(WIP) Budget-Friendly Decks in Legends of Runeterra

This is a guide for building budget-friendly decks in Legends of Runeterra. It is intended for players with a respectable inventory of Common and Rare wildcards at their disposal and/or already own copies of the necessary commons and rares, but are limited on Epic and Champion wildcards. If your wildcard inventory is more modest, you might want to check out our guide to upgrading your starter decks as well as our guide to quickly grow your card collection here (link TBD).

Contents

1. Criteria for "Budget" Status
2. List of Budget Decks
   1. Hyper Aggro Endure
   2. Fearsome Spider Aggro
   3. Discard Aggro
   4. Bannerman Elites
   5. Mistwraiths
   6. Hodor & the North
   7. Decisive Draven & Darius
   8. Emoosives
   9. Demacia Dragons
   10. Casino
   11. Elise Prankster Burn
   12. Ashe Noxus
   13. Solo Zoe Control

Criteria for "Budget" Status

The following decks were selected by the following criteria:

• They require at most 4 additional champion crafts beyond the starting collection
• Said champion crafts are "good investments": versatile enough to be used in multiple other decks
• Any epics beyond the starting collection are not critical and can be substituted
• The winrate is reasonable against all foreseeable metas (i.e., "always Tier 3 or greater")
• The decklist should also be flexible and able to accommodate card substitutions

Because of these criteria, many of these decks will repeat the champions from the starter decks.

As your collection grows, you will find yourself closer and closer to being able to reproduce other decklists you see at Out of Cards and other resources. Don't be afraid to "budgetize" those decklists to accommodate your collection's limitations. Notably: while most decks will run 3x Champ A + 3x Champ B, you can often get away with changing this to as little as 2x Champ A + 2x Champ B. Obviously this alternation will reduce the consistency of the deck, but it often close enough for budget-minded players plus it allows for a form of "try before you buy" so you can evaluate whether you want to spend a wildcard crafting the 3rd copy of those champions.

List of Budget Decks

These are the budget decks we recommend for new players.

Hyper Aggro Endure

They Who Endure decks have been reliable archetype across every meta since Open Beta and arguable the most affordable deck in the game. This particular decklist is an aggressive variant Vander showcased. Every variant of this deck has a common endgame, though: play aggressive with your high-attack / low health SI units, and if your opponent doesn't die quickly enough transition to a double-digit They Who Endure and either overwhelm them directly or sneak in an Atrocity lethal. This deck list has 3x Kalista as its only champion; she's used primarily for her L2 ability to summon additional units and grow your They Who Endure even more. Elise is an acceptable substitute.

Check out our deck spotlight article for detailed discussion.

Fearsome Spider Aggro

Fearsome is sometimes referred to as Elusive Light due to how difficult it makes blocking, especially in the early game. Many decks attempt to make use of this feature for bold and aggressive strategies, including this gem also from the 1.14 Patch Notes (don't give too much stock to the "54.86 win rate" from the title; this was its success during the 2 weeks before 1.14). This is a very straight-forward "race" deck, so you'll want to try to save temporary effects like Frenzied Skitterer and Stygian Onlooker for your attack rounds where they'll translate into the most nexus damage. Elise is the champion of choice here mostly due to her low cost and Fearsome tag; you can substitute in a 1x Kalista or 1x Darius in a pinch.

Discard Aggro

Discard is a novel type of aggro archetype: many of your cards will require you to discard cards from your hand which is usually a very big drawback in CCGs, but in this archetype you rewarded by a few cards like Flame Chompers! and Vision that still trigger even when you discard them. And of course if you can empty your entire hand you can level up Jinx, who will reward you with an extra draw and a Super Mega Death Rocket! if you can empty your hand again. This particular decklist -- again from the patch notes -- is looking for 2x Augmented Experimenter; you should have 1x from your starting collection and you can substitute a 3rd Get Excited! for the 2nd. For champs, you really want 3x Draven and 3x Jinx due to their inherent discard synergies, but you can utilize Draven's Biggest Fan to tutor Draven if you are missing copies.

Bannerman Elites

This is a very linear archetype with a direct battleplan: build a big board and then smash your enemies. Note the 3x Cithria the Bold and 3x For The Fallen: we're bending our "no critical epics" rule a bit here due to this deck only otherwise asking for 2 champion crafts. Cithria is highly desired due to her Elite tag and her ability to make all your other attackers Fearsome; you should have 1x copy from your starting collection, and you'll want at least a 2nd for this deck. If you have any copies of Genevieve Elmheart, you can substitute her in for your missing Cithria. For The Fallen plays the roll of an "insurance" card to refill in case of board wipe -- again 3x copies are ideal but you can get away with as few as 1x and substitute in either Concerted Strike or additional Reinforcements in a pinch.

