I certainly agree It's not hard to figure out that Azir plus blade dance equals free sandman. Then those summons buff up your Ionia dudes so your 1/1 is now an 8/8 because your opponent isn't running pings for some reason.

However keeping track of keywords and stats in a Lee Sin lucky find list can be quite tricky. Or using your health as a resource in a midrange list. But there should be decks for all types.

I'm not surprised it's doing well given how explosive it's turns can be. It hard punishes any otk strategies, it nullifies slow speed answers, and it essentially makes you rethink how legends is played. I think it's good in the sense that expansions should be transformative, better to design aggressively and nerf later.

I'd be pretty happy if that was the case I'm just going by mobalitics that places thresh Nasus at a conservative 51 percent win rate.

Now this is an average of players at all ranks, it's very possible the picture changes and aggro does worse as you get up to masters

Hi there, Nifty back to introduce everyone to  a healthy dose of down to earth meta statistics and a happy analysis of what they mean.

1. Azir, Irela the new hotness with a 20% percent play rate and a 56% winrate. Is it good yes absolutely, is it op not based on the numbers as of yet, pirate aggro and spider aggro do just as well. However if it becomes oppressive Riot should look at it in 2 - 3 weeks.

2. Midrange is an okay answer to aggro we typically see things like dragons, vlad, and swain doing okay early on into an unstable meta not because it's optimal but because it's flexible.

3. Control is not doing well again this is typical TF was nerfed and aggro was pushed and the lists have yet to adjust to changing circumstances like the prevalence of extra attack phases.

4. Combo fringe lists will do well early on as outliers but these too will fissle out. For example Swim has a massive 70 winrate with flurry of fists...except when everyone tries it it will go sub 40% percent in aggregate like Lee Sin decks.

 Expect things to solidify in the comming weeks when everyone remembers that healing exists along with easy answers for 3 mana Champs like culling strike.

Long term prediction is that a control list will rise to the top and start putting aggro in its place, it's just not as easy as copy paste TF/Aphelios anymore and that's okay.

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with the mini expansion thus far. Pushing Ionia as a tricky aggressive region, and giving Targon more of a landmark identity is really cool stuff. Not sure how Zillian is fairing but I'm really happy to see a  non aggressive two drop champ.

Symptomatic of LOR's mini set release schedule, is a general lack of long term viability.

For example Shurima needs something like two more mini sets before its actually interesting beyond the archetypes that are quite well known at this point. (Renekton overwhelm, Nassus slay, Azir swarm, landmark Thalyiah)

Nobody really cares about Sivir with her feeling a bit like a worse Zoe, it doesn't help that reputation in Shurima isn't a thing yet.

Soooo to pass the time I've been playing genshin impact. It's pretty fun but it's designed to absolutely destroy your wallet on a massive scale...don't say I didn't warn you

I've played something like 4-5 ccg's. LOR's biggest strength right now is:

A (it borrows ideas from everyone) things like Gwents turn passing mechanics, hearthstone mana, mtgs card design and League's champion design.

B (longterm balance) every set and region will essentially remain in a tug of war from now till the end of time

C (100% ftp) maybe you slap down a 20 for a board or a battle pass but thats totally optional paying beyond that makes 0 sense when all you need to do is open the game once a week for 2 free Champs.

Its greatest weakness however is that the amount of excitement that comes from a new set being released isn't at the heights of mtg with things like Kaladesh, Domibaria, War of the Spark. I'm not sure how LOR can fix that but I'd it does it will probably be the best CCG.

The answer is pretty obvious, to generate more pings, and it's true playing pack your bags over and over again off tf level up isn't really viable after nerfs.

Those that know me know that I love legends of Runterra.

But I'm also a big proponent of taking breaks now and then when the meta gets stale.

On that note I've been giving magic legends a shot a deck building mmo diablo style game.

It's alright for a free beta, although it runs like butt.

Give it a shot if you're bored, afterall we still have no formal announcement on when were getting that hotfix

Also we don't know if it's going to be comprehensive and game changing or tiny, and unimpactful.

If anyone's given this game a chance shout out in the comments.

Yeah possible, but again is it the level up requirement or the play effect you probably don't nerf both

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/meta-tier-list

So Tf Fizz, and TF Aphelios being both at the very top of S tier is definately a problem one might say.

One combos out for 20 elusive damage the other invokes infinitely until you concede.

This is definately a unhealthy spread of extremes where you on the one hand want to run 3 box's but also want to have otk potential.

Thats not a realistic expectation for 90% of decks out there.

Its enough I would say to discourage ladder players all together for the next two weeks till a balance patch lands.

Hopefully we'll see tweaks for the new cards/champions as well.

We havent seen this level of overrepresentation at top tiers since burn aggro was everywhere and ironically that deck wouldn't be any good now even if they un-nerfed that 1 mana 3/2.

All that being said I'm confident we're gonna see some possitive changes like Riot has done in the past, so let's keep the baby rage to a minimal.

Honestly I'm more looking forward to tweaks to new cards like Jarvan.

The fact that he doesn't synergize with quick attack when he's in the same region as Lucian is a huge design oversight.

And it makes him near impossible to level, like even if you frostbite something he doesn't trigger thats dumb.

Being a bit more supportive of the sentiment that was being echoed by the community when Riot decided to not release a balance patch this week.

Maybe we can talk about how to nerf it instead, maybe it's Tf but maybe it's burblefish.

