Legends of Runeterra Metagame Tier List – Cosmic Creation Season

We’re happy to present RuneterraCCG.com’s Metagame Tier List! This is the page that will help you find a footing in Legends of Runeterra’s ever-changing ladder meta. The rankings and decks presented here are curated by EU Master player since Beta and winner of several tournaments Agigas (check out his articles and guides on RuneterraCCG).

Feel welcome to stop by our Discord for discussion, questions and feedback!

Most recently updated on: February 24. (See Change Log)

A few tips on how to read and use Metagame Tier List:

• Tiers represent the relative power of the decks and their suitability towards consistent ladder climb.
• In addition to its Tier placement, each particular deck can have either one of these three labels:
  • ‘Staple’ – this deck is well-known and has a significant play rate;
  • ‘Dark Horse’ – it is an underplayed or emerging deck, but the power level is there;
  • ‘Pick of the Patch’ – the best-positioned deck in the meta right now, a perfect choice to climb with.
• The order of decks within Tiers doesn’t matter – they are sorted by labels and regions, not power level.
• Click on ‘Details’ to read more about the deck and inspect a sample decklist. From there, you can return back to the list by clicking the ‘Tier List’ button.

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Playstyle: Midrange. Aphelios is the brand new champion in Legends of Runeterra, and since he has been introduced he has been dominating. Aphelios/TF quickly rose to the top of the meta, and is considered by many as the best current deck alongside Fizz/TF.

Bilgewater goes very well with Aphelios thanks to the combo between Crescendum and Boxtopus. The deck then runs on the tempo gained with it. Aphelios generates a massive amount of value, and Veiled Temple gives you a massive tempo advantage and grows one of your units as the game goes on.

To finish games, this version of the archetype can count on the powerful Celestial units thanks to Starshaping. Wiggly Burblefish can also help to finish the game, and some versions also play Mind Meld.

Strong against	Weak against
TF Go Hard	Teemo Foundry

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Playstyle: Aggro/Burn. Pirate Aggro is a very aggressive archetype, aiming to put pressure on the opponent right from the start with numerous 1-drop units. It has a strong early curve to keep the pressure up for as long as possible. If the opponent manages to stabilize, Pirate Aggro also has a large amount of burn to finish them off, and can even reach opponents on a very high health total opponents with finishers like Farron and Gangplank. You can level-up GP quickly if you sequence your damage properly.

Strong against	Weak against
Teemo Foundry	Discard Aggro
Fizz/TF	TF Go Hard

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Playstyle: Elusive. This archetype looks to play Elusive threats right from the start of the game to put pressure on the opponent. Suit Up can easily accelerate the pressure.

Fizz/TF might look quite low on units for an Elusive deck, but don’t be fooled. Poro Cannon and Iterative Improvement allow to never run out of Elusive threats. It also has access to an insane amount of cheap draw, with Rummage, Pick a Card, Zap, Pool Shark, TF… Despite looking aggressive and having a low curve, this deck rarely ever runs out of cards.

While the simple pressure applied by your small Elusive units can easily be enough to win the game, this archetype has some other tricks in its sleeve. TF is an effective card to cycle, or slow down the opponent while you hit him with Elusive units, but can also be a strong win condition thanks to your very high amount of draw. Mind Meld is not featured in every version, but can also be a strong finisher, transforming all your little Elusives into game-ending threats.

Pick of the Patch: Fizz/TF has been the rising star lately and now it is shaping the entire meta. The deck cycles fast, allowing it to be extremely consistent. It has the ability to realize several different gameplans – buffed Fizz, infinite stream of Elusives, Burblefish OTK, burn damage, TF level up. It can adapt on the fly depending on the matchup and the situation. The deck does have some tough matchups, but it can put up a strong fight even against them.

