LoR: 5 Ways to Play Vex in Standard!

Vex is one of the best (if not the best) champions in the entire game in the current meta. Because of the most recent rotation, many of her decks ended up at the top of the rankings, and thus she also has one of the best win rates on data websites.

Today, I decided to bring you the best 5 ways to play Vex, some brief explanations on how these decks work, and why they're so strong in the Standard ranked queue right now.

This deck does have Ionia, that's right, but it's not an Ionia deck; it only plays one Ionia card, after all - Mister Root. We can even say it's a mono Shadow Isles list.

This list is nothing more, nothing less than a new way to play with Shadow Isles control in Standard - it basically has a lot of card draw and Erastin, the Disgraced as your main finisher.

It has an extremely consistent game style, and easily supports Vex's Fearsome kit, mainly Grimm and her Gloom archetype.

With it, you'll reduce the power of enemy units and eventually remove them with spells like Quietus and Soul Harvest.

This list also plays Oblivious Islander to discount the cost of your Erastin. As Erastin "re-summons" itself any time it dies, you don't need to worry about giving it Ephemeral with Oblivious Islander's effect.

Lastly, this deck also has the Deathless Knight + Soul Cleave combo, which, instead of summoning only two ephemeral Knights, because of its effect, summons two 6/6 Knights without Ephemeral. This card also interacts really well with The Iron Conquest and Oblivious Islander himself.

In general, this deck is really consistent and includes incredibly strong, explosive plays. However, compared to the other lists we'll see, we can say this is the slowest of them all, and maybe the "weakest" Vex list around.

Zombie Ashe is an ancient archetype which only got better with time. Now that Vex came along, it's finally at its peak.

This game style was already quite strong before rotation, but it got even more powerful; Because Standard's power level was drastically reduced without the Elder Dragon, these types of lists finally get to see some play.

Its strategy is quite simple: you'll Frostbite enemy units and play your champions on the board without worrying about your opponent removing them. You can even block with Ashe and Vex stress-free because, eventually, you'll play The Harrowing, revive all your champions, and finish the game on the spot.

In the olden days, this archetype had one fatal flaw: it struggled to find good card draw. However, nowadays, it plays one of the best card draw kits around; namely Glare and other Shadow Isles card draw, like Ceaseless Sentry, which are still in Standard.

It is so consistent in this sense that you don't even need 3 copies of The Harrowing.

This list could be stronger, but the meta is a bit too fast for it, with many Fearsome lists, swarm archetypes, and Puffcap strategies around. If the meta slows down in the following weeks, and a Midrange deck ends up taking over the ranked queue, Zombie Ashe will most likely become the best anti-meta deck.

Besides great for control, Vex's kit is also one of the best kits around for the Fearsome archetype.

This is the most modern version of this deck, as well as one of the most popular archetypes on the Standard ranked queue. In this constantly changing meta, one way players found to stop cards like Grimm and Vex herself was Trifarian Shieldbreaker, an almost vanilla unit that is great as an attacker and blocker because it is so big.

In the current meta, any unit with less than 4 health is a very easy target for Grimm and Vex decks. You need something with more health and fewer lines of text, like Trifarian Shieldbreaker.

Burgeoning Sentinel and Buhru Sentinel became staples for this archetype, as Soul Harvest is strong again now that most decks on the ranked queue are aggro decks. They really snowball the game, and are often toxic in mirror matches. In these matches, they'll win you the game on turn 3 or 4 after you play a well-timed removal against your opponent.

Nocturne is, in all honesty, the weakest unit in this list, and most players are considering swapping one copy of him for a Shadow, Might, or Noxian Fervor. You are welcome to test out these cards instead of him.

The aggro burn archetype you might remember from Eternal, with Teemo and Elise, basically became this list in Standard.

The most significant difference is that you have less ways to deal damage every turn, so this list also plays control cards and Vex's kit.

Like other lists in this article, it also plays Burgeoning Sentinel and Buhru Sentinel with Soul Harvest and other removals, Shadow as your alternative win condition, as well as Grimm and other Fearsome units.

However, there's another issue: Teemo, which is, in a way, a problem for this meta. Notice that all the lists I mentioned so far can deal with him, and, as Burgeoning Sentinel and Buhru Sentinel are around, removing Teemo is often a way for your opponent to activate their effects.

This could be the best list in all of LoR right now if Teemo didn't "make your opponent stronger". Nonetheless, that's why we still have another list to see.

Currently, this list has the best win rate out of all Vex decks, and also has the biggest play rate in the entire game in the last two days.

It includes a couple of combos, like Doombeast, Unto Dusk, and The Iron Conquest, which together will feed you resources basically all the time. You'll also deal damage to your opponent's Nexus constantly with them, all while you heal your own Nexus.

Furthermore, there's Ballistic Bot, which is currently one of the best mid-game units, and is extremely difficult to deal with. It often shines in matchups against control lists, or slower lists that don't interact with their opponent.

You'll also notice some cards that interact with Ephemerals in this list. Fireth, Reaper of the Sands works really well with Moonlit Glenkeeper, which in turn greatly improves The Iron Conquest's 3rd chapter. They all add to this deck a few combos that are more complex when compared to other Vex decks. However, if you play them perfectly, they're definitely stronger.

Blowback is once again seeing play in non-discard lists, and is one of this deck's finishers. And, just like Vex's Noxus list, Nocturne is one of the weakest cards in this list. You can certainly swap him for something else, like a third copy of Moonlit Glenkeeper, or one copy of Fading Memories, or maybe one Mark of the Isles, or even a Buhru Sentinel. It's up to you.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed reading this article.

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See you next time!