Lee Sin Viktor – The Slow Grind

Hey all, Sirturmund here again bringing you a guide for a new LoR deck! If you have been living under a rock for the past week then you might have missed the new sensation on the block, Lee Sin Viktor. This deck has quickly become one of my favorite archetypes and after a week of non stop playing the deck, I have gained over 200 LP and peaked at Rank 3 in the Americas Masters ladder. 

Over the course of the climb, I managed slightly over 70% win rate with the deck over a decent number of high master games. So hopefully I can guide you through navigating this deck’s play style.

With all the skill proof out of the way, let’s jump right into the parts you are all here for!

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Deck breakdown

The deck is a slow grind type of deck. If you’re a fan of those longer dragged out games, then this might be your style. A person in my chat suggested that this is a slow burn deck with combo potential, and to be honest they’re right. A lot of times I’m winning through all the accumulated damage from Ballistic Bot or the constant Lee Sin kicks that act like a Decimate. 

Without further ado, here is my preferred deck list for this archetype:

3x Viktor 

While this is a Lee Sin deck, Viktor takes the cake as your main win condition. The buff to Viktor ended up being a lot bigger than people realized. The 0 cost Hex Core Upgrades mean that you’re not taxing your mana every single turn, which over time meant losing in board presence. It was even worse since you usually always play Viktor with Ballistic Bot, meaning you were spending two mana every turn on their spells. With the buff, you can reliably build up to a big Viktor without feeling like you’re falling too far behind in tempo.

The strength of Viktor in this deck comes from the free spell trigger. This 0 cost spell counts as one spell for both Eye of the Dragon and Deep Meditation, making their 2 spell condition almost trivial. On top of that, each cast of Hex Core Upgrade progresses Lee Sin’s level up condition. 

It is very likely that your Viktor will end up with 10+ attack. So he becomes your main win condition by either rolling Elusive or Overwhelm, or by being paired with an Ambush. Or he can single handedly flip an aggro matchup around by rolling Lifesteal. You will be playing the RNG wheel but this deck plays slow enough that you will usually see 5+ keywords. 

3x Lee Sin

Lee Sin is not your main win condition, he is here simply as support and back up win condition. Yes, you heard that right. Lee is NOT the main way we win. 

The benefit of Lee Sin in this deck is how quickly he will level up due to all the Ignition and Hex Core Upgrades you end up playing throughout the match. Once he is leveled up, he becomes your main way to deal with the enemy threats. The best part is that he removes the opponent’s unit while also dealing at least 4 damage to the nexus, slowly making them more vulnerable to a Viktor or Ambush finish. 

Additionally, his Barrier makes the opponent have to take some very awkward attacks as well when you have Lee Sin on the board. Overall, I think the threat and support he provides makes him the best candidate to pair with Viktor in this type of deck. 

3x Ballistic Bot

Ballistic Bot is one of the most important cards of this deck. First, he slowly burns the opponent’s health. It might not seem like much, but every point of health matters as this deck has narrow windows where it can go lethal. Second, every tick of Ignition progresses both Lee Sin and Viktor level up, ensuring your champions come down almost leveled. Third, the Ignitions serve as triggers for both Eye of the Dragon and Deep Meditation. And fourth, once he has enough power, he can combine with Ambush for lethal damage.

If Viktor is the body of this deck, then Ballistic Bot is the heart that pumps the blood making everything else work together.

3x Eye of the Dragon 

You know what is one of the best things about this deck? Not only are you playing perhaps the strongest Piltover & Zaun 2-drop in Ballistic Bot, but you are also able to play Ionia’s strongest 2-drop in Eye Of The Dragon. This card is what allows you to survive long enough to set up the rest of your board. Against aggressive decks such as Lulu Fizz Yordles in Arms or Pirate Aggro, Eye becomes a mountain that they have to get through. The best part of it all is just how easily you can trigger her condition. With both Viktor and Ballistic Bot on the field, you are triggering Eye every turn for the cost of 1 mana. Even with just one of the two on the field, it becomes a very trivial requirement for the Dragonlings.   

