Legends of Runeterra

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68% winrate in eternal.

Keep in mind that this version unlike mine doesn't even run any new cards at all 

There is zero reason this deck should be performing this well except 1

Bot spam and Jax are average decks...like I said rofl.

We are soooo meme focused in eternal that a bog standard pirate aggro list from 10 years ago win 68% of games in eternal right now.

Plz just run good decks its easy 

It doesnt take a mathematician to see declining viewerships for LOR on YouTube 

Graphlr going from 100k last year to 10k per video this year 

Mogwai going from 300 k to 30k

And I wanted to explore a little why that is.

Part of it is that I think rotation was to blame, and not rotation itself but the general botched handling of eternal ladder.

Having legacy players have to wait 3 months just to play their favorite format online competitively was a dumb move.

Furthermore Having 3/4 of the community tell them eternal isn't a real format and was just a dumb mass hallucination we all were having split the community down the middle in a really bad way.

So yes a 90% decline in long term viewership as a direct result of LOR's poor handling of rotation was likely the cause.

On the plus side if you were patient...like insanely patient you got to play eternal ladder again and it was just as good or better than it was last season

But players aren't patient they'll hop to the next thing in a heartbeat and thats what happened. Sorry guys it doesn't matter if you love standard or eternal the botched transition sundered the community and it will take a long time to recover.

When it comes to card reveals I always like to look at the miscellaneous offerings and see how they impact eternal. Without going over everything let's talk about a few that caught my eye.

1. Scrutinizing Sargent- 5 mana summon two 3/3 bodies sometimes a 4/4 this is very good it does everything elites want at a very cheap price. Could single handedly bring back the archetype in eternal

2. Rejuvenating breeze - okay so Ionia gets an eye of nakaboros. Draw 2 heal 3 health at burst this is now the best draw card in the game and is probably broken and needs to be focus speed. Ryze will be unstopable now so good for Ryze players because he was awful before, but now will be super OP.

3. All seeing oracle - so you now get to counter decimate for 1 mana right? Not sure how that isn't going to single handedly destroy aggro, like I know they were like 60% winrate but jeze they just got shot in the head.

I see Ionia being very very very very strong after this expansion, and unfortunately when Ionia is super strong it generally leads to people leaving the game. So expect post expansion nerfs like a month in.

https://mobalytics.gg/blog/lor-best-eternal-decks/

1. Bot spam - good deck that I'm increasingly less impressed with as time goes by. Song spinner can high roll or low roll on 7, you can level Samara to give bots rally or you can wiff...so basically an average ping heavy combo deck

2. Jax Orn - got one new card otherwise it's just your Archetypal midrange beat stick deck. Easily countered, easily beaten.

3. Timelines - not S tier or even on the tier list. Timelines I still think should be on banablaster, mtg teaches us that having a body that kills on 4 is good and it's no different in LOR

4. Aphelios - gravatum! Pretty sure the deck does other things but I haven't seen it so it's the bide your time and gravatum and ping till everything is dead deck...not A tier I don't think

5. Pirate aggro - putting pirate aggro as the top aggro deck of eternal is correct. But they aren't using my S tier build so it's only A tier.

6. Temo Zoe - love this deck it's very sneaky and counters what's good. Don't forget to open pass till turn 3 and then buff temo Zoe, and play at the same time for the attack.

7. Temo Tristana - has a tiny tiny play rate to the point you won't see it. But atrocity tristana is a deck just not one anyone is playing.

8. Lux - doing very poorly right now

9. Draven - people gave him like a 5 second chance when the new card was released and he immediately plummeted in win rate.

10. Ryze - ryze is doing worse than he ever has in eternal right now, play anything else

So in conclusion I don't believe Majin or Mobalytics are presenting a complete picture of the eternal meta right now.

They mostly bounce between meme lists that are overperforming and then bounce off them when they get countered.

Bot spam isn't a big deal, Jax isn't a big deal, timelines isn't even on the map.

Want to know what's a big deal?

Aggro decks with a 60% climb rate thats right 60% the highest aggro has ever performed in LOR history.

That sounds S tier to me...just maybe idk

I've always had this problem in LOR

Essentially you climb from stone to masters with your off meta lists and then you're done.

You've proved yourself...you've won.

