Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Howdy, and welcome to our weekly selection of the best decks in the Legends of Runeterra meta!
As explained in the Technical Note at the end of this article, we'll first take a glance at a snapshot of our LoR Meta Decks Tier List, which sorts archetypes (that's to say, the aggregate of all decks with the exact same Champions) by popularity, and then we'll dive into the data to check how individual decks perform, to showcase the best LoR decks.
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the most popular Standard LoR archetypes according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List – notice that "popular" and "strong" don't quite overlap this early on, though!
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Standard
With Worlds 2023 behind us, the LoR ladder meta is this week pretty stable: Darius Gnar has made an entrance among the best decks in Runeterra, and (words that I know I'm not the only one typing) Shyvana, of all champs, has shown she has what it takes to claw a place at the top.
Elder Dragon
is clearly on the same tier as Vayne
or Bard
at their heydays: just slap the grumpy ol' lizard with another champ and you've got a working deck. But it must be said that the LoR Devs have pulled an interesting feat two expansions in a row now: all new champs have at least one popular, potent deck…
… and as we'll see in a bit, they all have at least one other option you can climb with.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
Decks in this category have at least 2400 games played in the last three days, and good to great win rates – as far as current numbers go, these are the best LoR decks in the Standard ladder.
Elder Dragon Norra
One of the decks that was seen the most during Worlds 2023, Elder Dragon Norra
climbs this week to the top of the popularity charts when specific decklists are considered:
15 cards
25 cards
28 400
With 5200+ games played in the last three days and punching close to 57% when it comes to win rates, Elder Norra is unarguably one of the best LoR decks.
The list seems pretty solved at this point. Gnar
has exited this conversation, by the way (the prehistoric Yordle used to be part of this brew last week); some versions are experimenting with tweaks to the Follower mix, including for example one copy of The Zaun Diva
, but without promising results as of yet.
Elder Norra seems to suffer when facing other Elder decks (like Elder Volibear, Elder Garen, and above all Elder Shyvana) and is a massive underdog to Darius Gnar – on the backswing, it's favored versus Mordekaiser Morgana and Riven Morgana, slaps Gwen Zed silly, and has a small edge on Karma Sett, which is gaining popularity.
Elder Dragon Shyvana
Yyyyep, it's a fact: Shyvana
has a top-performing, Juggernaut-level deck!
All courtesy of good ol' Elder Dragon, but still: Elder Dragon Shyvana is definitely one of the strongest decks in Runeterra right now, with the most popular version punching nearly at 55% across 4400 games:
27 cards
13 cards
28 900
And there may even be better versions, cutting Spells to add more, bigger Followers:
25 cards
15 cards
34 400
Elder Shyvana loses badly to Elder Volibear, but has the upper hand against Elder Gnar (by a little) and Elder Norra (by a huge lot).
Confrontations against popular Morgana decks (mainly Mord Morgana and Riven Morgana) are about 50/50, and both Karma Sett and Darius Gnar are a bit of an uphill struggle but still in the "can do" range.
Darius Gnar
Here's the pair that has gained the most momentum this week: with pretty much a solved build (not a single card changed since last week), Darius
Gnar smacks above the 57% winrate mark with 4300 games in the last three days.
It's excellent against Elder Norra, close to auto-win versus Elder Volibear, punches through Fizz Yuumi and has the upper hand against Elder Shivana. It's not without weak spots, though: Elder Garen is massively unfavored, and all Morgana flavors tend to be a headache.
21 cards
19 cards
23 600
Frozen Karma Sett
The LoR Mint has found its footing with Freljord (it was not doing much last week) and has surged in popularity, along with a very solid 53% win rate.
(Do note that there's also a version pairing these Ionian champs with 
Piltover & Zaun – that one is, at least thus far, pretty bad.)
It has changed a lot since the last time it made a dent in the Runeterra meta: it's now one of the most spell-heavy, top-heavy decks out there, and even packs one copy of the recently hotfixed Heisho, Shell of the World
.
Its matchup spread is very solid: Darius Gnar and Morgana Riven are quite rough, but those are Karma Sett's only glaring weak spots. Elder Gnar is unfavored but only slightly so; Elder Norra is close to 50/50; Elder Shyvana is slightly favored for Karma Sett, while Mordekaiser Morgana, Elder Volibear, and Fizz Yuumi are massively favored.
