Best Jax Decks – LoR The Darkin Saga: Awakening Expansion

Introduction

Hey there, Raphterra here! It’s been almost a week since the start of the Awakening expansion, and as expected, players have been experimenting a lot with the new champions. In this article, I will cover the best Jax decks so far in The Darkin Saga: Awakening!

Jax has been displaying mediocre results so far in the new expansion. I believe this is not because of Jax‘s power level, he’s a very solid champion on his own. It’s probably just a case of players not yet finding the best deck for the Grandmaster-at-Arms.

If you’re just going to look at overall winrates, most Jax archetypes aren’t doing too well. However, some specific decklists show promising numbers with a limited sample size. Let’s get right into it!

The Most Popular – Vi Jax Timelines

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Vi Jax Timelines created by Raphterra • last updated 7 months ago

Regions

23

3

Types

6

16

18

0

0

Rarities

6

3

12

19

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

2

Jax

3

5

Vi

3

followers (16)

1

Forge Chief

3

1

Zaunite Urchin

2

2

Ionian Hookmaster

3

3

Piltovan Castaway

3

3

Wandering Shepherd

2

4

Combat Cook

3

Spells (18)

1

Blades of the Fallen

3

1

Catch!

3

2

Concurrent Timelines

3

2

Mystic Shot

3

3

Get Excited!

3

4

Parts Made Whole

3

We’re starting with the most popular Jax archetype, Vi Jax Concurrent Timelines. Vi Jax has an overall winrate of 50.6% in higher ranks. The list above is one of the best Jax decks with a high playrate, holding a winrate of 52% across 1800+ games.

If you’ve been playing recently, you should be very familiar with this archetype. This deck uses Concurrent Timelines to negate the Weaponmasters‘ weakness of having below-average statlines. Combat Cook can decide some games on Turn 4, since most 4-cost followers have decent stats. I’ve personally instantly surrendered when my opponent rolled Hunting Fleet with a forged Upcycled Rake!

Improvised weapons are great to equip on Vi. She can deal lethal Nexus damage when given keywords from Upcycled Rake, Fishawhack, or The Fix-Em 5000. This list also runs three copies each of Get Excited! and Mystic Shot for even more burn damage

A Cheaper Timeline? – Mono Jax Timelines

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Mono P&Z Jax created by Raphterra • last updated 7 months ago

Regions

20

3

Types

3

23

14

0

0

Rarities

3

6

7

24

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (3)

2

Jax

3

followers (23)

1

Fireth, Reaper of the Sands

3

2

Eager Apprentice

3

2

Ferros Financier

3

2

Ionian Hookmaster

3

3

Piltovan Castaway

3

3

Wandering Shepherd

3

4

Aloof Travelers

2

4

Combat Cook

3

Spells (14)

1

Blades of the Fallen

2

1

Poro Cannon

1

2

Concurrent Timelines

3

2

Entrancing Lure

3

2

Mystic Shot

3

4

Parts Made Whole

2

If you’re a new player and you’re lacking some champion wildcards to afford both Jax and Vi, worry not! Mono Jax Concurrent Timelines is not doing bad, with an overall winrate of 51.2%. The decklist above shows potential with its winrate of 68.2% in a small sample size of 44 games.

Instead of Vi, this version runs Aloof Travelers, another card that synergizes well with Concurrent Timelines while also being a blowout card against control matchups. Going for a budget build comes with a cost; not having Vi may affect the deck’s ability to close out games.

A weird inclusion you might notice is that this version is running Eager Apprentice, which is something that I don’t agree with. I think Zaunite Urchin is much better since it allows you to discard extra copies of Concurrent Timelines.

The Weapon Synergy – Ornn Jax

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Ornn Jax created by Raphterra • last updated 7 months ago

Regions

3

24

Types

6

18

16

0

0

Rarities

6

0

13

21

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

2

Jax

3

7

Ornn

3

followers (18)

1

Weaponsmith’s Apprentice

3

2

Ionian Hookmaster

3

3

Adept Weaponsmith

3

3

Piltovan Castaway

3

4

Combat Cook

3

5

Hearthblood Mender

3

Spells (16)

1

Catch!

2

1

Three Sisters

1

2

Entrancing Lure

3

2

Sharesies

2

2

Troll Chant

3

4

Parts Made Whole

2

6

Wildclaw’s Ferocity

3

Jax Ornn was the most obvious pairing among the new champions in Awakening. It currently has an abysmal overall winrate 41.9%, but this is mainly due to many bad decklists being used. The best Jax Ornn decklist has a respectable winrate of 52% in 381 games.

Jax Ornn is a midrange deck that uses Forge on equipments from Weaponmasters. Forging makes Ornn a very reliable finisher in the late game. Level 2 Jax‘s The Light of Icathia is a great weapon to continuously forge then copy for Ornn. I’d personally recommend adding some copies of Ornn’s Forge for more snowball potential.