There is no more counter play, no more I told you so, no more anything

I've done this twice now where I did what people thought couldn't be done and I did it in a way people said shouldn't be done.

So what's next?

What challenge remains for me?

Idk

1. Bott spam - it's a deck where you play cheap spells and then you play free 6/6 quick attackers. Wins 55% of games but a lot of that is the misplay and annoyance factor. I don't think it's the top 1% deck of the format more so just the best ping spam deck right now

2. Jax Orn - one of the best midrange decks in the game it does midrange things at 56%

3. Jayce lux - only sporting like a 51% winrate there are better control lists for sure

4. Ryze - down to 47% it is not a 4th place deck anymore it's not even a top 10 deck anymore when you high roll

5. Annie jhin - down to 53% compared to pirate aggro 58% it's bad

6. Elusive Spam- 54% winrate has good tech and good matchups but also big flaws

Honestly, pretty much everything else is down to sub 50% so you're better off playing your own decks for this meta 

Because we aren't in a two deck eternal meta it isn't Jax or ping spam that's stupid

It's Jax, ping spam, elusive spam, aggro spam, and every single actually good deck people have found yet cuz they keep trying to find that next big meme list

Eternal is in a very balanced and strong position right now. Lots of deck, lots of variety and nothing that's screams nerf now. Like what are they gonna do nerf bot? Nerf pings? Nah ping spam ain't going anywhere but there's lots of other actual interesting stuff to play

So mixed climb with elusive spam and Nifty aggro.

Each deck has its merits one deck has very strong burst passes basically allowing you to bank 5/5 stats on your elusives on turn 3 so this devalues pings.

The other deck is just super fast and has good pings to clear 2/1 spam, and a stun for higher value blocks.

So once again the eternal king doing his own thing and winning casually like a lot!

So I dont know I'd you guys want to take this as a sign that I was right Nifty Aggro is a strong and consistent climbing deck or if you want to say I was wrong because I had to climb with one other deck to correct it's weaknesses.

I would say I was right, I very rarely mono climb anyway usually using a 2-3 deck rotation and that works for me. Last season was elites plus my own ramp deck. This season its elusives and my own aggro list.

Easy diamond with elusive spam.

I hate to play this way but I got so sick of the linear board spam ping spam garbage decks that play smooth brained to the max

So I had to counter smooth brain with smooth brain and just play big elusive units 

It essentially counters what's good, playing cycle units on board, and pinging for 1

Because you don't care about their blockers or pings

Good into 90% of meta decks right now cuz the eternal meta is for stupid people

I hope after this people will run proper interaction again

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

Temo Zoe Elusive Spam has a 70% winrate currently making it the best deck in Eternal.

I guess the best way to beat midrange good stuff with Jax and 6/6 spam with Samara is just to go under them.

And these decks are so linear and predictable that elusive spam works.

Rofl 70% winrate guys best deck in the game all it took was playing creatures that can't be blocked wooooooooow

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

Jax Orn is the best deck in the game you heard it here first folks!!!

Innovative blacksmith is a cute new card 

Provides the deck even more healing so you' aren't as dependent on your 5 drop 

But otherwise it's just Jax orn.

Vengence, hard removal, just like any card screws them

It largely makes me realize that people just don't understand how to play LOR with an extended card pool

Like again amazing in a ping heavy meta like all the garbage we were seeing before

Just play midrange big stuff, heal past the aggro and bank on no one ever having any answers because people have been running 3 pie tosses!

Also don't get me started on plaza guardian printer. Oh no 6/6 board spam what ever will I do???

Idk shromes? Play any ******* deck that isn't garbage?

Sigh this is just sad it's like the meme Olympics over here.

Just so you know this is the equivalent of Riot printing one thralls card and everyone saying Thralls best deck in the game boys!!!

It's like no, Thralls was a good deck that you forgot how to play against and now you're rediscovering it's merits more than anything.

Yes Jax Orn is a solid midrange shell its like Ash if Ash didn't suck in eternal.

But thats all it is.

I dont even think the new version techs frostbite anymore because it's so confident nobody is running decks that do anything right now and passive healing is enough.

Like damn Lee Sin wants a word when he dragon kicks you with overwhelm he'll be laughing.

Or remember when that no champ list was considered like the second best deck by Majin?

Where did that one go bud?

Where's ziggs poppy?

Where did all your play garbage do nothing lists go?

