Legends of Runeterra

https://mobalytics.gg/blog/dev-blog-the-future-of-our-lor-meta-stats/

For those that don't know last year mobalytics made the call that it could no longer responsible support statistics tracking for legends of runeterra.

It's all in the dev blog here but basically - the spread is too large to cover and the sample sizes are too small.

So deck diversity, plus unstable metas, plus games being played in the thousands vs the tens of thousands.

Why does this matter?

Well the statistical spread on decks actually massively shifts based on the smaller hosting websites we have available today.

Example go to mastering runeterra and you look at 3000 games of Jax played and it will be sub 50% so okay terrible deck.

But I go to runeterra ar and it says 2,000 Jax games played at 57% winrate basically saying it's an amazing deck this patch maybe because it outscales elites?

The truth is nobody knows the spreads are too wide, the sample sizes too small, and there are too many variables to know for sure.

Anyone saying otherwise is kind of stuck up their own butt.

So that brings us to this patch, we know that jayce is good, we know that elites are good.

Beyond that we have no idea, nobody is willing to play the lower tier lists enough to get reliable data, or brew counters for a concrete two deck meta that will last a month.

So maybe Mobalytics was right, stats for LOR are kinda garbage in 2023 and knowing that empowers you to play your own lists and search for your own solutions.

Brewing is a lot like sales or marketing.

It's learning about the power of losing.

Through loss you get better.

You brew better, your decks perform better.

You might even start ruffling a few feathers.

Not because they are good players but because they haven't embraced the power of losing.

Good brewers, people like Mogwai they wouldn't just upload a list after it popped into their head.

They would pressure cook that **** till they had something that was actually good.

So I guess my message to the LOR community right now is do better...not by playing the strongest hand but learning how to lose.

I've mentioned this before but there's a big difference between meming and being off meta.

Mogwai, Swim these guys understood that it's okay to play unique lists but only if they can beat what's popular.

So right now that's two things, one is jayce, and one is elites.

Pick one if you can't beat either your deck essentially shouldn't exist in its current form.

So how do you build good off meta brews?

Well two things play the matchup and see if you can climb, two if you find that intimidating then play the matchup with a friend.

As soon as you can start winning with your trash vs their treasure you have an off meta brew.

If you can't its a meme...sorry.

So we are getting 10 new variety cards coming soon to LOR and about a month to play around with them in our massive card pool.

Will it be removal, tribal support, archetype support, who knows but any of that would be awesome.

On the less exciting note they are finally gonna start "deleting" rotating cards in LOR in a month with the next expansion:

1. Good news is stable metas with top decks for those that like climbing

2. Bad news for the first time ever you will not have free acess to the complete card pool in LOR for deck crafting

Just to give a detailed account of what this means, Jayce for example exists in two of the top control decks in jayce Lux, and jayce heimer.

If he gets rotated that would free up room potentially for other control archetypes to exist.

Bad news is Lux is no longer playable in the meta.

So I know for me I'm in wait and see mode, new variety cards will be awesome, rotation might just break the game in a dozen ways we will see.

I've talked quite a bit on many platforms how the sudden mainstream success of both yetis and Leona surprised me quite a bit.

But the weirdness doesn't stop there:

Jayce Lux at 55% this ain't no isolated incident we are talking 500 games in the last 3 days consistent winrate with good old fashioned I'm a firing my Lazar!

Ziggs Thaliyah at 55% with 1500 games played. Oh boy and for you arsenal fans it is in fact running one copy. 

I will mention it again but I mentioned on reddit that Annie ezreal was one of the top new lists and it is once again holding down 55%

Plunder back to 55% so great for thr gangplank lovers

You know what's down?

Nora cuz **** Nora and every single player that thought Nora decks where the meta and the future.

Sorry bit of a pet peave but sometimes you can't help but be right.

Overall even what 2, 3 weeks into this latest balance patch meta we are seeing huge moves on the tierlists, so I think calling this meta jello was the right call. It keeps on jiggling.

Depending on how some people are feeling on a giving day LOR "sucks" right now.

There's a lot of salt, a lot of hate, on reddit specifically.

People don't know what decks to play, and as soon as they find a list it's invalidated by another.

Oh man these midrange lists sure are strong, nevermind ryze is toxic combo is too good, how about them Swarm decks? Then we go back to midrange again and the circle continues.

Meanwhile the deck brewers are doing crazy **** and winning games.

We have a new competitive yeti list on mastering runeterra with Darius, we have daybreak at top of S tier on mobalytics.

The reality is that this meta is like jello, it keeps changing shape and nobody knows what's going to happen.

To me that's exciting.