16 cards
24 cards
41 100
Mordekaiser Morgana
Mordekaiser
Morgana
remains very popular overall (its still the most-played archetype), but individual lists are losing steam. Still very playable, but the most popular lists perform at around 52%, which is a far cry from the rest of today's Juggernauts.
On the other hand, it's very possible that the best list hasn't been found yet – there are several different versions running around.
32 cards
8 cards
28 200
Morgana Mordekaiser's main selling points is that it's excellent against Elder Garen (a deck that has very few glaring weaknesses) while also being solid against Darius Gnar, this week's hottest trend. It's also very good against Gwen Zed, which has proved very resilient.
Elder Norra, Elder Volibear, and above all the ascending Karma Sett, on the other hand, are decks you'd rather not run into.
Further Reading: Sorry's Morgana Mordekaiser Demacia Deck Guide
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1200 and 2400 games played in the last three days – thus far, they are among Runeterra's heavy-hitters!
Elder Dragon Garen
It's a bit surprising that Elder Dragon Garen
hasn't garnered more popularity by now, given that it has consistently been one of the best performing decks since Beyond landed. And it's doing the same again, with a stellar winrate close to 58% in around 2100 games in the last three days.
Pilots find Elites' play pattern a tad tedious, perhaps?
The deck does have an awful time against Mordekaiser Morgana (which remains the deck you'll most often find on the Runeterra ladder) and is slightly the underdog to Elder Shyvana – but good odds against Elder Norra, great odds versus Darius Gnar and Elder Voli, and basically flattening every non-optimized brew out there makes Elder Garen one of the best tools to climb with.
Further Reading: Leer's Garen Elder Dragon Deck Guide.
10 cards
30 cards
24 000
Elder Dragon Morgana
Yeah, well, I mean, if Elder Dragon can carry every champ out there, it can surely carry Morgana too!
And the pairing is not just purely performative; punching at 56% across 2000 games, Elder Dragon Morgana looks like yet another grumpy ol' lizard real-deal, and may end up being the best Morgana deck out there.
It's horrible (as in, close to auto-lose horrible) when facing Karma Sett, and dies painfully versus Annie Jhin (yep, they are definitely back), but Elder Morgana has an otherwise excellent matchup spread: slight edge versus Mord Morgana, and very good odds against Elder Norra, Elder Shyvana, Darius Gnar, and Elder Garen. A great place to be against in the current Runeterra meta!
20 cards
20 cards
39 800
Fizz Yuumi
While the grumpy ol' lizard is razzling and dazzling everybody with its Timmy tricks, these two have quietly gained a lot of popularity: Fizz
Yuumi
were last week a bit of a fringe choice, but have now jumped among the most popular.
Drop some elusive s, buff them to hell and back – an old technique, and some would say not too chivalrous, but has been working splendidly since day one of this expansion.
18 cards
22 cards
27 500
Annie Jhin
Stable in their playrate (they show today almost exactly the same playrate as last week: about 1200 games), Annie
Jhin
is yet against the deck with the highest winrate among popular options, 58%+, even higher than than Elder Garen.
Blazing brat and bullet buff do all sorts of unspeakably awfull things to both Karma Sett and Elder Voli, along with turning Elder Morgana into a charred corpse. From among the strong decks, only Elder Norra and Elder Garen seem able to stop Annie Jhin in its tracks.
25 cards
15 cards
27 500
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard LoR decks with between 800 and 1200 games played in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
Teemo Yuumi
Yuumi has proved quite adaptable in this "Go Tall" meta, and shows up in another elusive take: Teemo
Yuumi chooses Piltover & Zaun as their second region, and thus far the results are excellent.
21 cards
19 cards
33 300
Gwen Zed
"If it's working then don't tweak it," say Seamstress and Shadow Master.
Gwen
Zed
has proven remarkably resilient, bringing to the fray the exact same build we've seen during Onward.
And when it works, it works. Gwen Zed has its fair share of bad matchups (Elder Norra in particular, but also Elder Garern, Mord Morgana, and Darius Gnar), but it's quite strong against Elder Shyvanna, demolishes Karma Sett, and terrorizes fringe brews.
15 cards
25 cards
27 000
KríSiS' Maokai Mordekaiser Mill
Forget about Shivana being good: the big news this week is that mill is still a thing!
And not just a thing, but a bigger, better thing (and with twice the Mordekaiser contents!): increasing both in play rate and win rate (from 53% last week to nearly 55% this week), Mord Maokai is a island of originality in a sea of grumpy ol' beatsticks.
