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 – Song of Yordles and Sirens
These are the 7 most popular Standard LoR decks according to Legna the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players) and Legna's data (which samples High Diamond & Masters players) – both sources in turn get their data directly from Riot (via Riot's API).
Overall LoR Ladder Trends
With Riot remiss to give Siren Song
the silent treatment, Fizz
has solidly cemented itself as the best LoR deck – it's been a while since we've seen such a clearly dominating deck.
Still, as we'll see when dissecting today's numbers, Fizz Siren Song is not as overbearing a deck as it may seem at first glance: its main strength is its lack of weaknesses (there is simply no deck with an easy matchup into Song Fizz), but on the other hand there are several decks that have a fighting chance against the current LoR Meta King, and some of them do have at least a small edge.
In particular, the most interesting news this week is the rise of one very old archetype, Scouts, and fringe archetypes, like Jax Ornn, that have the upper hand against Song decks.
And, on related LoR Ladder news: we're still in the middle of the best Puffcap season ever!
LoR Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks
Here we showcase 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 Meta Tier List!
Lonesome Fizz Song
For those short on time, or that dislike long reads, let's spell it out:
This is the best LoR deck right now – if you want to climb the Legends of Runeterra ranked ladder, just pick this deck up and get goin'!
20 cards
20 cards
16 700
Fizz is the most played archetype in Legends of Runeterra, has the most played specific deck by a huge margin (over 7800 games in the last three days), which also happens to have one of the highest win rates (smacking at close to 57%) – and, above all, there's no strong counter in sight:
Bandle City Teemo, Annie Jhin, and the returning Scouts have a slight edge on the aquatic Yordle (and if we dig a bit deeper into the LoR meta, we'll find Jinx Kennen, Ekko Jinx, Ekko Nidalee, and Bard Garen), but odds are never worse than 45% for Fizz.
On the other hand, Song Fizz demolishes all Evelynn Song decks (and is particularly vicious against Evelynn Kayle), murders Lurkers, beats Illaoi Swain, and does horrible things to anything that is not a top-shelf option (like, say, The Poro King
).
As Sorry says in his 5 Lineups for the Standard Runeterra Open, and as proven by our recent MaRu $2K Open, expect to face many players who will be running double-Xolaani lineups with Fizz in the starring role.
Further reading: Fizz Siren Song Deck Guide, by Jason Fleurant himself!
Teemo Sump Monument
While it's clear by now that the Heart of the Huntress champions are on the low end of the power scale, it's also evident that several of the new cards that buttressed existing champs hit the spot perfectly (or, well, in Siren Song's case, were commandeered by other existing, tricky champ!).
Sump Monument
has turbo-charged Teemo
to the point that everybody's Poison Puffcap
-planting Yordle has not one, but two different shells, blending 
Piltover & Zaun with either 
Freljord or Bandle City .
The most popular version right now, with around 4000 games played, is the Frozen Puffcap version:
32 cards
8 cards
24 200
It can go toe-to-toe with Fizz (although Siren Song has a tiny edge here), can beat Evelynn decks, and has a huge edge against Karma Sett and Jax Ornn – but suffers tremendously against Annie Jhin and Lurkers, gets crushed by Illaoi Swain, and in particular loses badly against Teemo's other popular version, Bandle City.
Which, with about 2700 games played in the last three days, would be this one:
27 cards
13 cards
27 000
Although the shell may look similar, the Bandle City version does behave like a very different deck when we look at its matchups: it still has the upper hand against Jax Ornn, Karma Sett, and Evelynn Kayle, but Annie Jhin becomes a favored matchup – on the other hand, Samira Fizz becomes unfavored, Illaoi Swain becomes even worse, and Lurkers is still disastrous.
Overall, Teemo decks have a modest win rate (around 51%), but it's been a long time since Puffcaps were so good and so popular!
Targon Song: Evelynn Kayle
Ironically, Evelynn Kayle's worst enemy has been another Song deck: Fizz. Yet in spite of Fizz being a horrible matchup, Evelynn Kayle remains a very strong option for the Runeterra ladder, its most popular version punching at a 54% win rate in around 2100 games in the last three days.