I hope they don't absolutely gut TF because he's really good in a wide variety of lists.

https://mobalytics.gg/blog/3-promising-off-meta-lor-decks/

Glad there's more attention being given to the archetypes that have been subtly improved with the new expansion

I'll expand on the list provided in the article with both of us agreeing that bloodletter is fantastic for Vlad

I prefer the healing synergy with vlad soraka, instead of the obvious vlad braum

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The next one is dragon chow, not only does this hyper level Shivana it provides Demacia with cycling tools which is always needed

I usually prefer Shivana Lux to Shivana Asol

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Spiders are just a starter list right...wrong

Thanks to this puppy we now have up to 3 grant effects for our go wide tribal strategy that is insanely good

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Thorn of the rose is everything Yassao needed

The card advantage, the removal, the retreat synergy

It's gotten to the point where you don't need roar anymore

Which is great that card is super situational

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Having Bilgewater be the king of elusives felt wrong

Thankfully ionia got this great tool for strong combo potential

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While jarvan is actually underperforming

This girl is single handedly the best reason to run elites again

Just being able to drop a Garen with challenger is insane

and honored lord is no slouch

You'll notice I still use 1 cythria, I also believe in grant abilities for tibal decks such as reinforcements

Sucession is a flexible 3 drop that empowers passes in situations and off curve plays

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Last but not least we have production surge being a hyper enabler for Heimer level up

Feel free to share your off meta lists down below

What if we compare it to stone weaving. 1 mana grab a random landmark you can afford.

Sure it can be game winning but it's also a little clunky.

I think offering decks flexibility is good game design, but it comes at a cost.

Imagine if they created a 1 mana card that let you pick between vengeance, grasp, and withering like sure it would be strong but you're also paying an extra mana every time.

Yeah I had called that heckarim was gonna be pretty strong with sandmen during reveal season

I don't think the deck is op because it's sitting at like 53 percent winrate, but it's a very polarizing list.

Do you have healing, do you have a fast speed/burst speed clear option

can you go wide as fast as they do, if the answer is no you're pretty boned

In fact it could possible be the sole reason people see lee as tier 3 now which is a huge drop

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Tf fizz, discard aggro, a lot of the new overwhelm list with Reketon, Fiora

I could absolutely see how queing into these decks over and over could be frustrating

But you're talking to a guy who still plays deep...soooo I think playing what you want is still very viable

So typically the best way to get an accurate reading on how well an archetype is performing you need to check out the region stats.

Because if a deck has a 58% winrate but a play rate of 1% that means its essentially being carried by a few top players.

What we actually see when examining shurima as a whole is that it's essentially maintaining a 51% winrate in its best decks as of right now.

I consider that very healthy and I think this expansion has been far less devisive than call of the mountain.

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/stats/regions

But what do you guys think, are there any lists or decks you consider to be absolute BS right now or are we seeing a healthy mix?

Yeah swim showcased two Fiora variants in Freijord and Shurima. Probably why she's gotten popular again.

So there are a lot of people making bold statements about what is and isn't op right now during the expansion.

But let's ground things a little with a mobalytics article and I'll break down each list and how I feel about it.

https://mobalytics.gg/blog/best-legends-of-runeterra-decks/

A lot of this is gonna seem obvious extra attacks plus sandmen equals double value and double aggression

Rememberance if a bunch of your tokens are dying you get to cast it for free

Rangers resolve as anti wail/ice shard tech

Rock hopper is supposed to synergize with greenfang warden where you get to utilize barrier to challenge, not sure how reliable that is at 2 a piece

Also ancient preparations will probably get cut it doesn't do anything in this list

But everything else look great.

The thing is though we have so many great aggro lists that this is looking B tier right now

I had said that they who nasus would be a great list during announcement season and here it is

A lot of this list looks super flexible I like the baccai spinners here, trade with your opponents champ to enable slay

3 counters to 1 atrocity is interesting, and again we see a lot of confidence in rock hopper which I don't share

Black spear is great I always thought that card was underated, and thresh gets you the box too

I would say this deck has A tier potential

Hey look it's anivia control without the jank, not much else to say

You just stall and stall and stall till your free 8/8's pop out fresh as daisies

Spectral matron is fun, you play it on rekindler or inquisitor and it levels Lissandra

Honestly just super solid S tier stuff here

So it's ledros control without carina, and without the otk potential of concurrent timelines

I don't think this list makes sense honestly, like all you need is like 1 hush play and this deck is done

I think this list is being carried by surrenders, people just get hard controlled and give up

So veiled Temple Thaliyah with Aphelios is a strong mana cheating list

I really like weight of judgement here card is super undervalued I run it as a 1 of in a lot of decks

Goal is pretty simple stack your buffs on one dude and then infernum for overwhelm

You also get your burn dmg from leveled Thalia 

The only question is, better than TF Aphelios where you get your free 3/4 challengers

Just having deny might make it better, but it looks weak to aggro I see the fangs going down on 4 and its too little too late

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The truth is though a lot of important lists are absent I believe that there is absolutely a very strong Rekton list out there 

I believe that Ash with Leblanc looks absolutely nuts

I think deep should be revisited, along with dragons

The fact a lot of what we are seeing is people just playing shadow isles is not a great sign on the creativity front

and what about Sivr, you can't tell me she's garbage, she has spell shield and quick attack like holly crap

Anyway that's it for me, let me know what you guys think down below.

I personally take the opposite approach. Where I feel shurima is a very limiting region to play at the moment.

I was experimenting with running it with Ezreal or TF given all the card draw and draw fixing and I realized I just didn't have the necessary control tools.

I've seen people try to run it with Aphelios to do some meme stuff but it's arguable worse than what we already have.

Instead what you end up with is running regions like freijord and then splashing shurima for landmark synergy or running noxious for 5+ dmg support.

In that instance Shurima is just providing the champions more than anything else.