‘sup everyone, Leer here. It’s great to be back with a brand new meta!
The latest patch saw a multitude of lor meta decks nerfed and contained a truckload of buffs. As such, the meta is already adapting and we see many new decks rise up!
Legends of Runeterra Decks
Sorting MaRu’s LoR Meta Tier List and meta stats by playrate (PR), we see the following:
Jack Sett (Jet?) has sprung to peak popularity out of nowhere. With The King's Court
now being an actual boat (or in Riot’s editor's words, a submarine) and minor buffs to Mad Ol' Babs
and Mako
+ Bull
, players are eager to test the archetype with mediocre success.
If you, like many others, struggle with this archetype, check out Sorry’s beginner-friendly Jack Sett deck guide.
Nilah Janna has started this season with horrendous stats but saw a resurgence just before the patch. With only Exalted Cloudwinder
, the winged non-bird, being touched slightly out of Janna
’s shell, her Fate’s Voyage continues Onward!
Aatrox Kayn has sprung back to life after the buff to Kayn's Shadowstep
. Especially with the adjustment to Fish Fight
in a prior patch, it can finally compete against its big sister Aatrox Vayne.
Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh) is a tale as old as time, and the nerf to Pyke
didn’t change much about its presence in the LoR meta.
Teemo Janna 
Demacia is the latest hotness, with Janna trading The Tidedancer
for a more immediate pay-off in Champions' Strength
. It is quickly climbing the ranks in popularity and can hold up in the winrate department as well!
Jax Ornn was a juggernaut in the last Runeterra Open, where it performed above and beyond for many players, myself included.
Vayne Gwen is trying to fill the hole that Rumble Vayne left, and it does so with decent success!
Ashe LeBlanc was a meme-tier deck for a very long time but has overcome its struggles in recent times. For what feels like the first time in forever, Ashe LeBlanc shows up in the stats with an above 50% winrate score!
Seraphine Janna is the continuous love project of Seraphine
copers. Last split we saw it paired with 
Bandle City, and now 
Ionia is making a run for the money – with average success.
Finally, Maokai Nautilus (Deep) saw some affection in the patch, awakening it from its deep slumber and recalling it to the surface of the meta ocean.
Turning to winrates (WR), we see these Legends of Runeterra meta decks:
Teemo Janna Demacia is dominating here. The trade-off of Nilah’s package for Champions' Strength has proven very effective, and even Form Up!
comes in handy to save Janna from some removal. If you want a more intimate look into the deck's workings, check out my brand new Teemo Janna deck guide! =)
Shen Jarvan IV has always been a niche counter deck, similar to Ashe LeBlanc, that is spiking this split. Both decks hold an incredible winrate with a considerable notch above the competition.
Nilah Janna is still going strong nevermind its more successful sibling. Especially considering that this is a high-skill deck, Nilah Janna is still the prime LoR meta deck to pick up if you’re confident in your piloting skill.
Jax Ornn is not only able to perform in a restrictive tournament environment but is also able to swim in the meta ocean – despite its obstructive weight and weaponry! =)
Vayne Gwen is also seeing a lot of success, but I wouldn’t trust this archetype for a second. It has a polarizing playstyle where you blast away your foes if you draw Gwen
and shit the bed otherwise. As such, it can be an addicting experience similar to playing Urgh – and we all know what Urgh feels like. _shudders_
Teemo Caitlyn 
Freljord is back from its slumber with more success than ever. It performs especially well against Janna decks who tend to draw a lot thanks to their trap shuffling.
Urgh is performing at a considerable level as well, showcasing that the one-mana nerf to Pyke is not enough to tame the lurking critters.
Akshan Pantheon has been a tournament pick in the last split, but always hovered around a 50% winrate on ladder. With the nerfs to Elusives and Wildfire
decks, a lot of its bad matchups are gone and it can now climb freely the LoR ladder.
Lastly, let’s not forget about Galio Volibear! Its prime time might be gone, but it still pulls some weight that should not be overlooked.
Factors Shaping the LoR Meta
This week, we saw a spike in niche decks that are usually only found in tournament lineups to target specific decks. But why do these, namely Shen J4 and Ashe LeBlanc, perform so well on the ladder all of a sudden?
As we can see, Shen J4 is positioned very well against the most popular ladder decks.
Jarvan IV
is a detriment for Jack
and Sett
, while Aatrox Kayn is a board-based brew that has no answers to Barriers. Similar things can be said about the Urgh matchup.
Ashe LeBlan might not be an obvious tell, but data shows that Barriers > Freezes. So… if you go somewhere cold, don’t forget to pack some Barriers! =)
When it comes to bad matchups, they are few and far between. Nilah Janna is the only popular one, with a manageable 45% winrate.
