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.
The recent Fate’s Voyage: Onward expansion has rocked the boat quite hard and the LoR meta keeps shifting, so let's find out what are the best decks in Runeterra right now!
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the 7 most popular Standard LoR archetypes according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Standard
Much has changed since last week, although perhaps the most important remains the same: Onwards remains one of the best Runeterra's expansions since Riot adopted the three-Champion model:
- All three new Champs are impactful, while none of them seems overbearing,
- Several older decks remain very strong – in other words, they haven't been outclassed or powercrept,
- New decks with old champions have surged upwards; Gnar Jarvan is the most obvious example, but others (like Wild Annie visiting
Ionia) abound.
But, as said, things have indeed changed! Perhaps the most striking is how Janna Samira, originally one of the strongest decks in the LoR meta, has been pushed to irrelevance – while Nilah Janna, a deck that failed to perform early on, is the best deck for both of those champions.
And, of course: the Open Runeterra is coming!
Do keep in mind that the stats in this article are from the LoR ladder – if you are looking for Tournament decks and lineups, do check Sorry's Top 5 Lineups for the Standard Runeterra Open.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the current heavy-hitters of the Standard LoR meta: decks with at least 3000 games played in the last three days.
Gnar Jarvan
Gnar
Jarvan IV
has secured its spot as one of the best LoR decks, becoming the most popular specific decklist: nearly 5000 games played in the last three days, and a stellar 56%+ win rate with this version while other less-played builds with minimal tweaks (like cutting one Faithful Wolfdog
to make room for a single Combat Cook
) are also performing excellently.
Gnar Jarvan steamrolls Janna decks (and as such is one of the culprits of the disappearance of Janna Samira), has a good matchup against the ascending Gwen Vayne, and doesn't seem to have too many weak spots: it has a very small disadvantage against Lurkers, has improved its matchup against Galio Volibear to make it roughly even (it was a pretty lousy confrontation last week), and the only decks that seem capable of stopping the Prince and the prehistoric Yordle are Wild Annie 
Ionia variants.
Further reading: Gnar Jarvan Deck Guide.
20 cards
20 cards
29 700
⭐Rising Star: Nilah Janna
Now this is a nice story: after being a fairly awful combination in the expansion's early days, Nilah
Janna
pushed onwards and now becomes the most popular archetype overall, and the second most-played specific decklist…
… but, wait, there's more: unlike Gnar Jarvan, for which the strongest variants show just a couple of minor tweaks, Nilah Janna's variants have very different takes.
Here is the most popular build, the same as last week, which now showcases nearly 5000 games played in the last three days and a very nice 54%+ win rate:
29 cards
11 cards
35 500
But here's an alternative version, that with 3000+ games under its belt is punching at an amazing 57%+ win rate:
26 cards
14 cards
29 900
And those are just the two most played!
Matchups should be taken with care (since matchup data aggregates all versions, and thus it's hard to tell how each build performs specifically), but Lurkers, Heimer Jayce, and Annie Ionia look like easy prey, Gwen Vayne and Lone Nidalee seem about 50/50 matchups, and Freljord decks show up as fairly lousy matchups.
Further reading: Nilah Janna Deck Guide
Galio Volibear
The early-days heavy-hitter has lost quite a bit of play rate, but remains a very popular, very potent option: Galio
Volibear
showcases today about 4000 games played in a three-day window (a far cry from its record-smashing 11600 games last week) and a very solid 54%+ win rate.
It's also the only solid Volibear deck in the Runeterra meta: pairings with Lissandra, Aurelion Sol, Janna, or Samira have not panned out thus far, and Illaoi Volibear sees very little play (in spite of excellent performance, as we'll see in our Your Mileage May Vary section).
Galio Volibear is one of the few decks that can go toe-to-toe with Gnar Jarvan and has a huge edge against Janna Nilah – but it's very disadvantaged against the remaining Old Dogs: Heimer Jayce, Lurkers, and the ascending Gwen Vayne are awful matchups.
Further reading: Galio Volibear Deck Guide
29 cards
11 cards
30 500
⭐Rising Star: Lone Nidalee
One of this expansion's biggest surprises is how good Nidalee
is doing, after not seeing much success during Heart of the Huntress. She certainly seems to have found its footing along Valley of Imitation
: with 3600+ games and nearly 55% winrate, Lone Nidalee is today's last Juggernaut:
31 cards
9 cards
21 300
There's a very similar version that includes one copy of Gnar, with the same performance but a lower play rate.
Lone Nidalee is another deck with a slight edge against Gnar Jarvan, also being a bit stronger than Galio Volibear, Heimer Jayce, and Gwen Vayne, and showing few week spots – all in all, looks like one of the most well-rounded decks in the current LoR Meta.
Further reading: Nidalee Imitation Deck Guide
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1800 and 3000 games in the last three days – solid heavy-hitters for your LoR laddering needs!
⭐Rising Star: Opulent Gwen Vayne
Gwen
Vayne
was already doing well last week, and now has become one of the strongest LoR decks: it has gained a lot of popularity, with its best version accruing nearly 3000 games in a three-day window (more than doubling what it showed last week) and maintaining an excellent 55% win rate.
And, interestingly, was able to do so in spite of lousy odds against Gnar Jarvan, and with a bit of an uphill struggle against Nilah Janna.
27 cards
13 cards
28 800
Wild Annie Ionia
Wildfire
Annie
's build is the most flexible of them all, showing up paired with Samira
, Zed
, and sometimes both!
