‘sup everyone. With LP donors slowly falling out of trend, we can witness non-Demacian archetypes emerge. Though there is an archetype named Demacia Fried Chicken at the end! =)
The Data
Sorting Balco’s Meta Tier List by playrate (PR), we see the following:
Right off the bat, we see a huge shift in momentum for Annie Jhin (Jhinnie). Last week, the archetype was the most popular, but has now succumbed to Lissandra Taliyah (Thralls) taking #1 with a 7.5% PR. That’s a whole 3% more than last week!
Jhinnie on the other hand is left with a 6.2% PR, close to third place Annie Ezreal with a 6% PR. Two Annie lists with opposite impetus!
Viego proves to be quite the charmer, seducing Elise and Katarina to become Viego ‘n Girls. The threesome is swiftly becoming the crowd’s favorite with a 5.4% PR. Last week, it was less than 1%! =)
Deep (Nautilus Maokai) clings to its high 4.7% PR, while Bard Zed now follows closely behind with a 4.5% PR.
Turning to archetypes with a less volatile trend, we have Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh), Caitlyn Ezreal (Tri-Beam), Illaoi TF J4, and Illaoi J4 all share a 2% PR.
Turning to winrates (WR), we get this result:
Our Honorable Mention from last week turns out to be a force to be reckoned with. Both Viego Elise archetypes with or without Katarina take the crown this time with a 54.4% WR. Well, Viego already wore a crown, so now he’s double-crowning all the way! =)
Another one of our Honorable Mentions from last week hits #3 with a 54.1% WR – Heimerdinger Jayce SI. The archetype lacks a solid nickname, so why don’t you suggest one in the Reddit thread comments? =)
This means I predicted the top three WR decks this week. For next week, I want Aphelios Lux, Akshan Lee Sin, and Azir Irelia, pretty please? 🥺
Moving on, Illaoi J4 sports a 53.9% WR, gaining it fourth place. TBH, I dunno why Illaoi TF J4 and Illaoi J4 are considered two different archetypes (similar to the Pantheon Yuumi vs Pantheon Yuumi Taric problem), but that’s a debate for another time.
Miss Fortune Quinn (Scouts) is the fifth-ranked deck with a 53.6% WR.
Turning to a 52% WR, we find Pantheon Yuumi Demacia (PhDE), Azir Xerath (Sun Disc/Mono Shurima), Thralls, Viego Shurima (Sand Viego), and Illaoi TF J4!
The Reasons
Elise Viego (Katarina) is the obvious protagonist of this week’s show. It took some time for players to find this list, but now we are seeing its power in full focus.
(Note that both Viego Noxus (Viego NX) versions are merged into one archetype called “Camavoran Deserter” in Legna’s matchup table).
We can see that Viego NX is slightly favored against most of the popular decks. The exceptions are Annie Ezreal and most importantly Illaoi J4 (TF).
Similar to PhDE, Viego NX is excellent at growing huge units, especially Legion Deserter
who grows by +2/+2 every time an Encroaching Mist
is summoned.
Illaoi J4 struggles against this mechanic because their Tentacle
s build up slower and are thus outmatched.
On the other hand, thanks to efficient removal spells like Disintegrate
and Scorched Earth
, Annie Ezreal (as well as Tri-Beam) is the nemesis of big-unit growers like Viego NX.
Since Sand Viego was a key deck in the meta before the balance patch, and also made top cut this week, let’s compare the Noxian and Shuriman versions:
As we can see, the archetypes have similar matchups. Viego SH seems to do better in most matchups where Viego NX is only slightly favored (e.g. 56% vs 52% WR vs Thralls).
The most important difference is the Illaoi J4 matchup though. While Viego SH is slightly unfavored versus that deck, the Noxian version is heavily favored (46% vs 63% WR). This is due to Viego NX having access to Legion Deserter and Disintegrate, while the Shuriman version doesn’t. The same holds for the PhDE matchup by the way.
If you wanted to summarize the difference between Viego SH and Viego NX in the current meta in one sentence, it would be this:
While Viego SH is the overall more consistent deck, Viego NX sacrifices some of that steadiness for a heavily favored matchup against Illaoi J4 and Pantheon Yuumi.
Let’s take a look at the second most successful archetype this week – Heimerdinger Jayce SI (nickname submissions open!).
Heimer Jayce is pretty amazing at preventing you from doing your thing. At least as long as it doesn’t involve summoning multiple 8/8s through landmarks.
As we can see, the matchup table is pretty polarizing – Heimer Jayce either smashes the opposition pretty consistently or can surrender during the loading screen. I mean, this kind of matchup table has its upside – you’re game time will be 0:00, since you know from the beginning if you’ll win or not! =)
Jokes aside, Heimer Jayce deals well with big units like Tentacle or Legion Saboteur
thanks to Vengeance
and Thermogenic Beam
. It’s also great versus Annie Ezreal thanks to its value-creating champions and healing spells like Piercing Darkness
.
