LoR: Get to Know the 5 Alternative Win Conditions in the Game

To win a Runeterra match, you must zero your opponent's 20-point Nexus. However, that isn't the only way to win an LoR match.

Apart from the traditional way, we have 5 other ways to win matches in Runeterra - in this article, we'll discuss each of them.

Fiora was released in Runeterra's Beta period, in 2020. She has always been a strong tool to monitor aggressive metas full of small units. Her level 2 effect states that, if she has slain 4 units during the match, she automatically wins the game.

Demacia was, back in the day, the best region when the matter was defending your units. Considering Fiora needs to slay 4 enemy units, she needs support spells to work.

In Runeterra's first metas, this strategy of defending the same Fiora throughout an entire game was quite strong, but, as time went on and the game got more modern, she started disappearing.

Nowadays, this champion is only available in the Eternal format, in which she is a somewhat common addition to some Midrange lists. Currently, however, it isn't very usual for players to invest in lists focused solely on this champion and her alternative win condition effect. Let's take a look at a modern list that brings this champion.

Commonly known by some players as Soraka's bathtub, Star Spring was the main character in the first competitive metas as soon as Targon was introduced to LoR as a region. The champion duo, Soraka and Tahm Kench, gave life to this alternative win condition: just heal 22 damage from your allies and, at the end of your turn, you'll win the match automatically.

Star Spring eventually resulted in many nerfs to Soraka's entire archetype, which, after a while, stopped being relevant in the meta as it was extremely slow.

Currently, the entire package of cards that are used in this archetype is only available in the Eternal format, where it also doesn't see play, as it remains too weak. Let's see a modern list with this archetype.

The Bandle Tree was the main character in the first Legends of Runeterra World Championship, back in late 2021. Most competitive players in this tournament were bringing at least 1 deck focused on this card. We even had players who classified as Top 64 players in this tournament by bringing 3 lists focused on this archetype.

This landmark wins the game at the end of your turn, after you've played or summoned 10 allies from different regions in the match. At least, that was how the card worked before it was nerfed. As it was an extremely strong landmark, it needed to be nerfed several times. Nowadays, The Bandle Tree needs to see units the units being played on the board to count each region to meet its requirement, which makes its alternative win condition much slower than usual.

Recently, we entered the Eternal competitive season, and Tree just got a buff to cost 3 mana, which is great. It is still early to tell, but we'll possibly see Tree lists in big tournaments around again. Let's see the strongest list with this card currently.

Ryze is considered, to this day, one of the most toxic champions in Runeterra, and was also the main character in a few competitive metas as soon as he was introduced to the game. Ryze wins the match for you if you attack with him and all his 5 Runic Shards on the board. It is similar to Thanos' infinity stones.

Ryze lists took a while to pop up, as they were decks that required a certain care both to pilot and to build. So much so that, even though it was a deck that won big tournaments, it didn't have a win rate higher than 48% on the ranked queue.

This archetype recently got some nerfs indirectly, and the strongest of them was the indirect nerf through rotation. Currently, Ryze is available in Standard, but most of his support cards were rotated. This champion is still played in Eternal, and is relatively popular, even though it still has a very low win rate. Let's see what is the best Ryze list currently.

Lastly, we have the "Deck Out" alternative win condition, which happens when your opponent draws without having cards in their deck - if that happens, they'll lose instantly.

Many cards throughout Runeterra's history supported, or at least tried to support, this strategy. This game style is known as "Mill", and the first archetype that tried to support it was Deep, with Nautilus and Maokai. This list tosses cards from your deck to eventually obliterate all your opponent's cards, except the last 4, through Maokai's level 2 effect.

Check out the current best Deep list in the Eternal format:

Then, we had Watcher, which is the token Lissandra creates in your hand when she levels up. Before, when this card attacked, it would destroy your opponent's deck entirely - nowadays, it just leaves 3 non-champion cards in their pile.

Let's see the Lissandra Maokai deck, which focuses on winning through Deck Out:

Occasionally, we had a few lists with Karma and Targon that had as its main win condition not losing, which would eventually bring your opponent to "Deck Out". However, that rarely happened, because your enemy would forfeit the match before they did.

If you've read this far, now you know all 5 alternative win conditions that there are in Runeterra!

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