Monday Meta Report – April 3rd

‘sup everyone, Leer here. We got a huge change in cards available for deck building. Not only did we get a new expansion but we also entered the rotation era, throwing away 400 cards, aka one-third of all LoR cards in the game.

Early data already shows an overperformer – Samira Fizz. Despite its terrifying play patterns, the meta is already adapting. Demacia is taking over the ladder!

Legends of Runeterra Decks

Sorting MaRu’s LoR Meta Tier List and meta stats by playrate (PR), we see the following:

Samira Fizz dominates the playrate chart. With almost double the popularity of the second place – Karma Sett – we have a clear crowd favorite!

Quinn Gwen dodges most rotated cards and becomes the one-eyed king in the land of the blind. 

Teemo Caitlyn gets lost, clearly having missed the “Only good decks allowed” sign. Fortunately for them, Jack Sett takes all the credit for jettisoning it.

Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh), having only lost Jaull-fish, is back in ship-wrecking business.

Aatrox Kayn didn’t lose anything and is thus a safe pick for players.

Heimerdinger Jayce (Shadow Tech) sees drastically different builds. With Vile Feast gone and Hextech Handler nerfed, lists emerge that run Eradication and only three followers, like this list by WhatAmI.

Maokai Nautilus (Deep) sees a surprising resurgence despite the loss of Vile Feast and no compensation. Maybe sea monsters aren’t capable of filing lawsuits.

Vayne Quinn Aatrox was a menace seasons ago (When Teddy hit 3k LP! =) and is on its way to being one once more.

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

In this reality, Aatrox won the world-ending fight. Vayne Aatrox has a commanding lead, winning almost 58% of their games.

Gwenn Quinn also places high in this graph, showcasing the strength of Demacia alongside Garen Jarvan 4 (Elites).

With Aatrox Kayn, Aatrox places two blends in the five best LoR Standard decks. 

As a Lurk-hater, it is difficult to admit this. Ever since this report started, I brand-marked the brew as “Urgh”, facilitating my antipathy towards the deck. But no matter my emotions, I can not dismiss stats. Data, unfortunately, doesn’t lie.

Lurk is one of the best Legends of Runeterra decks. 

Moving on to happier yet complicated matters – Fizz Samira. It places right in the middle of the graph, showing its strength. Is it a problem with this high of a play- and winrate? Let’s discuss this further down! =)

Shadow Tech remains a Tier 1 deck, placing it above fellow Shadow Isles brews Norra Veigar and Deep.

My favorite archetype of the week is Miss Fortune Quinn (Scouts). Captivating with a strong power level and rewarding playstyle, this deck is my weapon of choice to climb ladder and win Gauntlets with!

Factors Shaping the LoR Meta

The meta has already developed quite a bit since the expansion. Samira Fizz got the bulk of the attention, pushing it into Mono Shurima heights regarding popularity! =)

As a result, archetypes start adapting to the Glory in Navori deck. In fact, all the best LoR decks are favored against Fizz Samira.

This is also the reason why Demacia appears so strong right now. Challenging Fleetfeather Trackers and anti-Elusive Blocking Badgerbears prevent perfectly Fizz Samira’s Elusive Combo gameplan.

Does this mean you should not be playing Fizz Samira?

Not at all! Apart from these nasty Demacia brews, Fizz Samira is beating almost everything else – be it meditator, menace of the depths, or monocle-wearer.

What’s more is that Samira Fizz is in a similar spot as Nami Lee Ionia a couple of seasons ago. It has an incredible skill ceiling and performs much better in the hands of high Masters players than the average joe (me and you). 

This indicates that it might be a Tier 0 deck, but it’s too early to tell. Let’s wait another week for more conclusive evidence! =)

---

Aatrox Vayne is the most dominant ladder deck right now. It beats most meta decks, including Samira Fizz, while only struggling against Gwen Quinn.

Gwen Quinn is such a hard matchup because Gwen + Cataclysm removes any unit of Aatrox Vayne. Aatrox Vayne also has trouble blocking high-attack Ephemeral units, as it runs few, high-value units. Finally, Hate Spike kills most of our early units, and the Husk buffs Gwen out of Fish Fight range.

Otherwise, Aatrox Vayne is looking great. The Challenger + The Darkin Harp combo is as potent as ever, while bulky Demacia units + The Darkin Spear/The Darkin Bloodletters insulate against removal strategies of karma Sett and Teemo Caitlyn.

Best decks banning Samira Fizz

We saw decks beating Samira Fizz thrive on ladder. But what if you want to bring a deck that doesn’t care about Samira Fizz, e.g. ban it in a tourney, or close your eyes on ladder and pray real hard? =)

Nami Fizz Ionia

Remember when I mentioned Nami Lee? Well, Lee Sin is no more, so Nami found a fellow fish to fight for freedom! =)

An Ionian combo deck as potent as Samira Fizz, this deck is currently flying under the radar for most players. Personally, I picked it up seeing Ultraman, the last Seasonal champ, pilot it on stream.

It spoke to me the second I saw it and tested it in Gauntlet, going 6-2.

If you can dodge Samira Fizz, this Nami blend can beat almost anything. The reason Nami Ionia is picking up Steem steam again is that Coins give us cheap tokens to empower Nami and Shelly.

Unfortunately, there is no data on ladder for this deck. You’ll have to test it out yourself and see if you like it!

Kayle Leona

Kayle Leona lost Legion Rearguard, Ravenous Flock, Shunpo, and Decimate in the rotation. Despite these rough losses, the Targon Noxus blend has managed to get creative and pivot to different spells. 

The highest winrate list (61% WR over 250 games) is running more copies of Brothers' Bond and now includes Morning Light and Heavens Aligned. Sunburst used to be a tech card in Katarina Leona against Aatrox, and hey, would you look at that – two Aatrox decks are en vogue! =)

Overall, Kayle Leona sports a 56.8% WR over 1.8k games in the past three days on ladder. If you are looking to spice it up a bit, consider Samira Leona, a deck that Kuvi hit rank 1 with just two days ago!

Ashe LeBlanc

Ashe LeBlanc always struggled to find its place in a meta. Usually, it was used as a niche counter deck against a specific deck, most of the time Demacia piles.

Since Demacia is getting more popular as an answer to Samira, Ashe LeBlanc is the perfect dark horse to one-up the LoR meta. Data agrees, putting the FJ Noxus deck at a 55.5% WR over 5.5k games over the past three days. A lot of fives to end the article! =)

There’s a beginner-friendly Ashe LeBlanc guide available at Mastering Runeterra.

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 Legends of Runeterra 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 on Discord (Leer#2026).

Thanks for reading this Monday's LoR Meta Report and see ya next week!