Legends of Runeterra
Magic: The
Gathering
MTG
Arena
Genshin Impact
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 Agigas – a consistent top player on the EU Masters ladder since Beta, and Empires of the Ascended Seasonal Tournament Top 4 finisher.
Feel welcome to stop by our Discord for discussion, questions, and feedback!
Last updated: January 19.
Kennen Ahri aims to pressure the opponent with Elusive units, all the while building towards Ahri and Kennen’s level-up. Once they level, the pressure accelerates, and Ahri in particular will close out games decisively. The deck is hard to disrupt thanks to its high amount of protection spells.
This version splashes Shurima for the combo between The Absolver and Ahri, but there are many different splashes that can be made. Popular versions also include Shadow Isles for Go Hard or Noxus Splash for Might.
- Strong against: Pantheon Fated, Iceborn Poros.
- Weak against: Spider Burn, FR SI Control.
Scouts is an archetype designed around its namesake keyword. This classic Demacia deck looks to build up a powerful board, and back it up with buffs. With the Scout keyword, this deck creates a lot of pressure on the opponent and tops it off with Rallies.
Miss Fortune is the key unit of the deck, as she levels extremely quickly with the help of Scout keyword and Rallies. Quinn also levels up easily, and will very often be a great fallback plan after the opponent threw all their resources at dealing with Miss Fortune.
- Strong against: Iceborn Poros, Ahri Kennen.
- Weak against: not enough data, please check back later.
Pantheon Fated is a buff-focused archetype that leverages the Fated keyword and levels up Pantheon quickly. With Zenith Blade, the large Fated units then quickly finish the game when backed up with Golden Aegis and/or Cataclysm.
This archetype has several different versions, each one coming with its advantages and downsides. We’ve decided to feature the Pantheon Taric version above, but here you can also find the list for the Mono Pantheon version or the Pantheon Shyvana version.
- Strong against: Iceborn Poros, Darkness.
- Weak against: Ahri Kennen, Spider Burn.
Having access to cheap Yordles and the Discard package, this archetype can flood the board easily and at a very low cost. This wide board is then leveraged with Lulu, which combines particularly well with Flame Chompers, Yordle Captain, and Yordles in Arms.
With its Elusive units (Fizz, Poro Cannon), Yordle in Arms can easily threaten a quick lethal, especially with Flame Chompers to challenge the opponent’s own Elusive units.
- Strong against: Iceborn Poros, Spider Burn.
- Weak against: Darkness.
Sivir Demacia is a midrange archetype looking to create board advantages by combining Barrier or Quick Attack with Strike effects and the Vulnerable keyword.
To enhance this midrange gameplan, Akshan offers a powerful win condition with his level 2 landmark. Sivir quickly closes out games once leveled, especially when combined with The Absolver and/or Golden Aegis.
- Strong against: Darkness.
- Weak against: Ahri Kennen.
Darkness is the archetype revolving around the Darkness spell. With many Darkness generators and ways to increase its damage, the deck is able to control the opponent’s board very effectively.
If Veigar stays on the board for a couple of turns, Darkness will become extremely threatening, and Veigar will level up quickly. From there, the archetype will have no problem finishing games with a couple of Darknesses to the opponent’s face.
- Strong against: Spider Burn.
- Weak against: Pantheon Taric, Iceborn Poros.
Feel the Rush has access to the deep pool of removal from both Freljord and Shadow Isles, making it quite hard for the opponent to navigate the game as they need to play around cheap board-wipes and heavier removals such as Vengeance.
In the late game, this archetype finishes games decisively thanks to Feel the Rush, bringing two overstatted Overwhelm champions onto the board – Trundle and Tryndamere.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen, Spider Burn.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros.
The newly buffed Iceborn Legacy has been shaking the ladder early in this patch, and its combo with Daring Poro seems to be one of the most promising directions for the card.
With its early units, the deck can stay in the driving seat during the first turns and cycle through its cards to find Poro Snax and Iceborn Legacy. Those buffs will make Daring Poros gigantic, and you can generate numerous copies of them thanks to Poro Cannon and Iterative Improvement, making it very easy to close out the game with the Elusive keyword.
- Strong against: Darkness, FR SI Control.
- Weak against: Ahri Kennen, Spider Burn.
This archetype looks to hold back and remove the opponent’s units all the while pushing early damage with Fearsome – and then finishes the game with its massive burn reach. While this is a control deck at its core, the opponent can’t afford to lose too much health against it, making it very versatile and hard to play against.
