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.
We'll look at Standard decks in the first half of this article, and check the Eternal numbers during the second half.
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the 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
Not many changes this week compared to the last (which is to be expected by the tail end of a Season): Gwen
Zed
remains the deck to beat and most of the other decks at the top are all familiar faces – but we do have a newcomer among the most potent decks in the Standard LoR ladder: Riven
Gwen!
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
Decks in this category have at least 2100 games played in the last three days, and good to great win rates – as far as current numbers go, these are the best LoR decks in the Standard ladder.
Gwen Zed
Like last week, Gwen Zed rules the Standard charts: the most played archetype overall, the most played specific decklist (with nearly 2600 games played in the last three days), and also one of the best performers: win rate slightly above 55%, which is the second highest among popular decks in this format.
And Gwen Zed getting there in spite of having a big target on its back, and a couple of very scary predators: Heimer Norra is close to auto-lose for Seamstress and Shadow Master, and Jarvan Shen is an uphill struggle.
On the other hand, though, Gwen Zed demolishes Tryndamere Volibear, has very good odds against Lurkers and His Royal Fluffiness, and has a small edge on the new hotness, Gwen Riven.
15 cards
25 cards
27 000
Heimerdinger Norra
There's a handful of very good reasons to play Heimerdinger
Norra
. For starters, it absolutely wrecks Gwen Zed, in fact being its biggest weak spot. It also completely shuts down Shen Jarvan, and has excellent odds against Lurkers.
But!
All in all, our Yordles have a hard time staying above the water, and in spite of massively good odds against a couple of the best decks, their own performance is a lukewarm 50% overall, and they have some terrible matchups of their own: Tryndamere Volibear, The Poro King Yuumi and Gwen Riven are all disastrous.
Not an unplayable deck by any means, and certainly very popular, but if you're in a hurry to climb before Beyond arrives, there are probably better decks to try.
25 cards
15 cards
29 400
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1200 and 2100 games in the last three days – solid heavy-hitters for your LoR laddering needs!
The Poro King Yuumi
His Fluffy Majesty has carved a cozy spot in the current Standard LoR meta, with The Poro King
Yuumi
showcasing a very good 54% win rate in about 1500 games in the last three days.
The King has very good odds against Heimer Norra and Tryndamere Volibear, and also does very well against Karma Sett, the latter a deck that has become very popular again this week, in spite of its poor performance on the Standard LoR ladder.
Gwen does give our King some headaches, be it in her Gwen Zed or Gwen Riven versions, but both matchups are still winnable for His Royal Fluffiness.
28 cards
12 cards
24 000
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
Pyke
Rek'Sai
has enjoyed a rebound these last few days, after having some really tough times last week. With about 1200 played, Pyke's crew showcases a 53% win rate even though they get roflstomped by Gwen decks, Shen Jarvan, and Heimer Norra.
Further reading: Pyke Rek'Sai Deck Guide
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Shen Jarvan
Shen
Jarvan IV
is another deck that suffers from an acute case of Yordlism: their confrontation against Heimer Norra is as lopsided as a card game can be, with Prince and Protector losing nearly three out of four games in this matchup.
They nevertheless press forward: with a few tweaks to their best build, Shen Jarvan punches at 53%.
22 cards
18 cards
26 100
Tryndamere Volibear
Like Heimer Norra, Volibear
Tryndamere
remains a playable deck with some very good matchups but that, overall, has as of late shown problems to remain above the water. These angry boys have a couple of popular builds, but they all struggle at the 50% winrate mark.
Tryndamere Volibear does to Heimer Norra what the Yordles do to Shen Jarvan: it's so lopsided a match that the Yordles get killed three games out of four.
But the angry boys suffer a similar fate when facing Gwen Zed or Lurkers, with odds nearing to auto-lose by card-game standards.
As with the Yordles, Volibear Tryndamere remains popular and playable against the current field, but perhaps not the best tool for climbing fast.
15 cards
25 cards
36 500
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard LoR decks with between 800 and 1200 in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
Gwen Riven
And here you go, the hottest deck in Standardtown! Gwen Zed is all the rage now, but Zed is not the only other champ that got invited to the Opulent Foyer
. Riven has brought along her reforge crew, along with a couple of Enraged Firespitter
, and they are having a ball out there.
