An Aggressive Meta? – Power Rankings by Sorry – April 17, 2022

Hello everyone, Sorry here! I’m back with a new week of Power Rankings! The competitive ladder experience has been divided between either Mono Shurima enjoyers or those that simply hate the archetype.

In my last Power Rankings, I talked about the majority of the ladder’s focus was to counter Mono Shurima. Since then, nothing much has changed in terms of countering Mono Shurima, old decks that we haven’t seen in a while have emerged to put a stop to the Emperor’s dominance.

However, Riven Viktor’s increase in play rate also meant that a part of the competitive ladder chose to counter it, hence a counter to the counter meta deck.

A new Viktor variant deck has been seeing some play either in ranked mode or in tournaments. Viktor Lee Sin, which is the newest archetype that takes advantage of Viktor’s buff relies on both champions as a win condition. But Lee Sin is more of a unit removal card while slowly chipping on the opponent’s Nexus, he is not in the deck to one-shot combo like the well-known Zoe Lee Sin version.

As for Zilean Ekko, the archetype has gained a massive rise in player rate, and although many prominent players have stated that Zilean Ekko is one of the best decks at the moment, the community is still divided on whether the archetype is as good as some players say it is. If you remember in one of my Power Rankings, Zilean Ekko actually made the list, and I still believe the deck is currently one of the best in the meta, especially in the tournament scene.

Alright, let’s get started with this week’s power rankings, here are my 8 best decks to climb the ladder with!

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Miss Fortune Quinn is the king of the meta for this week’s Power Rankings. The archetype made a comeback after it dropped significantly in play rate.

The reason behind Scouts dominant performance is the many favored matchups it has against decks that are currently popular on the ladder.

Mono Shurima and Riven Viktor are two of the most-played decks that Scouts hit hard, your ability to swarm the board while maintaining Miss Fortune as a win condition can be too overwhelming for both decks to deal with if they fail to kill Miss Fortune. On top of that, the archetype beats both Tryndamere Trundle and Ziggs Taliyah. another two decks that are gaining popularity on the ladder.

The only matchups Scouts really struggle against are midrange Demacia archetypes and Fizz Lulu. If you’re able to dodge those matchups you’ll have a smooth ride on the competitive ladder.

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Riven Viktor rocks a 55% win rate on the competitive ladder even with the many decks attempting to counter it. In the last Power Rankings, I talked about the high win rate of Riven Viktor, and as expected it did drop down a bit but still held on, its performance remains one of the best in the meta.

The fact that Mono Shurima remains the most played deck till now means Riven Viktor is one of the best picks to put Mono Shurima in its place.

Initially, Trundle Tryndamere rose in play rate in an attempt to counter Riven Viktor, the deck seems to still perform well overall on the ladder and it doesn’t crumble against Trundle Tryndamere, in fact, it can put up a fight!

However, Akshan Sivir, Scouts, and Fizz Lulu all have a favored matchup against Riven Viktor, either for their removal capabilities to your key unit or for the ability to swarm the board and put immense board pressure on you.

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Miss Fortune Gangplank also known as Pirates makes an astonishing return to the meta, holding a 60% win rate and is one of the top played decks on the competitive ladder. Pirates is a pure counter meta deck right now, that looks to close out games fast before your opponent can set up their win condition.

The archetype got popular in an attempt to combat decks like Mono Shurima and Riven Viktor, it has a good matchup table into most of the popular decks you might see on the ranked ladder. It mostly struggles against control Shadow Isles decks due to the many healing cards they run.

The fact that many popular archetypes can’t keep up with the wide board Pirates can impose means they’ll fall short against the aggressiveness of the deck, especially with a solid burn plan that the deck relies on mid to late game.

The list I featured in this article runs one Twisted Fate over a Gangplank, it seems to be the most popular version out there, and Twisted Fate is mostly in there for his play effect. Red card and Gold card can come in handy depending on the situation, especially Red card if your opponent is on a swarmy board plan with low health units.

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Azir Xerath also known as Mono Shurima finally made it to my power rankings, if you remember in the last power rankings I decided not to include it in the list, not because the archetype isn’t performing well, but mainly because the meta was trying too hard to counter it with decks like Riven Viktor, Ziggs Taliyah, and Spiders aggro.

Now since the meta has gotten accustomed to the archetype, it has toned down on trying to counter it, a lot of players have shifted their focus on dealing with other popular decks like Riven Viktor or Caitlyn Ezreal.

