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 Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data
Overall LoR Meta Trends – Eternal
As the Runeterra Open approaches (for those of you in the back: this coming Saturday!)...
… the Eternal LoR meta seems to have stabilized, at least as far as the current Top Dogs are concerned: Samira, both with Akshan and Zoe, Jax Vi, and Fiora Galio remain the most potent archetypes, with Viktor Zoe being this week's newcomer.
Underneath these, there are several old decks making a modest comeback and a couple of fringe decks showing a lot of promise, so things may still change quite a bit in the coming days.
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 play rate increased from 2500 games last week to 3700+ this week in a three-days window, and without a dent in its great performance, Akshan Samira remains the most popular, and one of the most potent options, for the Eternal LoR meta.
Suave Rogue and Desert Rose thrive by bullying Zoe decks: be it Samira Zoe or Viktor Zoe, Akshan Samira just runs them over. They also make a short work of Vladimir Braum.
Fiora Galio, on the other hand, along with Draven Jinx and Pirates, demolishes Akshan Samira, so the jury is still out on whether or not Rose and Rogue will be able to stay on top of the Eternal ladder.
Further reading: Akshan Samira Deck Guide
4 cards
36 cards
27 000
Formidable Fiora Galio
Like Akshan Samira, Galio Fiora has increased its playrate (from about 1500 games in a three-days window last week, to nearly double that much this week) without losing steam and punching at a crazy 57%+.
Galio Fiora's odds against Akshan Samira are around 65%, making it a great option to hunt down the bigger Juggernaut; Galio Fiora is also well-positioned against Zoe decks, and can go toe-to-toe with Draven Jinx.
Jax Vi, on the other hand, and above all Pirates are big problems for the Demacian champs.
Further reading: Formidable Fiora Galio Deck Guide
6 cards
34 cards
30 600
Jax Vi Timelines
These are still great times for Timelines – no longer the highest-winrate Eternal deck but still packing a 55% punch, and playrate increasing from 2000 to 2500 games in the last three days when compared to last week, Jax
Vi
remains on of the main factors behind the Eternal LoR meta, and is second in Sorry's power rankings for climbing the ladder.
Jax Vi can reliably beat Samira Zoe, but is slightly disadvantaged against the ascending Viktor Zoe version. It's roughly 50/50 versus Akshan Samira and Pirates, demolishes Galio Fiora, and in turn gets beaten by Draven Jinx.
19 cards
21 cards
32 800
⭐Rising Star – Draven Jinx
Returned to its rightful place among the best decks in Runeterra, and at the very top of Sorry's power ranking, Draven Jinx goes this week from zero to hero: it had about 150 games on record last week, and today it shows up with 2600+ in the last three days, with a rocketing 55% win rate!
Draven Jinx's matchup spread looks very good: a slight problem versus Viktor Zoe, roughly 50/50 odds against Fiora Galio and Samira Zoe, consistently beats Jax Vi and Pirates (and Annie Jhin, the few times it shows up), and demolishes Akshan Samira and Vladimir Braum.
17 cards
23 cards
26 300
Eternal Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These decks have between 1000 and 2100 games in the last three days – solid choices for the Eternal LoR ladder.
⭐Rising Star – Viktor Zoe
Viktor has brought a trick from Zaun: Sump Monument
!
The latest iteration of Zoe
Targon decks splashing just a few cards from other regions, Viktor Zoe is seeing a lot of success, displacing earlier iterations that splashed Atrocity
. With about 2400 games played in the last three days, this is the deck with the highest win rate (over a silly 59%) among decks with more than 500 games played.
Viktor Zoe seems weak against Fiora Galio and Akshan Samira, but solid against most other popular decks in the Eternal LoR meta.
6 cards
34 cards
32 100
Annie Ezreal
Another of this week's newcomers, Annie Ezreal has gained a lot of popularity overnight (going from "unknown" to having around 1800 games played in the last three days), with a modest 51% win rate.
Not a ladder powerhouse, but amazing against Akshan Samira, though, so Annie Ezreal may be a deck you may want to consider for a tournament lineup.
20 cards
20 cards
26 600
Samira Zoe
Popular Samira
Zoe decks weren't working too well last week, struggling to reach a 50% winrate, but pilots seem to have found a solid build and, with about 1600 games played, Samira Zoe now punches at a solid 52%+. It looks like a very "fair" deck, with odds in the 45-55% range against pretty much all other popular brews.
