Best Decks for LoR Ladder: Power Rankings by Sorry

Hello everyone, Sorry here! Welcome to Power Rankings! Basically, I’ll share 8 decks that I believe are performing well on the competitive ladder and are a good choice to pick for your ladder climb. I’ll be relying on competitive ladder stats and my own experience and knowledge to present some of the best decks in this article.

The meta right now is heavy on Gnar and Bandle City swarm deck. Gnar specifically is performing much better than the other 3 champions that were released in the Curious Journey expansion along with him. It’s only normal for us to see a lot of Gnar in different archetypes.

On the other hand, Galio, Udyr, and Yuumi are not seeing much play, with Yuumi being the only champion among them making it into one of the decks I’ve listed.

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At my rank 1 spot, Scouts is an old archetype that has kept its place in the meta for the majority of its existence. In the current meta, that is infested with Bandle City archetypes, scouts perform exceptionally well.

Most Bandle City decks that are being played do not have reliable answers for Miss Fortune, which acts as the main win condition for Scouts deck. As of writing the article, Scouts is in the top 5 decks in terms of play rate and holds a 55.39% win rate over the past week.

You’re usually looking for Miss Fortune in the mulligan phase. She is the most important card, keeping her alive is your objective while working on leveling her up.

Units with the Scout keyword accelerate the level up of both champions – Miss Fortune and Quinn. Genevieve Elmheart allows for a strong attack turn, as the buffs on your units along with the Challenger and Scouts keywords on Genevieve lets you remove key opponent units.

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Timeline Gnar Trundle made its appearance a couple of days after the expansion and the deck has been solid on the ladder ever since with a consistent game plan.

The main difference between old Timeline archetypes is that Gnar Trundle doesn’t really need Concurrent Timelines until turn 8 when setting up an Ice Pillar.

The deck still performs well even without finding Concurrent Timelines in the early turns and has proven to be a great pick for ladder climb holding a 54.4% win rate. Many players have already reached Master rank with this archetype.

Gnar Trundle relies on value cards like Choncologist, Ferros Financier, and Aloof Travelers early on in the game. Now if you manage to find Concurrent Timelines early turns, those units can be transformed to better stat units, which would benefit your board presence.

Turn 8 is the crucial turn, Ice Pillar created by Trundle can be transformed to another 8 drop while also regaining the 8 mana you just played. For example, you can transform Ice Pillar into a Captain Farron for 0 mana, which can be difficult for your opponent to deal with.

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The Demacia Bandle City Teemo Tristana Gnar is one deck I recommend taking on the ladder and currently holds a 56% win rate.

You’re able to go wide on the board thanks to Gleaming Lantern and the cheap units the deck runs. Tristana increases the power of your multi-region units. Once leveled, the Impact keyword she grants will push additional Nexus damage.

Yordles in Arms is your finisher, combined with Golden Aegis it can set up for a board dominating play that opens an opportunity for your units to attack the Nexus directly.

A leveled-up Tristana is not the easiest to remove and it forces your opponent to commit a block on her to preserve their Nexus’ health.

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Akshan Gnar is one deck I had high hopes for in the early days of the expansion and it has been delivering! The deck is rocking a 54.3% win rate and is in the top 10 of most played decks for the past week.

Akshan Gnar operates on two win conditions, the first is to swarm the board with cheap units and sneak damage onto the Nexus. The second is taking advantage of the Overwhelm keyword on both Mega Gnar and Ruin Runner. Papercraft Dragon can set up for Double Attack combo to close out the game.

The Absolver gives you access to the Overwhelm keyword incase you do not have a Mega Gnar or Ruin Runner on the board, and the additional stats it give can be just enough to end the game.

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Draven Rumble makes its way to my power rankings. The deck is not new to the meta at all, but with the increase of Bandle City archetypes, Draven Rumble is a good choice to climb the ladder with. Currently, it’s hovering around a 54% win rate.

This aggressive deck runs early cheap units – most importantly Fallen Rider which is difficult to block early turns of a game due to the Fearsome keyword.

Rumble is troublesome for most decks in the current meta, the Spellshield adds an extra layer of protection, and reliable removal cards are not popular in the top-tier decks.

Might played on Rumble can push a lot of Overwhelm damage, enough for the burn plan to commence. Get Excited!, Mystic Shot, and Decimate are the game-ending cards. Decks that don’t run any form of healing or Deny will be left with a defeat screen on their screen.

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Yuumi Pantheon is the first deck players envisioned when Yuumi was revealed, and as for the ladder performance, it has been doing well, managing to score a 53% win rate.

The previous version ran Taric instead of Yuumi, but it seems Yuumi is showing good results as well in the deck. The ability to buff up one of your fated units and grant them the Overwhelm keyword can be difficult for your opponent to deal with.

Cataclysm is not only a removal card but also takes advantage of the Overwhelm keyword and sets up for Nexus damage that can help close out the game.

Pantheon acts as your win condition. He already has the valuable Overwhelm keyword you need, and when leveled the random keywords he gains can set up a winning play.

Yuumi Pantheon isn’t really a great choice into Yordle in Arms decks but can beat some of the top-tier archetypes in the meta like Darkness, Bandle Tree, and Scouts.

Although swarm decks can be troublesome, Yuumi Pantheon can somewhat take back board presence later in the game or end the game strictly with one buffy Overwhelm unit. However, the main problem that remains still is Yordles in Arms due to the massive board advantage and pressure it provides.

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Akshan Sivir with a positive win rate of 54.53% still holds strong as one of the top meta decks, tournament and ladder wise. The deck performs well into Gnar Trundle, Darkness, Pantheon decks, and Bandle Tree which makes it a good choice to climb the ladder with.

This midrange archetype relies on its board presence to take value trades and set up the Sivir and Absolver win condition. The wider the board the more value a leveled Sivir will provide.

Akshan is the strongest card in the deck early on in the game. The Warlord’s Hoard will set up for a strong turn, potentially providing the tools you need to do your Sivir combo with The Absolver or Golden Aegis which allows a second attack after you’ve already forced your opponent into unfavorable blocks.

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Zilean Ekko is making a comeback! The deck has seen some play last season when it was renovated to a more aggressive version, but it still never really reached top tier in the meta.

Right now, the deck has a 52% win rate on the competitive ladder. It is a difficult deck to pilot as you’ll have to set up your upcoming plays with the assist of Predict cards.

The main role of Ekko is to shuffle the Chronobreaks in the deck and to force the opponent to commit their resources to kill Ekko or else the value he provides with Time Trick can put you ahead by miles.

Hexite Crystal created by Fallen Feline is another important card in the deck. The fact that a lot of popular meta decks rely on cheap units to swarm the board and buff them up with Yordles in Arms means that you’re capable of shutting down that play with Hexite Crystal.

Voice of Rizen increases the Power of your whole board, forcing your opponent to block your attacking units. Followed up with a Chronobreak that revives your dead allies and activates Rally, it will often be too much for the opponent to deal with your second attack in just one turn.

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Closing Words

The meta right now is mostly Gnar and Bandle City dominant, it’s only normal that decks that perform well into them will have a high win rate.

Decks like Scout and Draven Rumble act as counter meta decks, performing well into most of the top tier decks in the current meta.

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