Weekend Warrior Weapons, Jan 21 -- Thirty-Three Potent Blends, from Staples to Risky Brews, for the Discerning Part-Time Ladderista

Glad to see you, my friend! Welcome back!

And please, step inside, and let me share with you our latest blends and formulas: exotic and little-tested brews, powerful Meta staples, uncommon blends proclaiming prodigious promise…

… only the best of the best, my friend, distilled from distinguished datamancers Balco (link) and Legna (link)!

So, do tell me, would you like to…

… peruse the Cream of the Crop, to be assured your weapon of choice is the best tool for an efficient Ladder climb?

• Their Laddering Majesties, Ahri Kennen Shurima,
• Pantheon Taric, returning to the top of the charts,
• Ahri Kennen Shadows, stalking the Shurima variant wherever it goes,

… inspect other Strong Meta Staples, all tried-and-true blends at the top of the power scales?

• Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts, relentless in their staying power,
• Pantheon Shyvana, refusing to be overshadowed by Taric,
• Fizz Lulu, which as predicted reached the upper echelons,

… or perhaps you'd like to consider these other Meta decks, all currently enjoying an edge against the field?

• Elise Trundle, aka Iceborn Spiders,
• Champless Poros, who haven't gone anywhere,
• Taliyah Ziggs, in its interesting position as Control Hunter,

… check perhaps our Connoisseur's Corner, for equally powerful blends but a bit less popular?

• Fifty Shades of Ahri Kennen,
• Ahri Lulu P&Z,
• Pirates,
• Jayce Lux, which finally seems to work,
• Caitlyn Senna, little seen outside Asia Pacific,
• Curious Elise Kindred,
• Pantheon Zoe,
• Lulu Zed, aka Rally Elusives,
• Lulu Poppy, aka Lulu Drift, another take on Rally Elusives,

… or shall I show you our risky and experimental blends, exhibiting great performance across boutique-sized data samples?

• Nightfall,
• Kindred Vi,
• Hermerdinger Jayce Shadows,
• Hairs of the Frozen Rose,
• Fizz Tristana Rally,
• Feel the Minah FTR,
• Fortune's Twisted Fun,
• Akshan Lee Sin,
• Darius Sivir Reckoning,
• Darius Biceps Shurima,
• Frozen Renekton Sivir,
• Zed Sivir Flurry,
• Kindred Lux, aka Cithria Matron,
• Kindred Ziggs Go Hard,
• LH#1, Riven Rumble,
• Luzeldon's Muscle Dragon

Choose at leisure, my friend. Friday's here…

… time to take things at whatever pace Fun dictates!

A Glimpse at our Meta

Although our swingy Meta shows no shortage of surprises -- with nowadays Taric Pantheon surging to the top -- faces at the very top are fairly familiar…

… with Fizz Lulu being the other recent (and, in this case, not quite unexpected) arrival to the upper echelons.

Cream of the Crop: the Ridiculously Strong

The more things change, the more they seem to remain the same. Week after week, one deck rises to contest Ahri Kennen's throne, only to retreat the following days.

Will such be Pantheon Taric's fate?

We shall see; for the time being, though, it has at least succeeded in reaching winrates that, if you excuse my French, sont putain de stupide.

Ahri Kennen Shurima

There's little to say at this point: call them benign sovereigns, call them ruthless tyrants, these two rule the Ladder. Surprisingly, though, their popularity does not match their performance, with more pilots preferring Scouts of even Darkness.

Our suggested formula is the tried-and-true, most popular list for this blend -- there is some room for tweaks if you so desire, like including Sai'nen Thousand-Tailed as top end.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Lurkers, Kindred Viego, murders all Pantheon Builds, Taliyah Ziggs

Struggles Against: Scouts, Elise Noxus, Trundle Tryndamere FTR, Kindred Sentinels, Pirates, Caitlyn Kindred

Further Reading: Here's our guide by Wammu, written briefly before the balance patch.

Pantheon Taric

Displacing the still very powerful Shyvana variant, Pantheon Taric is now both the best-performing Pantheon blend, and the current challenger to the Meta throne.

Looking at the numbers, Taric's edge over Shyvana seems to stem from two match-ups in particular:

• Lurkers, which is rough for Shyvana but even for Taric, and
• Draven Rumble above all, which goes from very unfavorable to Shyvana, to fairly favorable for Taric.

The permanence of Lurkers is our Ladder's one unshakable truth, but Draven Rumble seems to be on the decline -- we shall see next week how these trends affect the Meta.

