Monday Meta Report, Oct 31

‘sup everyone. Both Seraphine and Vayne have shifted their most successful archetypes this week. You win some, you lose some, huh?!

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LoR Meta Decks

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

Ezreal Seraphine Noxus is still the by far most played deck of the meta, although with a slight downward trend.

Speaking of downward trends, Vayne Rumble (Rayn), whose creator is Kapi btw, is seeing less play.

For that, a well-known archetype is popping off right now – Hecarim Zed (Ephemerals) … at least when it comes to popularity. Better not look at its winrate. =)

Seraphine Viktor Ionia is one of those Seraphine brews that gained some steam last week, now standing at #3!

Aggro and tempo decks are on the rise again, as can be seen with Annie Jhin (Jhinnie), Vayne Zed (Tumbling Elusives), and Vayne Jax (submit nicknames!).

Vayne Gwen, who struggled in the winrate department ever since its creation, is finally getting played less and will soon be out of the meta. 

Last, we find two Pantheon blends at the edge of our chart – Pantheon Varus and Pantheon Vayne!

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

Last week, it was Pirate Aggro’s time to shine. This Monday, a different aggro blend takes #1 – Swain MF!

As can be seen in Vayne Zed, Demacia has a small comeback this time around. Last Monday, Demacia was on the downtrend, and this week this impetus is reversed!

Just like in the PR graph, both Jhinnie and Vayne Jax are on the rise due to their aggressive nature. Vayne Jax in particular is becoming a staple of the meta as the go-to Seraphine counter.

Talking about Seraphine counters and Demacia – Pantheon Vayne is another archetype solidifying its spot in the meta. We seem to approach an equilibrium where Seraphine blends coexist with its predatory Vayne brews, and Pantheon Vayne’s viability is proof of this.

Viktor Seraphine is represented twice once again this week, with Shadow Isles being the slightly better one. 

Even though Rayn took severe hits to its popularity, it is still a more-than-solid ladder choice with a 53.9% WR!

TF Swain is still a thing, though much weaker than Swain MF, while Vayne Kayn makes an appearance for the first time this season!

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The Reasons

From a quick glance, most decks got a boost in WR. Why is that you ask? 

Well, somehow, the second most popular archetype in the game – Ephemerals – holds barely a 50% WR. This means that most decks get an easy win every 10th game – there is a free lunch after all, at least in LoR! =)

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Let’s look at the difference between the two Viktor Seraphine blends:

As we can see, the Ionia version is a little bit better at beating Ez Sera Noxus and Ephemerals – the two most popular archetypes of the week. 

You might think that removing Seraphine with Quietus would give the edge to the Shadow Isles variant, but as it turns out, gaining card advantage with Vastayan Disciple and having more protection for your champs is a bigger advantage. Also, having Recall effects against Hecarim is really nice.

Where the Shadow Isles version shines, though, and where the reason lies that the Shadow Isles variant has an almost 1% higher WR is the Annie Jhin matchup. Here, Ionia gets punished for running cards like Deep Meditation, and Shadow Isles can shine with Vile Feast and Quietus!

Especially since the Shadow Isles variant is heavily favored against Jhinnie, while the Ionia one is even, it overall matters more for the WR difference than the only slightly higher WR numbers of the Heca Zed matchup, for example.

Finally, Sera Viktor Shadow Isles has a bigger edge against Vayne decks, equalizing the slightly worse matchups against the top two PR decks compared to Sera Viktor Ionia.

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One of the most stable archetypes this week is Jax Vayne. While it first appeared to be a mere Ez Sera counter, it also turns out to be well-versed against most of the best LoR decks!

Jax Vayne can keep up against aggro because of its legion of sturdy early-game units, similar to Scouts. It defeats Ez Sera due to its tempo advantage, and its Rally/Tumble just before Seraphine levels.

As we can see, it also can keep up with Heca Zed’s Ephemeral units, where Jax Vayne’s access to the Tough keyword can allow for repeated, convenient blocking against Ephemeral attacks.

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Honorable Mentions

Some decks don’t make it onto the graphs due to a playrate below one percent. Here are some of my favorite picks I found digging in the data:

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Aphelios Seraphine

I know, I know, this is yet another Seraphine deck. But hear me out – we get to play the Moon Boy. That’s a pretty good trade-of if you ask me! =)

We get to Invoke some, run Zoe as a one-of, and most importantly get to play Spell Thief, one of my favorite cards in the game! Aphelios Sera sports a 52.85% WR over 1.7k games in the past two days. It is picking up pace quite quickly.

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Quinn Vayne Piltover & Zaun

I promise I’m not doing this on purpose. I know it seems unexciting to play another Seraphine or Vayne deck… but, it is Quinn without Miss Fortune, okay?!

Since both Quinn and Vayne have the exact same level-up condition, it is not the worst idea to pair them up. Both champs work very well weapons, especially if you can get The Darkin Harp on a Scout unit, most significantly Valor.

Vayne Quinn rocks a mind-boggling 62.3% WR over an even more mind-boggling sample size of 450 games in the past two days. Reaching a 62% WR over a 30 game sample size, okay, but over 450 games?! This can almost surely not be a fluke!

For an in-depth guide, check Scissorsbox's recent Tumble and Strike – A Vayne Fiora LoR Deck Guide.

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Teemo Zoe

Teemo fucking Zoe. What even is their synergy? As it turns out, being a one-cost Elusive is good enough to be a threatening combo.

With Teemo Zoe, you are all-inning on the Elusive gameplan. Elusives work well with Equipment to push more Nexus damage, and The Sudden Surge is what pushes this demonic brew to the next level. Teemo Zoe holds a 56.3% WR over 400 games in the past two days. If you wanna experience a whole new gameplay experience on ladder, try this deck! =)

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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 on Discord (Leer#2026)!

Thanks for reading and see ya next week!

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