If you wanna learn more about this deck, check out Jasensational’s Premium guide (link)!
If you’re wondering where Aphelios Fizz (Afaelios) has gone since last week – it’s Thrall’s fault… and Illaoi J4 (TF)’s!
Afaelios always struggled against PhDE’s big Overwhelm units, which ignore Afaelios’ chump-blockers. The same can be said about Thrall’s Frostguard Thrall
s (and AoE removal), and Illaoi having Overwhelm/The Sea's Voice
giving a huge Tentacle Overwhelm.
Lastly, Sun Disc has reentered the battle arena. After the nerf to Buried Sun Disc
, the deck has been more on the balanced side, but fell out of meta since the new patch.
Now, it’s attempting a return mission with a solid 52.8% WR!
Unfortunately, there’s no neat matchup table yet. But from what we know from last season, Sun Disk struggles against aggro – in this meta Jhinnie. Since the Jhinnie hype is slowly dying, Sun Disk has a better opportunity to find firm footing on the meta.
Mono Shurima doesn’t have many polarized matchups otherwise. The ones that stand out are Deep and Annie Ezreal, which the deck does very well against. And Scouts, which Sun Disc has a rough time beating, similar to Jhinne.
Honorable Mentions
Illaoi Twisted Fate Ionia
27 cards
13 cards
23 600
With Jhinnie falling off, Petricite Broadwing
and Brightsteel Protector
aren’t as important anymore as last week. This is why Illaoi TF IO finds more success than its Demacian counterpart…
… at least over a totally reliable 130-game sample size! But hey, this way the archetype is buried in numbers and you’ll probably be the only one playing it! =)
The Ionian version of Illaoi utilizes Tentacles even more with cards like Ghost
and Buhru Leader
. Since it relies on a big Tentacle so much, we run protection spells like Syncopation
and Deny
to keep them safe.
They rock a 56% WR in the past two days over the aforementioned 130 games.
Bard Darius
9 cards
31 cards
22 000
Bard Darius is… a thing. They are pretty much your average aggro burn deck with as many one- and two-drops as possible and the usual Noxian Fervor
Decimate
combo. If you’re not ready to go full Spider Aggro yet, Darius Bard might be your perfect aggro starter!
The archetype sports a 55.7% WR in the last two days over the breathtaking amount of 110 games!
Fizz Riven
16 cards
24 cards
26 400
I wanted to feature Fizz Riven last week but couldn’t decide on a list to show you. There were many different lists with drastic changes like cutting Gleaming Lantern
and such. What made me change my mind this time?
Jasensational hit masters with the above list and shared it on Twitter (link), achieving an above 70% WR over 34 games. He’ll be writing a guide for the deck, so keep your eyes peeled in the coming days! =)
When it comes to numbers, Fizz Riven is a little better documented – the archetype has a 55.5% WR in the past two days over 1.6k games!
Demacia Fried Chicken aka Bard Galio
32 cards
8 cards
26 500
Let’s focus on the most important thing here – the nickname. Sparkling Ice Tea said the deck runs every chicken possible in the game. Since I’m not gonna use up my time confirming that fact, let’s just believe him and go with this chicken heart-warming nickname! =)
Similar to Bard Garen last week, Demacia Fried Chicken is benefitting from Bard
’s Chime
s to make the already well-statted Demacian units even bigger. With For Demacia!
from Vanguard Sergeant
and Galio
s summon effect, Bard can be consistently leveled in this deck.
Turning to stats, Demacia Fried Chicken is holding a 54.5% WR in the last two days over 2.9k games.
If a brilliant nickname combined with compelling stats aren’t enough to convince you to try out Demacia Fried Chicken, I dunno what can!
Conclusion
With the second week after the patch done, we can see a multitude of novel decks encroaching. Will the coming days approach a more stable meta with fewer changes, or will even more new decks pop up that shake the meta again? Let’s find out together next week!
Thank you for reading this week's meta report and making it this far. If you’re still here and read this, leave a “Hi” in the Reddit thread comments, I will “Hi” you back! =)
If you'd rather watch, rather than read this report:
The data has been due to the amazing website by Balco while the matchup tables have been from Legna’s brilliant homepage. They are doing an insane job at collecting all this data and presenting it to us in an approachable manner. They deserve all the praise in the world!
The talented Hazy has been converting Balco's data into these stunning graphs for the Monday Meta Report, I can't express my gratitude enough to him!
Thanks also to Herko Kerghans, he has been doing lots of editing and proofreading that deserve appreciation!!
You can reach me on Twitter (@Leer97) or on Discord (Leer#2026)!
Thanks for reading and see ya next week!
