Weekend Warrior Weapons, Jan 28

Glad to see you again, my friend! Welcome back!

Please, step inside! Your timing is impeccable, as usual --  distinguished datamancers Balco and Legna have just sent us their finest formulas and their best blends: everything from little-tested brews to the strongest Meta staples for you to choose.

So, tell me, my friend! How would you wish to welcome this liberating Friday? Would you like to…

… take a glimpse at the current Meta?

… check the Cream of the Crop?

• Their Eternal Majesties, Ahri Kennen Shurima,
• Fizz Lulu, further climbing and now challenging the throne,

… peruse through other strong Meta Staples?

• Pantheon Taric, no longer a throne challenger, but indisputably strong,
• Ahri Kennen Shadows, the eternal stalkers,
• Draven Rumble, bringing back the party to the top,
• Elise Trundle, its inner schism now solved,
• Scouts, a bit crestfallen yet still among the strongest,

… check perhaps our Connoisseur's Corner?

• Lux Kindred, looking very strong once you separate wheat from chaff,
• Ahri Lulu P&Z, perhaps the most underplayed of the meta decks,
• Lulu Drift, making Rally Elusives tick,

… or would you like to take a stroll on the wild side, and sail into risky, uncharted waters?

• Jayce Lux,
• Darius Jinx Burn,
• Akshan Kindred Go Hard,
• Fiora Pantheon,
• Standalone Fiora Zed, a very old idea which seems to have sparked rekindled interest,
• Curious Elise Kindred,
• Teemo Ziggs, fighting fire with lots of fire,
• Harrowing Ashe Elise,
• Ziggs Zilean, another take on Landmark Aggro,
• Ziggs Sivir, experimenting with Noxurimaggro,
• Dancing with Kegs,
• Caitlyn Kindred Go Hard,
• A somewhat similar approach, Caitlyn Senna, but leaning even more towards the Control end of the spectrum,
• Katarina Miss Fortune… there's somebody out there that can clearly make this work!
• Bandle River Swain
• ABranchofTurtwig's Heimer Viktor Shellfolk Give It All
• Bonus: Social Mediums

A Glimpse at the Current Meta

After weeks of violent swings, our Meta seems to be calming down. There are still some ascensions and stumbles at the top of the winrate charts…

… but the pattern has become familiar by now: Ahri Kennen's rule remains uncontested, while a new challenger -- Fizz Lulu this week -- displaces last week's runner-up.

Formulas for most meta staples feel finely refined by now, as extensive trial-and-error bears its optimized fruits…

… while, at the same time, when sifting through the low-playrate blends, one finds a blossoming of off-meta experimentation, as we shall soon see.

Cream of the Crop

A cut above the rest, these two blends have outperformed all others in the last few days --  and in the case of Ahri Kennen, in the last few weeks.

Ahri Kennen Shurima

I will spare you the wordiness, my friend: this is the best blend in the current meta, full stop. And odds of it losing its throne are vanishingly low.

Still, for whatever reason, its playrate remains fairly stable -- pilots seem remiss to jump into this triumphant bandwagon.

The list can be considered solved at this point, with a minor discrepancy between Sai'nen Thousand-Tailed -- which we currently recommend -- versus Shadow Assassin.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Lurkers, Kindred Viego, murders all Pantheon Builds, Zilean Xerath, Akshan Sivir

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

Fizz Lulu

Finally returning to the cusp -- where it was right before the balance patch -- Fizz Lulu also seems to have been fairly refined this last week: the most popular formula for this blend, which we recommend below, is also one of the top performers, as if the wisdom of the pilots' crowd had found this blend's optimal ratios.

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

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

Other Strong Meta Staples

These next five blends all perform near or above the 54% winrate mark, for Platinum, Diamond and Masters. While a rung below the ruling monarchy, these are among the strongest weapons you can bring to your climb.

Pantheon Taric

While not the throne-threatening powerhouse it was last week, Taric Pantheon has nevertheless proved it has what it takes to claim a spot near the summit.

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

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

Ahri Kennen Shadows

Suffering from a dip in its winrate -- perhaps explainable by an uptick in its playrate, usually correlated with an influx of inexperienced pilots -- Ahri Kennen Shadows stays in relentless pursuit of the Shurima variant.

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

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

Draven Rumble

The Party returns to the top!

