Monday Meta Report – July 10th

‘sup everyone, Leer here. To the agony of many, Siren Song decks continue to perform with a punched Xolaani the Bloodweaver blend topping metrics left and right.

Will the meta adapt, or fall prey to this new powerhouse?

Legends of Runeterra Decks

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

Evelynn Kayle remains the most popular LoR Standard meta deck.

A new, faster version of this archetype evolved – Fizz Bilgewater Targon. It utilizes Reaver's Row instead of Domination to buff their board and is popping off on ladder right now!

Annie Jhin (Jhinnie) remains a strong meta contender, although it takes blows left and right. This is especially due to Fizz Bilgewater Targon being much better against Jhinnie than its Evelynn sibling.

Mono Evelynn Targon, and Evelynn Diana, are really just sister decks with a difference of three to six cards. As mentioned last week, these cards matter a lot but don’t disguise that Evelynn Targon is even more popular than already anticipated!

Karma Sett Piltover & Zaun is seeing play again! It looked grim for the deck’s popularity since the start of the new season and was overshadowed by Karma Sett Targon for a moment. Now, it is back in action and not bad at all.

Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh) continues, unfortunately, to exist.

Gnar Jhin Bandle City is the latest newcomer of the week. Besides Evelynn Targon it bulldozes almost everything in its way. Unfortunately for the deck, though, the mentioned roadblock makes up 12% of highways in the magical lands of Runeterra!

Illaoi Swain continues to etch its way closer and closer into the meta, being a silent performer for more than a season now.

Jinx Samira is the second Aggro flavor this week, holding on to its meta spot by the skin of its teeth!

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

Fizz Bilgewater Targon is the update of Evelynn Targon outperforming all of its kinships. It has the same late game as Evelynn Targon but with more blowout potential through Reaver's Row.

Diana Evelynn is proving itself as the most potent Evelynn Targon version.

We see a lot of decks take a big blow to their winrate as the meta develops and sheds itself off LP donors (looking at you The Poro King).

When the dust settles, Illaoi Swain catches a prime spot. Amongst Xolaani the Bloodweaver and brews, it is an impressive feat to be this successful in the metagame.

The same can be said about these two Jinx blends – Jinx Kennen Bandle City and Jinx Samira. Aggro performed well in the first week of the meta and Jinx appears mandatory for Aggro to reach peak performance.

Mono Evelynn and Evelynn Kayle perform well – no surprises here.

Aatrox Bilgewater was one of my favorite meme-category brews last season. With the arrival of Siren Song, the deck got some serious consistency and is no longer exclusively reliant on Reaver's Row.

Gnar Jhin and Karma Sett Piltover & Zaun are two control blends that perform solidly in this Siren Song meta.

Factors Shaping the LoR Meta

Evelynn Targon is continuing to dominate the meta. I just released a beginner-friendly Evelynn Targon guide in which I go over the stock list card by card, and explain why I think Diana Evelynn is the best version of the archetype!

Fizz Bilgewater Targon is the latest news that didn’t take long to climb the ladder rankings. It has all the upsides of Evelynn Targon but with a more snowbally early game.

Fizz can just outright win you games against single-target control decks like Karma Sett, especially if you slap a Blessing of Targon or Yuumi (which I think is the best addition to this deck) on him.

When it comes to matchups, Fizz Bilgewater Targon has little weaknesses. As described above, control brews like Karma Sett and Gnar Jhin struggle against Fizz and stand little chance against Reaver's Row.

Most notably, Fizz Bilgewater Targon beats its big sis Evelynn Targon! It outpaces this matchup with Reaver's Row, and Moonlight Affliction allows you to up-trade by silencing Husked-up enemies.

The “bad” side of Fizz doesn’t look that gloomy. It is even against Jhinnie as it can match its early plays but can struggle against its stuns. Jinx Kennen can go similarly wide and outvalue with Jinx.

Surprisingly, midrange brews like Jax Ornn and Miss Fortune Quinn (Scouts) are Fizz’s toughest nut to crack.

Jax Ornn has taller early plays, heals, and combat tricks that make achieving a wide board with Reaver's Row difficult.

Scouts can whittle down Fizz’s board with Love Tap and Challenger units and close the game with Champions' Strength before Xolaani the Bloodweaver can come down.

If you want to further learn the ins and outs of the deck, check out bossman’s brand-new Fizz Siren Song deck guide!

Illaoi Swain continues to perform for more than a season now. For some reason though, it is not picking up much Steem steam on ladder.

What makes Illaoi Swain so powerful is its ability to play at all speeds.

It can go aggressive early and play beatdown with Watchful Idol, The Sea's Voice, and Illaoi.

It can play the combo game plan to set up powerful stun plays with Swain (level 2) and 20 to zero its opponent in one round.

It can also play the control part with Disintegrate, Tentacle Smash, and Riptide Sermon, running its foe out of cards.

Personally, I am a big proponent of this archetype, bringing it to last season’s Runeterra Opens and Aegis.

Thanks to the features outlined above, Illaoi Swain is a deck with flat matchups. It has game into control like Karma Sett and Gnar Jhin, just as it has against Evelynn Targon thanks to its early tempo and removal for Evelynn and Xolaani the Bloodweaver.

No matter what Swain Illaoi does though, it absolutely demolishes Jhinnie. Annie Jhin is susceptible to early plays and removal alike and stands little chance against this versatile deck.

On the other hand, Illaoi Swain lacks healing and is weak against Fizz Samira – its only hideous matchup.

We got our latest addition to the writer team, Sorry, write an in-depth premium guide for Illaoi Swain.

He snatched the opportunity to write a guide from right under my nose. It turned out excellent though and I don’t regret missing out on writing it – you should check it out! =)

Honorable Mentions

Lucian Siren Song

Haven’t gotten sick of Siren Song yet? Lucian Evelynn used to be a thing but with Siren Song making waves, Lucian ventured into Bilgewater to form this exquisite archetype.

On ladder, Lucian Bilgewater sports a 57.8% WR over 900 games in the past three days. If you like Fizz Bilgewater Targon but want to be cute, this brew is for you! =)

Bard Garen

We saw Scouts beat Fizz Siren Song today, and Bard Garen does a similar job. As Reaver's Row blends get more popular, expect stocks for this archetype to go up!

On ladder, Bard Garen holds a 54.5% WR over 1.9k games in the past three days. We didn’t see a Bard brew for a long time and it might just be Chime season again!

Scouts

Oh, hey, look at this. Just mentioned this archetype a paragraph ago and here it is! Scouts is one of the few concepts that beat Fizz Bilgewater Targon and as the popularity of Fizz rises, so does the demand for answers for it.

Scouts proves in no way inferior to Bard Garen, achieving a 54.5% WR 3.6k games in the past three days. Word has it that yours truly is working on an in-depth guide for this archetype, so keep your eyes peeled! =)

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 to Herko Kerghans for his ever-lasting influence on this series and my writing as a whole.

You can reach me on Twitter (@Leer97) or Discord (Leer#2026).

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