Did you lose to big bad midrange with a little healing?

Give me a break!

At least my deck was consistent, offered counter play opportunities, and doesn't get blown out by a little healing cuz of the draw.

Ziggs Poppy was an ugly meme and I'm glad it died to the most obvious midrange counter in existence.

Big dude heal face, beat little dude hit face....come on!

https://masteringruneterra.com/eternal-stats/

Previously we had talked about how the eternal tier list looked a little jank.

With low playrates, and possible not the solid meta stats to back them up yet.

Well let's look to see how these decks are doing now that they've been swimming around a bit.

Thresh Nasus - 53% so despite two massive buffs this deck is doing fairly average, looks like everyone started remembering their denys like I said and the deck doesn't do much else

Bandle City P and Z - so this deck is doing well right now in the play stuff eternal meta it has 0 Champs and 0 wincons just looking to exhaust your opponents resources. Apparently that's good enough to win 59% of games when you're building garbage decks for the format.

Annie Katarina- shockers the 12 1 dmg ping deck is winning an average of 52% of games aka not amazing

Ryze - poor ryze I think he can do well but he might need some deck tuning

Poppy Ziggs - 57% this deck is dumb it embodies the play stuff meta where the only deck that can beat it is literally a deck with 0 Champs. Plz revert the poppy buff Riot!

Annie jhin - 52% yep I said it wasn't as good now didn't I?

Set Trundle- 52% not a great ramp list

Vi timelines - another play stuff deck

So honestly the meta in eternal is basically board spam 0 wincons. Or board spam aggro.

I dont think this is representative of the best eternal has to offer and once Riot reverts the buff to poppy and we don't have to brew around poppy zigs anymore we can actually play good decks and not timelines, or zero champ garbage.

Now how does this effect me?

Not a huge amount I'll always play my off meta decks but poppy ziggs is just overtuned pound for pound right now and that sucks.

Still grinding away with my own aggro list wins are comming pretty easy

Thoughts so far the one off faron feels great just let's you go over garbage spam decks like Nora

But I think the newer Annie lists that tech 3 pirottes - huh wonder who popularized that

Might be faster, but I don't know how it plays into other matchups

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

First off these decks all have a 3% play rate meaning that none of them are quote end quote decided to be the best by the actual players, with that out of they way let's get started

1. Annie Jhin - I don't believe this deck is good anymore, but that being said aggro decks in general will do well till control gets its act together

2. Draven Scion - Was the addition of one new discard spell that impactful from the variety pack? My instincts say no but hey I haven't tried it yet

3. Sett Trundle - yes ramp is good in eternal for sure, but this list has 0 Aoes or consistent answers period. Like all it has is tag out and palm, and a hope and a prayer to hit 8 mana for it that stares . Suffice it to say my experience with this deck is that it underperforms.

4. Annie Kat- basically the new Annie exreal that uses bandle instead of P and Z. My experience with pie toss is that it isn't great but hey maybe I'm just not 5 head enough to see this list. Like is running 11 1 dmg pings worth? 

5. Seraphine Viktor - no this deck is objectively bad just no.

6. Azir irelia - lol wut?

7. Ryze - for sure good deck

8. Nasus - the turbo variant is more popular than the one listed

9. Poppy ziggs - inferior to my aggro in everyway basically

I would say that currently these stats are massively inflated.

I can guarantee that Poppy Zigs does not have a 65% winrate in eternal. Like don't get me wrong pirotte is a good card but a simple 2 of isn't gonna revolutionize a deck that didn't perform before.

I dont think there much from this list I would bother playing. If you want to run ramp go for it even if this list is a bit bad, if you want to run aggro go for it even though mine is better, if you want to run control feel free even if this list has 11 God damn 1 dmg ping (bit much) 

But more than anything I would wait, and wait, and wait some more till this tier list gets sorted the f out cuz right now it's an inflated winrate low play rate mis represented cluster f 

It feels good to start at Iron and troll the trolls that trying to gatekeep.

A lot of Nora and shadow control.

But the thing is you actually have to be slightly big brain to play Nora well.

Not just flop her down like your flacid dick and hope for the best.

So yeah same story as always easy climb take it two ranks per day till I hit masters.

