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.
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the most popular Standard LoR archetypes according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List – notice that "popular" and "strong" don't necessarily overlap, like in Elder Volibear's case!
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Standard
Things were pretty quiet last week, with not too many changes when compared with two weeks ago and a fairly balanced meta…
… they are neither quiet nor balanced no more: what looks like a Tier 0 deck has been found, and Galio
Elder Dragon
Morgana
is running rampant across the Runeterra meta, with a popularity and performance so high that it's easy to believe it will soon be the deck that every other viable LoR deck will have to have a plan against.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
Decks in this category have at least 2400 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.
Galio Elder Dragon Morgana
Here's our meta breaker! The most popular specific decklist (more than 5100 games played in the last three days) and a sky-high, borderline hotfix-now, win rate: over 65%.
Elder Dragon Galio Morgana is an interesting bit of brewing. It has nothing to do with Elder Dragon Morgana, a deck that was doing very well last week: the Galio version is obviously from 
Demacia, while the non-Galio version pairs with 
Targon and has a fairly different top end.
And its Demacia side is fairly similar to the original Galio Morgana that used to do pretty well in the first few days of this expansion, which later faded away.
It looks like somebody (Vezachs, according to their claim on reddit) collated both ideas and ended up with a deck that has, this far into Onward, all the markings of a broken deck.
To begin with, it's great against most other strong decks, with "great" meaning odds of around 70% (which is auto-win territory by card-game parameters) against Elder Norra, Karma Sett, Darius Gnar, and Elder Shyvana, and a solid edge against other strong ladder options like the ascending Gnar Zed or Elder Garen.
And perhaps more importantly: it has no strong counter among popular decks. Mordekaiser Morgana has a solid edge versus Elder Galio Morgana, but is in the 40/60 range and is itself a deck that is struggling to survive in the current LoR meta. And there are a couple of other options (Teemo Yuumi above all) that have positive odds, but only marginally.
It's rare that we get to see a broken deck this late in the season, but here we are: if you want to climb fast before the year ends, Galio Elder Morgana is the deck to pilot.
11 cards
29 cards
32 600
Darius Gnar
If it weren't for Galio Elder Morgana, Darius
Gnar
would have a very strong case about being the best LoR deck out there: it hasn't changed a single card since last week, and has maintained impressive results by punching above the 57% winrate mark across 4000+ games.
Dying horribly to G.E.M. has put a damper on those claims, though – which it's not too big of a dishonor since, as we've seen, pretty much everything gets run over by the new Runeterra royalty. But still makes Darius Gnar just the best of the second-tier decks.
21 cards
19 cards
23 600
Mordekaiser Morgana
Mordekaiser
Morgana has cooled off considerably. It's still the most played archetype overall, and its most popular version has accrued 3900 games in the last three days, but performance is barely hovering over 50%.
But!
Mord Morgana looks like the only popular deck that can consistently beat Galio Elder Morgana (not by a huge margin, but clearly favored), and also has an edge over Darius Gnar – not a deck we can ardently recommend if you want to climb quickly right now, but being the only solid G.E.M. counter may push Mord Morgana's performance upwards.
Further Reading: Sorry's Morgana Mordekaiser Demacia Deck Guide
34 cards
6 cards
26 200
Gnar Zed
Gnar Zed
would normally have been one of this weeks highlights, with the prehistoric Yordle being present both in the best deck in Runeterra and also in one of the hottest new trends…
… but, alas, Galio Elder Morgana makes Darius Gnar be just an okay deck, and Gnar Zed just a lukewarm newcomer.
Which is not to say that Gnar Zed isn't very, very good: it went from out-of-nowhere to smacking above 57% in about 3500 games, obliterating staples like Elder Shyvana and running over elusive decks like Teemo Yuumi or Fizz Yuumi.
But, yeah: not only does Gnar Zed's performance pales in comparison with GEM's, it also gets pounded to dust when facing the reigning Juggernaut.
20 cards
20 cards
23 600
Elder Dragon Shyvana
Among other accolades, Onward will be remembered as the expansion that made Shyvana great for once…
… for a couple of weeks, at least. It's a bit of a sad irony that not even the Elder Dragon, who makes pretty much everything good, has succeeded at providing Shyvana
with a top-tier deck for long. But it is what it is, and Elder Morgana is one of the decks that suffer the most against the new GEM menace.
Elder Shyvana is still a playable deck, but has cooled off considerably and it's a long way from being one of the best options for the LoR ladder.
27 cards
13 cards
28 900
Elder Dragon Norra
Like several other decks today, Elder Dragon Norra
is a still-playable deck that's just a shadow of its former, Worlds-shaping self.
In particular, it's literally one of the worst deck to face Galio Elder Morgana with, while also being weak against Darius Gnar and Elder Shyvana.
15 cards
25 cards
28 400
Annie Jhin
Pilots have picked up that Annie
Jhin
is good again, and its playrate has more than doubled this week while maintaining a… well, an otherwise amazing 57%+ win rate that, as you've probably noticed, it's not really that impressive when compared to new GEM menace.
But it turns out that blazing brat and bullet buff have yet another trick up their sleeve: they are exactly 50/50 into Galio Elder Morgana, making them one of the very few decks that are not too bothered by the new rulers of the Runeterra meta. They are also roughly even versus Darius Gnar, and have a solid edge against both Mord Morgana (the only GEM counter, as we've seen) and the ascending Gnar Zed… looks like Annie Jhin is here to stay!
