Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Best LoR Decks for the Standard and Eternal Ladders
And this is it, folks: the day in which we get to use the plural, and look at not one but two different LoR metas!
The usual caveat during the first few days of a new patch is, of course, "too early to tell" – but it will be "early" on steroids this time, above all when looking at Eternal numbers. It's really wild out there.
Standard LoR Ladder
As of right now, with about 24 hours of data since Legends of Runeterra's Patch 4.5.0 brought a Variety Patch and kicked off the Eternal Ranked ladder, these are the 7 most popular Standard LoR decks according to Legna the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Eternal LoR Ladder
And, for the same time window (roughly 24 hours since Patch 4.5.0 landed), here are the seven most popular Eternal decks, according to our shiny-new LoR Eternal Meta Tier List.
Overall LoR Ladder Trends
The Variety Patch hasn't impacted Standard too much (yet), and what we see today is pretty much what we saw last week – which includes finding Fizz Samira and Jinx Samira still hitting like trucks, in spite of Samira's nerfs.
Eternal, on the other hand, well… welcome to Runeterra's Wild West, folks. As we'll see in a bit, we've got some of the highest winrates we've seen in quite some time, even considering that WRs do tend to be through the roof after a patch, with well-refined decks mowing down weaker brews and generous LP donors inflating everybody else's performance.
Do bear in mind today's caveat, though: sizes are small, and everything is up in the air!
LoR Meta FAQs
Where does this data come from?
Directly from Riot (via Riot's API) – Liver, our wonderful coder and unsung MaRu 🐐 (also in charge of designing the website) makes the 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.
Which is the best LoR deck?
Short answer: Depends on how you define "best", of course! =)
Much longer answer: Check the Technical Note at the end of this article, above all about the differences between "archetypes" and "decks" in Legends of Runeterra's data.
LoR Standard Ladder
Decks in this section are all from Runeterra's Standard ladder.
You could take any of these to the Eternal ladder if you wanted to (all Standard cards are legal in Eternal), but you very much shouldn't expect the same performance.
Standard: Jinx Samira
Jinx Samira is, card by card, the same build as last week (Standard brewers don't seem too interested in Blowback
, even though the card is looking very good in Eternal's version of Discard):
15 cards
25 cards
28 600
Despite Samira's nerfs, Jinx Samira still looks like one of the strongest decks you can bring to the Standard ladder, with a 57% win rate in about 2,900 games (for frequent readers of these articles: that's in just a single day, rather than the usual three-day window), making Samira Jinx it the most-played specific decklist.
Further reading: Samira Jinx Deck Guide.
Standard: Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa
Kai'Sa Elites was indeed a thing a week ago, but kind of a middling thing punching at just 51%.
Lo and behold: over 58% right now, with an impressive 1,500-game sample in a single day! Given that the rest of the Standard Top Dogs remain more or less the same, it's hard to guess why this huge jump in popularity and performance – still, whatever the reason, Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa is definitely one of the early post-patch surprises.
22 cards
18 cards
27 100
Standard: Caitlyn Teemo 
Freljord
A bit lower in the power scale (winrate at about 52%, like Vault Nasus), Frozen Puffcaps has also hit the ground running this patch, and is the third most-played specific decklist right now, with around 1,300 games played since the patch landed:
10 cards
30 cards
26 900
Standard: Nasus Vaults of Helia
Another Top Dog too old to learn new tricks, showing up with the exact same build as last week…
23 cards
17 cards
22 900
… and, by current numbers, it would profit from a new thing or two, because current WR is just at a modest 52% – above-average for sure, but compared to other Standard Top Dogs, not too scary a brew.
Standard: Jarvan Shen
The underdog that could!
Jarvan Shen shows it has what it takes, and after proving by the end of last patch that it was not a fluke, is today one of the Standard forerunners: punches above 56% in more than 1,300 games!
22 cards
18 cards
27 000
Standard: Karma Sett
Karma Sett managed to stay alive in spite of Karma's nerf two patches ago, and has improved its performance from last week (win rate of about 54% today, up from 53%), in about a thousand games played since yesterday.
Further Reading: MajiinBae's latest Karma Sett Deck Guide.
