Howdy, and welcome to our weekly selection of the best decks in Runeterra!
As explained in detail in the Technical Note at the end of this article, we'll first take a glance at a snapshot of our Tier Lists for Eternal and Standard, which list LoR archetypes (that's to say, the aggregate of all decks with the exact same Champions) by popularity, and then we'll dive into the data to check how individual decks perform to showcase the best decks in Runeterra.
Best LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These are the 7 most popular Eternal LoR decks according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Overall Trends of the LoR Eternal Ladder
Jax
Ornn
and Samira
Seraphine
remain at the top of the Eternal LoR ladder, just like last week – and the in the girls' case, also at the top of the second Eternal Runeterra Open!
As expected from last week's stats, good ol' Pirates have clawed their way upwards, too – and, totally out of the blue, Jayce
Lux
leaps to the top (with also a good showing in the AM Runeterra Open Top Four),
LoR Eternal Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Eternal Ladder
Here we showcase Eternal LoR decks with more than 2100 games in the last three days, and good-to-great win rate – the best tried-and-true tools to be found in our LoR Eternal Meta Tier List!
Notice that, with this patch's competitive events in the books, high-level pilots seem to be taking a rest, and the amount of games played in Eternal has dropped sharply this week (by nearly 30%) – as such, many decks have a lot fewer games played than last week, when checking their play rate in a three-day window.
⭐Rising Star – Jayce Lux
This is, in fact, a usual trend in Runeterra, even for the Standard ladder: with so many viable archetypes, it's common to see pilots find out that an old build still works very well.
The LoR Eternal format, by its nature, exacerbates this trend (every week there's a "new old" deck leaping forward), but Jayce Lux's case is quite noteworthy: not only has it become the most played specific decklist in the Eternal LoR ladder (with a whopping 2600 games played and a 57% win rate), it did so in a context where, as noted above, pilots have played a lot less games this week compared to the previous.
And, not content with blasting foes on the ladder, Jayce Lux also reached Top Four in last weekend's Runeterra Open!
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Interestingly, Jayce Lux doesn't seem overly amazing against other Top Dogs: it's weak against Jax Ornn, loses horribly against Pirates, has a hard time against the ascending Ornn Trundle, and it's roughly even against Samira Seraphine – most of Jayce Lux's edge seems to be against weaker brews.
Jax Ornn
Still sticking to Master Brewer Scathus' build (who wrote an amazing guide for it on reddit), Jax Ornn has fallen to second most-played specific deck in the Eternal LoR ladder (displaced, as seen above, by Jayce Lux), while still punching at an amazing 57% across 2300 games.
Jayce Lux's and Pirates' ascension has been great news for Weaponmaster and Forge God, given their fairly large edge that Jax Ornn has in those matchups. Ryze's decline is also a source of joy for Jax Ornn, since that matchup is truly awful, and cherry on top, Sett Trundle (also an ugly confrontation for J-O) is not too popular despite its excellent performance.
All in all, the current field is truly favorable for Jax Ornn!
Further reading: Sorry's Jax Ornn Deck Guide
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About the Rune Mage…
Like last week, Ryze remains popular but not too strong – not a deck we can recommend for the Eternal LoR ladder.
LoR Eternal Heavyweights – Strong Eternal Decks
These Eternal decks have between 1000 and 2100 games in the last three days – solid picks for climbing the Legends of Runeterra ladder!
Seraphine Samira
Seraphine got tired of tending the Back Alley Bar
, and is printing Eternal LPs with the help of Samira and Plaza Guardian
– not to mention, the girls just smashed things in last weekend's Runeterra Open.
Ezreal was abandoned in the process – there are some Samira Seraphine decks that include him, but it's clear by now that he's not too useful an addition.
Samira Seraphine is amazing against Ryze and Teemo Zoe, and can hold its own against Pirates – it has a bit of a hard time against Jax Ornn and Jayce Lux, and a really hard time against the ascending Ornn Trundle.
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Pirates, aka Miss Fortune Twisted Fate
Don't sleep on Pirates, folks!
Once again this week (that's four in a row!) Pirates showcase one of the highest win rates in Runeterra: 60%!!
Simply put: if you want to go for a last-push climb before Nidalee starts hunting everybody down, Pirate is the Eternal deck to bring.
Pirates is another deck that is very happy with Jayce Lux becoming popular, and farms Ryze and Annie Jhin left and right – Jax Ornn is a problem, but doesn't seem to be able to slow Fortune's crew down.
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Poppy Ziggs
Poppy Ziggs is, along with Pirates, the only other deck showcasing a jaw-dropping winrate north of 60% (and it's been one of the hardest-hitting decks during all of this patch cycle) – yet another deck very happy to farm Jayce Lux, and with a slight edge on Samira Seraphine.
