Monday Meta Report
‘sup everyone. The Legends of Runeterra Worlds Qualifiers have been played out, and oh boy were they exciting!
WhatAmI made it back to back to Worlds Playoffs, what a savage. And I’m very proud of our community, who organized stream coverage for the LoR Qualifiers, and brought light on some of the Worlds’ competitors!
LoR Meta Decks
Sorting Balco’s Meta Tier List by playrate (PR), we see the following:
Teemo Zoe (Elusives) is the most popular archetype by far. Last week, we saw them dominate the winrate graph, and this week their PR can hold up as well!
When someone wins, someone else has to lose, that’s the harsh reality of zero-sum games like LoR. In this case, Draven Jinx (Discard Aggro) is the loser this week, with a dwindling playrate. That being said, the archetype still holds #2 in the meta as their fall from their high and mighty ivory tower is taking some time. =)
On the contrary, Jinx Ekko 
Shurima is (for some reason) on the uprise despite its similar winrate to Discard Aggro. I suppose there can be two Jinx decks in town after all, huh?!
With the rise of Discard Aggro last week, the iconic Tryndamere Trundle Feel The Rush
(FTR) can’t be far. With a 3% PR, it’s the fourth most-played archetype this week.
Annie Twisted Fate (Twisted Annie) was a fairly popular choice in the Legends of Runeterra Worlds Qualifiers last weekend. As we can see, it’s also gaining momentum on the LoR ladder!
Heimerdinger Jayce (Shadow Tech) was sitting at a 56%+ winrate at some point last Monday. While its winrate has slightly dwindled, the 
Shadow Isles blend deserves a spot in the meta and now sits at a 2.7% PR.
Annie Jhin (Jhinnie) has lost impetus as an aggro brew, similar to what happened to Discard Aggro.
Meanwhile, Taliyah Ziggs, Seraphine Viktor Shadow Isles, and Katarina Gwen (Red Gwen) are back on track to compete on the LoR ladder!
Turning to winrates (WR), we get this result:
Red Gwen has made an entrance into this new meta with a whopping 57% WR, and also was the top choice in LoR's Worlds Qualifiers. Last week, it was still sitting at a modest 53.6% WR; what changed this brew’s mind to pop off like that?
Vayne Quinn is still one of the strongest decks in the meta. Despite its convincing WR last week, though, it has not gained any traction whatsoever. It seems that people seem to have grown tired of Vayne
brews! =)
Along with their rise in PR, Elusives see a fall in WR by a significant amount. This makes it all the more impressive that they still hold a 55.9% WR and secure #3.
While Vayne might not be the most popular champ, her strength can not be Deny
’d. Kayn Vayne is the second Vayne blend in the top five, and not her last one in the top ten.
We saw FTR and Twisted Annie appear on the PR graph for the first time this patch, and for a good reason. Both control decks hold a 54% WR, solidifying their spot in the meta.
Varus Pantheon is still kickin’ but doesn't particularly appreciate the Elusives hype.
That being said, Rumble Vayne doesn’t mind Elusives too much and is back again, after a short dip due to the Vayne nerfs!
Finally, Shadow Tech couldn’t hold its drastic WR of last week, and is now grouped with Taliyah Ziggs as the backmarker of the top meta decks!
The Reasons
By the laws of any competitive meta (or any predator-prey-dynamic), when a deck sees exceedingly high play compared to other archetypes, it gets targeted. This is because players get incentivized to counter said deck, as they face it more and more often in their ladder games.
Such is the case for Teemo Zoe, who has gained more PR than most archetypes have in total. Let’s take a look at what decks target Elusives:
As we can see, most control decks that are popping up are well-versed against Teemo Zoe. Removal spells don’t discern between Elusive and non-Elusive units, so Teemo Zoe is at a value disadvantage in these matchups.
What makes this even worse for Elusives is that they also struggle against aggro blends like Draven Jinx and Jhinnie. Aggro is able to produce many units to rush down the enemy Nexus, while Teemo Zoe’s units have weak statlines for their Elusive keyword. Thus, aggro decks have an edge in this matchup.
That being said, Elusives still have some good matchups in the meta, like Taliyah Ziggs or Varus Pantheon.
All in all, Teemo Zoe is in the midst of an unfavorable meta for them, which was incentivized due to Discard Aggro’s popularity early in the patch. It is difficult to believe that Teemo Zoe will still be at the spot where it is now next week.
The archetype that has the biggest breakthrough performance this week is Red Gwen. While it doesn’t have positive odds against Teemo Zoe, its matchup table is looking convincing:
As we can see, Gwen Katarina is exploiting the rising popularity of control blends. Since last patch, Red Gwen is the strongest Rally deck thanks to Katarina (level 2)
. Red Gwen can also make small Spiderling
threatening due to Hallow, meaning the big removal spells of Shadow Tech and FTR are too slow of an answer.
We can see that Gwen Kat is not even bad against aggro brews and Elusives, thanks to their removal in Quietus
and Ravenous Flock
, as well as their early blockers.
One of the only bad matchups for this deck are the Celesbians (Leona Diana), who are struggling in this control meta.
Tl;dr: Red Gwen has no bad matchups currently, and has plenty of room to grow!
Honorable Mentions
Aphelios Seraphine Viktor
13 cards
27 cards
31 100
Aphelios
decks are always a blessing to see, though this might be the most control-heavy we’ve observed in a while. Aphel Sera appears to be, similar to Red Gwen, an anti-control tool that feasts upon Shadow Tech, Twisted Annie, and Sera Viktor Shadow Isles.
We’ve seen some people bring it to the Worlds qualifiers, like playoffs-qualified BaJAtak, but it also performs strongly on the Runeterra ladder. Aphel Sera sports a mind-boggling 62% WR over 240 games in the past two days. If you’re yearning for a viable Aphelios deck, look no further! =)
Akshan Varus Sivir
21 cards
19 cards
28 500
Pantheon Varus has taken the spotlight for Varus
blends thus far, but a new challenger has arisen. While the deck has been in the shadows for quite some time now, this might be its first time to shine.
With access to Cultist spells, Akshan Varus relies on The Unforgiving Cold
and Momentous Choice
to gain the advantage compared to its Rally-nerfed Akshan Sivir 
Demacia sibling.
Akshan Varus currently sits at a 60% WR over 270 games in the past two days. If you’ve enjoyed Akshan Sivir Demacia or Pantheon Varus, there’s a good chance you will like this one as well!
Jinx Lulu
25 cards
15 cards
24 800
“After today’s data, aggro is dead,” you might think. But lo and behold Jinx Lulu, the different kind of Jinx
experience!
Did you know Fix-Em-Uppers
is a Legends of Runeterra card? I sure as heck did not. As it turns out, discarding Flame Chompers!
and buffing them with Lulu
is a busted combo – who would’ve thought?! =)
Jinx Lulu can back up its unusual card inclusion with real numbers – it holds a 56% WR over 780 games in the past two days. At this rate, it will be featured in next Monday’s report!
Conclusion
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, and I will “Hi” you back! =)
The data has been due to the fantastic 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 Khergans, he has been doing lots of editing and proofreading that deserves appreciation!!
You can reach me on Twitter (@Leer97) or Discord (Leer#2026)!
Thanks for reading and see ya next week!