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 the Legends of Runeterra meta!
As explained in the Technical Note at the end of this article, we'll first take a glance at a snapshot of our LoR Meta Decks Tier List, which sorts 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.
During the current patch cycle, both LoR formants (namely Eternal and Standard) have their ranked ladders active. Given that Eternal is the focus of the Runeterra Open and has a lot more games played, we'll check that format in the first half of this article, and take a look at Standard in the second half.
Best LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These are the 6 most popular Eternal LoR decks according to Mastering Runeterra Eternal Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data
Overall LoR Meta Trends – Eternal
A lot has changed since last week, as befits a brand-new LoR meta!
Akshan Samira, first spotted in Standard, has now shot at the top of the Eternal popularity rankings, and with performance to match. Fiora, replacing Udyr as Galio's best friend, is the other strong newcomer to the Eternal LoR meta. And Jax Vi has proved they were no fluke, maintaining one of the highest winrates in the format.
On the other hand, 
Targon decks have lost a lot of steam, even if they are still a big factor in the Eternal Runeterra meta.
Eternal Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Eternal Ladder
Here we showcase Runeterra meta decks with more than 2100 games in the last three days – the well-tested options for your Eternal ladder climb!
Akshan Samira
With 2500 games played in the last three days and an amazing 57%+ win rate, Akshan Samira has surpassed every other Eternal deck in popularity, and few can match it in performance.
It's also the only shell that can claim to pack a punch both in Eternal and Standard: with minimum tweaks (and although a lot less potent), Akshan Samira is also solid in Standard.
In Eternal, Akshan Samira is one of the bullies pushing Targon decks out of the Eternal meta: suave rogue and desert rose brutally murder Zoe Targon. They also handily beat Akshan Lee Sin and Braum Vladimir, and have a small edge against Jax Vi.
Their weak spot is Fiora Galio, which is a pretty lousy matchup. And Akshan Samira also seems to be very weak to Pirates.
4 cards
36 cards
27 000
Eternal Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These decks have between 1000 and 2100 games since patch 4.8 landed – still too early to tell, but these look like solid choices for the Eternal LoR ladder.
Jax Vi Timelines
Like last week, Jax
Vi
is one of the scariest decks in the Eternal Runeterra meta – not the scariest (because Fiora Galio has snatched that title) but still smacking at an amazing 58% in nearly 2000 games in the last three days.
Jax Vi seems to have a small edge against Galio Fiora (the edge against Galio Udyr was huge, but this deck seems to be phasing out), and maintains good odds against Zoe Targon decks and Vladimir Braum.
19 cards
21 cards
32 800
Formidable Fiora Galio
Another of this week's newcomers, Galio Fiora shares regions and several cards with Galio Udyr, but looks like a very different deck.
To start with, it's the best-performing deck today, reaching a crazy 59% win rate across 1500 games. And perhaps equally important, it is only slightly disadvantaged against Jax Vi (whereas Galio Udyr has massive headaches in that matchup).
Cherry on top, Galio Fiora's odds against Akshan Samira are close to 65%, making it a great option to hunt down today's Juggernaut.
Further reading: Formidable Fiora Galio Deck Guide
6 cards
34 cards
30 600
Punching Up – Eternal LoR Decks Doing Great
Runeterra decks with between 500 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.
Akshan Fizz
Akshan's other profitable partnership besides Samira is Fizz
(Lee Sin, which worked fairly well last week, seems to have been pushed to irrelevance).
Akshan
Fizz's best targets are Zoe Targon decks, which are on the downswing this week.
Further reading: Akshan Fizz Deck Guide
19 cards
21 cards
25 900
Atrocious Diana Zoe
Most Targon decks, which looked great during the first couple of post-patch days, have been pushed to irrelevance this week – but Diana
Zoe
still manages a decent 52% win rate (although a far cry from its excellent 59% last week).
39 cards
1 cards
25 000
Not Working Too Well: Samira Zoe, Galio Udyr, Braum Vladimir, Akshan Lee Sin
These four decks were very popular last week, when they performed very well.
They remain popular today, but they all struggle to reach the 50% winrate mark, so we won't recommend them for your Eternal ladder climb.
Your Mileage May Vary
If none of the above floats your boat, here are a handful of fringe options that are doing well – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
Pirates!
Don't sleep on pirates, folks – it was doing excellent last week, and it's doing great today. Aggro decks do have a tendency to perform well early on and later deflate, as the meta settles… but thus far it does not seem to be the case for Miss Fortune and Twisted Fate!
20 cards
20 cards
25 900
Aphelios Viktor Zoe
Last week, Zoe Targon decks were finding great success by splashing one or two copies of Atrocity
. As we've seen, that no longer seems like a viable strategy – but, in the fringes of the Eternal LoR meta, Viktor
and Mystic Shot
show quite a bit of promise if paired with trickster and moon boy.