Currently enjoying a mostly mild matchup spread in general -- with odds below 40% only when facing FTR and Fizz Lulu -- and in particular a fair fight against the Queen and King of the Meta, this crowd favorite has made an impressive comeback.

Formulas with a somewhat more reactive approach seem to fare better, in particular those making room for 2x Whirling Death and 1x Noxian Fervor. Newcomers to this archetype may profit from remembering that removing a blocker in front of an Overwhelm attacker allows said Overwhelm attacker to fully connect with the Nexus.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Elise Noxus, Pantheon Shyvana, slight edge against Lurkers

Struggles Against: Trundle Tryndamere FTR, Ahri Kennen Shadows (but even versus the Shurima version), Fizz Lulu, Kindred Sentinels, Ahri Lulu

Elise Trundle, aka Iceborn Spiders

The fork has been settled, and the non-Landmark version of this archetype proven superior -- as of now, the only minor discrepancies for this blend seem to be the exact Spell composition.

A variation of this archetyp, with one Kindred instead of one Trundle (link), has shown quite good results in the APAC shard.

Strong Against: Fizz Lulu, Draven Rumble, Taliyah Ziggs, Kindred Sentinels, Nightfall, Ahri Lulu -- an edge versus Lurkers and Ahri Kennen Shurima.

Struggles Against: Champless Poros, Pantheon Taric, Thralls, Kindred Viego

Further Reading: Here is a deck guide (link) which prominent pilot infinipatron posted in the Competitive subreddit after reaching Top 3 in the ladder -- you will also find maître brasseur Scathus' reasoning for why they consider the Landmark version inferior. 

Scouts

Interestingly, what could perhaps be considered one of the most linear archetypes seems to be fostering the most disagreement when it comes to which cards to include, be it among cheaper followers -- such as Penitent Squire, Pool Shark, or Fortune Croaker -- or its top end, where Cithria the Bold and Genevieve Elmheart are a consideration.

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, Vladimir Braum

Other Meta Blends You May Consider

All these well-tested formulas have winrates above 51% -- while not as proficient as the ones listed above, you can take any of these to the Ladder with utmost confidence.

• Lurkers (link), which are always "a thing", 
• Shyvana Pantheon (link),
• Taliyah Ziggs (link), the "Control Hunters", which could also be described as "Landmark Aggro" -- the link includes a detailed guide by Wamuu,
• Sivir Akshan (link), the hidden gem and golden mean of matchups -- the link includes a detailed guide by Leer,
• Darkness (link), which arguably is currently being overplayed, but has proven a strong staple never far from the top.

The Connoisseur's Corner

Those with a keen eye such as yourself may have noticed a subtle pattern: as the tides of the Meta become milder, our Connoisseur's Corner tends to shrink -- the majority of pilots seem to flock either to the tried-and-true meta staples described above, or set sail to the uncharted waters of the Risky and Rare brews I shall show you later.

But for those seeking the golden mean between uniqueness and proficiency, the following three blends lie in the conjunction between fairly large sample sizes -- thus providing confidence in their performance and expected results -- while rare enough that you may play one hundred games and face them no more than once or twice, if you face them at all.

Lux Kindred

Do not be neither fooled nor discouraged when looking at this champion pair's average performance: their archetype is polluted by a hideous self-sacrifice blend that drags the pair's performance down. Here (link) is an example of said hideous blend; it is shown only as a warning, you do not want to take this botched attempt to the ladder.

The refined formulas, as the one suggested below, perform well over 52% at Platinum and above. Being one of the few current archetypes to make extensive use of healing, its play pattern is quite different from most.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Pantheon Shyvana, Jayce Lux

Struggles Against: Lurkers, Darkness, Ahri Kennen builds, Elise Trundle, Taliyah Ziggs

Ahri Lulu

A pairing between Ahri and the well-known Discard tools which Lulu has proven to be a beast with.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Elise Noxus, Draven Rumble, Nightfall, Thralls -- slight edge versus Lurkers

Struggles Against: Trundle Shadows builds -- slightly disfavored versus Ahri Kennen Shurima, Darkness and Scouts

Lulu Drift

A new take on the ancient Rally Elusive archetype, again making use of Poppy to bolster their ranks.

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Kindred Viego, Thralls

Struggles Against: Elise Noxus, Scouts, Pantheon builds, Darkness

Walk on the Wild Side

As it often happens, still Metas run deep -- although winrates and playrates at the top seem somewhat stable, digging into the data reveals a wealth of testing and experimentation.

