Legends of Runeterra Metagame Tier List – Call of the Mountain 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).

Most recently updated on September 20.

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 Week’ – a perfect choice if you’re all about countering the meta.
• The order of decks within Tiers doesn’t matter – they are sorted by regions, not power level.
• Click on ‘Details’ to read more about the deck and inspect a sample decklist. From there, you can return by clicking the ‘Tier List’ button.

---

Swain/TF – Tier 1 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Midrange. A very strong midrange deck. The Leviathan + Swain combo is one of the strongest midrange finishers in LoR, as it will lock down the game if the opponent can’t kill these very high-health units. With its early units and removals (sometimes combined with Keg’s), this deck is capable of both aggroing and controlling the game, making it one of the best choices in the current meta. Twisted Fate won’t be leveled-up very often, but offers a lot of very good options when you play him. This deck is a jack-of-all-trades, and good players will very rarely feel like they are out of options to find the win.

---

Pirate Aggro – Tier 1 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Aggro/Burn. As time went by, pirate decklists had to evolve and become even more aggressive, because the meta has a lot of very strong late-game decks that you can only beat by going fast. This decklist is the new way of playing burn. You have a lot of strong early units to deal as much damage as possible before the opponent can take control of the game. After he stabilizes on the board, you can still finish him from a high amount of Nexus health thanks to your direct damage. Gangplank can very easily level-up and Captain Farron offers a lot of pressure. Unlike the Piltover/Noxus burn of old days, you can still win the game if the opponent heals a lot, as you have good board pressure in the mid-game and have a steadier but larger amount of burn.

---

Scout – Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’

Archetype: Aggro/Midrange. This is an epitome of the Demacia midrange-aggressively-slanted deck. Curve out good units to assemble a strong board, then use board-wide buffs like Vanguard Bannerman or Genevieve Elmheart to enhance it and beat your opponent down. This deck is also quite reliant on its champions. Both Miss Fortune and Quinn are easy to level-up thanks to Rally and Scout that let you attack several times in the same turn. One of the best decks to climb the ladder, as it has a powerful proactive plan. It is quite fast, not too hard to play, and the disappearance of its counter Ashe Noxus makes this deck very strong at the moment.

---

Gangplank/Sejuani – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Midrange. This deck packs a got early aggression and a lot of face damage to pressure the opponent’s life total. Able to efficiently spread out the Nexus damage between turns, it’s the best deck at leveling up Gangplank and Sejuani – it’s not a rare happenstance to play them out on curve already leveled! Flipped Gangplank puts a terrifying pressure on the opponent, while leveled up Sejuani makes the enemy board irrelevant. And if the game isn’t already over by turn 8, Riptide Rex is there as one of the strongest finishers in the game, closing things out and/or clearing out the opponent’s board development.

---

Deep – Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’

Archetype: Control/Midrange. This deck’s gameplan is to go Deep around turns 6-8 using Toss cards, and then start playing very powerful threats. Nautilus is hard to deal with, and once he is leveled-up the discount on Sea Monsters will make the deck extremely hard to beat. Maokai can help with going Deep faster while simultaneously dealing with opponents’ threats. He also offers an alternate win condition to beat control decks.

---

Fiora/Shen – Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’

Archetype: Midrange. Fiora/Shen is a deck that existed for a very long time but was quite discreet for a while despite good results. The archetype is now gaining a lot of popularity thanks to Deny being so strong in the current meta. The list functions as a classic Demacia midrange build: play strong units and create a powerful board. It runs a lot of Challenger and Barrier synergies to gain the most out of each combat phase. The deck, depending on the situation and matchup, can win in various ways: out-tempo the opponent with strong board presence, outvalue the opponent thanks to Challenger + Barrier, or achieve for the alternative wincon of Fiora.

---

Leona/Aurelion Sol – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Control/Midrange. The Daybreak package is one of the most powerful synergies introduced in Call of the Mountain that has an ability to efficiently slow down games. This deck combines Daybreak with the value of the Invoke package to grind out your opponent, setting up for Aurelion Sol to close out the games as a potent finisher. The Demacia splash lets you cover for some of the Targon’s innate weaknesses, as it gives access to a very powerful card in Radiant Guardian and a cheap Fast speed removal in Single Combat. Against decks that don’t present enough pressure, or are not able to punish tapping out for when Aurelion Sol is played, this archetype would be a heavy favorite.

Alternative build: Lux/Aurelion Sol. This archetype, popularized by TealRed, drops the Daybreak package to play more Demacia cards and Lux. This version is gaining a lot of traction and might become the new standard instead of Leona/Asol in the future.

---

Ashe Noxus – Tier 2 ‘Pick of the Week’

Archetype: Midrange. Ashe/Sejuani has dominated a good chunk of the Season of Fortune and has always been a strong deck, and neither a couple of nerfs nor the addition of new cards were able to fully stop it. This deck lost almost all of its former popularity, but it is still a very strong archetype with a high win rate and a lot of good matchups (especially against Demacia). The gameplan is to play strong units to take control of the board, and use Frostbites to win combats and gain a tempo advantage. The deck packs good removals (Culling Strike and Reckoning are especially strong with Frostbite effects) and can also draw a lot of cards with Trifarian Assessor. If its strong midrange plan isn’t enough to finish the game, this deck can easily level-up Ashe to close things out.

