Awakening: Top 10 Decks to reach Masters!

In my last article, I gave many tips about how to build a lineup to compete in tournaments and Gauntlet. Gauntlet, as many may know, is one of the ways to classify for Seasonals, but the most conventional way is to classify through your ranked ladder performance. The Top 700 highest ranked Masters get a spot in Seasonals and if you're hesitant about which deck to use to reach this elo, I brought not only 1 or 2 or 5, but 10 decks that are performing well and might get you to the top. Recently, I've managed to get to Masters with a Zilean Viego list, which one of my teammates (Maitri) created. This deck, though it isn't popular, performed incredibly well and of course I will share it here with you guys. The other Top 10 decks are the ones I've been seeing in ladder a lot and also the ones that show up in the numbers. I've combined both and created this ranking, which is being ordered in the following way: least popular to most popular. However, I want to make clear that all of them are strong decks, and this order that I've chosen was just to not write about them randomly. Without further ado, let's see the lists: This is a list from Maitri which brings the famous mono Viego accompanied by Zilean. Zilean's addition is there to win aggro matchups, which Viego always has trouble doing. As I mentioned previously, this was the deck that I used to reach Masters and I can say that Zilean

does make a difference

! I managed to win many matches against Pirates just because of the Time Bombs that Zilean creates in your deck. Zilean aside, the deck behaves the same way as before: stacking Viego's passive until he and the Encroaching Mists get huge and he levels up. There is protection for Viego, Rite of Negation and some punctual removals, besides Quicksand, which is a great card against Nami TF. The Akshan Lee Sin list already existed, but it became a lot stronger with the arrival of Equipment. Now, due to the presence of units such as Fireth, Reaper of the Sands and Ionian Hookmaster, Lee Sin has access to Equipment which can give him Overwhelm and Scout. The ideal plan really is to get Scouts, because then he has 2 chances of OTKing and making your opponents eat dust. This list has many low cost burst spells that make not only Lee but also Akshan level up pretty quickly and with Akshan's second landmark reaching countdown 0, you can grant your champions

Spellshield

everywhere, making your opponent's life quite difficult if they try to remove your champions. Even if they manage to get the Spellshields off, there's still Deny to answer a possible Vengeance! Currently, this is a very strong deck and it has one of the most powerful combos in the game. It is definitely worth a try! I'm going to write a more detailed guide on how this deck works, but I must say in advance that this is currently my favorite deck! Karma and Viktor already had a lot of synergy and with the arrival of Back Alley Bar, both got even stronger. Back Alley Bar reduces the cost of all new cards (that is, if you play Karma for the first time, she will cost 4, but the next Karma you play will be costing the usual 5) and as your leveled Viktor also reduces the cost of cards, the "created" ones, all the spells that Karma creates will have their cost reduced by 2 mana, and that means: it's so much value! You have all the tools you need to hold your rounds until late game and then after you get to this point in the game, it's only smiles and rainbows for your leveled Karma and Viktor, which will be wreaking havoc all over your opponent. Ionia is quite strong in this meta and ever since Kennen's Mark of the Storm was buffed and began dealing 3 damage, the Ezreal Kennen deck got back into the spotlight! This deck is quite hard to pilot, but if you get how it works and a lot of hours on it, it's going to be a rough time for your opponent! There are many recalls, Deny, healing and even against aggro matchups, which are this lists' weak spot. If your hand is good, it is possible to win! This is another list that benefited a lot from the addition of Equipment in LoR. In this new version, Kindred and Nasus work alongside the Equipment The Darkin Bloodletters and The Darkin Halberd which synergize a lot with this archetype that plays around slaying your own units to get value. There are plenty of removals such as Crumble, Black Spear and Hate Spike, there's also the constant comeback of The Undying which can cause a lot of headache in your opponent and in the end there's the classic combo of Atrocity in a flipped Nasus with that backup mana of Rite of Negation in case your opponent tries to answer it. Who would've thought Katarina would be meta relevant, right? This is her strongest deck and she can really put on some pressure due to the Hallowed keyword that Gwen and her followers share when they die. This is quite an aggressive list and depends a lot on 3 units: Ruined Reckoner, Fallen Reckoner and Eternal Dancers. These units can combo with each other, so if the Eternal Dancers attack and bring the Ruined Reckoner back, once again the spell Midnight Raid is created in your hand, which allows for a free attack with any unit on your board. As for the Fallen Reckoner, it prevents an enemy unit from blocking and if he returns by the Dancer's hand, this effect is activated again. Besides that, it has Overwhelm, so with Hallowed, it can deal a lot of damage! If your opponent can deal with all of that, there is still another win condition in your deck: The Harrowing summons your strongest allies that died in the game so far, (in Ephemeral form, of course), but it is enough to finish the game, as all your units have summon or attack effects that are quite strong. After dozens of combinations, Norra seems to have finally found her ideal pair: Heimerdinger! The turrets that this champion creates make Norra level up quite easily and with the units coming from the Mysterious Portals, it is possible to form a very powerful attack with the use of the spell Sneezy Biggledust!. This deck has Shadow Isles, so there is a lot of removal, which allows you to last the rounds till your champions can shine. And because we also have Bandle City here, this list also has Minimorph, which is quite useful in the current meta. This Nami Twisted Fate concept has many versions (Piltover and Zaun, Shadow Isles and Ionia), but I believe that currently, the one that is ahead of the others is the Ionia version. This region allows for Deny, recalls, and a lot of protection for your units, so it is quite hard to deal with Nami, TF, and Fleet Admiral Shelly. Besides, if you can flip Nami quick and have these 3 key pieces on board at the same time, you can be sure that you have victory, because these units will get huge because of Nami and Shelly and then sooner or later TF will also flip and then, it's game over, right? There's nothing else your opponent can do. This deck's only weak spot are very aggressive decks, but if your hand is good, it is also possible to win. One of the negative points in this Pirates list in the past was the lack of draws. Before, you basically played your units and when you didn't have cards anymore you prayed for top decks. Now, with Riptide Sermon and Eye of Nagakabouros, there is the possibility of drawing cards, and also summon a blocker at burst speed, deal damage to the enemy Nexus and also remove enemy units with the 4 damage that Sermon deals. Besides that, this deck also has Ionian Hookmaster which can bring alternative win conditions, such as a Scout Zap Sprayfin. Aside from that, this deck is the same Pirates as usual. Drop units, attack, and finish up with Decimate. Did you miss Sejuani and Gangplank? They are back at full force! That happened because of Equipment and, also here they are again: Eye of Nagakabouros and Riptide Sermon! The first card allows for card draw in a deck that never really had ways to draw cards and the second card is another way of making your champions level up, besides being a removal that can slay a good part of the relevant meta champions. Piltovan Castaway also brings Equipment to this archetype, of which the ones that give Quick Attack, Overwhelm and Impact are the most useful. Aside from these new cards, this deck works pretty much the same way as before and yes, it is still quite strong. Even perhaps stronger than before! Though the meta is diverse, we have Bilgewater and Ionia dominating, and Shadow Isles just skirting out the margins. Next week there will be a balance patch and I believe that some of these decks will be affected a lot by the changes. Riptide Sermon might have its days counted for and I think Gwen's deck will also be weakened, so if you want to reach Masters quickly, enjoy now because soon the changes will come and it might be a weird time to climb the ladder. If you liked this article, don't forget to leave a comment. I enjoy reading them very much and will be answering any questions. See you next time!