If you are after the thrill of risky science, my friend, read on!

Jayce Lux

A somewhat obvious champion pair, with an interesting matchup spread.

Strong Against: Scouts, Darkness, Kindred Sentinels

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima (this one is a horrible matchup), Pantheon Taric, Trundle Tryndamere, Draven Rumble

Darius Jinx Burn

A little-tested blend, played mostly in the Asia Pacific shard -- pure brute force and burn.

Akshan Kindred Go Hard

Light and Dark, side by side. The archetype is being experimented with in all shards, probably indicating a coordinated effort of some sort.

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima

Fiora/Pantheon

Another blend undergoing testing in all shards.

Standalone Fiora Zed

An Asia Pacific exclusive, with a very old idea: pair a powerful three-mana Champion with Stand Alone. Little-tested list, with very good results.

Curious Elise Kindred

This archetype seems ripe to become part of our Corner selection -- it has proven its staying power through a couple of weeks, and has a very interesting matchup spread, being strong into some of the strongest decks.

Its nearly insurmountable odds against Darkness, though, make it a tough call for Ladder.

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima, Scouts, Kindred Viego -- even versus Lurkers

Struggles Against: Darkness (a horrible matchup), Pantheon builds, Elise Trundle

Teemo Ziggs

Burn, baby burn! Lots of different formulas for this blend are being tested in all shards; there seems to be a lot of interest in this boomy pair as of late. 

Strong Against: Lurkers

Struggles Against: Ahri Kennen, Champless Poros, Darkness (truly horrible matchup)

Harrowing Ashe Elise

Given the regions, and Elise being one of the Champs, one could not be faulted for assuming this could be a take on Iceborn Spiders.

It is not, though, as a summary inspection of the build will soon reveal.

Strong Against: Elise Noxus -- slight edge versus Scouts

Struggles Against: Slightly disfavored versus Ahri Kennen Shurima

Ziggs Zilean

A development from the Americas shard, Taliyah Ziggs' great performance seems to have sparked interest in the Landmark Aggro concept.

Ziggs Zivir

A take on Noxus Shurima aggro, another concept that seems to be getting a lot of interest as of late.

Strong Against: Lurkers

Struggles Against: Darkness, Scouts

Dancing with Kegs

Exclusive to the Asia Pacific shard, this is what happens when you ask Pirates for a dance.

Caitlyn Kindred Go Hard

The Kindred Sentinels shell, with a Control bent

Strong Against: Champless Poros, Ahri Kennen Shurima, Elise Noxus, Draven Rumble

Struggles Against: Darkness, Lukers, Ahri Kennen Shadows, Elise Trundle (horrible matchup)

Caityln Senna

A somewhat similar concept to Caitlyn Kindred above, but leaning even more heavily into Permission/Control by almost entirely eschewing early units.

Strong Against: Ahri Kennen Shurima, Elise Noxus, Scouts

Struggles Against: Darkness, Lurkers, Trundle Tryndamere (horrible matchup)

Katarina Miss Fortune

Almost all games for this archetype were played with a single list, with outstanding performance -- almost assuredly the refined brainchild of some extremely skilled pilot.

Bandle Riven Swain

No showcase can be called complete without the Reforger and the Grand General -- in this case, in the very same deck.

ABranchofTurtwig's Heimer Viktor Shellfolk Give It All

ABranchofTurtwig, one of the Competitor of tomorrow's MaRu $5k Invitational, shared this deck with which they climbed from Plat IV to Masters this season.

"I must warn readers, though," ABranchofTurtwig said, "it's bad against Ahri Kennen and Demacia lists -- but I did manage a solid 65.52 WR% after 145 games with it. Proceed with caution."

Social Mediums 

Finally, if you would like to trust fame more than data, I can point you to RickoRex's Overwhelm (link), Sqweeby's Garen Fizz (link), and Sirturmund's endorsement of Zilean Soraka. I currently possess no data that I can share with you about these, my friend, but if risky and rare you want, these should fit the bill too.

And so, my friend…

… I hope we have succeeded in finding at least one weapon you may want to call your own.

Should you wish for more data or recommendations, feel free to poke me on Twitter (@HerkoKerghans), or you can find more recommendations and writings here (link).

Good luck, and fair fights!