2x Station Archivist

Archivist is an interesting addition to this deck. Her power comes from the late game potential to refill your hand, or a get out of jail free card when you are in a tough spot. You usually want to see this card later on in the game and potentially hit things like Deep Meditation or Time Trick to refill your hand with something more useful. Or, if you need that Stun ASAP and the opponent lets you develop her, you could get a Concussive Palm to buy you the turn you need. But probably her strongest use is when you have a very big Viktor or Ballistic Bot and you can pull an Ambush from the top 5 cards of your deck, allowing you to go for a lethal that you otherwise might have had to wait multiple turns for.

Her synergy with Viktor can also not be understated. The Archivist's card counts as a created card, meaning Viktor can reduce its cost. Allowing for a lot of value in mana expenditure, while buffing your augmented units even more.   

3x Poro Cannon

The poros serve multiple purposes in this deck. At first it might seem odd to play them as we do not have much discard fodder, but a lot of times it is absolutely worth it to discard an Ignition if it allows you to play both Daring Poros and instead push damage through their attack. Remember that the Poros count as created cards, so it would buff your Ballistic Bot or Viktor by two instead of one that the Ignition would have. 

Additionally, their best use is as blockers. Especially when we don’t yet have Eye of the Dragon on the field or need elusive blockers against decks like Riven Viktor. Since we do not run a lot of units, these little guys carry the weight of stalling and pushing damage all at once.   

2x Ambush

This card has made a splash after the latest patch. In combination with your big Augment units, Ambush can single handedly win you many games. Decks these days HAVE to include some sort of answer to the Ambush combo just because of how common and powerful it is. When you feel ready to put pressure on your opponent and present a potential lethal, go ahead and use this. I guarantee you that they will almost never be able to recover from it if the attack goes through.  

2x Calculated Creations

This deck is very reliant on two things: Ballistic Bot or pushing elusive damage. Calculated Creations gives us the flexibility to go for either one that we need depending on the game state. With Calculated Creations, it means we are almost playing five Ballistic Bot. Yes, the extra two mana cost is steep, but in this deck it is worth it due to how much other things the Ignition enables for us. Sometimes though, if you already have enough units on the field, just save this for when you have a leveled Viktor so that the created unit is discounted.      

3x Mystic Shot 

I have seen many folks start to cut Mystic Shot from the list, and I believe this is a mistake. Two damage might not seem like a lot, but it can be enough to present lethal, remove an opponent’s key unit, or remove a barrier from a pesky opponent. It is a great card against things like Twisted Catalyzer or Flame Chompers!, giving us better odds in those match ups.   

3x Time Trick 

Do you remember playing Lee Sin Targon decks and sometimes not drawing your champion? Playing Piltover and Zaun gives us access to a card that can improve our odds of getting exactly what we want when we want it. The power of Time Trick comes from saving us from awkward hands where you end up with a lot of spells and no units. Use this on turn 3 and you could predict into a Ballistic Bot, or use it on turn 4 if you saved 2 mana to get a Viktor and drop him right down. This card has won me so many games by getting me exactly the tools I need to either put pressure or stop an opponent’s lethal attack.    

3x Twin Disciplines

The nerf to Twin is not felt that often in this deck. We use Twin almost always as a defensive tool rather than an offensive tool to give our Viktor or Eye of the Dragon enough health to survive the opponent’s removal. This is why Ionia I think is the best pairing with Viktor, because it allows us to protect him with something as cheap as Twin. 

3x Concussive Palm 

The meta is full of units that want to attack to win the game: Viktor, Riven, Lee Sin, Taliyah, Lulu, Pantheon, etc. Concussive Palm puts a stop to most of those strategies and buys you just enough time to get your own Viktor or Lee Sin to finish the game. I think all three of the palms are critical as they are our main defensive answer against these big units. 

3x Deny 

Deny hits a lot of things in the current meta, such as Yordles in Arms , Vengeance, Golden Aegis, among other spells. It might sound like a lot, but trust me, when you need that Deny you really need it. Our champions tend to be a bit vulnerable to hard removal, so at least because of Vengeance I feel three Deny is correct. 