20 cards
20 cards
30 800
The two other problems for Evelynn's crew are Annie Jhin (which has been a pain in her thigh since day one), and the ascending Teemo decks – but Eve and her husks have the upper hand against Karma Sett, Gnar Jhin, Jax Ornn, Illaoi Swain, and a huge host of weaker decks.
Further reading: Evelynn Targon Deck Guide
LoR Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks
These decks have between 1000 and 2100 games in the last three days – two of them (Gnar Jhin and Jax Ornn) are recent developments in the current LoR meta, while all the are by now tried-and-true staples.
Illaoi Swain
Priestess and Grand General have lost quite a bit of traction this week (falling from close to 2900 in a three-day window, to around 1900 now) but maintain an excellent 55% win rate.
26 cards
14 cards
30 200
Illaoi Swain's main problems are Fizz (Priestess and Grand General get wrecked not only by Song Fizz, but also by Fizz Samira), and Song Diana Evelynn (although Illaoi Swain can go toe-to-toe with the much more popular Kayle Evelynn version).
On the backswing, Illaoi Swain slaps Annie Jhin and Teemo (above all the Bandle City version), and has an edge on Karma Sett and Jinx Samira.
Further reading: Swain Illaoi Deck Guide
Annie Jhin
Last week we found Annie Jhin running two competing builds (one of them close to the classic version, the other running Ravenborn Tome
and Captive Greyback
) – the data is clear by now, the close-to-classic version is very good…
25 cards
15 cards
27 500
… the Tome version, not at all: close-to-classic casually punches above 55%, while the Tome version struggles to scrape by at 50%, and as such is declining in popularity quite fast.
Annie hates it when Jhin goes play with somebody else, by the way: one of the worst matchups for Annie Jhin turns out to be Gnar Jhin. The other really bad matchup is, as mentioned above, Illaoi Swain.
Bullet buff and blazing brat are otherwise very well positioned in the current Runeterra meta: they are among the very few decks with an edge (albeit slight) against Song Fizz, have the upper hand against Evelynn decks, absolutely demolish Freljord Teemo (but they have a bit of a hard time against the Bandle City version), and reliably beat the ascending Jax Ornn.
Further reading: Annie Jhin Deck Guide
Jinx Samira
Jinx Samira is another deck losing traction (dropping to 1500 games today, only half of what they had last week), while still punching at a very solid 54% win rate.
17 cards
23 cards
28 100
Jinx Samira has an uneasy relationship with Siren Song decks: it's slightly favored against Kayle Evelynn, roughly even against Lonesome Fizz and Diana Evelynn, and the underdog against Lonesome Evelynn.
In other matchups, Jinx Samira folds against Illaoi Swain and is not happy with Jax Ornn becoming increasingly popular, but it reliably beats Annie Jhin and Lurkers (by huge margins) and has a tiny edge against Teemo decks.
Further reading: Jinx Samira Deck Guide
Gnar Jhin
It's official! For the first time in ages, Jhin
has found a new profitable partnership: Gnar
!
Gnar Jhin brings back Lord Broadmane
with tons of pings, to punch at 53% in nearly 1200 games – and the best versions have trimmed some spells to make room for Avenging Vastaya
, even though it's the only Ambush unit in the deck.
14 cards
26 cards
27 900
Karma Sett
Like Annie Jhin, last week Karma Sett was a Tale of Two Decks – but this week the Targon version has proved too weak to recommend, while the Piltover & Zaun Karma Sett deck fights on at a modest 51%+ win rate:
22 cards
18 cards
29 800
Karma Sett is awfully weak against Gnar Jhin and Teemo decks, but can otherwise go toe-to-toe with most other strong decks – in that aspect, Karma Sett is one of the most "fair" decks in the current Runeterra meta, with odds close to 50/50 in the majority of confrontations.
Jax Ornn
A bit out of nowhere (they were not even a fringe deck last week), Jax Ornn jumps to the spotlight this week: a fairly modest performance when looking at win rate (just about 51%) but quite the solid numbers as far as playrate goes (1100 games with its most popular version, and 7th most popular archetype overall).
