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 the Technical Note at the end of this article, we'll first take a glance at a snapshot of our Tier List, which shows 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.
Patch 4.7, which quieted Siren Song
's reign, landed just 40 hours ago – everything seen today should be taken with a grain of salt, since data samples are particularly small, but thus far these the best-performing decks for climbing the Legends of Runeterra Standard Ladder.
Best LoR Decks – Puffcap Power!
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
The first thing to note is that, overall, the number of games played on the LoR ladder has decreased sharply when compared with last week, at least in the sample collected by Mastering Runeterra: Since patch 4.7 landed, the number of games played per day has dropped to around 40% of what it was last week.
On the one hand, it would seem that LoR players are not entirely thrilled by patch 4.7 (although of course there could be any number of other reasons for the drop in games played) – on the other, it means that sample sizes are unusually small, so conclusions about today's data are to be taken with care.
In particular, as we'll see in a couple of decks (like Garen Neeko, or Jinx Samira), results from MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players) and Legna's data (which samples High Diamond & Masters players) are different – therefore, pilots beware, and remember the First Rule of Patch Week: it's too early to tell!
Pesky Elusives: Targon Teemo
While not the most popular archetype, Teemo
Targon is the most popular specific decklist when looking at MaRu's data (with around 900 games played), and the second when looking at Legna's data (with about 1300) – and both samples agree that it's a powerhouse as far as performance goes, smacking well above the 56% mark.
22 cards
18 cards
25 800
At least by current (and, remember: early) data, Targon Teemo handily handles Jax Ornn and Gnar Neeko, has an uphill struggle against Illaoi Swain, dies horribly to Heimer Jayce, and is slightly disadvantaged versus Teemo's other deck: Bandle Teemo.
By the way: Targon Teemo is, thus far, the only popular deck that we can call "new" in this new LoR meta – this deck was not a thing before patch 4.7 landed.
Puffcaps Galore: Bandle Teemo
While Targon Teemo is a new development, 
Bandle City Teemo has stuck with what worked last patch, going all-in on pings and Poison Puffcap
.
Interestingly, there were two versions of this deck last week, one pairing Piltover & Zaun with 
Freljord, the other with Bandle City, and during the previous patch the frozen version was the most popular – right now only the Bandle version remains (the Freljord version sees very little play, and awful results) and, while a solid deck, it seems thus far much weaker than Targon Teemo.
27 cards
13 cards
25 900
Like the Targon version, Bandle Teemo seems to have the upper hand against Jax Ornn and Gnar Neeko, but a much worse time against Illaoi Swain.
Bandle beats Targon (by a small margin) should the go push come to shroom, though!
A Tale of Two Neekos
Now, here we have an interesting (and marked) disagreement between MaRu's data, and Legna's data – in MaRu's sample (which looks at data from Platinum and above), Gnar Neeko is a somewhat popular but mediocre deck, that we wouldn't recommend by its current performance.
But looking at Legna's (which checks High Diamond and upwards), it would seem that Gnar Neeko is a fairly strong deck – although it should be noted that performance decreases when looking at only Masters data.
And both data samples agree that Gnar
Neeko
is horrible against Teemo decks, so tread carefully!
26 cards
14 cards
30 600
Illaoi Swain
Squabbles between data samples stop when Priestess and Grand General show up: this is a bona fide powerhouse, as it was last patch (and in previous LoR metas), punching well above 55% in around 600 games since the patch landed.
Illaoi Swain steamrolls Teemo, stomps over Gnar Neeko, and overall seems to have a very, very good matchup spread (although, remember: early data, small samples!).
The only dark cloud in Illaoi Swain's blue sky appears to be Heimer Jayce, but not by much.
26 cards
14 cards
30 200
Buried in Ice: Jax Ornn
Weapon Master and Forge God continue running hot, as they were doing yesterday – according to MaRu's data, the best Jax Ornn deck has been punching above 58% in close to 400 games (Legna puts Jax Ornn's performance a bit lower, at around 54%). Both data samples strongly suggest that the Buried in Ice
version is the best.