This deck has several options for protection and combat tricks with Catch!, Sharesies, Troll Chant, and Three Sisters. Hearthblood Mender‘s forge and healing helps stabilize games against aggressive decks. A very spicy inclusion is Wildclaw’s Ferocity, which gives the deck alternative win conditions when Ornn is not drawn. Weaponsmith’s Apprentice is probably the best target to transform with Wildclaw’s Ferocity.

No Regions Needed – Kayn Jax

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Kayn Jax created by Raphterra • last updated 7 months ago

Regions

9

8

Types

6

14

20

0

0

Rarities

6

3

17

14

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

2

Jax

3

5

Kayn

3

followers (14)

1

Forsaken Baccai

3

2

Keeper of the Box

3

3

Shadowblade Fanatic

3

3

Wandering Shepherd

2

4

Combat Cook

3

Spells (20)

1

Blades of the Fallen

3

1

Momentous Choice

3

2

Entrancing Lure

3

4

Furious Wielder

3

4

Parts Made Whole

3

5

Heedless Resurrection

3

11

Utter Devastation

2

A deck running two Runeterra champions? This must be an abomination! Kayn Jax has a poor overall winrate of 43.4%, but the decklist above shows a lot of promise. The list I featured has a very impressive winrate of 79.2% in 24 games. The potential is strong with this one!

As Runeterra champions, a deck with Kayn and Jax can’t run any of the traditional regions. Instead, this deck goes all in on the equipment synergy with only weaponmasters and cultists in the deck. The deck has everything that the Jax and Kayn packages offer: (1) a premium combat trick with Momentous Choice, (2) card draw and interaction with Parts Made Whole, Entrancing Lure, and Furious Wielder, and (3) cheap champion summons with Heedless Resurrection. I haven’t played this list myself, but I’m expecting that the two copies of Utter Devastation won several games with its surprise factor.

A notable weakness of the deck is that it doesn’t have high-impact units outside of Kayn and Jax. The followers of Jax and Kayn don’t really work well with each other outside of having equipment synergy, but there’s not much options due not having access to a traditional region.

Multi-Region Madness – Tristana Jax

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Tristana Jax created by Raphterra • last updated 7 months ago

Regions

26

3

Types

6

23

11

0

0

Rarities

6

4

14

16

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

2

Jax

3

3

Tristana

3

followers (23)

1

Byrd, The Bellringer

3

1

Fireth, Reaper of the Sands

1

2

Blastcone Seedling

3

2

Grandfather Fae

3

2

Ionian Hookmaster

3

3

Bandle City Mayor

3

3

Gleaming Lantern

3

3

Piltovan Castaway

2

3

Wandering Shepherd

2

Spells (11)

1

Catch!

2

2

Entrancing Lure

1

2

Pokey Stick

3

2

Sharesies

1

4

Parts Made Whole

2

5

Yordles in Arms

2

Tristana Jax is one of the most popular archetypes of the Grandmaster-at-Arms, probably due to MegaMogwai making a dedicated video on the deck. I wasn’t really sure if I should include this archetype in a list of the best Jax decks. Despite being popular, the archetype is doing poorly with an overall winrate of 42.9%. Most Tristana Jax lists are not doing well; the decklist above shows the most promise with a winrate of 57.7% in 26 games.

This deck takes advantage of the fact that Jax‘s weaponmasters are multi-region. This allows them to progress Tristana‘s level up condition. Similar to Vi, Level 2 Tristana is a great finisher when used with improvised equipments, specifically Fishawhack for Overwhelm or Upcycled Rake for Scout.

The deck uses the traditional Bandle City swarm strategy of using Yordles in Arms with Grandfather Fae, Bandle City Mayor, and Gleaming Lantern. With the improvised weapons from weaponmasters, it can be tricky to block against wide attacks due to the threat of Catch! and Sharesies. Entrancing Lure and Parts Made Whole further adds to Bandle City‘s already-high refill potential and card generation.

Jax’s Future Looks Bright! – Unexplored Concepts

As it’s still very early in the Awakening expansion and the playerbase is still trying to find the right formula for the best Jax decks. I think that there’s still a lot of unexplored concepts with Jax and weaponmasters. Here are some few options that I can think of:

• Targon Jax Pantheon – Equipments, Catch!, Sharesies, and Entrancing Lure can consistently proc Fated and progress Pantheon‘s level up requirement.
• Ionia Jax Zed – Zed is a great aggro/swarm champion to equip with an improvised weapon, preferably Upcycled Rake.
• Demacia Jax Garen/Jarvan IV/Fiora – Demacia‘s challenger units should be great units to use improvised weapons on. The Fix-Em 5000 would allow challengers to get free trades.

There are just the few concepts that come to mind, I’m sure that there are still more out there!

Closing Words

In my initial assessment of the champions from Awakening, I rated Jax as the strongest out of the five new champions. Despite the numbers currently not siding with my prediction, I still think that Jax has the best chances of becoming a part of a high-tier deck. Jax is a solid early drop that can be included in aggro or midrange strategies, while improvised weapons have so much combo potential when used on strong units. In my opinion, we are still very far from discovering the best Jax decks in Legends of Runeterra!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on YouTube, Discord, or Twitter!