Like Karma Sett, Jax Ornn looks like a very "fair" deck, with odds not too far from 50/50 against most other strong decks – the only two exceptions are Teemo and Annie Jhin, which are uphill struggles but still not unwinnable.
22 cards
18 cards
24 600
Better Avoid: Nasus Senna
Like last week, Nasus Senna (and other Nasus decks) remain very popular, but without a performance to make them decks we can recommend.
Punching Up – LoR Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 600 and 1000 games in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples, yet all decks here have quite a few games under their belts.
Jinx Kennen
Don't sleep on Jinx Kennen, folks!!
Jinx
has found in Kennen
an eager partner for her Discard synergies, in particular gaining access to Return-o Wrench
, and they are punching up hard: win rate above 57% in close to 1000 games, and they were already one of the heavy-hitters last week.
25 cards
15 cards
25 200
And, as also highlighted last week: Jinx Kennen is one of the very few decks with an edge (albeit slight) over Song Fizz, while brutally murdering Annie Jhin and Fizz Samira, consistently beating Jinx Samira, and now showcasing superiority over Teemo decks.
You will still have some rough matchups (Illaoi Swain, Jax Ornn, Diana Evelynn), but Jinx Kennen is very well-placed in the current LoR meta.
And if you don't enjoy Kennen, you also have the Lone Jinx version, also doing great!
Further reading: Jinx Bandle City Discard Aggro Deck Guide
Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts
They were just a blip in the radar last week, but here they are, back in full force: Scout s!
This old staple also wins "Best Irony" this week: when everybody is setting sail to Bilgewater to add some Siren Songs to their decks, here we have an old sea dog, from Bilgewater, without Siren Song…
… that happens to beat other Song decks!
Among popular decks, Scouts is actually the best counter to Song Fizz – not by a huge margin (just 55%), but enough to be a reliable thorn in Fizz's side. And they also beat Evelynn Kayle by a similar margin. Diana Evelynn is a tough nut to crack, but in this case, Scouts is only very slightly disfavored.
Other good targets of Scouts include Gnar Jhin, Annie Jhin, Teemo, and Karma Sett – and, with only Illaoi Swain as a bad matchup, data suggests Scouts are here to stay: close to 900 games in the last three days with their best deck, and punching above 56%.
Further reading: Miss Fortune Quinn Scouts Deck Guide
26 cards
14 cards
26 900
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Pyke's crew is doing okay among all these Sirens – Lonesome Fizz is a horrible matchup, and both Illaoi Swain and Gnar Jhin are pretty rough, but Pyke & Co. have an edge against Evelynn Kayle, and are excellent if you just can't stand the sight of Teemo.
25 cards
15 cards
26 400
Gnar Nidalee
After several rounds of tweaks and refinement, Gnar Nidalee shows up with a very playable version, accruing 650 games and a very solid 53%+ win rate.
28 cards
12 cards
29 600
Other Strong Considerations
If none of the above floats your boat, here are a handful of fringe options that are doing very well – note that several of these decks have performed very well in the recent past, so even if they have a low play rate now, they are still tried-and-true options.
Aatrox Quinn Vayne
Aatrox
Bilgewater was one of the many Song decks that spiked early in the patch, but has thus far disappeared – Aatrox Quinn Vayne, on the other hand, is on the upswing, with a winrate close to 55% right now fueled by its amazing odds against Teemo decks.
28 cards
12 cards
34 400
Garen Jarvan IV Kai'Sa
A Juggernaut not long ago – it was one of the most potent and popular Standard decks in the previous Legends of Runeterra season – Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa has now been pushed to the fringes, but is still very playable.
22 cards
18 cards
27 100
Pesky Elusives: Teemo 
Ionia
Forget about Puffcaps, it's all-in on Elusives this time!
Although outshined by the Sump Monument versions, Teemo Ionia is doing quite well, focusing on pesky Elusives rather than puffcap pings.
19 cards
21 cards
23 800
Bard Garen
Don't sleep on Chime-buffed Elites, folks!
Second week in a row that they are putting numbers, and very good numbers at that, and it would seem they can beat Fizz – and on top of that there are two slightly different versions doing well, so it looks increasingly likely that there's something here.