25 cards
15 cards
27 500
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1200 and 2400 games played in the last three days – thus far, they are among Runeterra's heavy-hitters!
Elder Dragon Riven
Elder Dragon has become Brew-o-Matic machine that makes every champ out there playable, but it must be said that Riven
has been doing very well for herself as of late, and Elder Riven has so many Noxus big units that it's almost an allegiance deck.
Elder Riven is not exactly amazing right now, but doesn't lose that badly to Galio Elder Morgana, and it has an edge versus Mord Morgana.
25 cards
15 cards
31 600
Teemo Yuumi
Don't sleep on Teemo
Yuumi
, folks!
In this endless sea of big units, Teemo Yuumi goes for lots of lil' Elusive buddies with a side dish of buffs and burn. A formula that allows them to punch above 60% and have a tiny edge on the GEM menace.
They are weak against Elder Norra and awful against Gnar Zed but, hey, you just can't win them all!
24 cards
16 cards
33 300
Akshan Morgana
Akshan
Morgana has seen more misses than hits since Beyond launched, but seems to have reverted the trend this week: a solid 53% winrate across nearly 1400 games… although with the rather serious caveat that it's demise is most most painful whenever it bumps into any strong Morgana deck.
24 cards
16 cards
27 500
Elder Dragon Garen
Elder Dragon Garen
keeps being a great decks that pilots just don't warm up to: like last week, today it showcases a stellar 58% win rate but its playrate has decreased by half.
It does have the problem that many of today's decks show (dying to Galio Elder Dragon while also being weak to the very popular Mord Morgana), so the future LoR meta may not be ideal for Elder Garen, but its current numbers still put it among the best LoR decks.
Further Reading: Leer's Garen Elder Dragon Deck Guide.
10 cards
30 cards
24 000
Fizz Yuumi
Like with Teemo, Fizz
Yuumi uses the good ol' trick of spamming elusive s with some buffs on top – overall results are much less spectacular than with the Teemo version, and in particular the Fizz version gets obliterated by Galio Elder Morgana, but still a solid deck for your non-Elder laddering needs.
18 cards
22 cards
27 500
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard LoR decks with between 800 and 1200 games played in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
KríSiS' Maokai Mordekaiser Mill
Yep, mill's still a thing!
No, not a thing that is remotely close to GEM-thinginess, but if you want your thing to be like some other thing then you're playing mill wrong, simple as that.
Here's a reddit thread by KríSiS, the deck creator, with a quick explanation about this beauty!
11 cards
29 cards
28 500
Caitlyn Teemo
Caitlyn
Teemo's prospects against Galio Elder Morgana is a long, long list of "ouch!", and Darius Gnar is also an awful matchup, and Elder Norra is not looking much better…
… yet the trap pair still manages to come out on top against the rest of the field, with an okay 52% winrate in about 1100 games this week. A bit like Maokai Mill, this is not really too scary a thing, but does a thing no other deck does – if that's your thing, then this is a great time to climb!
27 cards
13 cards
27 600
Jinx Kennen
Jinx's attempt of going solo this expansion ended up with very poor results, so everybody's favorite rocket-launching grrrrl has teamed up again with the furry martial artist to revert that trend: Jinx
Kennen
showcases the sort of winrates that would be spectacular if we leave aside GEM shenanigans.
21 cards
19 cards
24 100
Neeko Teemo
Third time's the charm, and the charming puffcappy Scout pairs this time with Neeko
for another go-small, go-wide deck. Although in this case with a lot less emphasis on Elusive s.
27 cards
13 cards
27 100
Ashe LeBlanc
Ice Queen and Black Rose have rebounded from last week, when they were not having the best of times, and in the last few days have improved both their play rate and their win rate.
Ashe
LeBlanc
has nothing on Galio Elder Morgana (in part because Formidable units just laugh at any Frostbite effect…), but it can freeze other beatsticks like Darius Gnar and Shyvana decks on their tracks.
26 cards
14 cards
25 100
Your Mileage May Vary
If none of the more meta decks 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!
Gwen Zed
Gnar Zed has largely overtaken Gwen
Zed as the best deck for the Shadow Master, yet the latter has proven remarkably resilient, bringing to the fray the exact same build we've seen during Onward.
And it's still putting up the numbers: although a fringe brew now, Gwen Zed punches above 56% and, interestingly, is not too bothered by the rise of Galio Elder Morgana.
15 cards
25 cards
27 000
Morgana Riven
Morgana Riven had a rough start this expansion but has been putting up good numbers for two weeks in a row now, even improving from 56% last week to well over 57% now.
Further Reading: Leer's Morgana Riven Deck Guide
18 cards
22 cards
26 100
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
After a great year in which they were one of the best decks in several metas, Lurkers has again been pushed to fringe-deck status…
… but the year is no over yet: as it turns out, it looks like Pyke's crew is one of the very few decks with an edge against Galio Elder Morgana.
15 cards
25 cards
26 400
Wrapping Up
Like last week, Elder Dragon is everywhere. Sadly, though, unlike last week there's now one Elder brew that seems head, shoulders and wings above the competition. Galio Elder Morgana shows a popularity and performance so high that, unless brewers and pilots find a strong counter, it soon may enter broken-deck territory.
Hope you've had a great LoR year, and see you in 2024!
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.
