Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Howdy, and welcome to our weekly selection of the best decks in Legends of 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, 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 LoR decks.
Best LoR Decks
These are the 7 most popular Standard LoR decks according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Overall LoR Ladder Trends
New expansion, new wildly popular Champs… but none of them too strong, by current trends: Neeko
has found a bit of a home in 
Demacia, Nidalee
has some modest success with Ekko, and The Poro King
looks like a fairly fluffy flop.
Popular but weak Champs do have a large effect on the LoR meta, though: they inflate other decks' performance, making it a tad tougher to tell rugged fighters from callous bullies.
For example, the Poro King decks are thus far pretty awful, and one of the reasons that Garen Neeko decks are able to perform above a 50% win rate (in this case, by the generous King donating LPs to its fellow Heart of the Huntress Champion) – and such generosity explains in part the blazing success that Evelynn decks are enjoying.
LoR Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks
Here we showcase LoR decks with more than 2100 games since the patch landed, and good-to-great win rate – the best tried-and-true tools to be found in our LoR Meta Tier List!
Targon Song: Evelynn Kayle
Let's welcome our new, husky overladies!
Skyrocketing in playrate today, with 3600 games since the patch landed (when the deck had just about 200 games played yesterday…) and a silly 60%+ win rate, Evelynn Kayle jumps at the front of the pack as the strongest deck in Runeterra right now.
Calling it Evelynn Kayle is perhaps a disservice to Siren Song
and Xolaani the Bloodweaver
(so strong a mix that we'll find it in another deck today), but Evelynn Kayle is by far the most common version and has been widely adopted by pilots.
19 cards
21 cards
30 600
Digging into matchup data, though, suggests that this Juggernaut is in large part a bully that squeezes fluffy decks (its winrate against Poro decks is just obscene…) but slows down when confronted by tough foes: Samira decks have a slight edge on Eve's entourage, Lukers have fairly good odds, and Annie Jhin just chews Husks for breakfast.
The main argument for Evelynn Kayle right now is that it totally thrashes Elites and has the upper hand against Illaoi Jarvan, two excellent decks from last patch that are very popular right now.
Garen Jarvan Neeko
Like yesterday, Garen
and Jarvan IV
are Neeko's best friends, and together make the second most popular deck in Legends of Runeterra, with around 3400 games played since Heart of the Huntress landed.
Success is modest, though, with Garen Jarvan Neeko barely grazing a 51% win rate… and such modest performance still manages to make it not just the best, but the only Neeko deck that seems playable right now.
There are several different versions, though, including a Garen Neeko deck with a fairly different Follower composition (which is performing at 55% across 800+ games), so there's still room for tweaks, improvements, and hope.
Garen Neeko decks seem to have the upper hand against Karma Sett, but crumble in front of most of last patch's Top Dogs (Annie Jhin, Lukers, Fizz Samira, Elites, and an atrocious matchup against Jinx Samira), while also having a rough time with the new LoR ladder Juggernaut: Evelynn Kayle.
30 cards
10 cards
31 600
The Fluffy Elephant in the Room: The Poro King!
As noted when discussing the overall ladder trends, The Poro King is arguably the most influential Champ in the LoR ladder right now…
… on grounds of its huge popularity, royal generosity, and the largess with which it inflates most other decks' performances.
In particular, His Fluffy Highness explains in part the great success of Evelynn Targon decks (odds for the King are around 20%...), and why Garen Neeko decks are viable (odds for the King are below 40% in this case).
But, overall: not a deck you want to play if you value LPs over fluffiness, so we won't recommend it today.
LoR Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks
These decks have between 1000 and 2100 games since the patch landed – while still too early to tell, the majority of these are well-tested decks that were already among the best LoR decks last patch, so it's a safe bet they'll serve you well in the coming days.
Jinx Samira
Riot grrrls keep going pew-pew-Ka-BOOM, and join the main trend of Heart of the Huntress' early days: whatever was strong last season, is still strong now.
And Jinx Samira already was one of the strongest decks in Runeterra, so its rocketing popularity (nearly 2000 games) and win rate (above 60%) are no surprise.
Jinx Samira loooves facing Annie Jhin, loathes bumping into Elites, and doesn't mind Evelynn's entourage either way.
And, yeah, every time you think about their abs, these girls murder a fluffy poro; but in their defense, everybody does that nowadays…
17 cards
23 cards
28 100
Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa
Just in case: this deck has very little to do with Garen Neeko decks – in other words, it's not just a Champ swamp: these are different decks.
Also, for those either new to LoR, or that were mostly focusing on Eternal until recently: during the previous Season, Elites was arguably one of the best decks in the format, so it's no surprise to find it punching really hard right now (win rate above 60%), and with 1900 games under its belt since the patch landed.