There are several slightly different versions with amazing performance, all punching above an amazing 57% win rate – it looks like Gwen Riven may end up being the best deck in Standard by the end of this Season.
Gwen Riven's matchup spread is excellent: roughly even against Gwen Zed and Jarvan Shen, and very good odds against Yordles, Fluffy Kings, Lukers and Tryndamere Volibear.
23 cards
17 cards
32 000
Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts
Scouts soldier on, with a solid 53% win rate across 800 games.
Miss Fortune
Quinn
has great odds against Tryndamere Volibear and can reliably beat Lurkers and The Poro King, while having a bit of a tough time against Heimer Norra and Jarvan Shen, and a really bad time against Riven Gwen.
28 cards
12 cards
32 600
Bandle Kayle Teemo
Kayle
Teemo
is arguably the most "up-and-down-y" deck in Standard, going from "amazing" to "ugh!" to "pretty good" with each passing week – "very good" being its current performance, with an excellent 55% win rate even when its popularity is decreasing.
Kayle Teemo is yet another deck that dislikes the rise of Riven Gwen, but has good odds against most of the strong decks out there.
11 cards
29 cards
33 300
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!
Bandle Jinx
Don't sleep on Jinx
, folks! This is, again, one of the decks with the highest win rates in Standard right – in fact, the only deck that rivals Riven Gwen in that department!
22 cards
18 cards
15 600
Teemo Yuumi
Turns out Heimer and Norra were not the only Yordles running amok! While a very fringe brew (just about 400 games played in the last three days), Teemo Yuumi is the deck with the highest win rate at standard right now.
23 cards
17 cards
33 300
Jax Ornn
Jax Ornn is perhaps the most "universal" decks in Runeterra, putting up a good fight both in Standard and Eternal.
23 cards
17 cards
24 200
Best LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These are the most popular Eternal LoR archetypes according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List:
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Eternal
While Azir's loyal followers still make Azir Irelia the most popular deck in the format, it looks like Norra Swain will end this season as the best deck in Eternal. The competition is fierce, though, and several decks showcase excellent winrates this week.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Eternal Ladder
Decks in this category have at least 2100 games played in the last three days, and good to great win rates – as far as current numbers go, these are the best LoR decks in the Eternal ladder.
Norra Swain
Step aside, folks. Grand General coming up!
And thanks for your services, Lord Broadmane
, but they are no longer needed – Enraged Firespitter will be taking your place, if you don't mind.
With those tweaks, Norra Swain
has become the best deck in Eternal Runeterra. While still overshadowed in popularity by Azir Irelia as an overall archetype, Norra Swain is the most played specific deck, and the one that punches the hardest: while a handful of other decks come close to its stellar 60%+ win rate, none can match it.
If you want to climb fast and Eternal is your jam, this is the deck to pick, no doubt.
You may find some opposition in Nilah Twisted Fate (which is a rough matchup), or Trundle Volibear and Draven Rumble (which are slightly unfavorable), but you'll have the odds in your favor the rest of the time.
17 cards
23 cards
30 600
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Eternal Ladder
These decks have between 1200 and 2400 games in the last three days – solid heavy-hitters for your LoR laddering needs!
Trundle Volibear
Tryndamere Volibear has lost steam in Standard, but Trundle
Volibear remains one of the best LoR decks for the Eternal ladder and reached the top of the Eternal Open in two different shards.
A bit like TLC back in the day, Trundle Volibear's main problem is Azirelia. It also suffers against Katarina Vladimir, and is not too happy to face Draven Rumble.
But it does not lack easy prey: Nilah TF, Nasus Thresh, and Plunder are all matchups that Trundle Volibear clearly dominates, and it even has a small edge against the reigning Juggernaut, Norra Swain.
9 cards
31 cards
39 000
Azir Irelia
Many are Azir
's followers, thus making Azir Irelia
the most popular archetype overall…
… but many are their disagreements, too, and thus many are Azirelia's different builds.
They all perform terrifically well, though, and have even improved their win rate comparing with last week.