Strong against	Weak against
Ashe Noxus	TF Go Hard
Ezreal/Draven	Scouts

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Playstyle: Midrange/Combo. The idea is pretty straightforward: have a deck that cycles well and gets to cast Pack Your Bags very early. Twisted Fate is the perfect champion for this archetype, providing card draw and control tools. His level-up is an additional win condition. Don’t underestimate this deck’s midrange nature either: with lots of cycling and small units, it’s capable of flooding the board rapidly. It can defend efficiently, all the while lowering the opponent’s health gradually to prep a devastating Pack Your Bags.

Strong against	Weak against
Ashe Noxus	Feel the Rush
Discard Aggro	Soraka/TK
Fizz/TF	Scouts

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Playstyle: Midrange. Fiora/Shen is a proactive Ionia deck, looking to create a solid board of Demacia Challenger units and protect them with Barriers. Rivershaper also prevents them from ever running out of resources, and Shen supporting Challenger units can also add a lot of value and tempo. The deck can win the game through sheer aggression and value, but it is also capable of achieving Fiora’s win condition by protecting her with Barriers and collecting kills with Single Combats or Concerted Strikes. This deck has a pretty good matchup spread, though it can struggle against Freeze decks like Ashe Noxus.

Strong against	Weak against
Zoe/Lee	Ashe Noxus

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Playstyle: Midrange/Tempo. This deck deals with the opponent’s units with the powerful Piltover & Zaun and Noxus removals, all the while building its own board and sending some damage to the opposing Nexus. Generating cards like Draven’s Axes or Shrooms, and then discarding them to draw with Rummage or Sump Dredger provides steady card advantage. The deck looks to finish the game with Ezreal or Captain Farron. However, don’t consider this archetype to be an all-in Ezreal (or Farron) deck. Rather than setting up for combo finish, instead, its game plan relies on constantly pushing advantages, tempo, and damage.

Strong against	Weak against
Plaza Scout	Zoe/Lee
Fiora/Shen	Fizz/TF
Ashe/Noxus	Feel the Rush

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Playstyle: Aggro. Discard Aggro is all about flooding the board very fast with low-cost units, leveraging all the discard synergies. Once the board gets wide, powerful pay-offs of board-wide buffs and Crowd Favorites follow. This gameplan is very effective at punishing decks that struggle against these go-wide strategies. However, Discard Aggro tends to fold when put up against cheap AoE removal – like Avalanche or Withering Wail. The explosive aggression is a win condition by itself against unprepared lists – but in case the opponent manages to deal with it, Jinx comes in and gives you everything you need to finish the game.

Strong against	Weak against
Ashe Noxus	Feel the Rush
Targon Plaza	Ez/Draven
Overwhelm Aggro	TF Go Hard

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Playstyle: Aggro/Midrange. This archetype looks to win through board domination and the strength of its champions, Miss Fortune in particular. Scout and Rally effects help Miss Fortune’s level-up, and once she is there – closing out the game is almost just a formality. Recent nerfs to Miss Fortune and The Grand Plaza have hurt the deck, but it is still a major force. It has a lot of good matchups against Tier 1 decks, and how it performs will depend a lot on how the meta evolves.

Strong against	Weak against
Feel the Rush	Ashe/Noxus
Zoe/Lee Sin	Ezreal/Draven
Fizz/TF	Targon Plaza

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Playstyle: Midrange. Aphelios is the brand new champion in Legends of Runeterra, and it looks like he is strong enough to have a high impact on the current meta. A lot of decklists with Aphelios are currently being tested, and we will keep an eye on the evolutions.

Recently, Aphelios with Bilgewater has been growing rapidly in popularity. Boxtopus is an excellent 2-cost unit with Aphelios, as it will come as a 3/4 challenger from Aphelios’ weapon “Crescendum”. Aphelios/TF is being played a lot and has proven it belongs to the top of the meta.

This Zoe/Aphelios deck is a different take on Aphelios Bilgewater, with Zoe and allegiance. It is the deck I’ve been personally using to climb on my account. Behind the high popularity of Aphelios/TF, I think there are a lot of other Aphelios archetypes that are going under the radar, and Zoe has a lot of synergies with Aphelios.