- Strong against: Spider Burn, Kennen Ahri.
- Weak against: Darkness, Lurk.
Champions (3)
Spider Burn is an aggressive archetype as old as the game itself, looking to push a lot of early damage with cheap aggressive units.
Elise can easily level up if the opponent lacks the removals to get rid of her, and will help push even more damage. Frenzied Skitterer is at the core of the mid-game aggression, making the Fearsome keyword deadly.
The high number of burn spells gives the deck the reach to finish the last remaining health points of the opponent’s Nexus.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen, Pantheon Fated, Iceborn Poros.
- Weak against: Darkness.
Lurk is a deck that wants to create a strong board presence with its numerous Lurker units and leverages the power of Rek’Sai and Pyke. Thanks to Predict and other top-deck manipulation tools, you can trigger Lurk consistently.
Pyke is often the most feared card in the deck – Death from Below is an incredibly effective spell, and once Pyke levels up it is very easy for him to kill every unit on the opponent’s side of the board.
- Strong against: Feel the Rush.
- Weak against: Spider Burn.
Draven Rumble is an archetype looking to create early pressure with the powerful Discard synergies and push as much damage as possible.
Rumble then comes down, leveraging Discard all the while being a massive threat, especially in combination with Might. Additionally, Noxus and Piltover & Zaun pack a very high density of burn damage to help you finish the game.
- Strong against: Spider Burn, Iceborn Poros.
- Weak against: Darkness, FR SI Control.
Viego Kindred is a control deck looking to keep the board stable until it’s in a position to snowball the game with its engines.
The Shadow Isles and Ionia combination is notably strong at stalling out the game. Kindred, Viego, and Invasive Hydravine all are extremely powerful units that will build up insurmountable advantages over time if not dealt with.
Ionia brings a lot of protection spells, making sure your high-investment units stay safe from the opponent’s interaction.
- Strong against: FR SI Control.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros, Ahri Kennen, Darkness.
Pirate Burn is a very straightforward aggressive deck, looking to play a lot of early units and direct damage effects to lower the opponent’s Nexus health before finishing with burn spells.
With the threat of Gangplank’s level-up, the deck is also able to execute a solid enough midrange plan – if the opponent can’t remove him. Miss Fortune never levels up in this archetype, but helps to push direct damage all the while making the opponent’s blocks difficult.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen, Iceborn Poros.
- Weak against: Darkness.
Champions (6)
landmarks (8)
Turbo Thralls is a deck that leverages Frozen Thralls with ‘advance countdown’ cards and Promising Future to create a massive board advantage.
The archetype consists of 3 core parts: the Frozen Thralls package (Frozen Thralls, Lissandra, Taliyah, for some versions – Draklorn Inquisitor), the accelerators (Clockwork Curator, The Clock Hand, Time in a Bottle, for some versions – Draklorn Inquisitor, Preservationist), and the defensive tools (Blighted Ravine, Kindly Tavernkeeper, Three Sisters, Avalanche).
The very sudden burst of tempo created by Frostguard Thralls makes the deck very powerful against slower archetypes, though it tends to struggle against fast lists.
- Strong against: Darkness.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros.
Taliyah Ziggs is a deck centered around landmark synergies. With its good early curve, it can defend itself and/or pressure the opponent, and then leveled Taliyah, Ziggs, and The Arsenal come down to finish the game. The Absolver is a deadly combo with Taliyah, and with Ancient Hourglass, dealing with this deck’s key units might prove difficult for the opponent.
The Zilean Xerath build of the landmark archetype is another successful way to build the archetype, though it performs a bit worse than the Taliyah Ziggs version on the ladder.
- Strong against: Control archetypes.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros, Ahri Kennen.
Ahri Lulu is an archetype centered around Flame Chompers. Neither champion is easy to level, but even at level 1, they both synergize really well with Flame Chompers.
The Discard package allows the deck to consistently cheat out Chompers for free, all the while drawing cards. You have the ability to generate wide boards for cheap, so board-wide buffs such as Windfarer Hatchling and Sai’nen Thousand-Tailed are particularly powerful and will push a lot of damage. Finally, the deck is able to close out games after a wide attack thanks to its burn reach.
- Strong against: Spider Burn.
- Weak against: –
Despite her multiple nerfs, Poppy still is a strong champion and her archetype is currently very well-positioned in the meta.
Lulu Poppy is a deck looking to combine Challenger units and high tempo with powerful buffs and supporting abilities to snowball the board. Then, the deck finishes games decisively with the combination of Poppy and/or Elusive units with Rallies.