Additionally, The rise of Shadow Isles decks like Feel The Rush and Sentinels control makes it the perfect playground for Mono Shurima, where it dominates those control decks that lack a true answer to the Sun Disk.

Although Mono Shurima made the list, your ladder experience will dictate whether you want to keep playing the archetype for your climb, if you’re noticing a lot of unfavored matchups and mirror matchups, it’s probably best to switch off the deck.

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Alright, I know I know, “Sorry why Kindred Galio?” Well, the archetype is performing great! I took the list from Sparkling IceT tweaked it a bit and took it to the ladder, managed to hold a 60% win rate with Kindred Galio, climbed around 300 LP, and reached rank 20 with it!

What makes the archetype perform well on the ladder is its capability to beat Targon decks, Demacia midrange decks, Riven Viktor, and Ezreal Caitlyn.

The fact that you have Radiant Guardian, ensures that you won’t get aggroed down easily. Not to mention that Galio empowers your board units, making sure they’ll have an extra protection layer with the additional health buff.

Once you have Spectral Matron and Cithria, Lady of Clouds combo set up, it’s difficult for most decks to handle the insane board value it provides, and in most cases, it’ll set up a winning play or at least put you way ahead of your opponent.

With great strength comes a weakness, the archetype does fall short against the popular Mono Shurima deck, although you have the capability to win the board presence early to mid-game, you will find yourself dominated by an Ascended Xerath and the cards the Emperor’s deck provides.

Lastly, Kindred Galio has also been seeing some tournament play after my crazy run with it on the competitive ladder, it’s a strong Demacia deck that can fill a spot in your line-up if you’re trying to counter one of the meta popular decks while also choosing to ban Mono Shurima.

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Aphelios Viktor manages to hit rank 6 on my power rankings, the Targon PNZ deck is still performing pretty well on the competitive ladder, thanks to its ability to adapt to a specific matchup with the help of the Invoke mechanism.

The archetype isn’t easy to pilot, but with the correct skillsets, you’re able to dominate a lot of the current popular meta decks, especially Viktor Riven.

Right now, aggressive decks with a burn plan are on the rise, Miss Fortune Gangplank is one of those decks that have started to dominate the meta, and Viktor Aphelios can stand its ground against it. With the ability to play cheap units and keep up with their early aggression along with the healing cards the list runs, you’re a formidable foe for Pirates.

Most of your matchups are pretty close to even, which allows skill expression to dominate the outcome of the matchup!

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Look who’s back to the power rankings! Yuumi Pantheon makes it to the 7th spot as one of the best decks in the meta right now for your ladder climb, let’s talk more about it!

The midrange Demacia deck has fallen out of popularity a bit after the tiny nerf Pantheon received, but players have started to pick it up again in an attempt to counter the popular decks in the meta.

Yuumi Pantheon is the perfect archetype to deal with decks like Riven Viktor, Mono Shurima, Scouts, and Feel The Rush. All listed decks are seeing a lot of play on the competitive ladder and you can get an edge against them with Pantheon!

You’ll find a difficult time against aggressive decks, although if teched with early units, you’ll be able to slightly keep up with their early aggressiveness until your Pantheon hits the board and starts carrying the game.

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Last but not least, Trundle Tryndamere Feel The Rush which is the perfect deck if you’re looking to counter the aggressive meta that is growing more popular by the minute.

Decks like Fizz Lulu and Miss Fortune Gangplank should be relatively easy matchups with your AOE damage spells and healing cards. They’ll run out of gas before they can close out the game. On top of that, you’re extremely favored against Caitlyn Ezreal, once you’ve dealt with Ezreal and Captain Farron, your opponent doesn’t really have many threats left or answers for Feel The Rush.

As always, Mono Shurima is here to ruin the fun. You’re unfavored into Azir Xerath mostly because of your inability to destroy the Sun Disk and, additionally, Mono Shurima runs Rite of Negation which will shut down your Feel The Rush play.

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Closing Words

With the meta now shifting towards an aggressive game style in an attempt to combat Mono Shurima and Riven Viktor, both Sentinels control and Feel The Rush seem like solid decks to fend off those decks.

Although Fizz Lulu didn’t make the list mainly because it extremely underperforms against control Shadow Isles decks, it is still one of the best choices that would probably be my 9th pick. It does well into both Mono Shurima and Riven Viktor while also holding its own against aggressive style decks.

This is it for this week’s power rankings! Keep in mind I wanted to feature 8 decks only, which means I can’t fit all the decks that could also be solid picks for your climb! Take care and I’ll see you in the next power rankings.