Here's a reddit thread by KríSiS, the deck creator, with a quick explanation about this beauty!
11 cards
29 cards
28 500
Morgana Riven
Morgana Riven
had a rought time last week, but is gaining steam again and today showcases a stellar 56% winrate.
Further Reading: Leer's Morgana Riven Deck Guide
18 cards
22 cards
26 100
Your Mileage May Vary
If none of the more meta decks floats your boat, here are a handful of more fringe options that are doing well on the Standard LoR ladder – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
Ashe LeBlanc
Ice Queen and Black Rose are not having the best of times, but they are certainly a deck you can take to the LoR ladder.
Ashe
LeBlanc
is particularly good against Elder Shyvana, if that's the deck you want to counter.
26 cards
14 cards
25 100
Neeko Teemo
Below all this Timmyfest, with pilots hurling huge units at each other, Neeko
Teemo have sneaked in by going cheap and wide, and then sprinkling a Yordles in Arms 
to clash with the other big butts on the board.
Performance has improved a lot since last week (from 53% to nearly 56%) – it's still a fringe brew, but if you want something different, it's been performing great for two weeks in a row now!
27 cards
13 cards
27 100
Elder Dragon Volibear
There are a ton of different Elder Dragon Volibear
versions, and this failure to agree on the best build may be the reason why the archetype as a whole is not doing very well – but this version, the fourth most popular, is doing quite well. If you're an Elder Voli believer, take this one for a spin!
19 cards
21 cards
42 600
Caitlyn Teemo
Caitlyn
Teemo is looking very, very good right now. It's a deck that always sees play (even when it shouldn't) so performance tends to be pushed upwards by extremely experienced pilots…. But its current numbers look really good right now.
27 cards
13 cards
27 600
The Poro King Yuumi
His Royal Fluffiness lives on, and provides Yuumi with her third playable deck today!
28 cards
12 cards
24 000
Jax Ornn
One of the most flexibles shells during the last patch, when it was one of the very few champion pairs that could compete both in Standard and Eternal, Jax
Ornn
is doing very well in the fringes of the LoR meta.
29 cards
11 cards
18 000
Wrapping Up
Elder Dragon is everywhere, that's for sure – but, a bit like other very flexible champs (like un-nerfed Vayne, for example), there are so many Elder builds that some of them end up countering the others, and thus providing a balanced meta even when one champion is clearly overrepresented.
At least for now, every strong deck has at least one weak spot (and often several) – all in all, a fairly fair playing field as far as the numbers go.
Hope you've found your weapon of choice for this week's climb, and good luck out there!
If you have any questions or comments, or more data you may need, feel free to:
Poke me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HerkoKerghans,
Or find more writings on substack: https://riwan.substack.com/
Technical Note – About overall archetypes and specific decks, and what we mean by "LoR best decks"
Most data sites (including our LoR Meta Tier List, and our meta stats page) and articles like Leer's Legends of Runeterra Meta Decks Report sort LoR meta decks by archetype ("Archetype" being the aggregate of all decks in LoR with a specific champion combination) – that's also how matchup tables are shown in pretty much all data sites.
In this article, we'll sort these decks by the best specific decklist for each archetype. And, whenever we talk about LoR decks in general, or best Legends of Runeterra decks in particular, we'll always be referring to specific lists (while reserving "archetype" to denominate the aggregate of all decks with a particular champion pair).
And, since in each archetype some decks fare better than others (and sometimes the difference is quite noticeable), we'll broadly group the best LoR decks in arbitrary categories by the number of games played in the data samples we check:
- Juggernauts: LoR decks with more than 2100 games – these are the best tried-and-true, top meta decks in Legends of Runeterra at the time of writing.
- Heavyweights: LoR decks with between 2100 and 1200 games played – other excellent choices, with large enough samples to confidently say, "Yeah, this works."
- Punching Up: LoR decks with between 1200 and 800 games played – we're entering the Land of Small Sample Sizes here, but as far as numbers go, these decks can put up one hell of a fight into the current LoR meta.
As a rule of thumb, LoR decks with a win rate (WR) above 52% catch our eye; above 53% are eye-widening, and anything with a WR over 55% is exceptional.
Sources: Legna's LoR data website, Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List, and our LoR meta stats page.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from Riot (via Riot's API) – in other words, all the numbers in this article are "from the horse's mouth," so to speak.
Liver, our wonderful coder and unsung MaRu 🐐 (also in charge of designing the website) makes Riot's 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.