This deck is a classic midrange Targon archetype. It is capable of putting some pressure with strong units in the mid-game, but can also win longer games with powerful Celestial cards and a level 2 Aphelios.

Strong against	Weak against
TF Go Hard	Teemo Foundry

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Playstyle: Aggro. This is a straightforward archetype, looking to stomp opponents with big Overwhelm units. Thanks to the Overwhelm keyword, it’s not really possible to stall out this aggressive deck with chump blockers in the mid-game. The opponent has to go toe-to-toe and trade-off his big units to preserve the Nexus health. The featured decklist is the one finding the most success on the ladder.

Strong against	Weak against
Aphelios/TF	Discard Aggro

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Playstyle: Midrange. Swain/TF was once a dominant deck but has fallen out of favor after the nerfs to Make it Rain and Riptide Rex. However, the archetype is far from dead, and has been making a resurgence lately!

This deck runs powerful midrange units, and can easily enable Ravenous Flock – a strong under-costed removal. Thanks to this combo of strong units + cheap removals, the deck can get ahead in the game early and push a lot of damage.

This midrange plan is very similar to the playstyle of Ezreal/Draven, a well-known Tier 1 deck. Later into the game, Swain/TF has a lot of staying power, thanks to its draw and late-game bombs (Swain, The Leviathan, Riptide Rex). It can easily lock the opponent out of the game with The Leviathan/Swain combo. Against opponents struggling to remove The Leviathan it often plays like an actual control deck.

Strong against	Weak against
Ashe Noxus	Feel the Rush
Fiora/Shen	TF/Fizz
Lee/Zoe	Ezreal/Draven

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Playstyle: Midrange/Combo. This archetype uses the high synergy between Soraka and Tahm Kench. You have a lot of units that can sustain damage and a lot of healing (+healing payoffs) to go along with that. The deck can snowball very hard – if Tahm Kench starts growing and their opponent can’t deal with it, it will lock the game pretty fast. Soraka assists in this snowball a lot too, creating a massive card advantage while keeping your board healthy and activating healing synergies.

Soraka/Kench wins most of its games through its alternative win condition in form of Star Spring landmark, but can also sometimes win by attacking the opponent’s Nexus, often with Star Shepherd.

One of this archetype’s main strengths is attacking the game through a different angle than other decks, giving it an interesting matchup table. Despite looking very straightforward, this deck is complex to play – you have to always be aware of the opponent’s possibilities and how to play around them, as losing a key unit can easily cost you the entire game.

Strong against	Weak against
TF Go Hard	Fearsome Aggro
Zoe/Lee Sin	Ashe Noxus

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Playstyle: Midrange. This deck looks to build a powerful board during the mid-game and start a snowball leveraging 5+ attack synergies – Trifarian Assessor in particular. Freezes set up favorable trades and Culling Strike acts as a hard-removal against Frostbite targets. Ashe and Farron are very effective finishers, and, despite being a midrange deck at its core, this archetype can very effectively take it to the late game when needed thanks to Avarosan Hearthguard and Trifarian Assessor.

Ashe Noxus has been one of the premium midrange archetypes for a very long time and still is one of the top dogs. The recent nerf of TF Go Hard, one of its worse matchups, revitalized this deck on the ladder.

Strong against	Weak against
Fiora/Shen	Discard Aggro
Plaza Scout	TF/Fizz
Kench/Soraka	Ezreal/Draven

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Playstyle: Burn/Stall. This archetype is extremely unique and is the most popular deck abusing the Hexcore Foundry. It looks to put shrooms in the opponent’s deck (Teemo, Puffcap Peddler, and Chump Wump) and then let him burn from his draw, accelerated by the Foundry. In the meantime, the deck stalls the game with freezes and blockers. To complement and accelerate the burn win condition, Ezreal comes down. He can deal a lot of damage at burst speed in this deck – you play a lot of burst spells that target enemy units.