37 cards
3 cards
28 700
Viktor Lee Sin
Happy to help other champs get their time under the spotlight, Viktor
shows up again, this team leading the blind monk to a modest 51% win rate – hey, a lot better than what that Akshan rogue is doing for Lee Sin
!
23 cards
17 cards
33 100
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.
Samira Seraphine
Yet another deck that showcases a huge spike in popularity along with a modest performance, Samira brings Seraphine back to center-stage, along with the most spell-heavy deck in all of Runeterra right now.
27 cards
13 cards
25 600
Pirates!
Part of these articles' job description is being an insufferable pest whenever folks are sleepwalking past a great ladder option, so let's get on with it: Don't bloody sleep on Pirates, folks!!
Miss Fortune's merry bunch of misfits has been punching faces since the patch landed, consistently putting up excellent winrates (56%+ right now), and is very well-positioned right now: huge edge against Akshan Samira and Fiora Galio, while themselves don't have any matchup below 45% against the other Top Dogs.
20 cards
20 cards
25 900
Draven Sion Samira
This other Discard version showed a bit of promise early on, then faded away, and now seems to be coming back with a vengeance: smallish sample size (just about 700 games in the last three days), but sky-high winrate.
Seems great against Akshan Samira and Formidable Fiora.
17 cards
23 cards
26 900
Rumble Vayne
Well, look who's back!
One of the best Vayne
decks from back when pretty much all decks were Vayne decks (for those that joined LoR this year: back when she arrived at Runeterra, Vayne made deckbuilding very straightforward – you just had to click 37 cards at random, add three copies of Vayne, and you'd have a playable deck), Rumble
Vayne also goes from zero to sixty this week, but in this case with a nice 55%+ win rate to go along with it.
30 cards
10 cards
26 100
Your Eternal 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!
Vladimir Braum
The Scargrounds
pair has regained some lost ground, and show up today with a solid 52% win rate in close to 500 games. They get slapped around by pretty much all the Top Dogs, though, so bring Vladimir Braum to ladder only if you want to get hurt a lot. Which arguably is kind of the point about this deck, so it's all good I guess!
19 cards
21 cards
31 700
Kalista Nocturne Mistwraiths
Brewers and deck historians have been busy this week, it seems, and yet another very old concept shows up, including triple The Harrowing
.
38 cards
2 cards
27 100
Annie Jhin
With a similar caveat to Pirates' (don't sleep on Annie Jhin, folks), bullet buff and blazing brat are probably being sidelined due to their lack of shiny-new-toy shine – their performance is excellent, though, so keep them in mind if you're aiming to climb fast.
28 cards
12 cards
22 000
Hecarim Zed
Yep, definitely "History Channel" week here at the Eternal LoR ladder! =)
But it works – it's amazing how many old concepts can still pack a punch.
19 cards
21 cards
32 200
Elise Gnar
By how quickly it's gaining traction and how bewildering well it works, Elise Gnar's creator may not have been overselling their brew! Currently the highest-winrate deck from all builds seen today, this is what you want to look at something that may be the next cool thing.
30 cards
10 cards
30 300
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
The King lives on!
With minimal changes from last week, Lurkers and Heimerdinger
Jayce
remain the most popular, and arguably potent, decks in the Standard LoR meta, with The Poro King
still holding his royal ground. Ekko
Jinx
has gained quite a bit of ground, and Samira Fizz
remains, as always since the Glory in Navori, a forced to be reckoned with in Standard.
Standard Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1000 and 2100 games in the last three days – like solid choices for the Standard LoR ladder.
Heimer Jayce
With minor tweaks, Heimerdinger Jayce retakes the first spot in the Standard popularity rankings – it's the most popular archetype overall, and with nearly 2000 games played it's also the most popular specific decklist, punching at a very solid 53% win rate. There's some data that suggests trimming one Mystic Shot
to make room for Mist's Call
may be a good idea,
Professor and Student absolutely ruin Galio Udyr's and Jarvan Shen's day, have an edge against Poro decks, and can reliably beat Veigar Senna, which seems to be gaining some popularity.
On the other hand, they are very slightly disadvantaged against Samira Fizz and Lurkers, and have a bit of a problem when facing the ascending Ekko Jinx.
Further Reading: Heimer Jayce Deck Guide
9 cards
31 cards
26 200
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Like Heimer Jayce, Pyke
Rek'Sai
was left untouched by last patch's nerfs, and as such had a surge of popularity and performance in the Standard LoR ladder: nearly 1700 games in the last three days, with a win rate of nearly 55%.
