‘sup everyone. Demacia is back with Scouts and mountain-climbing Yordles! After Ionia’s dominance last week, will we enter a new meta ruled by Demacian birds?
LoR Meta Decks
Sorting Balco’s Meta Tier List by playrate (PR), we see the following:
Miss Fortune Twisted Fate (Pirates) continues its climb in popularity with no ceiling in sight.
While Jax Timelines was second last Monday, Katarina Gwen takes that spot with a massive swing in PR (we've just published a Kat Gwen Deck Guide, by the way!).
Nasus Kindred has also grown this week, being the third deck above 7% PR!
Trundle Timelines (which Balco tweaked to aggregate all archetypes running Trundle
and Concurrent Timelines
), accumulates a PR of 6%.
Ezreal Kennen topped the WR chart last Monday, and naturally saw a rise in PR.
Following them we find a handful of solid decks with a PR of around 3% – Viego Evelynn, Akshan Lee (deck guide coming soon by yours truly!), TF Nami Ionia, and Jax Timelines. Especially Jax Timelines has seen a huge downswing in popularity after people realized how suboptimal the archetype is compared to Trundle Timelines! =)
Akshan Kayn is the last deck making it into today’s PR chart… with a 46.9% WR. I think that says it all! =)
Turning to winrates (WR), we get this result:
Miss Fortune Quinn (Scouts) is back, and oh boi they are. Taking the ladder by a storm, they peak the ranking, even beating the oppressing Pirates and Ez Kennen!
Taric Poppy (Tappy) has also made it into this week’s report, now running a lower mana curve with cards like Frightened Ibex
and Tyari the Traveler
.
Viego Evelynn and Katarina Gwen have dropped some WR but remain around a strong 54% WR.
TF Nami has hit it a bit worse with the arrival of the above Demacia decks, falling to a 53% WR. Still, after TF Nami there is a big gap, and only at 51% WR we find decks again, in particular Gwen Sejuani who was last week’s honorable mention, Akshan Lee, and Nasus Kindred!
The Reasons
Scouts and Poppy Taric share a similar matchup table, and because of that, they are great decks for a Tournament or Gauntlet lineup, and I’ve brought them together myself to the last two Seasonals. Thus, let’s look at their two matchup tables simultaneously:
As we can see, both decks are proficient at beating Ez Kennen, the highest-WR deck of last week. They both also beat the aggressive Gwen Katarina, though Scouts is a bit better at it.
As we can see, in this new meta, Scouts and Taric Poppy have surprisingly different nuances in their matchup tables. Scouts is most importantly better at beating Pirates, being one of very few decks doing so, as well as Nasus Kindred.
On the other hand, Taric Poppy has the upper hand in the Trundle Timelines matchup, as well as the Eve Viego (Encroaching Husks?) one.
While Taric Poppy might not look as hot as Scouts in the head-to-head comparison, even their bad matchups aren’t that bad: around 45% WR. If I were you, I would start playing, or preparing for more Demacia action in the future! =)
That being said, why do these Demacia decks only turn up now?
They both have horrendous chances against the fast Jax Timeline deck that was oh so popular last week. Thanks to that archetype vanishing, Poppy now has clearance to swing at every foe on sight! =)
As a little bonus, I also threw in the matchup vs. Nami TF. Both Scouts and Tappy are heavily favored against that deck, so while TF Nami Ionia might be one of the best LoR decks right now, their stocks are looking at a grim future, if Scouts and Tappy should back their high WRs by rising PRs!
Now, here is a more difficult question: If Pirates suffer against Scouts and will recede a little, while Scouts get played more, how will this affect Ez Kennen? Their worst matchup is Pirates, so they are happy to see Pirates suffer, but Ez Kennen also struggles against Scouts.
It is a delicate balance, where anything could happen. Scouts could rise while Pirates maintain their popularity, Scouts could replace the PR Pirates loses, or Scouts could rise without eating away at Pirates’ PR. As you can see, it is impossible to predict what will happen, and if Ez Kennen will remain a safe bet to lean on.