Azirelia obliterates Trundle Volibear but has a hard time against Norra Swain and Nasus Thresh; Jax Ornn is also disfavored.
20 cards
20 cards
27 700
Poppy Ziggs
Poppy
Ziggs
is once again one of the Eternal heavy-hitters, although it has lost a tiny bit of steam compared with last week and has sumbled upon some very unfavored matchups.
Kat Vlad and Jax Ornn are, like last week, to very weak spots – and this week Nasus Thresh and above all Draven Rumble have been added to that list, the latter two with odds below 30% for Poppy Ziggs.
There are plenty of soft targets, though: Poppy Ziggs murders Azirelia and Trundle Voli, runs circles around Nilah TF, and can go toe-to-toe with Norra Swain.
18 cards
22 cards
28 800
Punching Up – Eternal LoR Decks Doing Great
Eternal LoR decks with between 800 and 1200 in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
Katarina Vladimir
Turns out that Katarina
Vladimir
was very much not a fluke: with an excellent 57% win rate, it's among the best LoR decks for the Eternal ladder.
Excellent against Azirelia and Poppy Ziggs, brutal versus Nilah TF, and quite good against Trundle Volibear – on the backswing, weak to Norra Swain, and with uphill struggles against Draven Rumble and Jax Ornn.
22 cards
18 cards
32 500
Draven Rumble
After a short stint with Vi, Draven
has found in Rumble
his preferred partner in crime. Play rate is still on the low end, Draven Rumble has a spectacular win rate right now, rivaling Norra Swain.
Draven Rumble's lone weak spot is Jax Ornn, but this Discard Duo has otherwise excellent odds against Azirelia and Poppy Ziggs, a solid edge versus Nilah TF and Katarina Vlad, and is slightly favored against Norra Swain and Trundle Volibear.
17 cards
23 cards
29 200
Nilah Twisted Fate
A bit like Azirelia, Twisted Fate
Nilah
remains a fairly varied archetype, with pilots unable to agree on a single list. In spite of those disagreements, though, the best Nilah TF decks shows a strong overall performance (win rate above 56% across 800 games) and great odds against Norra Swain.
13 cards
27 cards
32 400
Jax Ornn
Arguably the best Eternal deck in a Tournament setting (with a lot of showings in the top 4 of all three shards during the Eternal Open, and reaching #1 in two different lineups), Jax
Ornn
's play rate surged on the Eternal ladder last week and has remained fairly constant since then.
It's also been putting up quite a solid performance, making one of the very few champion pairs that can pull their weight both in Eternal and Standard.
23 cards
17 cards
23 400
Other Eternal Considerations
If none of the above floats your boat, here are a handful of more fringe options that are doing well on the Eternal LoR ladder – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
- Kalista Nocturne, the only truly mono-region deck to be found today,
- Elise Teemo: Elise has grown tired of
Freljord shenanigans and has turned to everybody's favorite puffcap-loving Scout for a bit of burny fun, - Nasus Thresh, always ready to ruin Azirelia's day,
- Gangplank Sejuani: Plunder has deflated quite a bit this week, but remains a punchy, if fringe, brew,
- Annie Jhin, never not a thing in Eternal,
- Gwen Zed: Standard's most popular deck is bringing Shark Chariot
s to the Eternal fray!
s to the Eternal fray!Wrapping Up
As it's our duty to remind readers, don't forget that this whole season is coming to an end next week, and new Champions will arrive at Runeterra in a few days.
(In fact, the whole list of new cards should be revealed just a few hours after this article goes live!)
The LoR meta may change greatly, as new Champs, followers, and spells enter the battlefield. If you are short on shards and wildcards, you may want to hold tight to them until the dust settles and we find out what's what…
… which, this time around, will coincide with LoR Worlds 2023; in other words, a lot of incentive to break the Runeterra meta this time around.
Having said that, you still have a few days to push for your desired rank on any of the LoR ladders. I hope you've found your weapon of choice among 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 1200 games played – other excellent choices, with large enough samples to confidently say, "Yeah, this works."
- Punching Up: LoR decks with between 1200 and 800 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.