1x Spirit's Refuge

This one is an odd inclusion, but it has really good synergy with Augment units and with Lee Sin, making it a great survival tool if you find yourself in a tough spot. Our Viktor and Ballistic Bot are very likely to have 6+ power, making Spirit’s Refuge heal us for more damage than what a Decimate would do to us for the same amount of mana. All the while protecting our unit. 

3x Deep Meditation

We play a slow and grindy game, so we want to make sure we do not run out of cards. The power with Deep Meditation in this deck is on how easily and cheaply we can trigger it with a combination of Ignition and Hex Core Upgrade. The other benefit is that Deep Meditation thins out our deck, increasing our chances of drawing our champions as the match goes on longer. This card is also one of the best hits with Station Archivist, so would prioritize this when you feel low on resources. 

Other Cards:

I have mostly stuck with the same deck list from start to finish of my climb. However, I do see other people experimenting with different things so here are my thoughts on them:

• Thermogenic Beam - Don’t think it is necessary in this deck. We do lack forms of removal aside from Lee Sin and Mystic Shot, but we make up for it by being able to stall and heal most of the damage other decks can do to us.

• Ghost - Had someone suggest this to me, but no reason to do this when we have Ambush instead. Yes it is cheaper, but the +2 damage from Ambush is worth the extra mana considering how easily we can enable Ambush.

• Ferros Financier - Don’t believe we need any more value and our deck is already very tight as it is. There are also a lot of bad hits from Ionia, so I don’t like this card in these regions.

• Iterative Improvement - I prefer Calculated Creations over Iterative Improvement as it is more useful when you have none of your units on board. Iterative is only better if you already have an Eye of the Dragon or Ballistic Bot, or if you are going against the mirror. 

• Nopeify! - There are some good hits that we could negate with Nopefy, such as Zenith Blade or Get Excited!, but I see it as much more situational and bricky than Deny. So I would rather do triple Deny instead.

• Sumpworks Map - I have considered this a bit over Ambush sometimes, due to it being permanent. It is very tempting but I have found the +2 damage from Ambush makes a bigger difference more often than not, as it allows me to use it defensively too. 

• Get Excited! - We just don’t have enough discard fodder to justify both this and Poro Cannon. Additionally, the extra mana cost does make a difference and can be very taxing early on the first 5-6 turns of the game. Haven’t found it too necessary even with its ability to hit Aphelios and other 3 health units. 

• Aloof Travelers - I think this is a great card, but it is a meta read depending on what you expect to be facing. It is more powerful against control decks that want to go late and rely on their big expensive cards. However, we already have an answer to things like Feel The Rush in the form of Deny so it feels a bit redundant. Our unit mana is better spent elsewhere.

• Vi - I have seen people debate whether Vi is better than Lee Sin in this deck, including notable players such as 4lw. I disagree with Vi being better simply because of how I play Lee in this deck. With this deck I play Lee more as a support removal card that can stay in the field for a long extended period of time. While Vi can also remove an opponent's key units, she will die during her attack if you pull something like a Viktor with her. We do not have enough ways to protect her. And while yes, she does combine better with things like Ambush, I believe that is a win-more scenario. 

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Relevant Gameplay Info

So how do games with this deck usually go?

We have to be very patient and play the long game. The whole purpose of us being in Ionia is that we have the protection to play things slow and get to our win condition in turns 7-10. This means being okay with passing often and just saving mana. 

Our first few turns should be dedicated to playing Ballistic Bot or Eye of the Dragon. Regardless of match up, Ballistic is always good to play on turn 2 or 3, while Eye is more reserved for aggressive match ups. 

A typical turns 1-3 would look like this:

Turn 1 Pass >> Turn 2 Ballistic Bot >> Turn 3 Play second Bot or Eye, and Play Ignition 

Even if we don’t get two 2-cost units, you are also okay only playing the Ignition on turn 3, banking the three spell mana, and passing.

