Standard Monday Meta Report – August 22nd

‘sup everyone, Leer here! We were drowned by a wave of nerfs last Wednesday, cutting almost all meta decks. This means that we have a completely novel meta environment at hand where everything is up for grabs and nothing is settled!

Legends of Runeterra Decks

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

Heimerdinger Jayce (Shadow Tech) is continuing to dominate the meta. It’s one of the few LoR Standard meta decks that didn’t get hit by the patch and naturally stands on top.

Pyke Rek’Sai (Urgh) lurked in the shadows for quite a while now, dodging nerfs as well. In this first turbulent week of the new patch, it eats experimental brews alive.

Udyr Galio is a novel LoR meta deck, utilizing the new card Balen the Benevolent. While the deck doesn’t perform well in Eternal, it finds solid success in the Standard format!

Fizz Samira is a meta staple that got hit the least by the nerf to Pirouette. Since Fleet Admiral Shelly got nerfed, Samira Fizz has once again switched to the Powder Pandemonium version of the deck. 

This variant was silently performing better than the Elusive one before the patch anyways.

Shyvana Aurlion Sol (Dragons) didn’t perform well in Eternal, and unfortunately, in Standard, it’s not different. 

Nasus Veigar was a meta menace last patch and took a heavy blow with the nerf to Vaults of Helia. Nonetheless, the archetype seems to doing fine and remains a popular ladder choice!

The Poro King finally made it out of the meme tier list! Poro King Freljord is performing well on ladder. Will it stay this way or fall steeply like at the beginning of the season?

Ekko Jinx is a well-known LoR meta deck, coming up time and time again.

After Eternal got Lee Sin and Papercraft Dragon back, Standard deserves its own nifty combo brew. Akshan Samira fulfills exactly this role with decent success!

Finally, Norra Bard is an archetype that people want to be real, even though it obviously doesn’t exist. Or, at least, its winrate doesn’t exist. 🙂

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

Ekko Jinx is reversing time, pulling the meta with it to a state where the deck could strive. Ekko Jinx is a proven archetype that was left untouched by the patch and is once again in a commanding spot as the best LoR Standard deck!

Urgh performs at an exceptional high, farming board-based decks like Poro King Freljord, Galio Udyr, and Dragons.

Shadow Tech somehow eluded nerfs and is performing better than ever.

Shen Jarvan IV was a niche blend last meta, presenting an answer to decks like Aatrox Vayne and Samira Fizz. Once again, this is a deck that didn’t see any nerfs and thus stands at a considerable advantage over old meta decks. 

See a pattern here?

I didn’t think I’d ever say these words: The Poro King Freljord is one of the best-performing Legends of Runeterra meta decks. It performs especially well against some of the more reactive blends like Nasus Veigar and Karma Sett.

Gnar Nidalee was picking up Steem steam before the patch and got a new tool to toy with Valley of Imitation.

Udyr Galio is finding reasonable success at the start of this new meta. Both champs were dead for most of their existence but seem to finally have found their place.

Samira Fizz’s switch to Monkeys did a great job, assuring it a place in the best LoR meta decks.

Akshan Samira is not only a cool combo deck but also a successful one!

Finally, Jax Ornn is doing just fine, having survived the Fish Fight adjustment.

Factors Shaping the LoR Meta

Ekko Jinx is performing well above average in this chaotic first week after the patch. Anarchy and I had to choose 6 Standard decks post patch but before data was available to wield in the UniLiga. 

We identified that Ekko Jinx should be one of the next meta giants and… our read worked out! We placed first in the group phase and ended up winning the playoffs as well!

When it comes to matchups, Ekko Jinx benefitted quite a bit from the patch. Note that most these winrates have tiny sample sizes behind them, making them not as accurate.

Illaoi Swain used to be an unplayable foe, but the nerfs to Swain and Pirouette have pushed it out of the meta.

Pyke Rek’Sai is one of the most played decks, and can be teched to be more winning by playing Forge Chief and a second copy of Rite of Negation.

Ekko Jinx is also strong against board-based matchups like Galio Udyr thanks to Voice of the Risen and Chronobreak. This futureproofs Ekko Jinx quite well if Udyr Galio should become more popular in the coming days.

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The Poro King do be kinging with the latest patch. The highness himself and one of his snax got buffed, pushing him back into the battlefield.

As mentioned previously, reactive blends like Nasus and Karma Sett are favorable for the Poro horde. The Poro King can also go toe-to-toe with Shadow Tech and Ekko Jinx, indicating that this archetype might be quite stable and not a one-hit-wonder.

On the ugly, The Poro King loses to the meme-tier Dragons. On the upside, this archetype will soon perish due to its horrendous winrate, indicating further that our fluffy friends are here to stay.

The matchup table paints another picture – that of how to beat The Poro King. The aggression of Urgh and Fizz Samira is too much to handle for the king. And the tempo Galio generates for Galio Udyr is too much for the mana-hungry Special Snax deck.

Honorable Mentions

Nidalee Ionia

Nidalee Ionia is a novel combo deck, taking Valley of Imitation one step further than its Bandle City sibling. With Beguiling Cobra you can pull off ridiculous board states that will leave you and your opponents jaw-gaping.

On ladder, Nidalee Ionia is performing at ridiculous heights. Over the tiny sample size of 80 games, the deck achieves a 68% winrate in the past three days.

Sorry already wrote a piece on this archetype, you should check it out before piloting this deck!

The Targon King

I’m still dumb-found at the prospect of The Poro King becoming a meta staple. To hammer the point further, Poro King Targon is performing even better than the Freljordian one.

With some of the cheapest removals in Falling Star and Sunburst, as well as a very convincing game-ender called Xolaani the Bloodweaver, Targon has compelling arguments to be the region of choice for our adorable fluffballs.

On ladder, Poro King Targon holds a staggering 60% winrate over 150 games in the past three days. If you miss Xolaani and want to convince yourself of the strength of The Poro King, this is your deck!

Illaoi Jarvan IV

Under the barrage of nerfs this patch, people missed the new tool Illaoi received. Tidal Invocation is effectively a Bilgewater Vile Feast, or a fast-speed Spawner. 

This gives Illaoi new depth to Spawn during combat, and removes chump blockers.

Illaoi J4 really doesn’t need to prove its concept, as it was one of the strongest meta decks once upon a time. With the nerf-wave lowering the overall power level of Standard, Illaoi J4 is in an imposing position to dominate the ladder.

On ladder, the Tentacle archetype spawns sports a 58% winrate over 120 games in the past three days. There’s a free Illaoi J4 guide by yours truly available, or a more recent Premium guide by yangzera!

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!