LoR: Rising Decks for the First Week of Rotation!

Now that the first week of the new rotation is over, we can start naming the winners and losers in the new ranked meta. So, I decided to bring you 5 rising lists that may shake up the competitive ecosystem and battle for tier 1 spots on data websites.

Let's get to them!

Now that Quinn is out of Standard, the Scouts archetype (which was one of the strongest decks in the last rotation, despite not very popular), needed a replacement for one of its main champions.

Nonetheless, Poppy also returned to Standard and is a great substitute for Quinn. That's because most cards in this deck have 3 or less power, so Poppy will buff them all when you attack with her and your other units.

Poppy used to be too expensive for any other meta, but this is a new Standard rotation, so she's not that heavy for your turn 4 after all. The game's power level is now low enough that you can use her in this type of list, whose main win condition is giving lots of stats to multiple units on your board.

The Scouts archetype also started playing multiple other cards besides Poppy (maybe even enough cards to change the archetype entirely, including its name), like Jarro Lightfeather, Hired Gun, and Grizzled Ranger, which made his triumphant return as well.

The Fearsome archetype wasn't viable in the last rotation, but, now that a few other cards also returned to Standard, we can play it again with Vex's package.

Vex's Gloom package is extremely efficient to control the enemy board, as well as limit how many Fearsome blockers your opponent has to block your attacks.

This is the entire idea behind this list: play multiple Fearsome attackers while removing power from enemy units and preventing them from blocking.

With Nocturne back in Standard as well (and his entire package too, rightfully), we can finally build a Fearsome list as powerful as we once had. Stygian Onlooker and Burgeoning Sentinel, besides multiple other aggressive Shadow Isles cards, have made Fearsome lists truly fearsome in Standard once again.

Shadow Isle's control style is back in the meta, precisely because of how many decks lose to direct removal nowadays. Therefore, a great way to deal with this issue is playing with a list that, besides removing units, doesn't let you remove its units.

Erastin, the Disgraced immediately changes the game when you play it on the board, particularly against control decks. This list is a great answer to the meta, as it is a control deck that has good matchups against other control lists.

The strategy behind it is simple: control the board and use your Sigil of the Storm to play Erastin as fast as possible. With Mordekaiser and The Iron Conquest, you'll eventually summon more than just one Erastin on the board, which will make your opponent regret all their life decisions. They'll have to remove your Erastins every turn just to not lose the game instantly. And, as they re-summon themselves after they're removed, your opponent will eventually run out of resources and lose the match.

This is an extremely consistent strategy, and the list itself has a lot of card draw, besides ways to discount the cost of your units so you can play your combo on the board as early as possible. An incredibly strong play is to discount the cost of your Erastin with Oblivious Islander - after all, it doesn't matter if your Erastin is ephemeral, as it comes back to your board when it dies.

Irelia returned to Standard, but much of what made her strong were Shurima cards, and they rotated out with Azir. The challenge is now making her work outside her main archetype.

Luckily, we already had Gwen Irelia, which, in the past, got a lot out of Irelia without Shurima. Even though this version doesn't play the most important card for this archetype, The Black Flame, it's still a decent deck, and can put a lot of pressure on your opponent by attacking constantly.

The main idea is to stack Hallowed and attack with your Blades constantly, always attacking with 3, 4, and even 5 power.

Now, with The Heart of the Tree, we can give Spirit to our units globally, which will boost our Blades and make it even easier to deal damage to our opponent as much as we can.

Out of all the decks in this list, this is certainly the weakest because this is really a weak version of it. It's also a bit too slow for the current meta. But it's worth a shot, considering it is one of the few lists that can make Irelia work in Standard.

Similar to Janna Bard Elusives, we have this list, which has the same game style as this old list but swapped Janna's kit for Teemo's.

This deck uses Hexcore Foundry (a card that was, so far, forgotten in Standard) as its main win condition.

While you force your opponent to draw extra cards, you'll also draw your Chimes a lot faster, and thus boost the Elusive units you have in hand. Eventually, you'll have gigantic units that your opponent can't block, or they'll just die from your Puffcaps.

We also have a few direct removals and Cosmic Binding to deal with the enemy board.

The secret behind this archetype is to keep Augmented Clockling in your hand until you can no longer Chimes in your deck. Then, when you play your Clockling, choose the card that has the most Chimes and there, now you'll have a gigantic unit in your hand.

It's extremely easy to pilot because it's very intuitive and quite fun. As a result, it is one of the best decks if you want to climb ranks fast without many issues.

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

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See you next time!