On turns 4 through 6, you start setting up your champions or digging for spells to thin out our deck. Our typical turns 4 through 6 would look like this:

Turn 4 Viktor and Hex Core Upgrade >> Turn 5 and 6 Continue to buff your Augmented units to set up for lethal, while also triggering Eye of the Dragon to stall. 

Or if we don’t have Viktor on turn 4, then this is where Time Trick can be very beneficial. If you banked enough mana, you can do a Time Trick to fish for Viktor, and do the same procedure as described above. 

I will say that Viktor is very important for this deck, your matchups will go a lot better if you can start setting him up by turn 6 the latest. However, I have won games where just having 2 Ballistic Bot and 2 Eye Of The Dragon is enough to win, so don’t get desperate either if you don’t draw either champion. 

As we move on to turn 7 and later, we start looking for how to close out the game. By this  time point you have hopefully already used enough spells to level up Lee Sin. Playing Lee during this stage makes him a great tool to burn the opponent down and also remove your opponent’s key threats. 

At the same time, our Viktor could potentially have 4+ keywords by this time. If we get Elusive or Overwhelm, the game becomes much easier to close out. Your Ballistic Bot will similarly have very high power, and the opponent should be 15 health or less after all the Ignitions used during the game. 

So our goal now becomes to search for Ambush or enough other elusive units plus Mystic Shot to burn the opponent down. This is when our deck becomes closer to something like Riven Viktor in the way we close out games. The best part though is that we have access to Deny to back up our Ambush combo lethal push. 

In general, as I play this deck more and more, I found the most critical thing you have to do is keep enough mana to respond to what your opponent might do. Whether it’s Deny to disrupt a big kill spell, or Concussive Palm to stop an overwhelm attacker. Or just simply passing if the opponent gives you a chance. The longer the game goes, the stronger your Viktor becomes so you’re fine playing a slower game than your opponent. 

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Additional tips for the deck

• What To Choose From Calculated Creations?

The power of calculated creations comes from the flexibility it provides. I would say 80% of the time though we are always choosing Ballistic Bot. This card is the heart of your deck and enables the rest of your deck well enough that unless you already have two other Bots on the field, it doesn’t make sense not to go for it. 

Nyandroid becomes an excellent alternate choice when you already have Viktor and Ballistic Bot on the field and are now looking for ways to finish off the game. He can also serve as a great elusive blocker in situations where you don’t have Poro Cannon in hand.

Lastly, we will almost never pick Armed Gearhead unless we are desperate for a chump blocker. His quick attack is great, but can easily be chump blocked all game long and with only 2 health would get easily removed.

• Double Lifesteal 

One neat little trick that you might not be aware of is that you could get double the lifesteal when pairing leveled Lee Sin with Spirit’s Refuge. If you find yourself in a tight spot and need as much nexus HP as possible, this is a good tool to have in your back pocket. The way that it works is that when Lee kicks the enemy unit, he will heal your Nexus for 4. Then when that unit that was kicked hits the Nexus, it will heal you again for 4, healing you for 8 total health from a single Lee Sin kick. No overwhelm required. 

• Station Archivist Picks

I touched upon it a bit earlier, but Archivist has multiple roles in this deck. First, if you find yourself running low on cards and resources, the best possible hits from Archivist become Deep Meditation or Time Trick. Both cards will refill your hand with other valuable cards. If you find yourself needing to stop a lethal attack, Archivist can hit Concussive Palm to stop the opponent in their tracks. Or, if instead you are on the offensive, a free Ambush never hurts anyone. Any of these picks are excellent and are my go to depending on the game state.

Remember that the cards you see from Archivist are the cards on the top 5 cards of your deck. Meaning that if you see 5 spells, you not only know your next five draws are spells, but you also know the exact order you will be drawing them in. In the opposite way, if you only see 1 spell, then prepare to draw four units within your next five draws. Sometimes if you don’t like what you see your next five draws will be, Time Trick can be used to shuffle the deck.

