‘sup everyone. After a short break, your favorite LoR meta report is back to deliver you the latest ladder hotness. Riot’s hotfix demanded a hotfix of the MMR as well, throwing it into a two-week hiatus.
I took the free time to grind some ladder points and climbed all the way up to 700 LP! =)
Legends of Runeterra Meta Decks
Sorting MaRu’s Meta Tier List and LoR data by playrate (PR), we see the following:
Ever since the hotfix two weeks ago, Lulu Jinx has been a ladder menace. And after two weeks, everyone figured out that it’s the best LoR deck, with the highest play rate and one of the highest win rates.
Trundle Tryndamere, also known as Feel The Rush
(FTR) has been up and coming before the patch and now plays with the big boys and girls. Or… well, ferocious Faes and racking rocket girls!
When Rockbear Shepherd
was released, it was instantly included in Azir Xerath (Mono Shurima/Sun Disc) and even brought to the Worlds Finals. Since then, Sun Disc has been one of the most-played LoR meta decks despite its grueling win rate.
Because we are already two weeks into the hotfix meta, Lulu Jinx counters start creeping up. This is the case for Norra Veigar, an old brew undergoing a resurgence this week.
It is well-known that gambling is highly addicting. This is confirmed by the fact that Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh) is the fifth most-played deck in Legends of Runeterra despite its low expected payoff.
The Fallen Reckoner
nerf hit Gwen Katarina (Red Gwen) quite badly, taxing some of its winrate. Nonetheless, Red Gwen remains up and running as one of the meta staples.
While Lulu Jinx is taking up the spotlight, Jinx
turns out to be one of the strongest champions in the game. Thus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Ekko Jinx, formerly Ekko Zilean, has come to see the light of day play.
While Hecarim Zed’s units are evanescent, their presence in the LoR meta is not. In the last two months, this Ephemeral deck has experienced a rollercoaster of success, starting with an abysmal win rate and riding the high tide to becoming one of the strongest ladder brews, down to where it is now.
Gangplank Sejuani (Plunder) is as old as this meta report and just as vibrant. Plunder is this one deck your SO keeps telling you not to worry about but always turns into a problem eventually.
As the final archetype, I am delighted to feature Katarina Leona (Sunburn). While 
Targon and 
Noxus don’t have much in common, stunning your opponents, literally and metaphorically speaking with this cunning champion combo, and then Rallying with Katarina
makes for a potent Aggro deck with a nasty midgame finisher.
Turning to winrates (WR), we get this result:
Sunburn proves to be the best meta deck in LoR, even surpassing Lulu Jinx’s success.
Miss Fortune Twisted Fate (Pirates) and Swain TF are this week's unsung heroes, making up for their lack of popularity with their convincing WRs.
Plunder is another 
Bilgewater blend at the top of the LoR ladder food chain.
While FTR and Ekko Jinx already turned up on the PR graph, Taliyah Ziggs is, like Plunder, another historic meta deck surfacing again and again no matter the season.
Heimerdinger Jayce (Shadow Tech) is, like Norra Veigar, another excellent Lulu Jinx counter, while Draven Jinx (Discard Aggro) is the third Jinx blend in the top ten best LoR decks.
The Reasons
Unfortunately, Legna’s website is unavailable at the time of writing, so we will have to forgo his comprehensive matchup tables. Instead, we will use his raw collected data in an excel sheet.
Lulu Jinx was a secret gem before the hotfix, with Aatrox Vayne as the worst matchup. With no Darkin Overlord to end Lulu Jinx’s world, they get a green light to terrorize the ladder.
As we can see, Jinx Lulu is widely favored against most meta decks. This is because Lulu
+ Flame Chompers!
removes almost any threat played on round three, while the deck also goes wide to beat most Aggro blends. Sneezy Biggledust!
is an excellent finisher for their go-wide strategy, and Jinx gives them the burn to push the final bit of damage.
Only Norra Veigar appears to be immune against this gameplan, as 
Shadow Isles and 
Bandle City have numerous ping effects to efficiently remove Lulu Jinx’s one-health units.
Katarina Leona is the brightest star sun burning in the LoR cosmos, even outshining Jinx Lulu. Let’s take a look at how Sunburn matches up in the current LoR meta:
As we can see, even Sunburn doesn’t win against Lulu Jinx. Katarina Leona’s early aggression runs into Jinx Lulu’s wide board, and flipping Katarina means Sunburn lacks the blockers for a Sneezy Biggledust! swing. And Jinx (level 2)
is just outside the range of Leona
’s three power and Noxian Fervor
.
On the other hand, this Leona blend matches well against most other meta decks except Norra Veigar, and beats all of them convincingly with 60%+ odds. This is due to Sunburn’s ability to pressure early but not run out of steam thanks to Rahvun, Daylight's Spear
. With Sun Guardian
, Sunburn is not as susceptible to AoE removal and ping effects as other Aggro decks, and Leona can stun big blockers out of the way. Just like Lulu Jinx, Leona Katarina can push their final damage through burn, in this case with Decimate
and Noxian Fervor.
Honorable Mentions
Aphelios Leona
10 cards
30 cards
27 300
Who would’ve thought that two Leona decks would ever make it into a discussion of the Legends of Runeterra meta?
Aphelios Leona is a midrange control archetype that combines the tempo plays of Leona and The Winding Light
with the control aspects of Aphelios
and Shadow Isles spells. Especially Vile Feast
and Quietus
are high in stock due to Lulu Jinx’s popularity.
Aphelios Leona can back up its theory with practice, as it sports a 56.6% WR over 2.8k games in the past three days.
Riven Viktor
18 cards
22 cards
23 400
Riven Viktor is a well-known concept that once upon a time was at the top of the LoR meta. But after some adjustments to Ambush
, the deck struggled to stay relevant and eventually succumbed to better options.
In this new meta, Riven Viktor spikes for no good reason, as it barely implements any new cards of the Darkin expansions apart from Piltovan Castaway
. Nonetheless, this brew breaks metrics left and right – the EMEA Master player (and polish leopard tortoise) Żółw Lamparci recently climbed to 650 LP with Riven Viktor. And overall, Riven Viktor sports a 56.7% WR over 480 games in the past three days.
Kalista Nocturne 
Noxus
37 cards
3 cards
28 900
Kalista Nocturne Noxus is a curious Mistwraith
Allegiance deck running Legionary Charge
to locate Nocturne
. While it baffles me why we risk ruining Wraithcaller
with a two-mana Nocturne tutor, I saw Cephalopod climb with this brew shortly after the hotfix. And some players even reached Masters for the first time with this archetype!
On the LoR ladder, Kalista Nocturne holds a 54% WR over 450 games in the past three days!
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 MaRu’s Meta Tier List 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 the metadata into these stunning graphs for the Monday Meta Report, I can't express my gratitude enough to him!
Thanks also to Herko Kerghans, 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!