Our recommended Taric Pantheon formula is the second most popular for this Champion pair, and currently the best performing. It is also the one with which prominent pilots GrandpaRoji and Scathus both reached a thirteen-games win streak recently.

Strong Against: Darkness, Champless Poros, Scouts, Trundle Shadow builds, Kindred Sentinels

Struggles Against:Ahri Kennen builds, Pantheon Shyvana, Fizz Lulu, Pirates, Elise Noxus

Further Reading: Here's Leer's guide (link), written a bit before the patch, and here's prominent pilot TricksterSorry more recent writings for runeterraccg.

Ahri Kennen Shadows

As proof of the pair's plenteous power, one of Ahri Kennen Shurima's strongest counters is the Shadows variant, which preeminent pilots like Kevor24 find superior overall.

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima, Lurkers, Draven Rumble, Fizz Lulu, Taliyah Ziggs

Struggles Against: Scouts, Elise Noxus, Kindred Sentinels, Nightfall 

Other Strong Meta Staples

All these blends below perform at what would be straight-up Tier One status, were it not for the putain de stupide winrates exhibited by the ruling elite.

If you seek an efficient climb, these strong, you can take these well-tested formulas to the Ladder without a second thought -- and whichever weapon you choose, be prepared to face them frequently.

Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts

Scouts has amply proven not to be a fluke, with prominent pilots routinely reaching the ranks' summit. 

Enjoying good matchups into both Ahri Kennen and its strongest counter (Elise Noxus), the only thing keeping Scouts from scaling to the top are Pantheon builds. 

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen builds, Elise Noxus, Champless Poros, Thralls, Pirates, slight edge against Darkness and FTR

Struggles Against: Pantheon builds, Kindred Sentinels, Jayce Lux

Further Reading: You'll find Sirturmund's guide for this exact build in the Competitive subreddit (link); Leer proposes a variation of this archetype, focused on Vanguard Bannerman, on his guide here (link).

Pantheon Shyvana

Still very much a force to be reckoned with, and superior to the Taric blend in a duel.

Strong Against: Darkness, Champless Poros, Scouts, Elise Trundle, Kindred Sentinels, other Pantheon builds

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen, Lurkers, Elise Noxus, Draven Rumble, Fizz Lulu, Pirates

Further Reading: Here's TricksterSorry's recent guide at runeterraccg (link).

Fizz Lulu

As I mentioned last week, and as predicted by Leer in his latest Meta report, Fizz Lulu is back in full force: this blend was among the strongest right before the balance patch, was pushed a bit to the side right afterwards, and has now bursted full-force at the top.

The formula is still being refined -- pilots are putting back Bandle City Mayor in their lists, as in our recommended blend. There also seems to be room for tweaks in the Spell column, with successful brews swapping Group Shot for Scrapheap, and even making room for Treasured Trash in some cases.

Strong Against: Lurkers, Champless Poros, Elise Noxus, Pantheon builds, Pirates, Draven Rumble

Struggles Against: Darkness, Trundle Shadow builds, Ahri Kennen Shadows, Ahri Lulu

Further Reading: Here's Leer's guide, from briefly before the patch.

Other Meta Decks to Consider

Should playstyle or shortage of shards dictate other choices, these would be our recommendations for those seeking tried-and-true, efficient solutions for climbing the Ladder. All blends below have a playrate of 1% or more in Platinum and above, and winrates above the 51% threshold in the last few days.

Elise Trundle, aka Iceborn Spiders

This archetype seems to have settled for the non-Landmark build, after initial experimentation with The Howling Abyss.

Strong Against: Lurkers, Draven Rumble, Kindred Sentinels, Fizz Lulu, Nightfall, Ahri Lulu

Struggles Against: Champless Poros, Pantheon builds, Thralls,

Should you be in the mood for a bit of adventure, there's a little-tested version replacing Trundle for Braum, and adding the Landmarks back (link).

Champless Poros

While not longer the Ladder terror they were the first week post-patch, Iceborn Poros are still around, alive and kicking, and even morphing and transmuting into different builds.

The most popular formula (link) -- which does perform adequately -- relies on an even split between spells and followers. There's even a version which includes Jinx (link).

Recent innovations, though, aim for a higher spell count, and seem to perform much better -- one such formula is our recommendation below.