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Basic Mulligan Guide:

This deck has a very straight forward mulligan. We play a lot of spells, 26 in total, which is more than most decks are playing. This means we have to be OKAY kicking back our spells and hard mulligan for our units, unless we think the spell is required in the match up.

Almost every game against every deck there are two cards I want to see: Ballistic Bot and Viktor. If I don’t have either, I will mulligan my whole hand away as we NEED at least one of these two units to start enabling the rest of your deck.

Against aggro decks, keeping Eye of the Dragon is a must, but ensure you have at least one Ballistic or Viktor to pair with her for the easy trigger. Otherwise you might have an Eye on the field and no way to actually get Dragonlings.

I tend to kick Lee Sin back most of the time, unless I also have both Ballistic and Viktor in my hand with it. If we get a hand with all three, then it is okay to get greedy and keep Lee as he will level up very quickly. 

In terms of what spells to keep, it will be match up dependent. Sometimes I keep Poro Cannon if I already have Ballistic in hand and know I will need some elusive blockers. Other times, Concussive Palm is a tempting keep if I know I will need to stop a big Riven or other critical unit somewhere along the match. Deny is the last one that can be a judgment call, it is a decent keep against Shadow Isles control decks to stop their Vengeance, The Ruination, or Feel The Rush but can be very risky as a double Deny hand will slow us down a lot. Mystic Shot can be a decent keep against certain aggro decks as well if you have no units in your initial hand and want to be able to stop some of the opponent’s attacks. 

In general though, Ballistic Bot + Viktor in your starting hand means you have a much higher win rate.   

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Matchup Specific Tips:

What I have loved about this deck so far is that no match up feels outright impossible. You have control decks that currently just auto lose versus things like Sun Disc and Bandle Tree, but this deck in my experience does not have any super unfavorable matchups. 

We tend to do very well versus decks relying on a big spell to win, such as Yordles in Arms or Feel The Rush due to our triple Deny. We also tend to do well versus most aggro decks due to Eye of the Dragon and the sneaky Spirit's Refuge.

Our deck can struggle against Demacia rally decks such as Scouts, Yuumi Pantheon, and Sivir Akshan. While we can deny their rally, we usually do not have a good enough early board presence to stabilize. Not to mention Petricite Broadwing eats our 2-drops for breakfast.

vs Sun Disc (Slightly Favored)

This match up is all dependent on our elusive win condition, especially Ambush. It is very easy for us to set up a Ballistic Bot and Viktor and start buffing them up. We have Twin Disciplines to protect them against Rite of the Arcane. Since the Sun Disc opponent has no healing, the constant pings from Ignition add up very quickly putting them at 10-15 HP by turn 6-7. From there the idea is to set up an Ambush combo play and push lethal damage that way.

Now, opponents have recently become more and more aware of this strategy and have kept their Quicksand for your eventual combo turn. And while that is very annoying, we can stall them with a Concussive Palm to save our big unit and try again next turn. 

Leveled up Lee Sin can also be very clutch as a way to kick back Xerath over and over again, forcing the opponent to continue spending mana on replaying his main win condition.   

vs Riven Viktor (Even)

We have a lot of ways to disrupt the Riven Viktor player’s gameplan. Between our constant elusive blockers from Poro Cannon and Ambush, to our Concussive Palms stopping their big combo turn, and our Eye of the Dragon healing us back up, the opponent has to be very careful on when to go all in.

Play this match up patiently and always hold back enough mana for Concussive Palm when you feel they are about to go for a lethal combo attack. In this match up it is also okay to play Ambush defensively if you lack any of your poros on the field.

The best part of this match up for us is that Lee Sin can reset Viktor or Riven if they placed the Blade of the Exile on either one of them. Aside from that, a lot will come down to what keywords our Viktor and get Viktor obtain every turn. Something like a Quick Attack Challenger on either Viktor is an automatic win to whoever gets it first.    

vs Ezreal Caitlyn (Even)

The opponent has the advantage of having cheap removal in the form of Scorched Earth and Ravenous Flock, we have the advantage of Deny against their big Tri-beam turn. 

