Legends of Runeterra - Top 5 Best Champion Designs

Today, we'll discuss the top 5 best champion designs in Legends of Runeterra.

These are the designs that carried the game for a while: they're extremely iconic and players absolutely love them. The champions we chose are at the peak of good design, both in playability and flavor.

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. My goal is to brainstorm an interesting subject for us to discuss as a community, so, I'd really like it if you left a comment down below with your own top 5 best champion designs!

Moreover, we have a lot of great champions, so keep in mind that a champion isn't bad just because it isn't on this list.

We'll start with one of the most iconic and beloved champions in the entire game: Azir.

Azir carries, on his back, much of what Shurima's region identity is, and, for a long time, even carried most Shurima decks. He was a main piece in Buried Sun Disc lists, besides Azir Irelia.

He is incredibly versatile, and was in many various decks throughout the years ever since he was released. Not only that, but he was in aggressive and slow lists, and was even in Neeko Shurima decks with Warden of the Tribes.

As he is an Ascended, he levels up twice all the way to level 3, and that is very appealing. Even though his level 3 itself isn't that strong, his effect, which swaps out your deck for the "Emperor's Deck", is unique and just amazing. Azir breaks Legends of Runeterra's rules precisely because he replaces your entire deck for something (in theory) better.

This was already enough to earn him a spot on this list.

Another important factor is that Azir shows up in various artworks in the game. Check out all the cards he shows up in this article with the most featured characters in artworks, from 2023. Wherever you go in Shurima, you'll find a reference to Azir.

Apart from Azir Irelia, players didn't hate Azir too much throughout the years. On the contrary, he is one of the most popular champions in all of LoR. Buried Sun Disc lists with Xerath always break play rate records when the Eternal ranked season is on.

Samira was the most essential champion in Noxus and the entire game for a long time when she was released. In the "Glory in Navori" set, she gave LoR a new face, and brought with her the most various archetypes to the game. She was also the main character in most of the lists that used her.

She might have been the most popular character of all time, and, if she wasn't, she wasn't much behind our first place.

Samira was in every archetype, from combo aggro decks with Fizz to Seraphine lists, Siren Song decks, Pantheon archetypes, was one of the best partners for Akshan, and dominated LoR until she was nerfed.

Many players have conflicting feelings about Samira - they either love her or hate her. This is because she was literally everywhere at a point, and eventually that becomes a bit annoying.

The way Samira works makes her at the same time a self-sufficient card and a support card that fits all archetypes. She could control the early game, activate Plunder combos practically on her own, and pull away enemy blockers; not to mention, she also Rallies.

She does all of this and costs 2, which isn't something we often find in other champions. So, I'll give my thanks to Riot, as they managed to create one of the most fun and complete cards in the entire game. Actually, she only occupies our 4th spot because she was nerfed quite heavily.

The most immersive Legends of Runeterra experience you could ever have was playing Aatrox in the "Darkin Saga" set with all his Darkin and crazy decks.

Darkin weapons are a big part of this champion's identity, and, at first, we didn't explore them all that much because we focused more on Aatrox Kayn lists. However, as time went on, we realized Aatrox's Origin lets us create incredibly creative decks.

Many competitive players considered Vayne Aatrox Quinn, for instance, the peak of deckbuilding. It is extremely deep, full of complex plays, and can literally win against most decks at its peak - if you knew how to pilot it.

There was even Aatrox Bilgewater, the deck that took me to a Runeterra Open's top 16, which then evolved into Aatrox Siren Song. After this deck came along, players found a space in the meta for Fizz Targon lists that focused on 1-cost units. Yeah, that was all because of Aatrox.

Notice that there aren't that many decks with Aatrox, but the few that existed were so impactful, had so much personality, and were so important to LoR history that they earned Aatrox our third spot on this list.

His effect, which Assimilates Darkin units with his World Ender spell, is one of the most unique and fun mechanics in the entire game. It is as if your Darkin-equipped units lost the battle to their weapons and became Darkin right in front of you - there is nothing like this in the entire game.

Not to mention, Aatrox himself is really well-thought-out. The fact everything on him has the number 6, from his cost to his stats on the board, is a reference to his "diabolical" personality, which is just a really flavorful detail Riot added to him.

Practically everything Aatrox does in LoR is something you'd expect him to do if we had to translate his entire ability kit from League of Legends straight to LoR. He is a simple champion, difficult to master, but extremely charismatic and fun to play and build decks with.

This champion is a bit controversial because currently Elder Dragon is a bit too dominant, and is in almost half the decks on the ranked queue. This means everyone is a bit sick of him right now.

However, we can't deny that his design is simply incredible. His Origin is extremely unique and enables an almost infinite array of deckbuilding strategies. Quite literally, Elder Dragon improves decks just by being in them.

The fact that he "can't be stopped" when he's leveled is one of the most iconic mechanics in all of LoR, and his visual effects when he destroys the enemy Nexus is incredibly satisfying.

Many players may not agree that he has one of the best designs in LoR - we rarely ever see him on the board, and most players only use one copy of him in their decks to use his Origin. But this is only true right now because LoR is going through some tough times; Riot is no longer focusing on PvP, so the meta tends to stagnate with these lists around. However, Elder Dragon is simply incredible in Path of Champions, the PvE game mode.

The story told by his support cards, which shows the Demacian Raid whose goal was to defeat him, is quite cool, and gives him an air of a "final boss", just like he is in League of Legends. Actually, Riot managed to translate what the Elder Dragon represents in LoL to LoR quite masterfully.

He is one of the few cards you feel is "powerful" when you play him on the board because his visual effects and level up animation are simply impeccable.

We're finally at our first place, the king of LoR: Twisted Fate has the best champion design in the entire game.

It is simply fair to give him our first place. His entire identity is tied to cards, so making him the king of Legends of Runeterra just makes sense. We mentioned how the champions on this list are "one of the most versatile champions in the game" a few times, and Twisted Fate is simply the most versatile card in the entire game.

Historically, many aggressive decks even used one copy of Twisted Fate precisely because he is powerful, versatile, and can change the game on his own depending on how you use him.

Besides this, Twisted Fate's level up animation is one of the most iconic animations in the entire game. It manages to represent all of his personality in the cards he throws around the screen and the music that plays in the background. He was incredibly well-translated from League of Legends to Legends of Runeterra by Riot. We can see each of his cards in action, in precisely the way you'd expect them to work in a card game.

Not to mention, his level 2 represents perfectly the swiftness with which Twisted Fate "plays the cards in his sleeves"; he plays his magic cards on the board all the time, and drastically alters the course of your matches as he does.

Twisted Fate was in practically all Bilgewater decks until he rotated out, and was one of the most popular cards in the entire game. However, as we mentioned before, Samira probably could beat him for the title - if only we had a way of knowing for sure.

He was in Go Hard control lists, aggressive Fizz lists, Pirate lists, and combo lists with Nilah, more recently. He was even in an infinite combo list with Akshan.

The possibilities with him are endless.

He wasn't that popular in the Eternal format (outside Nilah lists) because we expected him to be in a wider variety of decks. But that doesn't take away how important he was to LoR before we got our first rotation. And, even then, he still deserves this list's first place without a shadow of a doubt.

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

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See you next time!