5 cards
35 cards
24 400
Annie Jhin
Another "don't sleep on this one, folks" warning: Annie Jhin, like Pirates, is another aggressive deck that has been performing amazingly well since the patch landed.
It's entirely possible that lack of popularity is mostly due to lack of novelty (something that may also be the case for Pirates), but if you want performance, Annie Jhin looks like a deck to take for a spin.
28 cards
12 cards
22 000
Jayce Lux
Another very old concept making a return – but with Epic Scraptraption
and Radiant Guardian
, Jayce Lux does have new toys to play with!
12 cards
28 cards
25 400
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the 6 most popular Standard LoR decks according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Standard
All hail the King!
Although the dodgers-of-nerfs, namely Heimer Jayce and Lurkers, have kept their dominance of the Standard LoR meta, this week we find one royal, fluffy new face pushing towards the top: The Poro King
!
It's also clear that nerfs to Vault of Helia decks, and Bandle Jinx decks, have taken their toll, and they have been pushed out from the top.
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
When looking at specific decks, Lurkers solidify a trend that was already taking shape last week: Pyke Rek'Sai may have been the biggest winner of Patch 4.8. Already well-positioned during the previous patch cycle, and now left untouched by nerfs, Lurkers are having an amazing time in the Standard LoR ladder.
The best Lurkers deck seems practically solved, with the only tweak being a single copy of Bloodbait
replacing one copy of Blood in the Water
– both lists are doing great (well above 56%) and are otherwise exactly the same.
When it comes to matchups, Pyke's crew seems to have a single weak spot: Jarvan Shen. They have 50/50 odds against the other popular choice (Heimer Jayce), run circles against Galio Udyr, and show a small edge against the Poro King, Fizz Samira, and the ascending Akshan Samira.
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Heimer Jayce
Heimer Jayce remains the other popular choice in the Standard LoR meta, but which is its best build is not so clear. The most popular list is struggling at a 50% win rate, while the second most popular, seen below, punches at around 53% by trimming Albus Ferros
and making room for The Ruination
.
Professor and Student absolutely ruin Galio Udyr's day, and have an edge against Samira Akshan – their current main problem is Samira Fizz.
9 cards
31 cards
26 200
Frozen The Poro King
The King lives!
Pleased by a mellowed meta and the buff he has graciously received, His Most Fluffy Royalness has waltzed into the meta – the best Poro King deck, pairing His Majesty with Freljord and Ingvar the Younger
, shows up with a very solid 53% win rate.
His Fluffiness has a really hard time against Galio Udyr and Samira Fizz, but seems otherwise able to put a fight against most other popular decks in the current Standard LoR meta.
There are some fringe experiments with Shadow Isles, too, that show some promise, but there's too little data to say for certain.
31 cards
9 cards
24 800
Ekko Jinx
Nerfs to Bandle Discard seem to have pushed Bandle Jinx out of the Standard LoR meta, so everybody's favorite rocket-launching Zaunite has reunited with her time-traveling friend. They are not the ladder menace they used to be, but manage a positive winrate.
22 cards
18 cards
31 400
Galio Udyr
Last week, Galio Udyr was the only deck that showed good results in both Standard and Eternal, with minimal tweaks in each format. This week the pair is not performing well in Eternal, but Galio Udyr still packs one heck of a punch in Standard, striking at 57%.
The best Galio Udyr deck has quite a few tweaks this week: Balen the Benevolent
is still a three-of, but Blocking Badgerbear
and Mountain Drake
are gone, to make room for more spells and all three copies of The Darkin Spear
.
Galio Udyr demolishes Poro decks and can go toe-to-toe with Lurkers, but has a hard time versus Heimer Jayce and Samira Fizz.
22 cards
18 cards
30 200
Jagged Fizz Samira
Like last week, two Fizz Samira lists coexist – in the last few days, the low-to-the-ground version is doing better than the Fleet Admiral Shelly
build, and as such is our recommendation today.
25 cards
15 cards
32 000
Standard Akshan Samira
Nowhere near as punchy as the Eternal version, Akshan Samira has found its way into the Standard Runeterra meta and is working fairly well (a 52% winrate) – thus far, it is the only shell that can claim to do well in both formats.
5 cards
35 cards
29 400
Wrapping Up
Nerfs and buffs have caught up with the Standard ladder, shaking things up – Vault of Helia seems a thing of the past, and although Lurkers and Heimer Jayce still rule, we have a new Standard Fluffy King.
And Eternal remains Runeterra's Wild West, with things looking very different from last week – with the high-stakes tournaments taking place in the coming days (the $1000 MaRu Open this coming Saturday, and the Runeterra Open the following weekend), it's a safe bet we'll see even more changes.
I hope you've enjoyed today's selection, 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.
