LoR: 5 Anti-Meta Decks To Stop Losing on the Ranked Queue!

Today, we'll discuss some interesting meta decks to play on the ranked queue. If you're struggling to beat specific strategies, and you're tired of losing to these decks, an anti-meta deck could be your best bet!

Please note that anti-meta strategies don't work against rising lists or off-meta decks. Actually, they only work against the specific archetypes they were built to beat.

Shadow Isles is one of the best regions when it comes to answering the meta. By combining it with the best region in the entire game, Freljord, you'll have an extremely consistent deck that will undoubtedly stop your opponent from executing their list's main strategy.

This deck, in particular, combines ramp with healing, and lots of removals, so it is a classic control deck, but with cards in the current Standard format, and a slightly unusual win condition.

With this deck, you should revive Revna, the Lorekeeper as many times as you can with Mordekaiser's passive ability, just like Anivia. As you'll also have many cards to accelerate your mana, you can easily play these expensive cards really early on. Eventually, the units in your deck will be gigantic, or you'll have a board full of Anivias ready to deal lots of damage to the enemy board.

I'll highlight Necrotic Arachnoid, whose main goal is to stabilize your game plan by healing your board and giving you Necrotic Nestlings to block enemy units.

Always keep Mordekaiser in your initial hand: he is the most important unit in this deck. Without him, you'll hardly be able to play the combos in this list.

If you're struggling to beat Shadow Isles or Ionia decks, Puffcaps are your best bet.

Historically, this type of list has always been the best choice to beat control archetypes, as your opponent won't be able to interact with puffcaps. That means they can't "remove" puffcaps from their deck, for instance. And, as usually control decks draw lots of cards, they'll also draw lots of puffcaps naturally.

The list we brought is a very popular classic - a reread of the most relevant puffcap archetype, with Freljord. We're not using Bandle City, like the most popular lists of the past, because Frostbites are a bit more valuable this season than Bandle City combos. There are many early game cards in this meta with a lot of health that you simply can't deal with. So, if we played Bandle City, we'd never survive the early game against these decks by just blocking these big units.

I'll highlight two cards: Hexcore Foundry and Charlatan Fishmonger. Both force your opponent to draw cards, which will be terrible for control decks, as they'll eventually start burning their expensive cards. Charlatan Fishmonger makes one of the cards your opponent draws Fleeting, so, if you play him on turn 4, you can discard an important late game card from your opponent's hand. This may very well win you matches on the spot, depending on which card was discarded this way.

If you're struggling to beat Freljord or Demacia decks, or Aphelios Viktor, this Swain Caitlyn list is perfect for you.

This archetype is the best "Noxus Control" list we have in Standard currently. Noxus Control is one of the oldest archetypes in the entire game, and has been built and explored in many different ways throughout the years. This time, we have a deck that plays defensively the entire game, and focuses on removing enemy units to eventually win with level 2 Swain and The Leviathan on the board.

This strategy is great against Midrange, as you can block and remove big units whenever you like with many cheap cards, and always have a mana advantage over your opponent.

Cards like Noxian Guillotine and Scorched Earth are perfect to remove champions and other mid-game units with lots of health. Rocket Barrage is the best card in Standard to deal with extensive boards early on, and many times destroys all the value on the enemy board all at once when well-played.

This deck is also great to play against lists with strong landmarks (except against Ionia), like The Veiled Temple in Aphelios decks, or The Grand Plaza and Altar to Unity in some Demacia lists, as well as The Wingsgiving in Bandle City decks.

I'll highlight Enraged Firespitter, which was buffed recently. Despite being an aggressive card, in this deck it is used to remove units because of its Challenger, besides dealing damage against the enemy board with its ability.

This is one of the strongest lists around when you need to beat aggressive decks. Everything in this deck gives you an advantage over fast lists, by either removing or blocking their units early on.

A secret to beating aggressive decks is to be equally aggressive early on, but, after the first few turns, transition slowly into a value-based game plan. Cards like Chip and Inventive Chemist are great blockers that interact nicely with the landmark theme in this deck, as we also play Stonebreaker in this list. This unit deals 4 damage to a unit if you summoned 4 or more landmarks that match.

To summon those landmarks, we also play Bomber Twins, which are great blockers, The Family Reunion - a cheap landmark that removes 1-health units early on - and Drop the Bomb, which removes units and summons a landmark on the board.

Most cards in this deck target something, which will level up your Morgana - and she is also your main source of healing.

Vex plays a supportive role in this deck. Even though she's not a control unit, she has incredibly strong stats for 4-mana, and her effect lowers the attack power of the strongest enemy unit. This means she'll always be strong against aggressive lists because she's bigger than most aggro cards in Standard, and she also lowers the offensive potential on your opponent's board.

I'll highlight Ground Slam in this list, as it is a very forgotten card that may catch your opponent off-guard. It is great to remove units with 3 health, like Stone Stackers, Poppy, and Lux: Illuminated.

The most complete anti-meta list in Standard is Zombie Ashe, which currently has great matchups against practically everything in the game, except Ionia lists.

This deck plays all the cards you need to beat aggro lists, Shadow Isles control lists, and all Midrange lists on the ranked queue. The most significant difference from this deck to the Mordekaiser Anivia list is that Zombie Ashe is a bit more aggressive and includes The Harrowing. This means you can block or attack with your cards as you wish because they'll eventually return to your board.

Another difference is that this deck doesn't play as many removals. It focuses more on putting pressure on the opponent and building a good board with its champions - you can also play it as a slow Midrange list. Considering it includes many Frostbites too, you'll have the advantage over other Midrange lists, and, because it also plays many early game units, you'll beat aggro decks by blocking and removing their cards early on. This way, this deck is unstoppable against any strategy that focuses on dealing damage consistently throughout the match.

Against control lists, you'll struggle a bit more. However, if you use The Harrowing wisely, you can win games by just playing defensively, and waiting until you draw this card.

Against Ionia it is impossible to win. Particularly against Taliyah Zilean.

The only Ionia deck you have any chance against are Lee Sin lists because of your Frostbites. Otherwise, it is extremely difficult to beat these lists - your opponent will simply destroy your entire strategy with a Deny or Nopeify!, and return all your units to your hand instead of removing them. This means you won't even be able to bring them back with The Harrowing.

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

Which deck was your favorite? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

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See you next time!