It's dynamic, it's moving, it's constantly changing, a world where anything is possible.

But to the salt lords who have to keep their edge because it's their career or livelihood or their claim to fame this meta is cancer.

They say one deck is top tier, and next week it's not. They say Nora is everywhere then Nora drops 5%. They say FTR doesn't exist and then FTR hits 55%.

This truly is the card game of champions right now and I'm going to enjoy every drop of it till rotation hits.

Let the salt lords cry, and the hardcores get mad, I'm having a blast.

I've been on out of cards for a long time.

I've built countless decks in my spare time many of whom I bring back time and time again each time getting more refined and playable.

But most people brew in LOR to fire and forget.

Oh I tried that it didn't work rage quit now time to counter brew what I just faced.

You see that's not going to work against someone who has miles on their engine because they just instantly go to their backlog of decks and pull out something else.

Instead the solution should be simple, build to last, build to succeed and build to get better at the game.

Dude it's a meme deck...like I dont even know what to say.

Am I that strong that my junk needs hard counter brews for me to be stopped?

Wait isn't that basically the same as Majin?

Am I the meme Majin or Swim 2.0?

I might be :)

Like if you're losing to mono freijord ramp with a splash of demacia don't feel bad.

Well maybe feel a little bad but you don't need to whip put meta tenticles to feel better about yourself.

I've been building decks for yeeeeears.

Of course my memes are almost as good as meta.

It comes with practice don't feel bad about it.

Like don't listen to streamers "here's the number 1 deck to climb to diamond with"

Dude the number of times I've climbed with complete dokey that I built myself...would be every time because I don't play meta lists.

So if I' diamond with garbage I'm basically omega masters.

Of course my memes are strong.

I dont like aggro, I don't.

I play next to zero aggro generally speaking.

But Ionia otk is such a polarizing archetype that it only has one weakness.

It has a 30% matchup table into every single aggro list.

Pirates yep, bandle yep, fearsome yep, hallowed yep.

But there is one list that trumps them all.

Pink region otk (rhyze) has a 20% winrate into lurk.

So I don't care if I have to play lurk into all the smooth brains running otk by running an even smoother brain deck I will do it.

You'll lose roughly 80% of the time.

Sorry you're playing something degenerate you don't get to complain.

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

https://masteringruneterra.com/meta-tier-list/

So post patch tier lists are in and they are both a bit sketch...hear me out before the hate.

I had said that Ionia would be meta and then Bandle would surge to counter Ionia.

So what do we see in S tier we have Majin otk Ionia deck, and we have bandle aggro.

Great, but if we look at mastering runeterra there is one more sneaky category that is over performing and its one that I have talked about extensively as the counter to do nothing Bandle.

Tempo!!!

We see decks like kalista nocturn fearsome with a 57% winrate not because they are good but because it is undoubtedly a very high tempo deck.

We have my tempo illoi list largely outperforming Majin Ionia illoi combo list. (Anecdotal but I won't play 2,000 games sorry)

We have hard control lists, we have aggro lists like pirate aggro hitting 57%

So its not just hey here's the Ionia deck Majin made and 3 bandle lists to counter it.

The meta is actually exceptionally diverse and balanced.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see more major shifts moving forward.

So I have test tempo Illoi vs meta bandle and won every match.

I would only say that the only deck that hard counters mine is nasus. It just goes taller its what the deck does. But thankfully playing one big dude is really bad in this meta so if someone is gonna whip out a bad deck to counter yours that's usually where you want to be brewing wise.

I've been going on a bit of a schooling tear this fine Sunday. I do appologize I work an important job during the week so I'm getting it all out of the way now.

Sometimes winning is just winning, sometimes you need to level Champs, build a deck that does something, and play for the archetype.

A great example was the recent meta deck of echo Jinx, used to be an F tier deck leveling Champs is bad, proper deck building knowledge is bad, playing for the "quest" is bad.

But no a few numbers move around, a few subtle shift and now Echo the worst champion in the game in terms of winrate actually sported a 53% A tier stat line.

So the summarized lesson is here:

1. Play do nothing decks into excessive stall decks.

2. Play tempo decks into do nothing decks.

3. Always build for your Champs I dont care what anyone says.

4. Flex your archetype knowledge

5. Don't be a dick

There ya go LOR is my favorite card game even after Mogwais and Swims departures the people who brought me to this game and showed its possibilities 

In their wake we have Allen and Majin but their rigid mindsets and firm meta orientations make them somewhat lacking for originality 

Well nifty brings that in spades and originality my friends can't be beaten or countered.

See ya

-----final edit-----

The open attack delema:

Traditional knowledge in LOR says open attacking is always correct.