This match will be a game of mouse and cat where it will be heavily draw dependent on both sides. Their Caitlyn is probably their best card versus us due to the Flashbombs enabling the rest of his removal cards. Sometimes if I have the double Mystic Shot, I will not be afraid to throw them against Caitlyn. 

For us, finding a safe turn to play Lee Sin will be key. In this match up Lee Sin can carry as he can kill both Caitlyn and Ezreal with minimal effort. Additionally, because their deck has no healing, every point of damage we do matters more and more. 

Just be careful not to drop too low on health, so if possible try to set up an early Eye of the Dragon. It will either force removal on her or allow you to stabilize long enough to win the game.

vs Fizz Lulu (Favorable)

This is one of our best match ups with the deck. The ONLY way we lose this match up is when the opponent can keep the Lulu Flame Chompers! combo going for more than 2 turns. 

There are two key cards you want in this match up: Eye of the Dragon and Deny. Eye will allow us to stall their attacks and heal back up from most damage they do to us. Just remember to play around their Get Excited! mana. Don’t play Eye unless you have a Twin Disciplines to save her or the opponent has tapped out of this removal. Deny also ends up being critical as it can stop their two big expensive spells, Yordles in Arms and Treasured Trash.

In this match, it is okay to play a patient slow gameplan. You have plenty of blockers with Dragonlings and Poro Cannon. Play towards a big Viktor or a Lee Sin slowly whittling down their board.  

vs Aphelios Viktor (Even)

Going against Aphelios decks can be annoying, because of their access to Calibrum to kill our Ballistic Bot or Eye of the Dragon. This match up becomes a long battle of attrition due to that, where you have to play around your potential opponent’s removal more than anything else. 

Fortunately, while they do have easy removal for our followers, they do not have easy removal for our two champions except for Falling Comet which can easily be countered with Deny. This allows us to set up a big Viktor to take over the game, or stabilize with Lee Sin kicking back their key units every other turn. 

Concussive Palm ends up playing a critical part as well to stop both a Viktor with annoying keywords or to stop a big celestial later in the game. Due to Deep Meditation and Time Trick, you should be able to keep up with the resource war.  

vs Taliyah Ziggs (Slightly Favored)

We have access to Concussive Palm to stop their big lethal attack turn with Taliyah + Absolver, with Deny back up in case they try to Rite of Negation on the stun. This alone swings the match up slightly in our favor as we can then continue to stabilize with the rest of our board.

Rite of the Arcane is probably their most dangerous card, followed by Quicksand, so just understand what your opponent is trying to accomplish and be careful when they are keeping three mana.

Sometimes you might also want to just take an open attack if it is good instead of first playing the Hex Core Upgrade, so that you can play around the Hexplosive Minefield. 

vs Yuumi Pantheon (Unfavored)

Unfortunately, our game plan is very slow and has the risk of getting rushed down quickly by the big units this deck carries. It is not rare that we are at 15 or less health by turn 4 due to getting hit by a big Wounded Whiteflame and Mountain Goat. The fact we do not have a great way to remove Goat aside from Mystic Shot means the opponent can get a lot of value out of that unit. As such, this is one of the match ups where I will keep that Mystic Shot. 

If we somehow survive with enough health in the early to mid game, we do have a good chance of bouncing back. Both our Viktor and Lee Sin can become huge threats to the opponent. However, if they are good players they would have removed our Ballistic Bot long ago with their strike spells, meaning our champions will require more time to level up. 

Sharpsight also means our Ambush combo is a lot more vulnerable to a counter attack, so be mindful of that when attacking with a Viktor even if he rolls Elusive keyword.  

vs Scouts (Unfavorable)

Similarly to Pantheon Yuumi, we get rushed down faster than we can stabilize in this match up. I would say this one is even worse, as the opponent usually plays Petricite Broadwing and we don’t have a great way to remove Miss Fortune until Lee Sin is leveled up. 