On the other hand, Evelynn Viego seems like a guaranteed hit. As we saw, they beat both Scouts and Tappy. Let’s look more closely at their matchup table and why I think they are a good ladder choice right now:
As we can see, Evelynn Viego is favored against the three most-played decks right now – Pirates, Gwen Katarina, and Kindred Nasus. They only struggle against Trundle Timelines, but it’s far from an auto-lose queueing into them. And they also have an even matchup vs Ez Kennen!
Eve Viego is one of the most “gaming” decks you can choose right now – every matchup is winnable and not predetermined by which deck you queue into, even if Demacia decks should rise again!
Honorable Mentions
While I like to go to runeterra.ar/meta and sort by WR for this section, I have observed the ladder rankings in Masters closely this week and present you cherries that people have used to climb high.
Akshan Pantheon
17 cards
23 cards
28 800
Pantheon’s Fated shell has been trash ever since the nerf to Zenith Blade
, preventing their big units from pushing Nexus damage by getting chump blocked. The Absolver
and Supercharge
are solutions to this problem, though previously they weren’t worth tapping out of Demacia’s removal tools and Rallies.
With some new shiny tools like The Darkin Bloodletters
providing more blockers while advancing Akshan’s landmark, the archetype seems to have legs. Or at least, well-known streamer Szychu does think so. And he has legs, that’s a plus.
Szychu has a 63% WR with Akshan Panth over 80 games, ranking him 15th with 350 LP on the EMEA ladder. We’re not all at Worlds-competitor level like him, and there’s no other player touching the deck right now, but why not try it yourself and see how it goes?! And come on, it’s a competitive Pantheon
deck. How could you skip trying this one??! 😛
Zed Poppy
21 cards
19 cards
24 600
Didn’t I say Poppy has swing-on-sight clearance for her hammer? Zed Poppy is no new concept at all. To be exact, it was one of the most oppressing decks for several months together with Sejuani Gangplank, once upon a time. =)
I saw someone climb more than 200 LP this week with it, and the above is their exact list. After discussion with Poppy-enthusiast bA1ance, he came up with a refined list that netted him some success on ladder:
18 cards
22 cards
24 400
We replaced Catch!
with the more efficient Ranger's Resolve
and put in some Deny
s for extra protection for our champs. This might still not be the perfect formula, so try experimenting with some ratios of cards for yourself!
The theory for this deck is the same as with Scouts and Tappy – pressure them early and, when the foe plays their engine like Fleet Admiral Shelly
and taps out of mana, go for a Rally.
Nami Lee Sin
18 cards
22 cards
35 100
Nami Lee Sin is Nami TF Ionia but with less Twisted Fate
and more Lee Sin
. When comparing their lists, they only differ in two cards – Lee Sin and Ionian Hookmaster
.
Similar to the role Lee Sin fulfills in the new Zoe Lee deck, he is now a removal tool, rather than an OTK threat. Cutting Coral Creatures
for Ionian Hookmaster means we have less cheap spells to combo with Nami
and Fleet Admiral Shelly, but pressure our opponent more with replayable weapons.
EU Masters champion Teddy’s performance on ladder made me aware of this archetype – he is currently holding a 73% WR over 90 games with the deck. If you already have experience with Nami TF Ionia, this might be an interesting variation for you to try (it sure is for me! =), or if Akshan Lee didn’t hit the spot for you and you’re searching for a different type of Lee Sin deck, this might also pose an interesting pick for you!
Conclusion
After last week, many people were crying out against Ionia’s ladder dominance, and its play style. As this week has proven, there is much yet to be discovered, and the Awakening meta gets no time to rest.
Personally, I enjoy Ionia decks and their necessity to think out your turns. It’s been a long time since I had this much fun playing, and even with the encroaching Demacia decks, I have something to look forward to.
While you might not share this exact sentiment, I hope you too can find something exciting about this meta and a deck you enjoy playing. I know I’ll be here next week analyzing the meta again, where will you be?! =)
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!
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!