This is only true in elusive decks generally speaking and is a real hearthstone line of play.

Mtg traditional knowledge states that hp doesn't matter.

That it's better to wait things out leverage your hp as a resource and win decisively.

Illoi is very good at this and I'll share my list for what I think is one of the best decks in the meta right now.

There is some bad Ionia matchups depending on the amount of stall and their wincon but for the most part it's good into everything people are playing.

I used to run Riptide sermon but monster harpoon on average is cheaper and more efficient at eliminating midrange champions. Which the meta is full of right now.

I'm trying to tell you guys this deck is dope you can hit 3 jaxs on curve and an orn and sweat your nerdy little heart out and still lose.

You see I'm a meme player I play bad decks.

But every now and then I will play a 50% winrate list that is optimized for tempo.

Then when you do nothing you will just lose.

Don't mistake beating my meme lists with greater memes as counter brewing the meta.

You will be awakened in two seconds when someone begins to try with non garbage.

----edit----

What did I just say you won't win if I play a non bad deck....sorry. meme players are the strongest because they have learned how to be adequate with bad cards.

Oh no and now you're losing to the baaaad stuff like changling transform? I'm in your head oooooooh.

I wouldnt recommend playing that hard into a single bounce or vengence but hey you do you lol

Just keep playing stupid do nothing cards that cycle and have infinite value.

Beats freezes, beats bounces, beats removal, beats stuns and it beats the meta right now.

This came to a head with a tristana deck I found that ran minion. Kind of genius, the deck works well.

Even out valued anivia.

Ionia has always had acess to the best costed "removal" in the game in the form of bounces.

It remains the only way to simultaneously deal with big units, equipment, and attachments and buffed stats instantly under curve.

So with the huge surge of Illoi and Jax decks who specialize in big pp units with infinite value its no surprise that the answer is 4 mana boops back to hand.

How do I feel about this personally?

As a mtg player I like removal, I like control, I like hard answers to plays. Ionia specializes in being able to soft answer everything while delaying for their wincon.

Turns out tho that's very good right now.

The meta circle will look like this.

Big PP midrange > aggro

Ionia > midrange

Aggro > Ionia

I dont find rock paper scissors metas super compelling so I hope we see some interesting decks and developments break this stalemate soon.

https://masteringruneterra.com/deck/CQDACBIKW4AQCBICAYBAGCJQLABAMAQME4BAMCIIEMCQCAQJCQNCUNAAAEAQIAQH

Spoiler alert there is 1 card from Kayle's kit in this entire deck.

The rest is utilizing Ionia board Swarm and buff tactics. Things like keeper of masks and squirel on 3 to give everything 1 + 1 and go as wide as possible as fast as possible.

In reality this is a Zed Swarm deck sometimes called (zoo) in hearthstone for having lots of small agressive creatures you buff.

So again I would say I'm right the best Kayle deck isn't a Kayle deck with hand buffs as the card is intended but just uses her as a "garen" with up side to buff your wide board.

Spoiler alert it mostly has to do with her kit and the lack of substantial benefits for hand buffing right now.

Mana 1: a 2/1 that can have life steal...like okay but I'd rather play a 2/1 that either puts a chime in my deck or adds hallow power. Hell even omen hawk is a better Kayle card then Kayle's card.

Mana 3: you can have a big elusive dude in a game full of possible big elusive buff targets.

Mana 4: literally a better card in a dragon deck

Mana 5: we will get into this in a second but even if you purifying flame  mihira you need to hit a chime on her too. You know what else has elusive and life steal? Sparklefly

Mana 7: not even dignifying with a response.

So okay Kayle's followers suck big dick, but kayle is good, how about her spells.

She has purifying flame...and a invulnerability champ spell...and that's it.

So she literally has less viable cards in her "kit" then a runeterra champion now that's not the end of the world you don't need to play her kit LOR has a massive card pool.

It just seems like a lot of work to run her right now, when there are better options. Specifically if you want a stat stick deck Jax Orn just got buffed and that decks is A easier to build B easier to pilot C less fragile and D more consistent.

Poor kayle I feel like Fox Mulder from the X-Files right now, I want to believe but I can't yet. 

So a new balance patch just hit.

Attrox got nerfed Jinx got nerfed but more importantly a ton of cool decks got massively buffed so what the hell do you play?

Reading patch notes to understand what's viable and what isn't is a tough skill to master, even a ton of pro players are notoriously bad at it.