Strong against	Weak against
Lee/Zoe	Scout
Anivia Control	Ezreal/Draven

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Playstyle: Control. Freljord/Shadow Isles Control has always been a strong archetype and will probably always remain as such. It efficiently leverages a combination of strong removal, life gain, ramp, and powerful late-game bombs.

In the early-to-mid game, this deck is easily able to deal with swarms of small units thanks to its cheap board-clears, Avalanche and Withering Wail. It also plays some units to help it stabilize the board. Last but not least, it uses the early turns to play ramp cards (Wyrding Stones, Catalyst of Aeons) to accelerate its late gameplan.

Once this deck manages to stall the game out to reach high amounts of mana, it finishes games very decisively with its powerful Overwhelm champions, Feel the Rush, and Ledros. Atrocity is a spell that can accelerate the finish even more, especially against decks that have a hard time playing around it.

Strong against	Weak against
TF/Fizz	Zoe/Lee Sin
Discard Aggro	Plaza Scout
Ezreal/Draven	Fiora/Shen
TF Go Hard	Targon Plaza

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Playstyle: Control. Anivia Control uses the powerful Shadow Isles/Frejlord package to control the opponent’s board and stall the game. Once it gets into the late game, it plays Anivia, kills her off, and then revives her with cards like The Rekindler or The Harrowing. It allows the deck to get multiple copies of Anivia on board at the same time. Anivia’s win condition isn’t as quick as Feel the Rush, but it allows to keep better control of the board as the game goes on.

Strong against	Weak against
Fizz/TF	Scouts
Discard Aggro	Kench/Soraka

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Playstyle: Combo. Zoe/Lee is a return of the infamous Lee Sin combo deck: you aim to level-up Lee sin, give him Overwhelm and buff him up, to blow up the opponent with an OTK. Lee Sin has an innate Barrier and the deck also runs a lot of additional protection (Deny, Nopeify, buffs, some versions – Bastion). Zoe is a very good 1-drop in this deck that doesn’t need a second champion to execute its gameplan, and the spells she creates can help with leveling-up and protecting Lee Sin.

An alternative version, still goig under the radars but looking promising on stats, is Aphelios/Lee. Instead of playing Zenith Blade to grant Lee Sin Overwhelm, this deck use Aphelios’ weapon Infernum.

Strong against	Weak against
Feel the Rush	Scout
Ezreal/Draven	Fiora/Shen

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Playstyle: Aggro/Combo. This deck swarms the board from the get-go to pressure the opponent. It boasts some very powerful combos – like Barbeast turn 1 into Cursed Keeper and Ravenous Butcher turn 2 to push 10 damage! While this early aggression can by itself mow down unprepared lists, this is actually not the main way to finish games, but rather a preparation for your combo lethal. After having so many units dying, you play a very big They Who Endure to close out the game, with Atrocity as a backup if the opponent tries to remove They Who Endure.

Strong against	Weak against
Ezreal/Draven	Decks with Hush

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Playstyle: Aggro. This is a very aggressive deck that abuses the Fearsome keyword (the Mistwraith package most notably) to bypass the opponent’s defenses and slam straight into their Nexus. Frenzied Skitterer’s ability helps in pushing tons of damage with your wide attacks. If the opponent manages to stop the aggression, The Harrowing is the perfect top-end to close things out, and the combo of Stalking Shadows and Doombeast provides a surprising amount of reach.

Strong against	Weak against
Soraka/Kench	Discard Aggro

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Playstyle: Aggro. Spider aggro is an extremely aggressive archetype that looks to punish any deck that would be too slow. It starts the game by flooding the board with low-cost units and push as much damage as it can. Then, once the opponent is low enough, it has a good amount of burn damage (Decimate, Noxian Fervor…) to finish the job before the opponent can set up his own gameplan.

