LoR Meta Snapshot #36

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Difficulty: Moderate

Lucian-Azir was the deck to beat at the start of the Shuriman expansion, but quickly left the stage, needing too much set-up to work effectively in such a strong meta. However, with Aphelios and TF out of the picture, a lot of decks will struggle answering everything this deck has in its arsenal.

Sooner or later, this means the deck will be able to set itself up and force the opponent into making some serious sacrifices in order to avoid taking tremendous damage too rapidly. The Sand Soldiers aren’t a problem at first, but they erode the opposing Nexus piece by piece, while leveling up Lucian and Azir.

The impact of your champions shouldn’t be underestimated, as they end up creating bigger, stronger threats and forcing even more sacrifices from the opponent in order to stay alive. Eventually, your opponent will run out of units or mana. This will be the time to Rally and combine cards like Cithria the Bold and Inspiring Marshal with your Sand Soldiers to chase the sun to victory. (Write-up by Ultraman)

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Difficulty: Easy

In a very similar fashion to old Endure, which featured Thresh alongside a spider core, Thresh-Nasus relies on a swarm of cheap followers in order to threaten Thresh’s level-up. If Nasus may be easy to deal with coming onto the board at a 6 mana cost, he’s far more of a pain to deal with when pulled out of the deck onto the battlefield directly by a leveled Thresh’s lantern.

This method of summoning Nasus means you should still have the mana to use the likes of Rite of Negation to nullify enemy attempts to remove the big dog. However, with such high defense against trades and an early swarm of sacrificial targets able to trade blows with most Aggro decks, your biggest weakness will naturally be Targon. Hush is painful, as it deals with unleveled Nasus at the unanswerable burst speed.

Although Nasus may be the flashy finisher, Thresh is the true mastermind behind the whole deck. This is because his body and ability to trade will frighten most aggressive decks, while also helping you take advantage of control decks desperately trying to deal with your pressure. Watch as your Lissandra-Trundle opponent has to play Avalanche, leveling your Thresh in the process. (Write-up by Ultraman)

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Difficulty: Moderate

Now that Fiora-Shen is gone, Discard Aggro can claim the title of the “oldest-yet-still-competitive” archetype. It has performed pretty well during this first week after the patch. Just like it has always been, the duo of Draven and Jinx can develop a ton of pressure in the early and mid game.

In a meta dominated by aggressive decks, Discard Aggro looks to have solid tools to fight against both other aggressive builds and sustain itself sufficiently against slower decks if needed. The deck relies on the same old concepts of a board swarm in the early game and a transition towards high quality minions in the mid game with its champions and Crowd Favorite, which looks to be a good recipe for success against both fast and slower builds.

The important part looks to be the set-up during the swarming part of the deck, as once we’re in control of the situation, it’s about navigating it in a way that retains our advantage. But with a lot of other aggressive decks roaming around the ladder, being able to develop small units to take control of the board in the early game is key to developing our champions later on.

For now, it’s too early to say which of the many fast builds will end up being the best one, and Discard Aggro relies on different concepts than other pressure decks like Scouts or Azir Burn for example. If the meta ends up rewarding raw power level and immediate pressure, maybe decks like Lucian-Azir or Elise Burn could end up having better matchups overall.

But if flexibility becomes a key component, it looks like Discard Aggro can keep competing at all ranks. (Write-up by den)

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Difficulty: Easy

After the nerfs to Aphelios and The Veiled Temple, players are trying to figure out what the best Targon decks are in this meta. For now, Lee Sin/Targon and Demacia/Targon seem to be the decks with the highest potential.

Zoe-ASol is a Midrange/control deck that can be built around Targon’s Invoke package, or around Demacian units and spells. This version focuses on dealing with aggressive decks as effectively as possible with cards like Solari Sunforger and The Fangs, especially when combined with combat tricks like Single Combat and Concerted Strike.

The Challenger units like Dragonguard Lieutenant and Screeching Dragon are great units against Aggro and Midrange decks with protective spells like Sharpsight to force out good trades. Eclipse Dragon and ASol are basically how this deck wins against decks that are even slower.