24 cards
16 cards
26 900
Standard: Fizz Samira
Enduring nerf after nerf like a Champ, Samira Fizz yet again shows up among the most-played, best-performing decks in the Standard LoR ladder – and the most popular list still packs three copies of Powder Pandemonium
.
With a winrate north of 55%, Fizz Samira is the last deck today with more than 1,000 games played since yesterday – and, when looking at whole archetypes, it's the most popular today.
Further reading: Samira Fizz Deck Guide
25 cards
15 cards
30 000
Other Very Strong Standard Decks
There's no lack of strong options in the Standard LoR Ladder today – as a rule of thumb, if it was punching hard last week, it's still punching hard today.
We'll list below a few other options with sample sizes between 400 and 1000 games played since yesterday, but if you don't find your favorite brew, and it was working for you two days ago, it most likely will still serve you well today.
- Azir Nasus, which last week was, and probably still is, the best Vaults of Helia
deck (in spite of the Lone Nasus version being the most popular), - Illaoi Swain, one of the pre-patch Top Dogs that show amazing performance today, even if pilots haven't shown yet too much interest in Priestess and Grand General,
- Teemo Tristana Demacia, looking pretty much like Samira: shrugging off nerfs with a smile, and kicking butts equally as hard,
- Bard Garen, who showed up last week out of nowhere, and today makes a very strong argument about not being a fluke.
deck (in spite of the Lone Nasus version being the most popular),The Iron Lands, aka the Eternal LoR Ladder
In case you didn't know already, here's a spoiler for you: everybody starts the Eternal ladder in Iron!
Currently, MaRu's data tracks players that are either Masters in Standard as of right now, or reached Masters during the previous ranked season (therefore, we know with 100% certainty the latter are at least Platinum right now). Eternal being a fresh new format, and everybody hurled into Iron together, means that the "too early to tell" caveat we are so fond of issuing in these articles applies even more so in this case.
Below, we'll highlight the early Eternal heavy-hitters, but take this as just a very broad glimpse of what seems to be working right now. None of these decks will work in Standard, by the way.
Eternal: Poppy Zoe
Poppy Zoe is the Eternal forerunner as far as popularity goes (about 850 games played with the list seen below), although performance is modest at best: win rate of about 51%, in a landscape where the bar for "I am scary" is well above 60%!
21 cards
19 cards
29 600
Eternal: Ravembloom Annie Katarina
Tossing every ping and pie together, Annie
and Katarina
reunite with Ravenous Flock
and Lord Broadmane
... and add a couple of copies of Condense
for extra flavor.
As far as VERY early trends can be trusted (hint: not much!), Annie Katarina looks like the scariest thing in Eternal right now: silly win rate (above 64%) with nearly 500 games played since yesterday.
17 cards
23 cards
25 800
Eternal: Annie Jhin
If you've been around Runeterra since before rotation, then you've seen this list – blazing brat and bullet buff have spent nary a second in reuniting with pretty much every single card that made them a powerhouse across many, many metas.
And, in a way, provide us with a semblance of a barometer to gauge the Eternal pressure: Annie Jhin punches today at 64%, which is much higher than any of their previous best performances.
In other words: there's lots of LP donors out there!
27 cards
13 cards
22 000
Eternal: IIIT'S DRAVEN TIME!!
I mean, it's also Sion
's time, too. But he doesn't seem to care too much about pleasing the crowd, anyway.
As far as numbers go: scary. Very: above 64%. And, unlike the previous decks we've seen, Draven Sion has two somewhat different builds, both performing excellently.
The slightly more popular version is putting Blowback to good use, and both versions pack Pirouette
, which is a new card as far as Draven Sion goes.
20 cards
20 cards
26 700
Eternal: Sett Trundle
Smallish sample size (about 300 games with this specific list), but there are a handful of other versions all doing very well, making Sett Trundle a strong early contender.
19 cards
21 cards
36 100
Wrapping Up
They grow up so fast…
… it seems like it was only yesterday that Runeterra had just one meta, and look at it now: it has two!
Hope you've found a brew to your liking, and good luck in your climb. Or climbs! =)
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).
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 -- do bear in mind that, for this article, we're looking at the first 24hs of a patch, so sample sizes are small.
Sources: Legna's LoR data website, Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List, and our LoR meta stats page.
