Worlds 2023 Day 1 Winners and Decks

Our blood finished at the peak of the Swiss Stage – MajiinBae was able to place 1st with a final score of 6-1!! This is his lineup:

Norra Gnar Elder Dragon

Mordekaiser Morgana

Seraphine Sett

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Other players reaching 6-1 are Schluluflipi, Seku, and Chenia, congrats to them as well!

On the other side of the bracket, the last spot for day 2 was closely contested. Only one person with 4-3 made it, and for some time it looked like IIllllll would make it. 

Last minute though, the tiebreakers were recalculated and Brazilian legend 4LW took hold of the last ticket to the playoff stage! Let’s check out his decks:

Norra Elder Dragon

Morgana Mordekaiser

Seraphine Janna Sett

Funny enough, this is the same lineup as Majiin’s! This highlights how well the Mordekaiser Morgana and Norra Elder Dragon core is working, and that Seraphine Sett fulfills a great role as the third deck.

The Korean Off-Meta Call

Both Chenia and J01 made day 2 with relative ease – Chenia finished 6-1, whereas J01 went 5-2. The Korean duo brought the same 89 cards, impressing us with their bold meta-read.

Instead of choosing the safe Norra Elder Dragon + Mordekaiser Morgana core, they instead tried to target it. This was a high-risk high-reward call, as the used off-meta archetypes to achieve this goal.

Fizz Yuumi

The Poro King Targon

Seraphine Karma Sett

This lineup is also fit to deal with Karma Sett while having to ban Jax Ornn.

While a lot of competitors reached day two with all kinds of brews – listing them would go beyond the scope of this article – one lineup stood out as the most aggressive one.

Talpinator refused to let go of his crush on Janna Nilah, even after she went beyond her age – commendation for his loyalty! He decided to pair it with Riven Morgana, an early-meta Overwhelm brew that eventually went out of favor when Mordekaiser Morgana and Norra Elder Dragon began to dominate the meta.

Talpinator’s creative thinking got him the edge though – he built quite the unique Riven Morgana list with more Spellshields and piloted the deck to perfection on stream against Open winner Drisoth.

Talpinator decided to round out his strategy with Norra Elder Dragon, here are his lists:

Janna Nilah

Riven Morgana

Norra Elder Dragon

Best Worlds 2023 Off-Meta Decks

Before you go, take a look at these well-performing individual decks that will inspire your ladder journey!

Shyvana Elder Dragon

This is the kind of Dragon brew that probably came to your mind the first time you heard of Elder Dragon. While most players gave quickly up on this dream, both Da Tank Buster and Seku saw something greater – and topped the Legends of Runeterra World Championship with it!

Neeko Gnar

Neeko managed to pull off her best prank yet – hiding in plain sight. Most players, just like me, have probably forgotten about Neeko ever since her reveal trailer. Turn out that she does powerful things in this meta, especially with the addition of Yadulski Snowdog to her zoo!

Seku and Chall managed to figure out this archetype. While Seku found his own list, Chall landed on Worlds 2022 Finalist Teddy’s Gnar Neeko version. Teddy’s touch on the archetype is identifiable by the love for Handy Harness to make big Overwhelm units even bigger, and Silverwing Vanguard to efficiently go wide for Warden of the Tribes pay-off.

Teemo Caitlyn Freljord

Finally, Teemo Caitlyn Freljord found its way into yet another tournament, wielded by Chall. This archetype is not very popular in regular seasons but keeps popping up in tournaments to fulfill a very specific role.

In this meta, it beats both Jax Ornn and Karma Sett convincingly. The deck can also compete against Mordekaiser Morgana, giving it room to ban Norra Elder Dragon. Note that this deck is a risky call, as it doesn’t win against much else than the above brews!

Conclusion

… And that’s it!

Who will survive until day 3 of Worlds, and who do you think is going to take it all? Let me know in the Reddit thread comments! 

Have an enjoyable Worlds playoffs, I’m sure it is gonna be great! =)

You can reach me on Twitter (@Leer97) or Discord (Leer1709).