Legends of Runeterra: Eternal - 5 Rising Decks for Ranked (June and July 2024)

The Eternal competitive season is here, and today, just like in the past few weeks, I have brought you 5 rising decks to test out in the ranked queue - this time, for the Eternal format.

I'm quite excited for this season because we've spent a long time playing Standard and the meta was quite boring. The Eternal format, however, has an entirely different meta: Dragons have been nerfed, and we can play with all cards, so anything is possible.

Let's see these 5 rising lists!

The Nab archetype is relatively old. Its first version came up in April 2020, when Legends of Runeterra was officially released alongside Bilgewater. At the time, Nab was part of Bilgewater's region identity, and was in many meta decks, like the first versions of Gangplank Sejuani, and slower Twisted Fate decks with Shadow Isles.

Unfortunately, however, because it was a bit toxic for some players, Riot eventually left Nab behind, and this archetype didn't get any type of support for a long time. Then we got the Dreamlit Paths expansions, and Mercenary Manners, which steals an enemy follower that costs 3 or less.

This spell isn't strong at all in Standard, but, in Eternal, you can get the most out of it much more easily; the Eternal meta has more aggro decks, which often use units that cost 3 or less mana.

This is how this Nab-themed deck came to be. It uses all the cards in the game that either Nab other cards or copy them, and combines them with Bandle City disruption spells, namely the ones that discard your opponent's hand.

So, this is not an extremely competitive deck - it's a mid to below-average deck, but it is certainly quite fun to play (and annoying to play against).

Let's move on to serious decks now. Scouts is also one of the oldest, and most classic, archetypes in Legends of Runeterra.

This type of deck usually only shows up to answer some type of control-leaning meta, or to dominate the meta when no deck can answer its strategy, which focuses on swarming the board with units.

Scouts is hardly a strong deck regardless of the meta (or one that simply ignores the meta), and when this list is too strong, it's often because it is beyond broken.

It might also become one of the best in the game soon. If you intend to play a few grassroot tournaments, it is one of the best competitive options nowadays.

Dragon Prince Grinzo is one of the new ideas in this list; he will keep your spell mana full at all times. So, any time you develop your units, you'll still have mana to play the cheap spells in this deck later, which are critical to keep pressuring the board.

With Grinzo in play, for instance, you can play two 1-cost units, and then you'll still have mana to play a Form Up! or an Inspiring Light.

Grinzo was certainly one of the best additions to this archetype - it now feels like a solid, well-rounded, complete list that doesn't need any further adjustments.

Lee Sin's past as an archetype is a bit controversial, and he has been broken more than once. Now, with Sunborn Summoning, a new card from Dreamlit Paths, he might just be tempted to commit war crimes once again.

The greatest issue with Lee Sin decks is that you usually don't have efficient card draw, and, if you can't draw your champions with this list, you can't win the game.

Actually, if you do draw your champions, it's incredibly difficult to lose the game. Sunborn Summoning lets you pick 1 out of 3 copies of champions in this deck, so, typically, you'll get to pick either Lee Sin or Akshan depending on what you need.

This card, on its own, might put this deck at the top of the meta again, and we all know that Lee metas are horrible. Be careful with this list.

The good news is that this archetype is extremely challenging to pilot, so its numbers on stats websites won't actually represent how strong it is right now.

That being said, if you're going to play any tournaments, this is another great list, as it's extremely difficult to prepare your lineup to beat this deck.

This deck is a lesson in deckbuilding, and might be one of the best Neeko lists in Eternal.

Its strategy abuses Fearsome units, mainly Shadow Isles units, and combines Neeko's archetype with Vex's kit. Some units in Vex's archetype have subtypes, like Vex herself and Grimm, who are yordles.

As Vex lowers enemy units' stats, it is extremely easy to lower their attack power, and thus make them unable to block your Fearsome units.

This deck also focuses on an aggro swarm style, which you might have seen in Noxus Neeko lists (known as evil Neeko lists), so ditching Warden of the Tribes and other mid/late-game cards isn't exactly a new idea.

Instead, we added Fireth, Reaper of the Sands, Precious Pet, Camavoran Dragon, and any Fearsome Yordles to complete our list.

Glare also draws you cards, which isn't something you see much in Neeko decks, as they don't really use regions with reliable card draw. So, this version might just be the most "consistent" out of all Neeko decks.

This list took over the ranked queue in the last few days (to the day this article was written), and is one of the coolest decks right now.

It combines Taric's Support archetype with a bunch of great Bilgewater cards that go really well with him. You'll find many unusual, strong synergies in this list that are good enough to make it extremely fast and powerful.

We have many Daybreak cards that are incredible on their own, and also the best 2-cost Targon unit, Mountain Goat. Then, there's Hired Gun, so you can control the enemy board.

However, this deck's main character is definitely Mountain Sojourners, which, with The Darkin Lodestone and Taric, will grow the stats of the units on your board. To complete our list, we have Blood in the Water, which is one of the few Bilgewater cards that Rally.

The idea behind Blood in the Water is that you can play it on Taric and deal damage to him. It seems a bit counterintuitive, as you'll also deal damage to the unit you Support with his effect. However, as Taric will also give himself and the unit he Supports Tough, neither of them will receive that 1 point of damage, and then you'll be able to attack a 2nd or 3rd time that turn, without any issues.

This is an incredibly unusual play, so your opponent will hardly have an answer for it. The surprise factor is definitely one of this deck's greatest strengths, at least for now, until it gets more popular.

I consider this list to be just a different version of Taric's regular strategy, but with a better early game, and better units. It also doesn't have any Strike spells, so you won't be able to interact with the enemy board in the same way you did with the other versions.

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!