To protect its game plan, the deck plays some of the best protection spells in the game, making it hard for the opponent to interact.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen, Iceborn Poros.
- Weak against: Spider Burn.
With this combo deck, you aim to level up Lee Sin, buff him up and give Overwhelm, then 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 necessarily require a second champion to execute its game plan, and the spells she creates can help with leveling up and protecting Lee Sin.
Despite being a combo deck, Zoe Lee can put up a very strong fight against aggressive opponents thanks to Eye of the Dragon, which can be tutored with Crescendum generated by Gifts from Beyond.
- Strong against: Pantheon Fated.
- Weak against: Ahri Kennen, Darkness.
Anivia Control is an archetype using the powerful Shadow Isles and Frejlord removal package to keep control of the board and stop the opponent’s gameplan. With the combination of cheap board wipes and bigger removals, Fast and Slow speed alike, it will be very hard for the opponent to build up their strategy.
The win condition of this deck is to multiply Anivias thanks to The Rekindler, The Harrowing, Gluttony – all in combination with her ability to revive from the dead. With several Anivias on board, we can push damage to the Nexus all the while staying in full control over the board thanks to her ability.
- Strong against: Spider Burn.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros.
Like other Frejlord Shadow Isles archetypes, ARAM Spiders uses the deep pool of strong removals in these two regions to stay in control of the game.
However, unlike Feel the Rush or Anivia Control, this deck plays a bit more of a midrange game plan, relying on Spiderlings combined with Iceborn Legacy. The Howling Abyss is a very reliable finisher, as it is very hard to deal with and doesn’t run into counterspells.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen.
- Weak against: Iceborn Poros.
Nightfall is an aggressive deck looking to leverage the power of Diana and Nocturne with Nightfall cards. Once leveled, both champions greatly accelerate the pressure to close out games.
With its numerous 1-cost units, the deck is able to outnumber the opponent’s board presence, but can also reach through to the Nexus with Elusive units, Fearsome units, and Burn damage.
- Strong against: Ahri Kennen, Iceborn Poros, Spider Burn.
- Weak against: Shadow Isles Control.
Can you add yasuo malphite?
Unfortunately no, Yasuo Malphite is performing far too badly to make it to the tier list – this list is only about competitive decks. 🤔
Can you add yasuo malphite?
How about matron cithria?
thank you so much for the ui update, now i no longer almost crash from loading all decks at once
Would appreciate if the Nasus Thresh Deck could get a Matchup Guide for Azir Irelia.
Thanks for the update
What do you think about Leona/Yasuo or any Leona variations? Would she perform at least slightly decent? Would she be at a tier 2 or lower or is she unplayable in the meta?
I don’t think it’s unplayable, but I don’t consider it as competitive – I would place it in tier 3. However, be aware that Legends of Runeterra is a pretty skill-intensive game with not that big of a gap between tiers. A strong player can climb all the way up to master with a tier 3 deck, especially when he has the power of surprise. What I’m saying is, if you like Yasuo Leona, don’t let a tier list dissuade you from playing it, unless what’s most important to you is to play the very best archetypes.
For what is the strongest Leona version, there are tons of pretty decent Leona archetypes. Leona Asol and Leona Karma are looking to be the strongest control ones, but you can also find some more aggressive daybreak decks, like Leona Lucian or Leona Draven!
Yeah, as a new player I would really like to see a somewhat optimized decklist for Droplet, Yasuo, Leona. These are basically my only cards 😀
Well, if you really want a deck that features all 3 of these cards, I think you’ll have to do a homebrew because Droplet isn’t usually featured in Yasuo Leona lists. 🤔
Hmm… that gives me an idea for an Iona Targon deck with Ahri and Droplet for draw engine and Leona Yasuo for a finigher combo
What about Ez/Teemo freljord?
It has a low play rate and isn’t very successful right now because of the high amount of aggressive deck on the ladder. I wouldn’t recommend it outside of specific targeting strategies.
I just want to take a moment to thank you Agigas for all the work you’re doing on the meta analysis! Everything is very in-depth and well documented & Runeterraccg helped me a lot with my performance. I’m really grateful that you’re updating the tier list constantly with new information and I wanted to say thanks to you and to the Runeterraccg team! 😁
I second this! Thank you Agigas, and all those that contribute to this website. Thank you thank you thank you!! I have improved tremendously as a LoR player from your content.
Thanks a lot, I’m really happy you like the content and that it helps you! 😄
What’s the best deck with Viego in it right now? Is it Viego Nasus, or is there not really one worth mentioning right now?