The best Lurkers deck seems practically solved, with minor differences in the number of copies of Ruthless Predator
, Rite of Negation
, and Aspiring Chronomancer
.
When it comes to matchups, Pyke's crew have two weak spots: Jarvan Shen (as has been the case during all this patch), and as of late Nasus Veigar is again regaining strength.
On the backswing, Lurkers have slightly positive odds against the Heimer Jayce and the Poro King, and reliably beat Galio Udyr and Akshan Samira.
Further reading: Pyke Rek'Sai Deck Guide
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Jagged Fizz Samira
Pilots have finally settled on the current best list for Samira Fizz, and the low-to-the-ground version featuring Jagged Taskmaster
is where you want to be (Admiral Shelly lists are not bad, but clearly seem not as good for the in the current Standard LoR meta).
Samira Fizz is in an interesting spot, with a slight edge when facing the two most popular decks, namely Heimer Jayce and Lurkers, while also having good odds against Poro decks and Galio Udyr – what's giving them headaches is Ekko Jinx, which is on the rise.
25 cards
15 cards
32 000
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard 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.
Ekko Jinx
With close to 900 games in the last three days and punching above 55%, Ekko
Jinx is one of the Standard LoR decks that gained the most traction this week, and its matchup spread looks very, very good: reliably beats Heimer Jayce and Samira Fizz, demolishes Poro decks, has a small edge against Galio Udyr, and is 50/50 when facing Lurkers.
Ekko Jinx looks like a great option for what remains of this season!
22 cards
18 cards
31 400
Frozen The Poro King
The King is still alive!
For the second week in a row, the best Poro King deck – pairing His Majesty with Freljord and Ingvar the Younger
– remains playable, and has even improved its winrate to 54% (up from 53% last week).
His Fluffiness has a really hard time against Galio Udyr and Samira Fizz, and even worse time against Ekko Jinx, and is slightly the underporo versus Lurkers and Heimer Jayce… but, lo and behold, He stills thrives in the 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
⭐Rising Star – Nasus Veigar
Now, this one is a weird one. Technically speaking is more of a "returned" star, since it was a powerhouse since it was nerfed in the previous patch – yet, after being pushed a bit to the fringes after said nerfs, is now resurfacing with pretty much the exact same list as before, Vaults of Helia
and all.
Solid odds against Lurkers and Ekko Jinx may be the reason, although the Fizz Samira matchup looks terrible, while both Heimer Jayce and Poro decks are also rough matchups.
25 cards
15 cards
32 500
Galio Udyr
Galio Udyr shows up with the exact same build as last week (after undergoing lots when compared to two weeks ago) – it has lost quite a bit of punch, dropping from a 57% win rate to just about 52% in about 500 games, but remains quite playable.
More than magic, Galio Udyr feasts upon Poros – it's a serious underdog to most other strong decks, though, like Heimer Jayce, Samira Fizz, and Lurkers
22 cards
18 cards
30 200
Your Standard Mileage May Vary
If none of the above floats your boat, here are a handful of fringe options that are doing well on the Standard LoR ladder – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
Shen Jarvan
A deck that has low-key been a great success for several patches now, the best Shen Jarvan deck has a nice 55% winrate with nearly 500 games the last three days. It dies horribly when against Heimer Jayce, but beats Lurkers (by a lot!), Fizz Samira and Poro decks.
22 cards
18 cards
27 000
Teemo Elusives
Tossing Sump Monument aside, Teemo
is back at it with a "Screw puffcaps, all Elusive s ahead!" approach.
19 cards
21 cards
24 800
Gnar Neeko
Gnar Neeko remains fringe-playable, meaning we may end up this patch with two Heart of the Huntress champions with okay decks!
27 cards
13 cards
28 700
Senna Veigar
Veigar
seems to be on a roll this week – not only has he returned in full force with Nasus, his old partnership with Senna seems to be gaining traction.
23 cards
17 cards
28 500
Wrapping Up
With the Runeterra Open taking place in just two days, do bear in mind that all stats and figures in this article are for ladder decks – if you're looking for some extra help for deciding your tournament weapons of choice, do take a look at Sorry's Top 5 Lineups for the Eternal Runeterra Open, where he presents five lineups, their general strategy, targets and bans.
I hope you've enjoyed today's selection of the best decks in Runeterra, 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.
