Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Best Legends of Runeterra Decks, 24hs into the Balance Patch
With roughly 24hs of data after the Legends of Runeterra Balance Patch 4.4.0 went live, here is what the most popular LoR decks look like:
Let's separate the chaff from the wheat! =)
Early Powerhouses
Here we have a few LoR decks that have hit the ground running post-patch, and have hit it hard.
There's a mixture of old Top Dogs that dodged the nerf hammer, a notable absence of decks that were targeted by said nerf hammer, and recently buffed newcomers – at first glance, seems like the Patch 4.0.0 may have hit the intended spots.
Nautilus Maokai, aka Deep
Deep was already solid pre-patch, and Samira Fizz was its worst nightmare – hardly a surprise that we find it as the forerunner today, packing a whopping 58% punch in about 700 games with the best Maokai Nautilus deck, and similar versions doing similarly well:
15 cards
25 cards
28 600
New Yordles on the Block: Teemo Tristana
This one looks scary: the two best lists have a handful of differences (in other words, the archetype is clearly not refined yet) but both have smashing win rates of above 57%. The Teemo Tristana deck shown below, leaning towards 
Noxus spells, is the punchiest of the two…
12 cards
28 cards
26 900
… while this other one, mixing Bandle City and Noxus spells and tweaking its followers a bit, is also excellent.
The Prince's Brews: Illaoi Jarvan and Jarvan Shen
Now, for an interesting twist!
As Jason noted yesterday, Illaoi Jarvan is, like Deep, an old Top Dog that dodged the hammer, so it's hardly a surprise to find Prince and Priestess smashing things left and right on the LoR Ladder now:
15 cards
25 cards
27 500
But Shen Jarvan was neither a powerhouse pre-patch, nor was it buffed – Yang saw it coming yesterday, and thus far it's working splendidly: while less played than Illaoi Jarvan, Jarvan Shen is doing even better, and in fact have the highest winrate among decks we'll showcase today: 60%!!
23 cards
17 cards
27 800
NOTE: Thanks to KoalArtichaut for noting a typo here; in several spots, it said Illaoi Shen rather than Illaoi Jarvan.
Ekko Jinx
Another early ladder-smasher that Jason saw coming yesterday, that joins Team Deep in being a pre-patch powerhouse that diligently dodged the hammer, and currently smacks at 58% in around 300 games.
21 cards
19 cards
29 200
Doing Great
Here we have two decks that are also doing very well – a tad below the Early Powerhouses but rock-solid nevertheless.
Malphite Taliyah
Add a plus one to Team Deep!
GrandpaRoji's baby had its best run ever during the previous patch cycle, and this new post-balance landscape suits it like a rock glove: a 55% win rate in about 450 games, this may be another LoR meta for Papa Mountain to smash!
22 cards
18 cards
29 400
Aatrox 
Bilgewater
Aaand the best Aatrox deck post-patch is…
… this really weird Jagged Taskmaster
-with-Equipment-on-top oddity, which was fringe-playable last week and has now leapfrogged ahead of both Kayn and Vayne to become the best World Ender deck.
27 cards
13 cards
26 800
Having a Good Time
Here we have two nerfed decks and a buffed archetype that are doing okay, putting a decent 52-53% win rate.
Ashe LeBlanc
Is probably fitting that, for its third birthday, LoR goes full circle with Ashe
, the Champion that greeted you when logged in during Open Beta: after many (many!) patches in which some sort of Ashe LeBlanc buff seeped through the patch notes (without any noticeable bump in the deck's performance), and after Rotation finally turned the Ice Queen and the Black Rose into two of the Queens of the LoR Ladder, Ashe got a nerf.
And it seems to have been fairly big, because although still very playable (52% in about 500 games), this is definitely not the Juggernaut that ruled the LoR meta until two days ago.
17 cards
23 cards
31 100
Riven Samira Pantheon
Samira Varus rose to prominence less than two weeks ago – as RubinZoo noted:
In this case, the nerf seems to have hit the spot: Samira Varus (with and without Riven) seems thus far kept in check…
… and, as an interesting development, the current mellower field has allowed Samira Pantheon Riven a chance to shine, thus far becoming the best Samira
deck.
21 cards
19 cards
29 300
Oh, Susenna!
Here comes good ol' Nasus, now Samira's on her knees, an' he's going to Shadow Isles, his undying love to see.
12 cards
28 cards
32 900
Perhaps Not Dead Yet…
These two (former?) Juggernauts still hang in there, struggling at the 50% win rate mark. While news of their death may be premature, above all for Karma Sett, they seem to have been torpedoed below the flotation line.
Karma Sett
Yang has high hopes for Karma, and Karma Targon in particular – while the Targon version does show promise (in a tiny sample), the most popular Karma deck is definitely struggling at around 50%.
21 cards
19 cards
28 700
Still, it's still too early to tell: with the amount of flexibility Karma Sett has (including the ability to work with different regions), we'll see what they can do once brewers get enough time to play.
Leona Samira
Attacked from both sides, Leona Samira is still standing, if barely. Enjoying a lot less flexibility than Karma Sett in its build, we'll see if they can muster through the changes.
16 cards
24 cards
29 200
Doing Downright Poorly
Samira Fizz seems out of the race – nerfs to Champ and Followers seem to have been too much.
Aurelion Sol Diana is quite popular, for some unfathomable reason (although "Don't try everything you see on YouTube" comes to mind…) – its numbers are awful, so don't.
Same goes for Azir Renekton Shurima – don't.
And just in case you were wondering, Shyvana Freljord is not a thing right now.
Wrapping Up
The LoR Meta has been shaken quite a bit! As expected, non-nerfed Old Dogs are the forerunners right now, but there's also buffed decks and untouched fringe decks in the race right now.
We'll see in the coming days who comes out on top!
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 four 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 meta decks in Legends of Runeterra at the time of writing.
- Heavyweights: LoR decks with between 2100 and 900 games played – other excellent choices, with large enough samples to confidently say, "Yeah, this works."
- Punching Up: LoR decks with between 900 and 400 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.
- YMMV: decks with less than 450 games in the last three days – fringe, risky stuff, but here's where you usually find the spice!
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.