Really not much that can stop me in my native format in a ladder setting

Obviously in BO3 and tournaments and casual things roll a bit different

But the pressure to climb will inevitable move people towards better lists like turbo nasus and that's when I feast

You see the thing about casual is you can play whatever you want.

There's no fear of defeat so you can just snipe and game hop and it doesn't matter

So I can just play elites with vanilla 4/4 bodies and because your decks dont do anything because they are 100% hard counter messes I'm winning which means I can play anything and beat your builds 

Thats pretty sad, maybe stop que hopping and sniping on casual and play a good deck and do your best climbing impression.

Unless you've been doing that all this time and you're losing anyway in case GG either way 

Meme and hardcounter and I'll midrange with garbage

Play me for real and I'll bring out my hyper competitive lists 

Either way you lose.

3 - rearguard

3 - elegant edge

3 - pigeon

3 - butcher

1 - saboteur

3 - demos

3- rains

3 - 3 pirottes

3 - Samara

3 - Miss Fortune

3 - Noxian Furver

3 - barbed chain

3 - eye of nag

3 - decimate

So all the nice players have helped shown me that the weakness this deck had was playing infinite garbage into it.

So now we tech 3 barbed chain on top of the three eyes we already had

Basically means we never run out of cards ever, while having an insanely low and agressive curve, good Champs, and a huge burn finish.

Aka an S+ tier deck that can't even be beat with meme hard counters

There ya go Majin enjoy that for the next Runeterra open!

Ruthless Rumble

Normal BO3

Runeterra Open pt 1 and pt 2

Thats basically the June schedule

So I do have to ask people of Eternal isn't a competitive format and doesn't matter to players in LOR

How come the release of what we already had (full card pool ladder) is being treated like a massive event.

It's almost like the whole standard is LOR now is kinda bs.

Yes standard is LOR but so is eternal deal with it!

https://masteringruneterra.com/top-four-eternal-cards-from-each-region/

Let's talk about their card choices for the "best" eternal cards:

Pokey - can't get this one wrong

Shellfolk - yeah no way you can make shellfolk competitive you'll get otked or aggroed or sundiscd or a million other things

Allof traveler- a lot of Nora decks cut allof now, like amazing if you hit ramp and not much else

Inventive chemist - not a lot of midrange landmark running around either

Bilgewater:

Tf: a little slow now you  wont find a ton of tf

Gangplank: midrange plunder will always be a deck I just dont think it's the best deck anymore to be running with midrange suffering in general

Fortune croaker: healing decks? Maybe? Idk

Allegience: yeah just a plunder card so one deck it hits and I haven't seen it in eternal yet

Demacia:

Lux: jayce lux isn't the scourge it used to be and while it will always be good aggro got a loooot of tools to out pace lazer

Rangers resolve: don't play this card its usually more effective to use equipment now

Sharpsight: they straight up printed a better version of this card

Bannerman: yes elites will always be playable but once again midrange is suffering

Freijord:

Feel the rush: this one is correct because even Jack turbo levels when this spell is played so it's combo uses are only increasing with time

Spirits unleashed: a little slow but I've played with this card before and it's not bad but again haven't seen it do much in eternal yet

Trundle: yeeeeeeep obviously

Troll chant: best burst in the game pound for pound

Ionia:

Deep med: there are straight up better draw cards printed even Ryze will usually pass on this now

Twin: you won't see a ton of twin these days like trying.to turbo a master yi or whatever usually they play the one mana equipment burst

Homecoming: best card in the ryze deck if they highroll multiple landmarks early not as good in other decks

Health potion: no

Noxious: 

Legion rearguard - yeah best aggro card

House spider - still gets played in yassao because it's desperate for board presence that's about it, maybe Annie?

Flock - yeah best removal card in the game

Stun spider - sure pretty okay staple not amazing or anything

P and z:

Ezreal - yes very much so enables a unique wincon not found in other Champs

Viktor - has no home right now and nobody cares

Thermo - very good card

Get excited - Jinx only basically

Shadow:

Vile feast: not as amazing as it used to be as more and more one drops get printed that will out value it, you almost would rather tech quietus plus the new culling strike

Elise: has no real home right now iceborn legacy spiders sucks, and go hard sucks

Attrocity: doesn't get run after the nerf ever

The box: ummmmm no

Shurima:

Absolver - the game has moved beyond this card like you can play akshan Samara and instant rally with glave the power curve is just too high for one overwhelm spell to matter

Sivir - doesn't have a home right now, along with cards like Ash, undir, just slower midrange wincons

Endless devout - mono shurima staple so it gets a pass

Presavarium - sure always relavent 

Targon:

Aphelios - gonna feel very bad with how slow he is

Zoe - yes because she's a free cycle so her dying doesn't matter, but her wincon is fairly irrelevant

Mountain goat - meh like very meh by today's standards

Sketcher - just no you can do better

This article gets a D+ from me 50% obvious picks 50% I haven't played eternal at all and am not an authority on this format.