Mistwraiths

Mistwraiths seem to always find a place in the meta. Or perhaps more accurate: Wraithcaller, the SI allegiance card which summons a free Mistwraith every time it is summoned. All variants tend to employ a aggressive playstyle with fearsome attackers very similar to the earlier Fearsome Spiders archetype; however these decks will also be almost entirely SI cards to ensure the Wraithcaller's allegiance. The biggest variation is which non-SI card to include (if any); the most popular option lately is 3x Pale Cascade due to its ability to push damage and provide card draw. This particular decklist runs 2x The Harrowing as a finisher which can be extremely effective; however you can substitute in Atrocity for a budget version.

Hodor & the North

This deck from streamer Earlmeister packs a huge punch and requires no epics. The decklist calls for 3x Braum + 3x Trundle, but you can budget a 2x Braum + 2x Trundle + 2x Darius version to start. The strategy is to build up a squad of overwhelm units and then attack in, casting Decisive Maneuver mid-combat to maximize your damage (if you stun an enemy unit that is blocking your overwhelm unit, then 100% of its damage will go to nexus).

Decisive Draven & Darius

This archetype has many similarities to the Braum + Trundle deck above: look for a big attack with overwhelm units and then use Decisive Maneuver to maximize nexus damage. It substitutes Freljord for Noxus, however, and generally presents a more aggressive gameplan. 3x Darius is fairly critical for this deck; however you can subsitute 3rd copies of Precious Pet and/or Solari Shieldbearer if you are short on Draven.

Emoosives

This is an aggressive board-control deck with a sneaky finisher combo: if you can give Greathorn Companion elusive via either Fae Guide or Ghost, it can often attack unblocked for 10 damage (15 if you have Relentless Pursuit; 16 if you have Riposte). This decklist is calling for 2x Genevieve Elmheart who is a fantastically utilitarian and possibly the most worthy Epic craft; in a pinch though you can substitute any combination of 3rd Zed, Garen, Cithria the Bold, The Empyrean, or 1x Tianna Crownguard.

Demacia Dragons

Here's a relatively recent archetype leveraging dragons and the Fury attribute that gives them +1/+1 every time they kill an enemy unit. It is asking for 3x Aurelion Sol and 2x Judgment: you could safely reduce both by 1 copy (you should at least 1x Judgment from your starting collection) and replace with Mobilize.  Alternatively, we also have this budget dragon decklist that runs Rares and Commons exclusively. 

Casino

We almost excluded this archetype from our list as it really wants 3x Twisted Fate to function (re: our "must be flexible" criteria), but it's so much fun we couldn't help but greenlight it. It's also one of the few budget-friendly control decks. If you're missing the 3rd Jinx you can substitute a 3rd Zaunite Urchin. Be forewarned, however -- it can be an extremely difficult (yet rewarding) deck to pilot. 

Check out our deck spotlight article for detailed discussion.

Elise Prankster Burn

This is a straight-forward aggro deck, and the only expensive card beyond the starter collection is the 3rd Elise. Keep your Phantom Pranksters and Neverglade Collectors safe in your backline and let your other units die, resulting in direct nexus damage. Used Cask Salesman is a fantastic development punish: if your opponent has the attack token but doesn't immediately attack, you can play him to get 3 potential blockers from a single card.

Ashe Noxus

This is another deck that challenges our "no critical epics" rule, as it asks for 3x Avarosan Hearthguard, 2x Reckoning, and 1x Captain Farron. You should have 2x Avarosan Hearthguard from your starting collection and can substitute a 3rd Trifarian Assessor for the other, and you should also have 1x Captain Farron. That only leaves the 2x Reckoning which unfortunately do put in a lot of work in this deck. You can make do with your free 1x copy of Winter's Breath and a 3rd Rimefang Wolf, but if you enjoy this deck you will want to craft those Reckoning sooner rather than later. The champions are Ashe and Sejuani -- note that you should receive 2x copies of Ashe with the "Freeze and Decay" deck awarded on Day 7 of the daily login rewards.

Solo Zoe Allegiance

This is a one of the best control decks in the game right now!