LoR Meta Snapshot #21

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GP-MF is an Aggro deck with the Nexus rush game plan. Jack, the Winner’s ability creates a free card which allows you to deal two zero-cost damage in the following turn while also enabling Gangplank. The list quickly approaches critical mass in terms of Burn potential. Every card offers some form of reach, which can be scary to play against.

Additional notes: If Lee Sin is the strongest deck in the meta, then GP-MF has to be the most efficient deck. Firstly, the games with this deck are fast. Next, it has a very strong curve, you never brick and every card has a way to deal direct damage to the opposing Nexus. This version, with Crackshot Corsair, makes it really easy to level-up Gangplank by Turn 7 at the latest. GP-MF has a lower skill ceiling, which is great because you can punish the bad Zed-Lee players.

Yet, it’s rated much lower than Lee Sin just because of how easily counterable the deck is if people actively try to. Unlike Lee Sin, GP-MF gets punished by SI control decks, which, uncoincidentally, are starting to become more prevalent.

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Tahm-Soraka is a Midrange combo deck with the Star Spring landmark as its primary win condition. You want to curve out with self-damage units like Crusty Codger, Boxtopus and Fortune Croaker, supported by healing cards (Star Spring, Guiding Touch) to protect your board and get the maximum value from it. Shakedown allows you to force favorable trades and to manage the damage you take, helping to accelerate your Star Spring healing.

Additional notes: Tahm-Soraka has a very strange matchup spread. We’ve seen it beat any deck except for maybe Warmother (with 2x The Ruination). We position this deck below Swain-TF and GP-MF because it’s extremely mana management intensive, similarly to decks like Nightfall.

You usually need to think about 3-4 turns ahead and if you mess up even by 1 mana, your opponent will have a lot more tempo than you. The deck also rewards open passing, especially with Tahm Kench. There is another strong version with Star Shepherd and Zenith Blade, but we opted for the showcased list with much better consistency.

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Ramping is powerful, and who could make a better use of that than Warmother’s Call? This terrifying spell will overwhelm your opponent with huge monsters, but it comes at a big cost of 12 Mana. Use your AoEs at the right time to survive the early game and let Trundle stabilize your board until the call is made!

Additional notes: At the moment, this list is essentially a slightly worse version of Trundle-Ledros because it has more units and more brickable hands. Ironically, Warmother’s best matchup is against Trundle-Ledros, which is gaining popularity. We expect to see a huge rise in Warmother’s playrate after the Lee Sin nerfs. Lots of people will play Trundle-Ledros, so Warmother will see more and more play in order to counter it.

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Fast & Furious, this deck doesn’t have the time to play around. Throw away your whole hand and take advantage of the freebies on your Discard-oriented cards and hope for the best. With Draven as Dominic Toretto and Jinx as Leticia Ortiz, call your friends and start the race. Vision serves as the nitro in your engine, get some and you’ll power up your cards. This deck is hit-or-miss, so get ready for quick wins and devastating defeats.

Additional notes: Discard Aggro is a deck that has to high-roll. If you high-roll, it can defeat anything. However, the prevalence of Withering Wail in the meta (due to the popularity of SI control decks) prevents it from achieving a higher rating. The counter play against SI control is to be less proactive, but Aggro decks can’t really do that.

With GP-MF, there’s wiggle room to counter Avalanche and Withering Wail, since some of the GP-MF followers have 3+ health. Discard Aggro is the textbook definition of a “Glass Cannon.” It’s the riskier version of GP-MF, with higher highs and lower lows.

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Do you like the Aggro playstyle? Do you feel frustrated because your opponents keep blocking your minions, preventing them from reaching their rightful place? Worry not, my child, for this deck is the solution to your problem. How do you play this deck? Step 1: Play Elusive units and attack with them. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit. Don’t forget to preserve your Elusive units by using the non-Elusive ones as blockers.

Additional notes: People are playing Elusives because it wins against Lee Sin. The deck also has the potential to high-roll like Discard Aggro, winning games with ease if the opponent bricks. SI control is an unfavorable matchup, where you have slightly better odds than Discard Aggro, but worse odds than GP-MF. You also tend to lose to GP-MF because regular Aggro decks are favored against Elusives.

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Ashe-Sejuani is a Midrange, board-centric deck that excels in unit-to-unit combat thanks to its Frostbite ability. The main way Midrange decks win games is by playing cards that create 2-for-1 trade scenarios in their favor (e.g. Harsh Winds, Brittle Steel). You can also play efficiently-costed cards like Enraged Yeti, which naturally leads to a tempo advantage.

Additional notes: People started playing Ashe-Sejuani as a counter to Lee Sin. However, we must emphasise that Ashe-Sejuani doesn’t counter Lee Sin in any way. Freezing costs mana and cards. To beat Lee, freezing isn’t enough, as it only buys you time. You need to control the board against Zed-Lee, but you can’t do that if you’re spending 6 mana to stop Lee Sin from killing you.

Ashe-Sejuani is also extremely unfavoured against Aggro decks, especially GP-MF, because it has no way to stop or recover the direct damage that kills you little by little. The deck also has to make a decision about whether it wants to tech against Lee Sin or Aggro. It can’t cater to the whole field and if you try to, it’s wishful thinking to assume you won’t draw badly most of the time. In a tournament setting where you can ban one deck and tech for another, Ashe-Sejuani becomes more powerful.

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Thanks to Targon's support, Heimerdinger can thrive again, but in a more secondary role than his usual self. Say goodbye to the Heimerdinger high-roll winning games on Turn 5 and instead welcome having a great value tool on top of an overall solid base. Vi steals the spotlight, as the Spring Guardian will help her stay healthy while trading and dealing damage to the opponent!