What makes this matchup difficult is their cheap removal for our valuable units, and easy of pinging a Barrier with a cheap spell like Mystic Shot
.
When looking at Ashe LeBlanc, we can see a similar pattern.
Ashe LeBlanc denies Jack Sett any attempt to find lethal or remove its champs with Frostbites, and ominates the board-based Aatrox Kayn as well.
Gwen Vayne also lacks any chance of winning the game, as they all in on Gwen, who is susceptible to Freezes.
Similar to the Aatrox Kayn matchup, Jax Ornn needs to win the game through the board and all of their removal comes through units as well.
On the downside, Ashe LeBlanc struggles heavily against Nilah Janna’s removal. Especially with Nilah Janna’s tendency to go wide, Ashe LeBlanc can never have enough Freezes to stop all of them. Similar things can be said about the Janna Teemo Demacia matchup.
After analyzing both decks’ matchup tables, we can see many similarities between Shen J4 and Ashe LeBlanc.
What’s missing from the tables are their bad Aggro matchups, because… there is no Aggro in this meta! After the nerf to Wildfire, no aggressive deck has picked up the torch to burn the ladder with aggressive strategies.
Since both Shen J4 and Ashe LeBlanc have barely any countermeasures against a bunch load of 1-drops running them down, they significantly benefit from this turn of events.
Where these decks differ is in their degree of polarization. Shen J4 has generally more good matchups but wins them not as hard as Ashe LeBlanc does, but for that doesn’t lose its bad matchups as clearly.
For example, Shen J4 beats Jack Sett only 59% of the time, while Ashe LeBlanc does so 68% of the time. Contrarily, Shen J4 beats Nilah Janna 44% of the time, while Ashe LeBlanc does so only 34% of the time.
So – if you want a balanced ladder experience, go for Shen J4 (and read my Shen J4 guide! =). And if you want a more intense meta journey where most games are decided on the loading screen, go for Ashe LeBlanc (and read Yang’s Ashe LeBlanc guide!).
Teemo Janna Demacia has risen to the top out of nowhere. Players didn’t find this deck in the early stages of the season but the cat is finally out of the bag.
As we can see, Janna Teemo is just as good as Shen J4 at beating up Jack Sett, Aatrox Kayn, and Ashe LeBlanc. Especially Howling Gale
is an unfair removal spell to Jack Sett and Ashe LeBlanc’s champs, while Heavy Metal
is the latest tech to beat Aatrox Kayn.
The deck can also hold its own against its sibling Janna Nilah, making it a very solid meta deck.
Furthermore, Janna Teemo lacks bad matchups. Urgh, Gwen Vayne, and Shen J4 are all in a range of beatable, although slightly unfavoured. Only Darius Gnar, a novel Aggro deck, is an unpopular threat to the deck.
This fact makes Janna Teemo one of the scariest Legends of Runeterra meta decks. It lacks bad matchups, and beats up most of the popular ladder choices. If you haven’t considered picking this deck up, you should definitely now (...after finishing this article of course =)!
Honorable Mentions
Darius Gnar
22 cards
18 cards
26 900
Darius Gnar is the spirit deck of Ricko Rex – only that now, it is actually good!
As we noticed, Aggro is dead and decks are already starting to capitalize on this fact. So what if an Aggro deck returned to the meta, just to see a luscious feast being set up for them?!
Ladder stats substantiate this theory. There, Darius Gnar sports a 60% winrate over 5k games in the past three days. Hop on the Overwhelm train before it becomes mainstream now!
Miss Fortune Quinn
28 cards
12 cards
31 300
Miss Fortune Quinn, aka Scouts, is a seasoned deck that never seems to go away completely. It needed to make several compromises to scout where it will go, but it paid out.
Janna Teemo Demacia has already proven how powerful the nerfed Champions' Strength can be, and Scouts is taking a less subtle approach to exploit this spell.
On ladder, Scouts achieves a 58% winrate over 2.3k games. If you want to get a head start, read this comprehensive Scouts deck guide by yours truly =)
Teemo Yuumi
24 cards
16 cards
33 500
Teemo Yuumi has been a menace last split that not many picked up on. This patch, it got barely hit with only Sting Officer
seeing a slight adjustment.
To no surprise, this means that Teemo Yuumi is still a top meta deck! Especially in this slow meta where Teemo Yuumi gets enough time to set up its Elusives, not many decks are able to control its power… although Omen Hawk
spying out Elusives is a nuisance to the deck.
Nonetheless, on ladder the deck holds a 55% winrate over 2.8k games. If you want to play one of the last Elusive decks in the meta, this is your chance!
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!