Further Reading: Poppy Ziggs Deck Guide.
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⭐Rising Star – Teemo Zoe
Teemo and Zoe keep the upwards trend we saw last week, abusing pesky elusives with The Darkin Lodestone
on top.
This is one deck that Jax Ornn is mortally afraid of (and the same is true for Ornn Trundle) – Samira Seraphine and Pirates, on the other hand, just run Teemo Zoe over, and in this case Jayce Lux is quite the problem.
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Gwen Sejuani
This week, it's Seamstress and Warmother's turn to be the "old deck that was not even a blip in the radar last week, but is crushing it out there now!" – Runeterra's toolbox is really full of toys and tricks! =)
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Ornn Trundle
Rounding up this week's Eternal Heavyweights, here's a fairly fresh deck for a change. Pilots did try to make this Champs work at several points in the past, but never with too much success – last week it was a bit of a low-key, fringe success, and it now looks like the time to shine has come for Ornn Trundle.
Forge God and Troll Kind are very good against Jayce Lux, have a slight edge against Samira Seraphine, and steamroll aggressive brews like Pirates and Annie Jhin – they have horrible matchups against Teemo Zoe, Ryze, and Sett Trundle, though, so their success seems a bit dependant on how the LoR meta shapes up.
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Punching Up – Eternal Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 600 and 1000 games in the last three days in the Eternal ladder – we're sailing into small data samples, yet all decks here have quite a few games under their belts.
Ravenbloom Annie Katarina
Annie Katarina remains a very solid deck for the Eternal LoR ladder, but both play rate and win rate have deflated from excellent to just very good – it now punches at 54% (which would be very strong in Standard, but as we've seen it's nothing to write epic poems about in Eternal) in about 800 games in the last three days.
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Champless Timelines
The early Eternal boogeyman (so scary that two weeks ago it joined the unofficial Runeterra Hall of Fame of decks that had to be hotfixed least it took over the meta), Champless Timeliness is still alive and kicking – no LoR ladder terror any longer, but still very playable.
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Thresh Nasus
Thresh Nasus remains, like in past weeks, one very solid option for the Eternal ladder, but both win and play rate keep deflating a bit – Thresh Nasus has a really rough time against Seraphine Samira, and an uphill struggle against Jax Ornn, making the current LoR meta not the ideal for the Big Dog and his lantern sidekick.
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28 900
Aphelios Viktor
A low-key success, Aphelios Viktor sees a sharp increase in performance (from a 54% win rate last week to 57% currently) and it's still quite popular.
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27 100
The Eternal Annie Jhin
Losing some steam now that Ryze's popularity has dwindled (odds for Annie Jhin in that matchup are close to 80%...), Annie Jhin's overall performance remains excellent in spite of having an awful matchup against Jax Ornn and a bit of an uphill struggle against Samira Seraphine.
The good news for bullet buff and blazing brat? A nice edge on Jayce Lux.
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Draven Samira Sion
Discard is a bit on the rebound in the Eternal LoR ladder, perhaps pushed forward by reaching Top Four in the recent AM Runeterra Open.
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Other Strong Eternal Considerations
If none of the above float your boat on the Eternal LoR ladder, here are a handful of options that are doing very well.
- Teemo Tristana, doing very well on ladder and part of the triad that just won the Runeterra Open in the AM shard,
- Sett Trundle, one of the early powerhouses of the Eternal meta – pushed to the fringes now, but still very, very good,
- In case you want an never-seen-before pair, Lucian Taric is putting quite the numbers!
- Lulu Poppy, another deck from Team "Let's Do That Old Thing We Did Ages Ago",
- Fizz Yuumi Bone Club
– because it ain't a proper LoR data digging until we find the latest Battle Fury build! =) - Braum Vladimir… oddly enough, without their Scragrounds staple.
– because it ain't a proper LoR data digging until we find the latest Battle Fury
build! =)
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the 7 most popular Standard LoR decks according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Overall Trends of the LoR Standard Ladder
While overall fairly stable, it has finally happened: Annie Jhin has dethroned Elites as Runeterra's most popular, and arguably best, deck in the Standard format.
LoR Standard Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
Here we showcase Standard LoR decks with more than 2100 games in the last three days, and good-to-great win rate – the best tried-and-true tools the LoR meta has to offer!
Eternal this: Annie Jhin
And here we have it, folks: as suggested by last week's trends, the best LoR deck in Standard is Annie Jhin, with 3700 games played in the last three days (same as Elites, as we'll see right next), but punching nearly 3% harder than Garen's crew.
Quite the journey, when you consider that Annie Jhin didn't change a single card in its build until rotation forced it to find new Standard tricks, but here you have it now: most popular archetype, most popular specific decklist, and performance that leaves no doubt about Annie Jhin deserving its place.