Real Elites mercilessly murder fluffy kings and Elites wannabes such as Garen Neeko – but the recent rise of Evelynn Kayle is very bad news, given Elite's awful odds in that matchup.
22 cards
18 cards
27 100
Annie Jhin
Like Elites, Annie Jhin was already very well-positioned by the end of last patch – and seems even better positioned right now: if you hate Husk and you want to rain on a Demoness parade, Annie Jhin is the deck to bring, with nearly 65% odds when facing Evelynn Kayle.
Overall, blazing brat and bullet buff are punching at 58% across 1800 games, and given their success in the last patch, it's a safe bet they'll stick at it this cycle.
25 cards
15 cards
27 500
Lonesome Bilge Aatrox
Bilgewater Aatrox
is not a new concept, even if it always remained a bit of a fringe deck – but now that Evelynn
and Siren Song is all the rage, credit where credit is due: Aatrox was doing the Bilge Xolaani thing a long time ago!
At any rate, Bilge Aatrox is doing great right now. Going more for the one-cost synergy than the Husk synergy, the inclusion of Siren Song has pushed this Aatrox deck from fringe to mainstream, punching at 59% in more than 1700 games.
The red flag here is the same as for Evelynn Kayle: Lonesome Aatrox is looking a bit like a bully that crushes fluffy brews, while itself crumbling in front of tough opposition.
33 cards
7 cards
16 400
Illaoi Swain
As noted yesterday when checking at first-day data, this time around pilots have not forgotten what a great pair Priestess and Grand General make, and these Old Dogs are slewing fluffy kings and jungle Vastayans without mercy.
Illaoi Swain is not so tough against Evelynn decks, though, so we'll see how the Runeterra meta shapes up in that regard.
26 cards
14 cards
30 200
Ekko Nidalee
Ekko
Nidalee's performance has deflated a bit since yesterday (now at 52%) but tripled the amount of games played, and is right now the only Nidalee deck with a strong claim of being the real-deal.
Ekko Nidalee's main problem is Evelynn Kayle, which is a disastrous matchup – but, interestingly, Ekko Nidalee is very good against Annie Jhin (which itself is a very good Evelynn counter), and appears to have the upper hand against Samira decks.
Certainly a deck to keep your eyes on!
31 cards
9 cards
26 500
Punching Up – LoR Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 600 and 1000 games since the patch landed – we're sailing into small data samples, yet all decks here have quite a few games under their belts.
Fizz Samira
Fizz Samira wasn't doing too well yesterday, but has regained a lot of ground and now punches at 54% in close to a thousand games. Still suffers greatly when facing Jinx Samira, and is not happy with Ekko Nidalee, but looks like it can put up a fight against Evelynn Kayle, and we know that it's well-positioned against last season's Top Dogs.
25 cards
15 cards
31 500
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Pyke's crew is having a blast in these turbulent seas – they were already doing very well by the end of last patch, and as such continue the trend of Old Dogs steamrolling the new, fluffy puppies, in this case with a 58% winrate in 900+ games.
In particular, Lurkers are solid against Annie Jhin, and seem very solid against Evelynn decks.
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Aatrox Quinn Vayne
Aatrox Quinn Vayne wasn't among the best of the best decks last patch (even though it always remained playable) – it does look like a very strong option right now, punching close to 60% in 700 games, but that may be due to all the fluffy puppies running around, since Aatrox Quinn Vayne doesn't look too strong when matching most of the other strong decks.
28 cards
12 cards
34 400
Lonesome Vault Nasus
Another old Top Dog that has sniffed blood on the ladder, Nasus
is having great success along modest play rate – same red flag as Evelynn or Aatrox Quinn Vayne: most of its good matchups are weaker, fluffy brews.
23 cards
17 cards
22 900
Other Strong Considerations
If none of the above float your boat, here are a handful of fringe options that are doing very well.
Evelynn Lucian
A fringe archetype that saw quite a bit of success some metas ago, and now with Siren Song is trending upwards fast.
23 cards
17 cards
30 000
Shen Jarvan
Always an excellent choice in the last patch, Shen Jarvan has started modestly this expansion, but still packs a punch.
22 cards
18 cards
27 000
Nidalee Varus
The only other Nidalee deck, besides Ekko Nidalee, with some semblance of promise right now (and the only Varus deck with more than two dozen games…): win rate above 52%, in a bit more than 200 games.
16 cards
24 cards
28 200
Wrapping Up
Heart of the Huntress looks thus far like a low-powered expansion, with the most impactful card being Siren Song – a support card for an existing Champion.
There seems to be a lot of brewing going on with Garen Neeko, though, with a ton of different versions. And we won't have a clear landscape until His Fluffy Highness becomes either less popular, or a lot less generous.
Hope you've enjoyed today's selection of the best decks for the LoR ladder, and good luck out there!
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.