Strong Against: Trundle Tryndamere FTR, Elise Trundle, Taliyah Ziggs,

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima, Elise Noxus, Scouts, Pantheon builds, Kindred Sentinels

Taliyah Ziggs

A bit off the beaten path, Taliyah Ziggs has shown solid performance for over two weeks now -- an interesting build that preys on Control decks, while being weak to more straightforward forms of aggression.

Strong Against: Darkness, Trundle Tryndamere FTR, Anivia Freljord, Kindred Sentinels

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen builds, Champless Poros, Draven Rumble, Pirates

Other options

Among popular options with solid Ladder performance in the ladder, you may consider:

• Pyke Rek'sai, fairly solid against everything that is not Ahri Kennen, and quite good against Shyvana Pantheon,
• Darkness, still one of the most popular decks at Platinum and above, with a fairly even matchup spread in general but suffering from Pantheon blends considerably,
• Trundle Tryndamere's performance has suffered as of late, probably due to Scouts and Champless Poros, but still enjoys a favorable matchups into Ahri Kennen, 
• Sivir Akshan, which dies horribly to Ahri Kennen and preys on Darkness, but is otherwise arguably the most "fair" deck currently -- most of its other matchups in the 45-55% range, making it a staple of "comfort" lineups in tournaments.

While still popular (and certainly playable), the fortunes of Draven Rumble, Kindred Sentinels and Kindred Viego seem much diminished -- if efficient climbing is your main goal, our recommendation would be to consider piloting something different.

Connoisseur's Corner

If safety and efficiency are not the only variables you are concerned with, and you wish to add uniqueness into the mix, these blends shall serve you well. They all have playrates below 1% -- meaning your foes would have met a similar deck less than once every hundred games they play -- while large enough sample sizes to guarantee their positive performance is no fluke.

Fifty Shades of Ahri Kennen

The Ahri Kennen shell has proven capable of any manner of splashes without a dent to its performance, including Ladder forerunner ENiamor splashing Sunken Cost (link) on grounds of it being funny.

Should you wish to join the fun, the Noxus and mono-Ionia version are our other recommendations. 

Ahri Lulu P&Z

Here returns yet another blend that was very well positioned pre-patch: eschewing the Recall package for the traditional P&Z Discard & Burn tools, Ahri Lulu can run over most other blends that go for early aggression.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Elise Noxus, Kindred Viego, Fizz Lulu, Draven Rumble

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen builds, Darkness, Trundle Shadows builds

Pirates

Like the tides change, Pirates always return!

It should be noted that, sneers about its skull-void nature aside, Pirates are very strong against many of the strongest decks in the current field -- disastrous odds against Control decks is what prevents it from sailing into Top Tier waters.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Ahri Kennen, Lurkers, Elise Noxus, Kindred Viego, Pantheon Shyvana

Struggles Against: Darkness, Trundle Tryndamere, Scouts, Kindred Sentinels, Fizz Lulu, Ahri Kennen Shadows

Jayce Lux

Perhaps one of the most obvious Champion pairings when reading their cards' text, Jayce Lux had until now failed to find sustained success. Weak to our ruling Queen and King, the blend is fairly strong against other popular Meta staples.

Strong Against: Darkness, Scouts, Lurkers

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen, Kindred Viego, Trundle Tryndamere

Caitlyn Senna

A spell-heavy permission deck with Corina Veraza and Commander Ledros as top end. Quite a bit popular in the Asia-Pacific shard, has gained little traction thus far in other regions.

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen

Struggles Against: Darkness

Curious Elise Kindred

A Curious Shellfolk blend that presents an interesting matchup spread, being strong against both Their Royal Majesties and Scouts.

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen, Scouts, Elise Noxus

Struggles Against: Darkness, Pantheon Shyvana, Champless Poros, Lurkers

Pantheon Zoe

A Pantheon blend without the popularity of other more well-known formulas, but that has seen quite a bit of play -- and very good performance -- in all shards, especially in Asia-Pacific.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Darkness

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen

Lulu Zed, aka Rally Elusives

After Poppy's many nerfs, pilots are spending quite a bit of effort in returning Rally Elusives to their former glory.

The most successful endeavor thus far has replaced Poppy with Lulu, and added The Mourned (even without any Recall synergies) into its formula.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Lurkers, Pantheon Taric

Struggles Against: Scouts, Trundle Shadow builds

Lulu Poppy, aka Lulu Drift

Here's another take, pioneered by Darkodious, in this case dropping Zed for Lulu and sticking with followers that do not mind Poppy's nerf -- our suggested build is bA1anceLoR's formula, which he iterated through his Masters climb.

