Introduction
The Eternal ranked queue meta is quite dynamic, and many decks are seeing play right now. Furthermore, after a few weeks, some obscure lists started standing out precisely because they're a bit different from what we are used to, and because they have surprisingly high win rates.
Let's see these decks!
Mono Shurima Azir Renekton
The Mono Shurima Renekton archetype is one of the strongest Eternal lists this week, and has a 62% win rate.
This version was only popular last season among some Eternal players who competed in grassroot tournaments. It is a great deck competitively because of the ban system, but, at the time, it wasn't as strong in the ranked queue.
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As many aggressive lists are seeing play in the meta right now, strategies that lean on Overwhelm cards like Renekton are great. This is mainly because most followers in the meta right now don't have a lot of health, so you'll always deal a lot of damage to the enemy Nexus with Overwhelm units.
One of this list's greatest strengths is also the various win conditions it plays: from Grumpy Rockbear to the Emperor's deck, which you'll either access from Glory's Call or level 3 Azir.
This list is full of combat tricks that are perfect to deal with most units in aggressive decks, and, if you need to answer burn spells, it also includes counters like Avenging Vastaya.
Norra Eclectic Collection Portals
This is currently one of the most fun Eternal lists around, and is also one of the strongest, as its win rate has been sitting around 60% lately. We're talking about the Portal list that focuses on Eclectic Collection.
This archetype has taken on many shapes, and has always orbited the competitive ecosystem. It often both entered and left the meta in past seasons, for instance. However, now it has returned as one of the best decks in the format, mainly because of the vast variety of decks that are seeing play nowadays.
The greatest strength of the Portals archetype is that, instead of including strong units in your deck and playing them from your hand consistently, you'll summon multiple random units all the time. You'll summon so many of them and so frequently that hardly any other deck can keep up with how fast this deck fills the board.
This makes this strategy quite unique in the ranked queue, and you'll have great matchups against most decks.
It is also full of control spells, namely Shadow Isles and Bandle City "ping" spells, so it is perfect to deal with aggressive lists.
Elise is more like a strong 2-cost unit that helps level up Norra in this list. As for Norra, she is your main win condition, alongside Eclectic Collection.
This deck wins by randomly summoning gigantic units from Portals with a level 2 Norra on the board after you play an Eclectic Collection. It also works like a Puffcap deck if you're playing against a control strategy.
Vayne Rumble
The Vayne Rumble combo deck is one of the most interesting decks in the current meta. It preys on other aggressive lists and any other archetype that doesn't interact with the enemy board.
So, if your opponent doesn't play any type of removal (so, over half the Eternal decks right now), you'll already be favored to win as soon as the game starts.
However, if you have never played this archetype before, it can be relatively difficult to understand and play.
The main idea is to play Rumble on curve and equip him with the Great Hammers. The rest of the cards in this deck just let you start a free attack or Strike with him to level him up as fast as possible.
You must always "hard mulligan" after Rumble, so, you should send back all the cards in your starting hand if they're not him. This way, you'll increase your odds of finding him before turn 4.
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Keep in mind that Rumble gains Spellshield again when he levels up, so use this in your favor against control matchups.
Iceborn Legacy Spiders
This is one of the few token archetypes in LoR (we can say that the other one is Azir Irelia). Its main strategy is gradually buffing the stats of a card and all its copies throughout the match.
In this case, that card is Spiderling, which you should buff with Iceborn Legacy and give all copies of it +2/+2 globally.
This is also one of LoR's oldest archetypes, and was once one of the strongest decks in the entire game. Now, with more modern cards, it has returned and is incredibly strong in the ranked queue because of how aggressive the meta is.
To make this deck work, you need to set up a series of slow plays that require at least 5 mana (either Iceborn Legacy or Spirits Unleashed). So be careful, as this deck doesn't play like other aggro Shadow Isles decks. You need to save your mana and also "hard mulligan" after your key cards, just like Vayne Rumble.
Treat this deck as a combo list and save your resources, namely, the cards that summon Spiders. You'll win the match with a gigantic board and all your buffed units, plus Pack Mentality. To get to this game state, you'll need a strong early game, and you'll also need to play either Iceborn Legacy or Spirits Unleashed a couple of times. Otherwise, your Spiders won't be that strong, and you might lose the game as a result.
Watery Grave - Mill-O-Kai
Maokai's "mill" deck is one of the most complicated lists to play against because very few decks can handle this strategy.
The main idea is to play level 2 Maokai on the board and then play Watery Grave. This way, your opponent will lose the game the next time they draw a card. To beat this strategy, you have to either win before Maokai levels up or shuffle many cards in your deck at the right time to not lose to deck out right away.
The problem is that beating this Toss archetype is not easy, considering most cards in it either heal or remove a unit. Not to mention, Sea Monsters have great defensive stats, and are thus perfect to block units.
Use The Iron Conquest and Fading Memories to copy units that Toss your cards.
This deck doesn't play a lot of card draw, so try, as much as you can, to Toss cards consistently by copying your cards. This will increase your odds of drawing Maokai early on.
Any allied units that die will also level up your champion, so don't think twice before blocking with your small units. Your main goal is to play level 2 Maokai on the board no matter what.
This deck also needs a "hard mulligan" strategy for your starting hand. You need Watery Grave to win, as, without this card, you can't finish your matches. So, keep at least one copy of it in your starting hand (you'll only need more than one if your opponent is playing Ionia).
Final Words
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If you read this far, thank you! I hope you had fun reading this article.
Which of these decks will you play next? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.
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See you next time!
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