a marvel how these two can go from fringe, mediocre choice to ladder terror as the LoR meta shifts, without changing themselves.
Bullet buff and blazing brat are currently the highest-winrate deck when checking lists with more than 500 games in the last three days – specifically, the only deck above 60%, across a 1,500+ game sample.
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12 cards
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They lose to Elites and Heimer Jayce, but prey upon Jayce Lux, Eve Kai'Sa and Jax Ornn – and with amazing odds against the latter two.
Taliyah Ziggs
Time to adapt!
While last week's build is still doing well, Taliyah Ziggs' best deck today brings to the fray Rockbear Shepherd
, Safety Inspector
, and The Absolver
...
14 cards
26 cards
27 000
… resulting in the second-highest win rate we'll see today: almost 60%, across 1100+ games, mostly fueled by good odds against Jayce Lux and great odds versus all Elites flavors, while also killing Heimer Jayce, Lurkers and Kindred Nasus Senna in the process.
Taliyah Ziggs is one of the decks for whom the rise of Eve decks and Jax Ornn is awful news, though, so we'll see how the landmark duo fares into the next week.
Evelynn Lucian
In this case, there's a stark disagreement between MaRu's and Legna's data: MaRu puts toying Demoness and toy Sentinel at 52%, while Legna shows 55%; sample sizes are also different (1,400 games for MaRu, around 900 games for Legna), hinting at a difference between the Plat+ and High Diamond+ metas.
According to MaRu, Eve Lucian beats other Eve decks, Ryze and Taliyah Ziggs, while being the underdog against Jayce decks, Elites, and Jax Ornn.
22 cards
18 cards
34 200
Akshan Varus
The Rogue and the Cultist are having quite a good time in this patch – nothing meta-breaking, but neither something to scoff at, punching at 53% in across 1300 games according to MaRu's data; they do drop to 51% in about 800 games in Legna's, though, hinting at more competitive metas being difficult for these two.
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30 000
Gwen Quinn
Turns out these are not a fluke! Continuing with their good performance last week, Gwen Quinn shows a 55% winrate across 1,000+ games in MaRu's data – like Akshan Varus, though, both play and win rates drop in Legna's.
14 cards
26 cards
31 400
Kalista Nocturne
Reversing the trend from the previous three decks, Fearsome performs better in Legna's data (56% win rate) than in MaRu's (52%), across a similarly sized sample (about 1,000 games in both cases), hinting that Kalista Nocturne may thrive at higher ranks.
38 cards
2 cards
27 100
Not Looking Good...
Ryze
decks, and Mischievous Marai
decks (chiefly with Seraphine
and Twisted Fate
) see a lot of play and little success, and we won't recommend them today.
Caitlyn Norra, ft. Banana Blaster
, is an interesting case: subpar deck according to MaRu's data, but quite playable per Legna, so we'll leave it to pilots' discretion.
Punching Up – Runeterra Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 450 and 900 games in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples, yet all decks here have quite a few games under their belts.
Azir Irelia
Aaand these two are back, too! The Domination
buff, plus additions from previous expansions, have pushed the best Azir Irelia deck to a 56% win rate in about 750 games played in the last three days. Nukes Ryze and Heimer Jayce, dies horribly when facing Elites and Annie Jhin.
24 cards
16 cards
31 900
Gangplank Sejuani, aka Plunder
Another very old archetype that has remained relevant for several patches now, Plunder shows a great 55% win rate in about 600 games.
If you haven't played these two before, here's a deck that can go both aggressive (cosplaying as old-school Pirates) or more combo-oriented, by freeze-locking the board when Sejuani (level 2)
is in play – and which is amazing against Jayce Lux, Eve Kai'Sa and Jax Ornn, so definitely a deck to keep an eye on!
11 cards
29 cards
26 500
Heimer Jayce
Like Jayce Lux, Heimer Jayce is an archetype that has tons of different builds – although very much unlike Jayce Lux, many of those builds are mediocre or downright bad right now.
The best Heimer Jayce deck, though, is one of the scariest things out there, punching nearly at 59% across 550 games. Great against Elites, Ryze and Jax Ornn, Heimer Jayce is very weak to Taliyah Ziggs and quite afraid of Eve Kai'Sa.
30 cards
10 cards
26 400
Evelynn Viego
Lucian and Kai'Sa may be the popular partners nowadays, but Eve's first good deck, many metas ago, was with Viego – and although these two had a bit of a rocky start this patch, they have found their place in the current field. They actually thoroughly beat the Kai'Sa version should they face each other, and have good odds against Elites and Taliyah Ziggs.
25 cards
15 cards
29 800
Your Mileage May Vary – Fringe LoR Decks
Legends of Runeterra decks with less than 450 games played in the last three days – very little data, so these may range from total flukes… to the next big thing.
Braum Fiora, ft. Warmother's Call
Yes, this is a thing! Giving Feel The Rush
decks a run for their shards in the fight for the Deck With the Biggest Spells title, Braum Fiora has been doing very well with some of the most expensive cards in Legends of Runeterra.
The ideal deck for the "Go big or go home" among you!