Annie Samira is currently the most popular, with nearly 3000 games played and and punching close to the 56% mark:
22 cards
18 cards
22 600
But although less popular (roughly half as many games played), the mix with all three champs pushes performance to an amazing 57% win rate:
20 cards
20 cards
25 900
Wild Annie's main selling point is its good odds against Gnar Jarvan (with Annie Samira Zed being perhaps one of the best options available to face Prince and Yordle), while its weak spots are Janna Nilah and Gwen Vayne. In all cases, the Annie Samira Zed version seems the best Wild Annie package.
Further reading: Annie Samira Wildfire Deck Guide
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Rek'Sai's offspring keep having the time of their lurking lives! They have dropped in popularity compared with last week, but remain among the most popular, most potent decks to bring to the Runeterra ladder: with about 2700 games played this week, the best Lurkers deck punches above 56%.
Pyke's crew remains the bane of Galio Volibear (and Volibear decks in general) while also having a small edge against Gnar Jarvan. Janna Nilah, on the other hand, is a fairly bad matchup, but outside of those three most confrontations against strong decks are very close to 50/50, making Lurkers quite a "fair" deck.
Further reading: Pyke Rek'Sai Deck Guide
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Heimer Jayce Shadows
Heimerdinger
Jayce
has tweaked its best build again (as this deck just loves doing) and, although dropping a bit in play rate (from 2500 last week to about 1800 today) its performance increased to above 54% (up from 53% last week).
Professor and Student are quite happy with Janna Samira going out of style; they are a lot less happy about Janna Nilah's ascendancy, though. They have improved their odds against Gnar Jarvan (which is now an even matchup), casually steamroll Galio Volibear whenever they meet, and seem very good against the ascending Teemo Yuumi.
8 cards
32 cards
26 900
⭐Rising Star: Teemo Yuumi
One of the weirdest brews to surface last week, throwing Octo Adventurer
and Skip, "King of the Reef"
into the mix along with Kelp Maidens
, Teemo
Yuumi
is another deck gaining a ton of traction this week: it has more than doubled its play rate to nearly 2000 games in the last three days, and against shows one of the highest win rates from among all decks showcased today.
Teemo Yuumi is amazing against Galio Volibear, beats Lurkers, has small edge against Gnar Jarvan and Lone Nidalee, and it's roughly even against Nilah Janna – a great spot to be in the current Runeterra meta!
22 cards
18 cards
33 500
Not doing too well: Janna Samira
Quite the downturn here! After being one of the stars during the first week of the season, Janna Samira has been pushed to irrelevance in the current Runeterra meta: matchups against Janna Nilah and Gnar Jarvan are disastrous, and odds against Galio Volibear are also low.
Not a deck that we can recommend for the LoR ladder as of now.
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard LoR decks with between 900 and 1800 games in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
Akshan Pantheon
Grinning Rogue and God-Slayer's performance is nothing to write epic poems about (just a solid 52% win rate) but pilots really seem to like this pair, growing in play rate to about 1400 games in the last three days. Their main targets seem to be Heimer Jayce and weaker brews; matchups against other strong decks are from slightly to very unfavored.
20 cards
20 cards
31 400
Teemo Elusives
Displaced by Teemo Yuumi as the best Teemo deck, Teemo Elusive s has deflated in popularity but it's not to be underestimated: it still punches above 55%.
In particular, it's the deck to bring if you want to puff on Galio Volibear's parade, while also having good odds against Gnar Jarvan.
20 cards
20 cards
25 000
Illaoi Jarvan
Illaoi
Jarvan IV keeps bullying all these new kids that think they have a clue, and in doing so has improved its performance to nearly 56% with about 1200 games played. Very good against Jannah Nilah and Gwen Vayne, but Gnar Jarvan is a bit of a pain.
15 cards
25 cards
27 500
Gnar Neeko
The prehistoric Yordle once again shows its warm willingness to help other Champions shine, and this week has brought its Warden of the Tribes
pal to prompt Neeko
into playable range, with Gnar Neeko surpassing 900 games played with a solid performance.
What's better, Gnar Neeko seems to be solid against Gnar Jarvan, Galio Volibear, Nilah Jannah, and Lurkers, making it a very enticing matchup spread.
22 cards
18 cards
26 500
Your Mileage May Vary
If none of the above floats your boat, here are a handful of more fringe options that are doing well on the Standard LoR ladder – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
Jax Ornn
In the fringes, Jax
Ornn
was hitting like a hammer last week – that seems to have been a fluke, but it still performs very well and looks well-positioned against Janna Nilah and Galio Volibear.
26 cards
14 cards
23 800
Gnar Vayne
Gnar is on a roll this week! Gnar Vayne sharing regions with Gnar Jarvan, Yordle, and Hunter were destined to meet – and, thus far, looks like one of the most successful meetings in the fringes of the LoR meta: this is the deck with the highest winrate (a crazy 58%+) in this section.
19 cards
21 cards
29 900
Illaoi Volibear
The other playable Volibear deck, Illaoi Volibear keeps deflating in popularity – but, unlike last week, its performance is now excellent.
26 cards
14 cards
27 500
Fizz Yuumi
There's always some Fizz
deck running wild somewhere – in this case, in a brew with triple Bone Club
and double Battle Fury
.
20 cards
20 cards
27 100
Teemo Tristana
These two created quite the ruckus back in their heyday – and now they have switched from Demacia to Freljord as their secondary region, to recruit a few Warden of the Tribes for the Yordle cause.
12 cards
28 cards
29 400
Wrapping Up
In its second week, Fate's Voyage still looks like perhaps one of the best expansions in all of Legends of Runeterra's history, and certainly at the top when you consider the smaller, three-Champion expansions: all three champions are relevant while none of them is (thus far) broken, old archetypes have not been power-crept and remain relevant, and there are novel brews with old Champs.
Thus far, a truly amazing journey.
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.