Why this deck is the ‘Pick of the Week’: With both Lee Sin and Fiora/Shen on the rise, it looks like Frostbite effects might be in a great spot once again – and Ashe Noxus is one of the best in utilizing those. Meanwhile, the deck’s direct counter Pirate Aggro is currently a bit less popular than before – that is despite the deck remaining very strong. In fact, Pirate Aggro was a runner-up candidate for this ‘Pick of the Week’ because of its good matchup against Lee Sin decks.

---

Aurelion Sol Ramp – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Control/Ramp. Aurelion Sol costs a lot of mana but is a very powerful finisher. This deck will look to ramp to cheat him out earlier, winning the game on the back of it. The archetype also has access to some strong midrange units, like Trundle, that will maintain a strong board position while stalling for the late game. There’s also a ton of healing to help you survive the onslaught of aggressive decks.

---

They Who Endure – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Aggro/Combo. This deck will start the game by playing cheap creatures and can easily overrun the opponent unless they have good ways to deal with early aggression. There are even some degenerate draws that are possible in the early game, like turn 1 Barkbeast, turn 2 Cursed Keeper + Ravenous Butcher, punching for 10 damage on turn 2. While trying to beat down its opponent, this deck will have a lot of units dying, making it very easy to level-up Kalista or close out the game with Neverglade Collector (in versions using it). When the opponent manages to survive the early aggression, They Who Endure with Atrocity backup can easily enable the OTK.

---

Warmother Control – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Control. This deck was recently popularized by Alanzq, who reached rank 1 EU playing it. Its gameplan is to ramp into Warmother’s Call and cheat out big units, like Tryndamere or Trundle, every turn. It has a lot of powerful tools from Shadow Isles to control the game from start to finish, and Atrocity is a great finisher, especially against slower matchups. The ability to slam down powerful threats for free in the late game – while keeping your mana open to answer whatever the opponent will do – makes a Warmother’s Call very hard to beat once it has been resolved.

Alternative build: Ledros Control. This deck is quite similar to Warmother Control, both are Frejlord/Shadow Isles decks, looking to control the game from start to finish while ramping into a powerful finisher. Instead of Warmother’s Call, this deck uses Commander Ledros’ inevitability to finish the opponent.

---

Lee Sin Targon – Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’

Archetype: Combo. The buff on Lee is very promising. Countless new archetypes with this champion have emerged, and Lee Sin is starting to shape the meta – with a possible Tier 1 staple list to appear soon. The version above was built by Alanzq, but there are a lot of different lists – some with Taric, or Diana… The deck spends the first few turns stabilizing and playing spells, then drops Lee Sin and levels him up. Lee Sin is very hard to deal with because of it’s innate Barrier, and additionally, this deck runs both Bastion and Deny to protect the champion. Lee Sin will then win the game very easily by kicking opponent’s units into their Nexus, and he is even able to OTK opponents if you give him Overwhelm with Zenith Blade.

---

Leona/Karma – Tier 2 ‘Dark Horse’

Archetype: Control/Midrange. This deck uses the Daybreak package to slow down the game and set up Karma, winning the game on the back of the insane Invoke value you generate. Doubling cards like Starshaping gives you game-winning value while stabilizing your Nexus health. You also have cheaper options to get good value out of Karma with spells like Guiding Touch and Pale Cascade. This is a quite complex deck to play as it can be quite tricky to find the best line of play when you have so many possibilities thanks to your overflow of value.

---

Nightfall Aggro – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Aggro/Midrange. Use the Nightfall synergies with cheap enablers to play undercosted units and put pressure on the opponent. Diana and Nocturne are both very strong champions, especially if you can level them up. This deck is an aggro deck, but can still have outs during the midgame thanks to the reach of Doombeast and Elusives, or the power of champions and Celestial cards. This list is quite complex for an aggro deck as it punishes hard for not planning several turns ahead.

---

Discard Aggro – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Aggro. Playing this deck, try to outpace the opponent with your powerful early aggression to deal as much damage as possible using Discard synergies. Later in the game, aim to close out with burn spells. Jinx and Augmented Experimenter are two great card advantage engines that will generate you a lot of value and will keep the relentless aggression going. Jinx’s Super Mega Death Rocket! helps a ton with finishing games as well.

---

Elise Aggro – Tier 2 ‘Staple’

Archetype: Aggro/Burn. This deck is extremely straight-forward: play out your early units, flood the board, and try to kill the opponent fast. This deck is very good at leveling-up Elise, whose ability to drag away big blockers with 1|1 Spiderling’s to get your biggest units through is very effective at ending games. Even if the opponent survives the early aggression, you still have quite a lot of reach with Decimate, Noxian Fervor, and units like Doombeast and Imperial Demolitionist which you can even duplicate with Stalking Shadows.