Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
What’s up, beautiful people? This is 4LW on my very first write-up for Mastering Runeterra, starting off with my favorite aspect of Legends of Runeterra: deckbuilding and theorycrafting. I’ve played many LoR tournaments to great success right after a major expansion arrived, and I also hold the world record for the fastest climb to Masters in a new LoR season, so I hope I will bring some quality today.
So, with intros out of the way, let’s get to the point. We’re tackling a brand new champion today: Kayle
.
Kayle – Mechanics and Overview
Kayle is a six-mana champion from 
Targon. Her gameplay analysis can be split into two parts:
- First, she interacts well with wide boards, buffing all other units for +1/+0 when she comes down to the board – an effect similar to the one from Keeper of Masks
, with the additional upside of not only Giving, but Granting (that's to say, permanently) said buff to allies. - Secondly, she is a heavy hitter by herself. When included in a proper deck shell, she’ll likely gain a bunch of Power buffs and, while at Level 1, will also have Quick Attack if she meets the condition of her new vocab, Empowered.
, with the additional upside of not only Giving, but Granting (that's to say, permanently) said buff to allies. Kayle will level up if she has eleven Power at Round Start – her level-up condition is a bit harsh at first glance (since she comes with two only base Power) but it makes sense when you see how powerful Kayle (level 2) is.
When leveled, Kayle gets Overwhelm, one of the best (if not the best) keywords. And, combined with a lot of Power, she can also get Double Attack if the Empowered condition is met, making her a lethal attacker.
It needs to be said that Kayle asks for a dedicated deck to function properly: we want to buff her Power to both meet the Empowered condition and level her up. There is a variety of ways to accomplish that, and we’ll go through some of these while we talk about five decks featuring her that I brewed myself.
Kayle – Decks and Strategies
Kayle Elusives 
Piltover & Zaun
Our first deck is a re-reading of Zoe Android, an old archetype that had game-breaking power plays, but that was also lacking here and there. Kayle’s package is a tremendous addition to what a Targon P&Z Elusive deck tries to achieve, most likely providing much-needed consistency to the archetype.
13 cards
27 cards
32 800
Our main game plan here is simple: cheese the opponent with Elusive units. The list runs thirteen Elusives (two of them being the new Kayle follower Winged Messenger
), plus three copies of Poro Cannon
and a lot of buff mechanics, like the new Purifying Flames
.
Kayle can both benefit from our main game plan (since we are running a lot of buffs to use on Elusive units, hence progressing her level up) and help us achieve it: our units are cheap, making it easy to have a wide board, and thus having more units that Kayle can buff with her summon effect.
If we can’t close out the game fast enough with cheap, buffed Elusives, we can turn to heavy finishers like Kayle, Glorious Evolution
, and my personal favorite card in this package, Xolaani the Bloodweaver
.
In a proper shell, Xolaani the Bloodweaver is like They Who Endure
on steroids. With our deck, we are either killing our opponent with buffed Elusive units, or our opponent is killing said Elusives and therefore growing Xolaani and giving us a stronger finisher.
Kayle Leona Demacia
Our second deck fits Kayle in a classic midrange archetype: Daybreak. Daybreak got massively improved on its last rework, and since then has claimed its place in the LoR meta.
11 cards
29 cards
33 100
There is currently no obvious champion companion for Leona
. People often use Diana
or Aphelios
, but I think Kayle is a very respectable option, too. She synergizes with Solari Soldier
, Twilit Protector
and Sun Guardian
. And, due to their stats-oriented units and game plan, Daybreak decks usually have a wide board at mid and late game, thus being able to take proper advantage of Kayle’s summon effect.
We are using Demacia as a splash region mainly because of Single Combat
, a very effective removal for Daybreak decks, and the new eight-mana Demacian spell, Champions’ Strength.
Champions' Strength is a major addition to Demacia. It does a lot of powerful things for just one card, making it a very strong finisher. It will most likely find a lot of homes, and Daybreak can easily be one of them since, as mentioned, the archetype has an easy time filling the board.
Daybreak can usually play the long game without falling behind, so in our deck (and unlike the Elusives deck we saw previously) we will often have the time and opportunity to level up Kayle, thus getting access to another win condition.
Kayle Illaoi
As a third deck, we have 
Bilgewater Kayle, pairing her with Illaoi
.
15 cards
25 cards
26 600
The combination revolves around Tentacle
s: we have plenty of Spawn mechanics, including the new Eye of God
, making it easy to have a buffed unit.
This deck plays like regular midrange. It tries to take control of the board with light removal, and at the same time tries to put pressure as soon as possible. Kayle comes down as our top end, along with Xolaani, to give us an edge when the opponent deals with our Tentacles.
Kayle Bard
Next one is Kayle paired up with Bard
.
9 cards
31 cards
30 500
Bard is having a hard time reclaiming his place in the meta since his nerf, but Kayle's package could be everything Bard wanted, as we have plenty of new cards that benefit from stats due to their Empowered keyword. This is the first build where we are using the new cards Divine Clerk
, Seraphic Wyvern
, Lawkeeper
and Mihira, Aspect of Justice
.
This build is very experimental and we need to check which one of these units are worthy of making the final cut, but at first glance all of them look good enough when paired with a bunch of Chimes.
Kayle will very naturally level up in this deck, giving us access to a strong (and very buffed!) finisher.
Kayle Gwen
Our last deck combines Kayle and Gwen
, two champions that want to see lots of buffs. Gwen’s main mechanic, Hallowed, interacts just fine with Kayle, as both Hallowed and Kayle ask us to attack in order to get a bonus.
23 cards
17 cards
27 700
Like the Kayle Elusives deck presented first, Kayle Gwen can also exploit the Elusive keyword, which is certainly very strong when combined with Hallowed. Our stacked Hallowed buff, in turn, will tend to grow rapidly, given the number of Hallowed units we are running, including the new Redeemed Prodigy
.
This deck doesn’t lack finishers, as we run three Gwen copies, three Kayle, two Xolaani, and two Atrocity
copies, all of them taking great advantage of our Power buffs.
Closing Words
These are our showcased Kayle decks for today!
As noted, she can fit aggressive and midrange decks, and probably some heavy-combo decks, too. The ability to buff units is, at this point, very widespread within the game, making it possible to pair up Kayle with pretty much every region.
Looking for even more decks today? Then check:
GeneralSchwartz's ten Ryze decks, one for every region,
Yangzera's five Aatrox decks,
Shadawx's seven World Ender decks combining old champs with new cards.
In my pre-release opinion, the devs were a bit heavy-handed in terms of balancing Kayle’s release version. She seems expensive for what she does or, alternatively, not impactful enough for her cost. It seems to me that she could make great use of one of these changes: provide a +1/+1 buff on summon (instead of +1/+0); increase her base Power; an easier level-up condition; or an additional and more relevant keyword on Level 1. Either way, her package has many great cards that can help her get to work.
I’m excited to try her out as soon as the World Ender expansion reaches Runeterra. In the first days I will be experimenting a lot and polishing decks, so keep an eye on my Twitter, my r.ar profile and to the Mastering Runeterra deck collection, where I’ll post new decks constantly.
Thanks for reading, and see you soon!