Strong Against: Extremely favored into Champless Poros; favored into Trundle Tryndamere, Kindred Viego

Struggles Against: Elise Noxus, Darkness, Lurkers, Scouts

Rare and Risky Brews

If you wish to throw caution to the winds, and jump into uncharted waters, then these are the blends you seek, my friend: all have proven capable of outstanding performance, but their very small sample size leaves us with no way to determine if such prowess is due to simple luck, extremely skilled pilots, or both.

But, as they saying goes: no risk, no fun!

Nightfall

A very old, fairly skill-testing archetype, which perhaps can be described as the aggro deck that preys on other aggro decks. As one recurring customer said: "Diana is a constant threat at the board, the opponent needs to really go out of their way to remove her, or she's going to cause a lot of damage. And Nocturne is the big daddy of the deck, who comes downstairs to smack Ahri Kennen when they get too loud."

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Ahri Kennen, Elise Noxus, Lurkers

Struggles Against: Darkness, Draven Rumble, Trundle Shadows builds

Further Reading: Here's MonteXristo's recent guide (link). 

Kindred Vi

A take on Sentinels eschewing Elise for Vi, currently doing quite well in Europe.

Strong Against: Darkness

Struggles Against: Lurkers, Champless Poros

Heimerdinger Jayce Shadows

The Ionia variant of this blend is by far the most popular, yet as of late this Shadows formula has proved to pack quite the punch.

Strong Against: Scouts

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima

Frozen Leblanc

Again has the Rose grown hairs -- Yeti hairs, in particular.

And, I have to say, it does have a Yeti ring to it: this blend routinely shows up in the data with great results, then vanishes like a myth that nobody has faith in.

Probably a blend that is some ungodly skilled pilot's idea of "let's have a bit of fun", when they get tired of the grind.

Fizz Tristana Rally

Seemingly trying to rekindle the Yordle Rally flame, so brutally snuffed after December's hotfix, Fizz and Tristana mix Demacian relentlessness with Bandle City go-wide-and-big tools.

Feel the Minah FTR

A vintage blend by maître brasseur Scathus; very little data to affirm much about its qualities in the current Meta, other than to say it still kicks behinds.

Fortune's Twisted Fun

Looking for some over-the-top incineration? Look no further: Keg-based burn with Funsmith on top.

Akshan Lee Sin

A little-tested blend, but being experimented upon across all shards -- usually a sign that there's something there.

Darius Sivir Reckoning

The Reputation package, but with Darius instead of LeBlanc… and with Reckoning telling Freljord decks: "Hey, we can wipe boards too!"

Darius Biceps Shurima

A blend reminiscent of the Noxus Shurima Aggro decks from the Dark Age of Azirelia. Seems to be an ongoing experiment in the EUMA shard, not seen in other servers.

Renekton Sivir Freljord

Overwhelm, overwhelm as far the eye can see. A fairly old archetype, with most of its games played in a single server -- most likely a prominent pilot's pet project.

Zed Sivir Flurry

This combo used to rule the meta some patches (and nerfs) ago -- it would appear somebody in the Americas shard is bent on resurrecting it.

Kindred Lux, aka Cithria Matron

A blend undergoing testing across all three shards, with Spectral Matron allowing to deploy Cithria, Lady of Clouds on turn eight.

Kindred Ziggs Go Hard

A single list from the Americas shard, no doubt a research project from some extremely skilled pilot. The kind of pairing that shouldn't work, but apparently does (at least in such gifted hands).

Riven Rumble

As postulated by the Legna Hypothesis, no meta can be said to have reached maturity unless it contains at least one under-played Riven archetype. 

Currently the Asia-Pacific shard spearheads such research efforts with this Discard build.

Luzeldon's Muscle Dragon, aka Riven Zed

For our last formula this week, here is Luzeldon's Muscle Dragon (which, I must admit, I did not recognize at first) -- Luzeldon has been tweaking and writing about (and unfailingly reaching Masters with) their creation for several Seasons; you will find their latest guide on the Competitive subreddit (link).

So, my friend!

At last we could present you with a well-stocked selection, so I hope you've found what may become your favorite weapon.

Should you require more data and metrics, by all means do let me know -- feel free to poke me on Twitter (@HerkoKerghans), or you can find more of my recommendations and writings here (link).

Good fortune, and fair fights!