So I'm gonna help you out and list the top winners from the patch:

1. Illoi 3 mana tenticle smash is nuts and she got eye of God equipment before in the expansion making this deck a must play

2. Jax another good deck that got pushed over the edge of awesome with the recent buffs.

3. Thralls just that one change to lissandra makes this deck wprth revisiting on curve it's the same as playing a thrall on 1 so you're 10 times more likely to turbo out

4. Master yi leveling in deck is nuts first he gained a mana reduction passive now hes a guaranteed flip how great for Ionia!

5. Shivana while this deck is in need of some new support cards if you want to run ramp shivana into asol or shadow shivana it will be okay but not great.

6. Lucian heckarim is looking good with the challenger landmark ephemeral combo. Lucian outside of combo deck is worse where his mana reduction and statline is a liability. Play for the flip.

7. Sion duplicate - so everyone saw the new card and though anivia enabler that's small brain big brain is 3 sions with infinite rally. Only trouble is that discard Sion is kind of a bad aggro deck so you need to rely on shadow isles to help stabilize a bit.

8. Kayle not a huge fan of the champ design but I think this mana reduction will help bring bard back. They curve together now and you can hit your free 1 mana, 2 mana chimes to buff her easily then use spells to get her the rest of the way.

So there you have it the meta shift before it happens Jax and Illoi looking like the top contenders for new competitive lists. Jinx and attrox moving down to make room for new exciting possibilities. Gj riot

‐------extra note-----

I forgot about the hallowed Katarina nerf because that deck is so idiot proof I'd rather imagine it doesn't exist.

So yeah ruined reckoned (5 mana no blocks) was nerfed before and now Katarina got nerfed the deck will still be very playable because Katarina gets extra attack so her base stats don't really matter.

That being said, the more nerfs to hallowed the better its just too consistent on both the aggro play, and the closer. So still S tier I guess because easy = winrate but in reality I say A tier along with all the other meta nerfs.

Once again Riot hits it out of the park with its patches proving that they are generally far more exciting then the expansions themselves.

Also no rotation yet thank God, my boy vlad gets to still draw breath.

So big changes Kayle gets to actually be a card.

Whenever a champ goes down 1 mana its a big deal for those who remember Kindred used to be 5 mana and it was awful, then it became 4 mana and has seen meta play.

So Kayle going down from 6 to 5 is huge. Will I player her? Maybe as a Bard finisher because he's underplayed right now.

Katarina nerf. She went from unplayable to meta and now she's just good in the decks that want her. The free flock activator plus free rally combo is still strong.

Quietus nerf: people are overselling this a bit but I will tell you where the big difference is and thats malkai and veigar. When your 4 mana champ dies to a 1 mana spell and your deck revolves around them you insta lost. So big props for darkness being a deck again, generally cooler then like Nora shadow or heimer shadow.

Illois pkg buff: Illoi Jarvan, and Illoi Healing are cool decks that deserve to be playable. Very happy with these buffs l.

Weapon master pkg: Ash freijord midrange was always challenging to run competitively so Orn Jax was meant to be our savor. It kinda was but it needed buffs and it got it. Solid B+ tier deck now I say.

Yi buff: yi is gonna be the new Ionia staple control card no doubt. Very good buff here where he levels in deck, so you can bounce to protect ans retain value.

Lissanda buff: thralls playable again, hot Take I like thralls it's a tribal deck in a game where card piles are often better then archetypes. But the devs have taken strides to reverse this.

Shivana buff: levels in deck so going all in on shadow, demacia dragons might be worth revisiting. Remember that deck?

Lucian 1 mana: I think kenin has showed us that this stat line when properly built can be insane in a combo deck. So you definately want to slow roll him now. Setting up his level up on swing and playing him last. Or you just play him like temo and don't care if he dies.

Shurima control: weight of judgement and castigate, gives the region some flexibility for a slow game plan outside of sundisc. Don't get me wrong I think sundisc is "good" for the game. I just personally find it boring as hell.

So once again great patch Riot we practically got 1 brand new champion, and 1 ruinate and a ton of big balance stuff. Going to be very impactful overall. Archetypes over card piles all day!!!

https://youtu.be/mbDFH9Pz3us

People who know me are familiar with my love of Freijord.

Often times the absolute worst region in the game suffering in the midrange and control archetypes vs stronger alternatives with aggro not existing in that color.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see Graplr streaming a Braum Freijord list not once, not twice, but three times.

I like everything I see here from the way he's playing.

Basically get a Big Nora board going then buried in ice for your wincon for open swing.

Use freeze, deny, and braum to delay the game and tavern keeper for healing.

For board presence you have the Nora pkg creatures, and she supplies draw as well.

I love it, while the "best" players are thinking of which meta champions to 3 way split into a card pile meta vomit "optimal" strategy...

The real players are like hey here's a deck I like, I gonna win with it.

Game on Graplr keep the brews going strong buddy!