Our saving grade is Eye of the Dragon and Viktor potentially hitting some impactful keywords such as Challenger to remove their units. Eye might be able to stall long enough in combination with Twin Disciplines to protect her against the Broadwing. Once we can stabilize, we have plenty of tools to run out the game long term with Concussive Palm to stop their big finishers, allowing our Viktor and Lee Sin to pick off their units one by one.

vs Feel The Rush (Super Favorable)

This is perhaps our best match up in the current meta. Our deck has something like an 80% win rate versus Feel The Rush variants because of our access to triple Deny and triple Concussive Palm. Both of these tools allow us to stop the opponent’s big power plays.

In addition, our Ballistic Bot has three health, forcing the opponent to use two cards to remove him. And none of our other units, aside from the Daring Poros, are really vulnerable to their Vile Feast and Withering Wail. 

It is also likely that the opponent will not have a lot of blockers on the field, allowing our Ballistic Bot to sometimes get in damage even without the Ambush combo. Slowly as you shift to the mid to late game, you should have a Viktor or Lee Sin that can finish the game off for you. 

vs Ekko Zilean (Favored)

I sound a bit like a broken record talking about Deny and Concussive Palm again, but these really are such good cards against so many decks in the current meta. The stun will stop an Ekko attack on its track, and the deny will stop a potential Chronobreak.

In addition to that, Lee Sin just ends up carrying the game for us. A leveled up Lee Sin can kill the opponent’s Ekko without allowing them to strike and get the free Time Trick. And even if the opponent then does a Chronobreak to revive their Ekko, they cannot attack you because your Lee Sin will still have a barrier to block and kill Ekko again. 

Eye of the Dragon plays a key role in this match up as well to stall out most of their attacks, so keep her in hand if you can.    

vs Darkness (Unfavorable)

Unfortunately this deck only has one way to remove the Twisted Catalyzer, and that is Mystic Shot. So if you don’t have this removal on turn 2 and the opponent has their 2-drop, then it is very likely their Darkness will get to 4 damage making it the perfect removal against our Viktor.

Additionally, we have no way to remove Veigar himself until we have Lee Sin on the field or get Challenger on Viktor, both of which can then be countered by the opponent having Vengeance or Minimorph.

This one is a very tough match because it will be entirely depending on your opponent’s draws and just how many of their key units they can get early on. However, if they have no way to increase the Darkness power, then it can quickly get out of control for them as your Viktor and Lee Sin grow stronger. 

Deny is our best friend in this match up once again, being able to hit their hard removal. So it is important to not play Viktor or Lee Sin against a Darkness player with 6 mana, unless you have 4 mana to Deny their removal. Be patient and don’t give them the free removal.  

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Closing words

I believe this deck will become a staple in the meta as more and more people learn to play it and pick up the deck. Hopefully I was able to teach you a thing or two. I plan to continue playing the deck throughout this week to potentially reach Rank 1 with it, so keep an eye for that! 

I know some of you also prefer to watch the deck in action, here are a few videos from us here in MasteringRuneterra:

See below:

Sirturmund’s Deck Breakdown for Lee Sin Viktor (same deck list as this guide): 

Reached Top 10 With This New Viktor Lee Sin Deck! | Deck Breakdown & Gameplay | Legends of Runeterra

MajiinBae’s Deck Breakdown (same deck list as this guide)

Is Viktor the new best pairing with Lee Sin??

I have also been exclusively playing Lee Sin Viktor on ladder while streaming. The VODs won’t be around forever, but if you catch this guide early and want more content to watch on this deck take a look at the Twitch VODs below:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1447405591

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1449375431

Thank you all for reading and please let me know if you have any questions or any suggestions. If you liked this guide, expect more like it in the future from me on this site. If you want to know where to find more of my content:

• My youtube channel where I post daily LoR videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf6lfIa0XLUJGp4VGxuh49A
• My twitch channel where I stream 3-4 times a week: https://www.twitch.tv/sirturmund
• Twitter where I post whatever 🙂 https://twitter.com/SirturmundLOR
• Discord where I actively answer questions https://discord.gg/QGSSd68dag

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