Monday Meta Report

‘sup everyone, Leer here with the first edition of the Monday Meta Rep–

Whups, sorry, wrong year! I had too much fun with the Timewinder Gauntlets this past weekend, and still thought I was in the past. =)

Let’s return to the present: 

The latest balance patch continues to affect the ladder. Meanwhile, a top three is forming in the meta, dominating both play- and winrates!

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LoR Meta Decks

Sorting Balco’s Meta Tier List by playrate (PR), we see the following:

After last week’s success, Katarina Gwen (Red Gwen) is the most popular archetype in the game. Especially after the glut of Teemo Zoe (Elusives) on the ladder last week, Red Gwen had a successful usurpation of their throne.

Last week, Vayne Kayn was a secret tip among Worlds participants. This Monday, it becomes the second most-played deck in the game, having a similar popularity slope as Red Gwen.

Elusives is now only the third-most-popular brew on ladder. 

On the other hand, control decks are still on the rise, albeit slower. Trundle Tryndamere Feel The Rush (FTR) and Viktor Seraphine Shadow Isles are indicating this. Less lucky is Heimerdinger Jayce (Shadow Tech), who is barely holding on to #10 right now.

With the rise of control, Aggro lists are getting less and less popular. While Elusives (yes, they are Aggro, read my guide!) still made it in the top three, Draven Jinx (Discard Aggro) is nowhere to be found, and Annie Jhin (Jhinnie) is getting less popular by the day.

Another control blend has risen in popularity – Veigar Norra. Similar to the Darkness deck of old, this brew holds a subpar winrate that makes it a C-Tier pick at best.

Also, Taliyah Ziggs exists. 🙂

Turning to winrates (WR), we get this result:

Red Gwen is also topping this chart, dethroning Elusives once again!

Just like they top the playrate chart, Red Gwen, Elusives, and Vayne Kayn (we need a nickname for this deck, reader suggestions encouraged =) also make up the top three of the most winning archetypes as well. They are the holy trinity of the current meta-game!

Despite Jhinnie's dwindling popularity, it has seen an incredible increase in winrate. While not as drastic, a similar thing can be said about Discard Aggro.

Vayne Quinn remains an undervalued ladder weapon. The deck has a 50%+ WR against almost any meta deck, and an overall 55.4% WR.

Varus Pantheon is on the rise again thanks to its strength against Red Gwen and control blends, whereas Akshan Varus follows suit with a similar performance.

Finally, Gangplank Sejuani (Plunder) is the latest (and oldest) addition to the best ladder decks.

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The Reasons

As we discussed last week, Teemo Zoe had a target on its back due to their high playrate. With Red Gwen having the fantastic matchup table we scrutinized last Monday, there was little reason for Elusives to remain at the top.

This being said, Teemo Zoe is still one of the strongest ladder decks, despite their weakness against control blends and the rising popularity of these control brews. This is because Teemo Zoe is very proficient at dealing with less popular ladder decks. Think about it – only about 35% of the decks played are featured in this report, so what about the rest?

Teemo Zoe is such an inherently powerful deck, that it beats most off-meta brews harder than other decks do. To illustrate this, consider the following data: Teemo Zoe has a 49.8% WR against archetypes with a PR above 1%. But overall, it has a WR above 55%. This means that Teemo needs to have a WR around 60% against off-meta decks!

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We haven’t looked at Vayne Kayn yet, so now is high time to do so:

The matchup table looks surprisingly dull. This is because Kayn Vayne, as a Demacia deck, is prone to Noxus removal like Ravenous Flock (from Annie Twisted Fate, for example). Looking closer, though, most of these matchups are around 50%, with Annie TF being the exception.

Digging deeper, we reveal the source of Kayn Vayne’s strength:

The Kayn blend excels at demolishing midrange brews like Taliyah Ziggs and Plunder, as well as some less removal-focused control archetypes like Norra Veigar and Aphelios Seraphine. This is because the above lists struggle to deal with Kayn and Heedless Resurrection, as well as the board pressure from Combat Cook and Vayne. And since the deck runs plenty of strike spells to deal with enemy threats on top of this, the only reliable way to beat this archetype is to remove its threats efficiently (TF Annie, Red Gwen), or aggro it down (Jhinnie, Teemo Zoe, Red Gwen).

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Honorable Mentions

Akshan Sivir Varus

GrandpaRoji topped the Worlds Qualifier with this deck, and we featured it last Monday as an honorable mention. This week, it is the highest-WR archetype with a 59.5% WR over 260 games in the past two days.

If you’re looking for an off-meta experience that packs a punch and runs unusual stuff like Shadowblade Fanatic, this is your deck!

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Celesbians aka Leona Diana

The twilight lovers are on the loose again, this time with a 57% WR over 540 games in the past two days.

While WhatAmI utilized a slightly different version running Aphelios and some control cards, the tried and true Celesbians  build is more successful on ladder. They have great numbers against aggro (that isn’t Elusives) and are one of the rare archetypes that beat Red Gwen consistently (59% WR)!

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Jinx Lulu

Jinx Lulu made last Monday’s report for a good reason. The deck murders Aggro and a lot of Midrange blends. It’s only weak to Kayn Vayne and Norra Veigar (and the latter isn’t a real deck, anyway).

Jinx Lulu holds a commendable 55.5% WR over 1.2k games in the past two days. If you miss the old Flame Chompers! Lulu combo, this one’s for you!

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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!

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