It's not unbeatable (Elites actually has a slight edge on Annie Jhin, and Jinx Samira utterly smashes it), but it clearly dominates most of the Standard decks in Runeterra.
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Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa
Elites remain the other Juggernaut of the Standard LoR ladder, also with 3700 games played in the last three days and a 55% win rate.
Like Annie Jhin, Elites are not without a couple of counters (in this case, Lurkers), but again consistently dominates the rest of the Standard meta, as they have been doing for nearly all this patch cycle.
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LoR Standard Heavyweights – Strong Standard Decks
These Standard decks have between 1000 and 2100 games in the last three days – solid picks for climbing the Legends of Runeterra ladder!
Jinx Samira
Of the two surviving Samira decks in Standard (Jinx Samira being one, Samira Fizz being the other), Jinx's version has cemented itself as clearly the best when looking at ladder numbers, and currently punches at 57% (which, for context, is an amazing performance for Standard).
The pew-pew-BOOM pair bloody murders Annie Jhin (being, in fact, Annie Jhin's only strong counter), is also great against Samira Fizz and Lurkers, and gives Vault Nasus a bloody nose.
Further reading: Samira Jinx Deck Guide.
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Fizz Samira
Although by now clearly weaker than Jinx's version, Fizz Samira remains very popular, and still a very good deck: 54% win rate across 1200 games.
It has huge problems against Jinx's version and performs poorly against Karma Sett, but otherwise is even or favored against most other strong decks.
Further reading: Samira Fizz Deck Guide
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Nasus Vaults of Helia
In a carbon-copy story to what we saw in the last couple of weeks, most pilots prefer the Lonesome Nasus version…
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… which, with a 54% win rate in about 1200 games, is certainly a very good deck – but, for some reason, pilots seem remiss to pick the Azir
Nasus
version, which has consistently shown an even better performance:
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Both the Big Lone Dog and the Bird 'n' Dog versions have good odds against the reigning Elites, but tend to lose against other Top Dogs – specifically, Karma Sett, Samira Fizz, and Annie Jhin are disastrous matchups.
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Lurkers have stuck to what now clearly is their optimal build (until last week there were several slightly different versions, but in the last seven days most pilots have flocked to the triple Blood in the Water
version) and we find them today smacking at a great 56% win rate across 1200 games.
Lurkers dread facing Annie Jhin, Shen Jarvan, and any version of Samira's decks, while themselves preying upon Karma Sett, Elites, and Jax Ornn.
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Jarvan Shen
Prince and Protector will end up this patch cycle proving to the whole world that they are the real thing: 55% win rate in the last three days, across more than 1000 games.
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Punching Up – Standard Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 600 and 1000 games in the last three days in the Standard ladder – smallish data samples, yet all decks here have quite a few games under their belts.
Illaoi Swain
At long last, pilots have remembered that Priestess and Grand General make an awesome pair!
While extremely good for all of this patch, and a powerhouse in recent Runeterra metas, Illaoi Swain had been pushed to the side until this week – but pilots have re-discovered this deck for their last-push climbs, with Swain Illaoi now showcasing a spectacular 60% win rate in nearly a thousand games in the last three days.
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Karma Sett
The LoR Mint remains a very popular archetype, but it has a multitude of slightly different decks and while most of them are okay, none is amazing. The most popular Karma Sett deck, seen below, showcases a solid 54% win rate across around 700 games.
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The Fringe Stuff
With Standard being less played than Eternal, a lot of tried-and-true Standard decks currently show a play rate that we'd normally consider "fringe" – any of these decks should work very well, though, given that they currently show excellent win rates, and we know the first two are solid, time-tested brews.
- Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts, which is the hardest-hitting deck in the fringes of the Standard Runeterra meta,
- Aatrox Quinn Vayne, still trying to make the world end,
- Bard Norra, which has several builds, and some of them gawd-awful, but the good ones seem to be doing very good.
Wrapping Up
Usual words of wisdom at this point of the patch cycle, namely the end of a Season when new LoR cards are on the horizon: Runeterra's next expansion, Heart of the Huntress, will land next week, so if you're short on shards and wildcards, better save them until we find out what's good and what's not in the upcoming LoR Meta.
Up until next Wednesday, though, the decks seen above are your best bet for a last-push climb, either in Standard or Eternal.
Hope you find your weapon of choice, and see you in the jungle next week!
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 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, top 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.
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.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from Riot (via Riot's API) – in other words, all the numbers in this article are "from the horse's mouth," so to speak.
Liver, our wonderful coder and unsung MaRu 🐐 (also in charge of designing the website) makes Riot's 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.
