7 New Master Rank Off-Meta Decks for Legends of Runeterra Patch 4.2

Introduction

Greetings, this is Raphterra again! With each passing week, there’s a fresh batch of new off-meta decks to play in Legends of Runeterra Patch 4.2. In today’s article, I’ll be featuring Seven New Off-Meta Decks that you can play in Ranked Ladder. These decks are a mix of my own creations and some community brews, with some accompanied by a video guide. In case you missed out, here’s the link to last week’s article!

Similar to last week, my off-meta experiments have had both successes and failures. For instance, Annie Jhin has recently gained popularity, making it difficult to rank up with decks that are weak against aggro. Nevertheless, I’ve been able to achieve success by adjusting to off-meta decks that can stand their ground against aggressive opponents. So, in this article, I have some spicy brews to share with you!

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Kindred Marai Snapvines

Let’s start off with the immediate spice: Kindred Overgrown Snapvine Control! This is a deck I played in Masters, where I had a score of 4 wins and 1 loss. I had a lot of fun playing with the deck, and it has shown good success in the few games I played. However, it is still in its experimentation phase.

This deck revolves around Kindred and Mischievous Marai as control units in the early turns, until Turn 7 when Overgrown Snapvine can start dominating.

Mulligan + Gameplay Tips

In the mulligan, you should aim to keep Elise, Kindred, Kalista, and Overgrown Snapvine. It’s also good to have at least one early unit like Hapless Aristocrat, Fading Icon, Ceaseless Sentry, and Minion. Try not to keep too many early units, unless you’re facing aggro decks. Depending on the matchup, you can also keep early removals like Heavy Metal, Vile Feast, and Make It Rain. Vengeance is a great card to keep against champion-centric decks like Jayce Lux.

In the early to mid-game, you should adopt a full control playstyle. Your goal is to stall until Turn 7 when you can start swarming with Overgrown Snapvines. Kindred is a great unit to control the board, so use your cheap removals to efficiently break down your opponent’s board.

Turn 7 onwards is where the fun begins. Ideally, you want to play Overgrown Snapvine this turn and have mana backup to cast Vile Feast. If your opponent tries to remove your Overgrown Snapvine, you can use Vile Feast at fast speed to summon a Spiderling duplicate your Snapvine.

Once your Snapvine survives, you’ll have plenty of ways to duplicate it. Hapless Aristocrat and Fading Icon can create two Overgrown Snapvines when played. The Undying and Minion are recurring units that you can summon each turn to create more Snapvines. Mischievous Marai, Vile Feast, and Hate Spike also summon units that will transform into Snapvines.

Video Guide

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Marai Fizz Varus OTK

The next deck on our list is Varus Fizz, a powerful aggro combo deck that relies on Varus‘s Cultist spells to fuel a devastating burn combo with Mischievous Marai and Warning Shot. This deck idea was originally created by Pheonixwish, and I’ve taken my own spin on the archetype to great success. In fact, I managed to secure 7 wins and only 3 losses while playing this deck in Master Rank.

Mulligan + Gameplay Tips

To succeed with this deck, you’ll want to mulligan like any good aggro deck and prioritize your early units, such as Buhru Cultist, Fizz, Forsaken Baccai, and Marai Warden. You can also keep Piltovan Castaway for Turn 3 if you already have early units in hand.

In the early game, your objective is to deal as much Nexus damage as possible by aggressively swarming the board with your early units and going straight for the enemy Nexus. Use Fizz‘s elusive effect and The Darkin Harpoon‘s Fearsome keyword to bypass blockers and hit face. Refuel your board with swarm units using cards like The Darkin Harp, Eye of Nagakabouros, and The Unending Wave.

Once you’ve exhausted your units, you’ll want to utilize the Warning Shot + Line ‘Em Up combo with Mischievous Marai to deal direct burn damage to the enemy Nexus. By double-casting cultist spells like Momentous Choice and The Unforgiving Cold, you can further amplify the power of these combos. The Unending Wave can also help you draw more spells to create additional Powder Kegs.

In some games, you may be able to leverage Level 2 Fizz or Level 2 Varus to close out matches. Fizz can be particularly potent when equipped with Upcycled Rake for Scout. Additionally, you can also consider playing Ibaaros from The Darkin Harpoon as an alternative win condition in the late game, especially if you can give it Fishawhack.

Video Guide

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Encroaching Shadows Elusives

The Elusive archetype in Legends of Runeterra has been a subject of controversy in several metas, but it has not been prevalent in recent patches. However, after being defeated by a Shadow Isles Elusive deck, I decided to give the archetype a chance. I played this Encroaching Shadows deck in Masters and achieved a score of 6 wins and 2 losses.