21 cards
19 cards
26 600
Jax Ornn's matchup spread doesn't look great, though, with poor odds against Illaoi Swain and Teemo.
It does seem to beat Heimer Jayce, though, which is a deck other Top Dogs appear to have some trouble with.
Heimer Jayce Shadows
Professor and Student are back!
Absent from the Runeterra meta for quite some time, Heimer Jayce now shows up with very good results in both data samples, and with a very good matchup spread: they have a hard time against Jax Ornn, but most other popular matchups (and above all when facing Teemo decks) are favored for them.
8 cards
32 cards
29 500
Aatrox Quinn Vayne
Aatrox Quinn Vayne was on the upswing last week, but far from being a powerhouse – a bit like Jax Ornn, its early success could easily be due random variance, but it was doing well yesterday, and it's doing well today (both MaRu and Legna put its early performance at around 54%), so the Runeterra meta may have just shifted to accommodate The World Ender
once again.
In particular, having excellent odds against Teemo decks may explain Aatrox Quinn Vayne's resurgence.
28 cards
12 cards
34 400
Jinx's Many Faces
Jinx
shows up in several heavy-hitters today – all decks that we've seen before (and many of them very strong last week), but there are disagreements between data samples in some cases, so let's check them one by one.
Jinx Samira
MaRu's and Legna's data disagree here , with only MaRu showing Jinx Samira as a well-performing deck – nerfs to Crimson Pigeon
may have hurt it, but until we have more data it's hard to say.
17 cards
23 cards
28 100
Ekko Jinx
Another deck where we find data disagreement – like Jinx Samira, Ekko Jinx only shines in MaRu's sample. This deck has been a staple for so long that it can never be discounted, but it wasn't doing too well last patch, so we'll see.
21 cards
19 cards
29 200
Bandle Jinx
Did we mention Jinx is the most multi-facetious Champ in Runeterra right now?
Like last week, Bandle City Jinx comes in two flavors: with her as the lone Champ…
25 cards
15 cards
14 500
… or with her inviting Kennen
for the ride:
25 cards
15 cards
25 200
And in both cases, squabbles between data samples stop: both decks are hitting hard.
Other Strong Early Decks
Digging a bit more into the data (which means data samples are on the tiny end of the spectrum now), here are five other decks that show some promise:
- Ashe LeBlanc: it's a bit of a running joke by now that it's not realy a LoR balance patch if it doesn't have an Ashe LeBlanc buff – but, what do you know, it's doing pretty well in both data samples, so it may be Ashe LeBlanc's time to shine. Matchup spread doesn't look great, though, so temper your expectations!
- Norra Yuumi, a very fringe option that shows very good performance both in MaRu's and Legna's data,
- Nasus Veigar, the latest iteration of Nasus
Vaults of Helia, which is in a similar spot to Norra Yuumi: fringe option, but with great performance in both data samples, - Last, two well-known archetypes that were doing excellently last week: Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts, and Annie Jhin.
Vaults of Helia
, which is in a similar spot to Norra Yuumi: fringe option, but with great performance in both data samples, And in case you were wondering "Where's Jack
?"... yeah, he got buffed; but by current numbers, it's almost as if he has been nerfed.
Wrapping Up
As was the case yesterday, Targon Teemo has leap-frogged to the front of the pack, chased closely by several of the pre-patch Top Dogs – and, by the sharp decrease in the overall number of games played, it would seem that pilots aren't overly thrilled with the current LoR meta.
Unlike yesterday, though, there are glimpses of other new decks (like Norra Yuumi) or archetypes we haven't seen in quite some time (Heimer Jayce) – with a bit of luck, more new or returned decks may return to the Runeterra meta in the next few days.
We'll see!
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.