Don’t hesitate to use Eclipse Dragon’s Nightfall effect instead when you don’t have ASol or when you need units. Even though Zoe’s level-up isn’t the main focus of this deck, keeping Zoe in the back row and protecting her with spells is often a good idea, as this can put a lot of pressure on the opponent.

Embrace this (relatively) old favorite in order to put the Aggro decks infesting the meta in their place! (Write-up by Kuvira)

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Difficulty: Easy

The Scouts archetype has been very up and down for a while now, either feeling like a great meta pick or being almost invisible for extended periods of time. In this patch, the deck feels like it’s slowly finding its groove. Its capacity to build steady pressure helps it a lot against the control decks around at the moment, such as Deep and Lissandra-Trundle.

True to its nature, Scouts still play a board-dependent game plan that relies on building up an army of small and medium-sized minions that we can use to level-up Miss Fortune and Quinn with their attacks. Alternatively, you can try to set up a huge burst turn thanks to buffs and recurring multi-attack turns. This potential dual approach keeps the opponent on their toes and forces them into playing reactively rather than proactively, which may make their own game plan quite awkward.

Higher ranks are seeing a flurry of aggressive decks appearing in this first week, so Scouts can’t shine as much as they could in a slower meta. Having said that, Scouts can still climb steadily and be considered a good pick. Miss Fortune, even though she was nerfed not so long ago, still represents a threat and is a “must kill” target for any opponent. This is even more so now that Cataclysm has become a staple in a lot of lists.

The other card that can aid Scouts is Stony Suppressor, a very simple but extremely effective card lately, with spells becoming more and more important as support tools in the game. It also helps that the card makes most Lee Sin opponents concede on the spot when they understand their whole deck is now at +1 mana.

As Scouts’ main support in combat is Miss Fortune, Stony Suppressor is almost always more detrimental to our opponent than us. Even against more unit-centric decks (e.g. other aggressive decks), Stony Suppressor can block 2/1 units and Sand Soldiers, all the while forcing more mana to be used for combat tricks during our attack turns.

The deck had a great time in the first few days when Deep was massively popular, but the comeback of other Aggro archetypes might force Scouts to remain a tournament deck. The list presented here aims at beating the more control-oriented strategies, but adding cards like another Ranger’s Resolve or Riposte would help against faster strategies. (Write-up by den)

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Difficulty: Moderate

Diana and Nocturne are finally reunited in the Nightfall archetype, one that disappeared when Aphelios was released, but now seems to be regaining popularity. Joining the many pressure-oriented decks we have on this snapshot, Nightfall looks to take over the board early and get a set-up where Nocturne and Crescent Guardian can be major threats for the opponent.

The rest of the build is aimed at damaging the opposing Nexus through the Nightfall mechanic and keeping the opponent on their toes at all times. The recently released Unto Dusk also finally looks like it has a deck where the card can truly shine.

What separates this deck from other pressure-based archetypes is the Targon region, one that is usually seen as a Midrange (e.g. Invokes) or at least a value-oriented region. Having the Lunari Priestess in the list helps with escaping tricky situations by utilizing tools that the opponent can’t prepare for, which gives the deck more flexibility.

Unspeakable Horror is another card that can help with that surprise element against an opponent that would have ways to answer your primary aggressive gameplan. It’s also valuable against faster decks (removing small units) and the very popular Demacia region (removing barriers before going into combat).

While very new in this meta, Nightfall is known for its capacity to dominate the early game and transform that situation into heavy damage, a combination that looks to be working for a lot of decks lately. It will probably take another week to see which Aggro decks come out on top, but don’t count Nightfall out in this battle - it could go to the moon! (Write-up by den)

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Difficulty: Easy

The emphasis is put on “Drain” here, granting you favorable matchups against other Aggro decks. The high amount of draining cards in this deck allows you to achieve the powerful dual effect of actively healing yourself each time you deal direct damage. Blighted Caretaker is a standout card, helping you make active trades in the early game. As a result, the opposing Aggro decks will often tire themselves out unless they can draw very frequently.

Against other archetypes, consider yourself an aggressive SI deck: Cursed Keeper into Blighted Caretaker, Ravenous Butcher or Glimpse Beyond will offer you a nice start with minions too big for most AoE spells to handle. Similarly, Phantom Prankster has a 3-health body that won’t die to Avalanche, Ice Shard or Withering Wail, effectively dealing damage each time the opponent tries to get rid of one of your followers.