Strong against	Weak against
Teemo Foundry	Anivia Control
Aphelios/TF	Discard Aggro
Fizz/TF	Ezreal/Draven

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Change Log

• December 21: Tier list fully updated for Cosmic Creation week 1 meta.
• December 22: Plaza Undying replaced with Plaza SI decklist and description. Plaza Lux decklist updated.
• December 23: Ez/Draven decklist updated.
• December 25: Overwhelm Aggro archetype added as a Tier 2 ‘Staple’.
• December 27: Kench/Soraka decklist updated.
• December 29: Veimer archetype removed. Archetypes added – Endure (Tier 2 ‘Staple’), Zoe/Fiora (Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’), Zoe/Lee Sin (Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’).
• January 2: Lux Plaza archetype changed to Targon Plaza and moved down to Tier 2 ‘Staple’, decklist, and description updated. Nightfall Aggro removed from the Tier List. Kench Soraka moved down to Tier 2 ‘Staple’. Zoe/Lee Sin decklist updated and moved up to Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’. Matchup sections updated for several archetypes.
• January 7: Targon Plaza, Feel the Rush Control and Fearsome Aggro decklists updated.
• January 11: Scouts moved up from Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’ to Tier 1 ‘Staple’. Targon Plaza description updated with a link to a popular Garen/Asol version.

• January 17: Archetype removed: Go Hard Foundry. Archetypes added: Pirate Burn, Targon Allegiance. TF Go Hard moved down to Tier 2 Dark Horse, Zoe/Lee Sin moved up to Tier 1 Staple, Discard Aggro moved up to Tier 1 Dark Horse, Fearsome Aggro moved down to Tier 2 Dark Horse. Decklists updated: Ez/Draven, Targon Plaza, Endure.
• January 18: Decklists updated: Targon Allegiance, Pirate Aggro.
• January 21: Archetype added: Swain/TF. Decklist updated: Ashe Noxus.
• January 24: Decklists updated: Fiora/Shen, Ashe Noxus.
• January 25: Archetype added: Fizz/TF.
• January 27: Fizz/TF moved up from Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’ to Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’, Targon Plaza and Discard Aggro moved up from Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’ to Tier 1 ‘Staple’.
• January 28: TF Go Hard moved up from Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’ to Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’, decklist and matchups updated. Scouts, Fiora/Shen, Targon Plaza, Lee/Zoe, Ezreal/Draven, Discard Aggro, Fizz/TF, Ashe Noxus, Feel the Rush, and Swain/TF matchups updated.

• February 4: Archetypes added: Zoe/Aphelios, Anivia Control. Archetypes removed: Zoe/Fiora, Targon Allegiance. Scouts and Targon Plaza moved down to Tier 2 ‘Staple’. Fizz/TF and TF Go Hard moved up to Tier 1 ‘Staple’. Swain/TF and Lucian/Hecarim moved up to Tier 2 ‘Staple’. Decklists updated: Targon Plaza, Fizz/TF, Swain/TF, Lucian/Hecarim, PnZ/Nox Burn, Fearsome Aggro. Matchups updated: Fiora/Shen.
• February 8: Decklist updated: Aphelios/Zoe.
• February 9: Decklist updated: Fizz/TF.
• February 10: Archetype removed: Targon Plaza. Archetype added: Teemo Foundry. Anivia Control moved from Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’ to Tier 2 ‘Staple’.
• February 14: Decklist updated: Lee/Zoe.
• February 15: Decklist updated: Teemo Foundry.
• February 17: Decklist updated: Anivia Control. Matchups updated: Aphelios/Zoe, Pirate Aggro, Overwhelm. Description updated: Zoe/Lee. Pirate Aggro goes up to Tier 1 ‘Staple’. Overwhelm goes up to Tier 1 ‘Dark Horse’. Zoe/Lee goes down to Tier 2 ‘Staple’. Endure moves from Tier 2 ‘Staple’ to Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’. Zoe/Aphelios archetype separated into Zoe/Aphelios and Aphelios/TF archetypes. Burn and Hecarim Plaza removed. Spider Aggro added to Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’.
• February 18: Decklist updated: Aphelios/TF.
• February 24: Decklist updated: Scouts.