Viego Nasus does seem like the most successful Viego deck so far, other builds for the champ are performing pretty badly. Viego Nasus is performing sightly worse than Nasus Thresh, which is a very similar deck, and that’s why it doesn’t have its own spot. I’m going to include it in Nasus Thresh’s description.
The only think I’d like to you to add to these tier lists are some “Bonus Decks.” Kinda like TLG adds to theirs. Maybe decks with great win rates but small sample sizes, or decks that you might have your eyes on that haven’t caught on (Elusive Rally) yet. Other than that, I find your list to be most helpful of all that are published regularly. Thanks again for all your hard work Agi. 😀
Thanks a lot for the feedback! 😄
For that I do feature some bonus decks in the tier list, they are in the dark horses. For example, Sivir Demacia (Tier 1 Dark Horse), Riven Draven (Tier 2 Dark Horse), Shurima Burn (Tier 2 Dark Horse), and Pirate Midrange (Tier 2 Dark Horse) all have great win rates for very low play rates. 🙂
I know that this is a very basic question, but I just wanted to confirm: Tier 1 Dark horse decks are supposed to be stronger (in general, of course) than Tier 2 Staple decks, right?
Yes! The Tier (1 or 2) is an indicator of the power of the deck, whereas the category (Staple or Dark Horse) is an indicator of how much the deck has been played. 🙂
What will u recommend more zombie Anivia or Veigo Ionia( with thresh to summon veigo)
I personally like Anivia control more because it has a higher amount of draw and consistency. However, both decks are pretty close in power level, so I think it mostly comes down to personal preferences. 🙂
Fantastic job on making and updating these tier list decks frequently. One question I did have however. I’ve noticed that the ‘Elusives Rally’ deck that has just been updated has changed from Lulu/Poppy to Zed/Poppy. What’s the benefit of replacing Lulu with Zed? Or is it just a meta call? Intrigued because it’s been Lulu/Poppy for weeks and now Lulu’s been replaced.
Also, a while ago when you wrote the deck articles, you would (and still do) add a rough percentage to how the deck matched up against other meta decks. Most of the other authors who publish deck articles use terms varying from ‘heavily favoured’ to ‘heavily unfavored’ and everything in between. Just out of curiosity, what are the parameters for determining the matchups? For example, I’m guessing an ‘even’ matchup would be about 50% but what percentage separates a deck that is slightly favoured, favoured or heavily favoured? Similarly, what percentage separates a deck that is slightly unfavoured, unfavoured or heavily unfavoured?
Thanks a lot! 😄
Zed currently does better into the current meta that keeps accelerating. Also, Zed Poppy was not a very popular combination early in the season, so we had very few stats on it, but now that it’s getting more popular it’s the version finding the most success.
30-35% = heavily unfavored, 40% = unfavored, 45% = slightly unfavored, 50% = even, 55% = slightly favored, 60% = favored, 65-70% = heavily favored.
Hey there! What do you think about Nightfall in the current meta? I’ve been playing it quite a bit and at least from personal experience its powerlevel seems to be on par with most tier 2 decks of yours.
Hey! Nightfall does seem fine, it’s not popular and I don’t have enough data to tell where it lands exactly, but I could see it take a Tier 2 spot yes! 😉
I believe Leona/A Sol are stronger than Shyv. With Leona you got strong units in early with daybreak (dragons early really s*cks), control the mid game with Leona effect and evoked cards from solari priest, then you close the game with A Sol and evoked 9-10 cost units. You have heal against aggro, obliterate against Sion or FTR. It’s my favorite deck by far…
I noticed every deck on the list features a “Strong Against / Weak Against” section in the quick description other than Viego Ionia. What would you say about its matchups in the current meta?
Posted my comment one day too early. RIP Viego
Oops! 😅 Yeah I try to add the matchup section as often as possible but for decks with a low playrate and that I don’t play I would rather don’t add anything than write things that might be wrong. That said I might have not known Viego’s matchup table at the time I added it to the tier list but I do know it now. The deck struggles against Darkness, Tree, and Nami TF, and does pretty well against Gangplank Sejuani and Zoe Lee. It does have slightly unfavored matchups against tons of other decks though and a bad overall win rate, which is why I decided to remove it though it is still viable as a Tier 3 option if you like the deck.
What do you think about Rally elusives with Zed/Lulu?
I think a deck that could be here is Thresh Viego, quite good in my opinion
I think Viego Thresh could be here, quite the nice deck