Azir on his own is dangerous for the opponent, adding a huge chunk of pressure by giving a buff on every minion you summon during that turn (if leveled-up) and dealing more damage each turn with Sand Soldiers. (Write-up by Ultraman)

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Difficulty: Moderate

Time passes by, but Ezreal-Draven doesn’t change. The rest of the meta does, however, and the loss of its beloved companion Fiora-Shen ended up hurting this archetype a lot. That said, the addition of more Demacia decks will be sure to compensate that loss, as most, if not all of Demacian builds can be easily countered by the removal-heavy nature of Ezreal-Draven.

Ravenous Flock, Scorched Earth and Noxian Guillotine will take care of most threats that a Midrange deck can put up, all the while leveling your Ezreal and buffing Tri-beam Improbulator. Able to both remove threats and build its later win condition is what this deck does best, and it shines each time the opponent offers the possibility to remove cheap minions.

It’s a solid deck, able to stand its ground against most opponents, but it doesn’t have many favored matchups at the moment. It suffers when it faces Lee Sin, Lissandra-Trundle and even Burn decks led by the likes of Azir or Elise. (Write-up by Ultraman)

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Difficulty: Hard

The king of the previous meta hasn’t evaporated entirely (as some would’ve hoped) - it still appears to be playable. However, it’s much harder to pilot now. In addition, the aggressive environment doesn’t help the deck at all. Despite all this, Mind Meld and the Elusives remain a great way to close games.

Slower decks that were biding their time until Fizz-TF received some nerfs aren’t as competitive as some may have expected; defensive cards are still important inclusions in lists for now. The main difference in the deck’s matchups after the changes is related to Aggro decks, as TF’s level-up won’t save the day as often as it used to. It’s now more important to establish a robust board presence and stay safe from the opposing pressure plays in those matchups.

While it’s obvious that Fizz-TF can’t pretend to be the best deck in the game anymore, people would be remiss to automatically dismiss it. For now, it looks like its winrate is still very good across most ranks. Don’t worry too much, though, as this is probably because of an expectation that the deck would vanish from competitive play, which has led to players failing to account for its everlasting presence on the ladder.

Once the meta becomes more clear and Fizz-TF finds its real position in the new environment, the deck should stay relevant but counterable, making it more matchup dependent instead of being the overpowered juggernaut. (Write-up by den)

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Difficulty: Moderate

In our previous snapshot, we predicted this deck would be here to stay. With the latest patch nerfing the “back row” archetypes, it seems we were right. With the rise of aggressive matchups, it was only fair that a flexible Midrange deck like Braum-Vladimir would see a rise in its raw power.

This deck’s strength is that it works almost the same way whether you’re trying to be aggressive or defensive, since cards like Death Lotus and Ice Shard can simultaneously destroy the opponent’s aggressive game plan while serving as a mass enabler for our board to push a ton of damage.

The list we’re featuring heavily focuses on maximizing our synergies while adapting to the meta. Kindly Tavernkeeper feels like a must-have, healing our units but also helping against damage-based decks. Ember Maiden is another way to remove Aggro boards instead of the usual Avalanche. She also has a great synergy with Ursine Spiritwalker, as by activating its Plunder effect, Maiden flips the Spiritwalker into Stormclaw Ursine, which is a huge pressure tool that sets up an Overwhelm-heavy late game.

With good matchups vs most Aggro decks and the capacity to pressure damage-based defensive decks like Lissandra-Trundle or Deep, this deck will most likely be the best take on Freljord/Noxus in the current meta. It also has to be noted that the list is still developing and the archetype is being refined as we speak.

With that said, Lee Sin might prove to be a tough nut to crack for Braum-Vladimir. A well-placed Hush on your strongest unit can instantly demolish the pressure you’ve been building and Lee Sin can easily trade in defense or attack due to his Barrier and his Dragon’s Kick - which will remove all your buffs and ignore Tough.

You might also have some difficulties with buffed-up Elusive units, so you should remember one of the most important rules in the game: if you get your opponent’s Nexus to 0 before they can react, you win. (Write-up by Othal)