This aggressive deck relies on Encroaching Shadows to deal lethal damage with cheap elusive units. While it felt powerful and overwhelming to play, I am concerned about the potential consequences if this archetype becomes too popular. However, this deck has a clear weakness in that it lacks interaction with the opponent’s deck. It is relatively easy to learn and play, so it is a great choice if you are still new to the game.

Mulligan + Gameplay Tips

When mulliganing, you should keep Encroaching Shadows and standalone units such as The Mourned, Shadow Apprentice, Sparring Student, Greenglade Duo, Zed, and Elise. If you have a good hand, such as Greenglade Duo and Encroaching Shadows, you can also keep support units like Navori Bladescout, Vastayan Disciple, and Silent Shadowseer.

Games with this deck tend to end quickly, and you should be aggressive with your standalone units. Units like Greenglade Duo, Sparring Student, and Shadow Apprentice are excellent choices to play early because they gain benefits from other units being summoned. Zed and Elise can also apply a lot of pressure in the first few turns.

You can play cards like Vastayan Disciple and Silent Shadowseer, but it may be better to wait until you have Encroaching Shadows in hand.

Starting from Turn 4, you should look for an opportunity to play Encroaching Shadows, preferably during a defensive turn. Once cast, you can usually win by swarming the board with buffed-up Elusive units. Cards like Mark of the Isles can be used to deal additional damage, Stalking Shadows can refill your hand, and Deny can counter your opponent’s spells.

Video Guide

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Vladimir Braum

Next up is a fresh spin on a beloved off-meta archetype: Vladimir Braum Scargrounds! This is a variation of the midrange Crimson Scargrounds strategy, now featuring Noxus‘s hard removal tools. AOE pings like Spirits Unleashed and Ice Shards are excellent cards for setting up Lord Broadmane, Ravenous Flock, and Disintegrate. When I played this deck in Master rank, I achieved a final score of 8 wins and 3 losses.

Mulligan + Gameplay Tips

In the mulligan, you should search for Crimson Pigeon and Spirits Unleashed. If you already have Crimson Pigeon, you can also keep Unscarred Reaver, Vulpine Wanderer, and Crimson Curator. Braum is a good choice to keep against midrange decks. If you’ve got a strong hand, you can also keep The Scargrounds.

Early on in the game, you can play aggressively if you have Crimson Pigeon. One of the most powerful openings of this deck is to play Crimson Pigeon and Unscarred Reaver early on. If you can follow this up with Crimson Curator or The Scargrounds on Turn 3, into Braum on Turn 4, you can start an early snowball.

If you have Spirits Unleashed, you may want to consider passing on Turn 2 in order to immediately cast it on Turn 3. You can use Spirits Unleashed to boost your units, trigger The Scargrounds, and even set up Ravenous Flocks. Spirits Unleashed also makes Trifarian Assessor a great refill tool in the mid game.

In the mid game, you can still apply pressure continuously if you had a good early game. While most of your wins will come from unstoppable early snowballs, Vladimir is a solid finisher and usually levels up naturally as you play games. You can also grant him Overwhelm with Wildclaw Stance to push direct damage.

Save your removals, such as Ravenous Flock, Disintegrate, and Lord Broadmane for key champions like Jayce and Lux. These champions can easily be dealt with as long as you set them up with AOE pings like Ice Shard, Bellow Breath, Spirits Unleashed, and Ram Stance.

Video Guide

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Stu973 Miss Fortune Swain

Now, I’m moving on to off-meta community brews! First up is Stu973‘s Miss Fortune Swain! He’s been doing very well with the deck with an outstanding winrate of 72.8% in 103 games. It has the potential to become a top-tier meta contender and I predict that its play rate will increase in the final weeks of Patch 4.2.

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TKG Staywoke Evelynn Udyr

TKG Staywoke has come up with an intriguing off-meta deck featuring Udyr and Evelynn. His Udyr Evelynn list has been performing well, boasting a winrate of 70.4% in 27 games. This archetype utilizes Spirits Unleashed to enhance Evelynn‘s Husks, resulting in a wide board of formidable units. The deck also includes some unusual card choices, such as Solitude and They Who Endure, which add an extra layer of excitement to its gameplay.

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Davebo Mono Norra Timelines

Wrapping up this article is an update on Davebo‘s Banana Blaster Concurrent Timelines deck. He has recently released a new version of the deck, which has been performing well with a winrate of 69% in 55 games. In this version, he made the decision to go for a Mono Norra build, swapping out Caitlyn for Wandering Shepherd. This is still considered the most competitive deck for Banana Blaster!

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Closing Words

That’s it for now! I’m excited to try out more off-meta experiments in the coming days, and hopefully I’ll be back with another off-meta article next week!

I hope you found this article helpful and informative. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on YouTube, Discord, or Twitter!