They'll see once ladder starts in a week, have fun trying to climb with aphelios and spacey sketcher when people are otking you, aggroing you by turn 4, or doing some insanely broken combo.

Thats what this format really is LOR modern.

Just like a "pro player" we are going to go through every inclusion in my deck and why it's top tier:

3 all out - if people remember shurima had a 2+1 burst and it was top tier and demanded a nerf, well here we are good card

3 pigeons - another 3/3 for one that is sometimes a 4/4

3 saboteur - I've come around on this card since vile feast and pokey aren't the auto includes they used to be, it's very good for what this deck is trying to do - board presence plus burn

3 Rearguard - required a nerf at one point it was so good, staple aggro card

3 Butchers - another staple card 3/3 for 1

3 Make It rain - on its own in a vacuum it's okay, but really shines as a set up for pirotte plus butcher

3 pirouette - might be op it's so good, imagine if guile and parlay had a baby and you're halfway there

3 Samara- what doesn't she do, she burns, she Diana's, she has a good champ spell, and ocassionally you level her

3 mf - she complicates board math and pushes a bit of burn, and has a good champ spell but probably the most "fair" card in the deck

3 noxian furver - complicates board and face math while burning. You can probably measure winrate by number drawn

3 zap sprayfin - basically elusive tf as far as this deck is concerned

3 eyes of nox - they nerfed it to focus speed and that effects aggro not at all because you'll always use it preemptively

3 decimate - they nerfed it and still doesn't matter when you consider how low thr mana curve is of this new and improved pirate aggro shell

So there is the S tier shell, a lot of things have got cut, demolitionist felt too slow, I knew that I didn't need any more go wide tools, I learned the power of all out, but largely the strategy stays the same

Spam high value one drops, wait for opponents response, leverage make it rain and piroette to win on tempo, push as much dmg as possible, then burn them out.

1 tech - I'm gonna use farron because having 15 one cost cards can deplete your resources fast and this gives the deck unexpected staying power.

All in all it's very hard to beat without a hard counter. Like yes you can run Elise, but then have fun beating all the solitaire decks out there.

Nora probably faires a little better but you'd be surprised, and they can't statistically hit Nora on curve every game even if it seems like it

You can spam healing but I guarantee I win that matchup everytime, so yes its basically hard counter or nothing, and then your hard counter loses to everything else.

Nifty aggro is the eternal meta now, and even pro players will have no choice but to admit it's impact. I'm basically the new Swim now sorry.

Typically the meta cycle goes like this:

Rage -> denial -> bargaining -> acceptance 

So now that everyone has moved into the acceptance stage I basically just get insta conceded in eternal.

All the best players in LOR tried to step up to the plate and make Nifty Eternal aggro look bad

Mostly by board spamming good trading followers like that's some kind of answer

But eventually I won enough matches anyway that everyone has accepted the S tier status of Samara MF

And it will hit top of S tier for Eternal tier lists

It was bound to happen eventually, I've been absolutely raking good players over the coals with my off meta builds that my one foray into meta territory was bound to be unstopable.

So yeah discussion over, thanks for playing.

I am the king of eternal and I'll let you know the next time I build an S tier list for the format.

----rant----

Pro players will try to deceive you into thinking ratioing matters, that by moving 1 card they somehow "fixed" your deck and can take credit for it.

No that bullshit, it's the shell that matters.

The person who decided to cheat out Nasus with a landmark first made that deck.

Just like I learned that Samara was all in all a more efficient inclusion over TF in pirate aggro hence its my shell 

Or inefficient memey print decks are Sunnys claim to fame.

Or Grapplr keep trying to make Karma work, who may be unironically good now in standard.

Or Majin made Ryze cancer

Those are their decks and this is mine plain and simple