LoR: Forbidden Eternal Decks to Play on the Ranked Queue!

Are you already in Masters, and now want to test out fun Eternal decks? Or do you just not care about ranks and just want to play fun stuff? Well, if this is you, you've come to the right place!

Below, you'll find 5 fun lists (if you're the one playing them, that is) with cool combos or interactions that you won't see in Standard. These decks are not competitive, and not at all meta, but they're fun off-meta lists that may steal a few wins from your opponents, or just make them really upset.

Let's go!

This combo has been considered a cult classic in the ranked queue for a while now, and sometimes you'll find players that "know too much" piloting it.

The main idea is to play multiple Elusive and Ephemeral units and buff them with Encroaching Shadows. This card gives all cards in your hand and deck +2/+2, but also makes them Ephemeral.

This effect might not seem that strong, but please note that the Elusive units you'll summon recycle themselves, and return to your hand. Strike effects happen before Ephemeral kicks in and kills your units, so cards like The Mourned and Vastayan Disciple won't die as soon as they hit the enemy Nexus. Instead, they'll return to your hand right after they Strike, even if they're Ephemeral.

Unfortunately, this deck plays entirely around Encroaching Shadows, so always hard mulligan after this card.

If you're struggling during your matches, use The Rootbound Path to draw many cards and discount their cost. If you get the timing just right, you'll be able to play a combo that wins the game on the spot.

The Mill archetype focuses on destroying your opponent's deck with Watery Grave, and forcing them to lose by deck out.

This strategy is incredibly strong against slow or control lists, which are very popular in Eternal right now.

For instance, it is strong against most ramp decks, Elder Dragon lists, Karma Sett, and Seraphine.

The main idea is to hard mulligan after Watery Grave and keep it in your hand throughout the entire game (try to keep two of them if you're against Ionia).

If you draw it in your initial hand, you'll already have half the combo. You'll just need to Toss or destroy 25 Allied cards to level up Maokai and play him on the board.

Your deck's specialty is Tossing cards; for instance, you can copy units like Dreg Dredgers and Deadbloom Wanderer with Fading Memories or The Iron Conquest and activate their effects extra times. This is particularly efficient if you also have a Sea Scarab on your board.

Don't worry about losing units in combat, as this will also level up your Maokai. However, try to protect important cards, like Sea Scarab or Maokai. Actually, if your opponent interacts with the board a lot, the best strategy is to not summon Maokai on the board until he's leveled to protect your main win condition.

For this article, I also decided to bring back one of the most classic LoR strategies of all time. This is one of the most interesting lists we've ever seen in this game: it combines Celestials with the Piltover & Zaun control package, namely Aphelios, Viktor, and Starlit Epiphany.

The idea is to control the board with removals and heals, until you can Evoke giant Celestials that will win the game for you! However, this type of strategy is often too slow, so this list plays one of the most interesting answers for aggression in the entire game: Sump Monument + Starlit Epiphany.

If you're about to lose the game, just play Sump Monument and absorb all damage. After all, this card turns all the Nexus damage you take into Puffcaps. Then, on the same turn, just play Starlit Epiphany, Obliterate your entire deck, and replace all cards with 20 Behold the Infinite. This will Obliterate your Puffcaps as well and give you one extra life. In fact, it makes you temporarily immortal and buys you 1 or 2 extra turns, which is often enough to win the game later on with giant Celestials.

This is the closest we've ever gotten to an LoR OTK deck. You just need to play one Age of Dragons, and you're done. You'll probably win the game right afterward.

This card will draw you up to 9 Dragons from your deck and make them all cost 0, which is more than enough to win. They're ridiculously big, and their effects interact really well with the Elder Dragon's Dragon Boons.

Alatis the Gallant is the most important Dragon for this combo. With it, you will grant all your other Dragons Deathless or Tough, and protect them from enemy removals.

The only issue with this list is that you need to survive until turn 9 or 8, and most of your cards are very expensive Dragons. So, we play Cosmic Youngling, Morgana, and Ottrani Dragon-Worshiper. They'll heal our Nexus and help us absorb all enemy damage.

Other than that, this deck also plays control spells, like Dark Binding and Celestial Wonder. They'll buy you some time too, as they Stun enemy units.

People usually love or hate this deck, and it is a bit toxic. However, as we need to spice things up in Runeterra, I'll show you how to play it.

The combo involves shuffling as many Puffcaps as you can in your opponent's deck with Bursting Backpack. When you finish playing, your opponent should have so many Puffcaps that they'll draw a thousand of them next turn and lose the game on the spot. However, you need a specific setup to win this way - and it is a bit complicated.

Step 1: Draw as many cards as possible, but don't use any Predict card. Level up Akshan at any cost.

Step 2: Play Valley of Imitation one turn before you play Curious Shellfolk. If your opponent can't or doesn't destroy this landmark right then, you'll probably win the game.

Step 3: Play Curious Shellfolk (with a bit of mana left), and, if possible, use Akshan's Warlord's Hoard to discount the cost of your cards.

Step 4: Shuffle the Bursting Backpacks in your hand into your deck with Careful Preparation. Save one Careful Prep to shuffle a Predict spell in your deck later on.

Step 5: Play all your Predict spells and swap between targets as you do. First, pick Bursting Backpack, then another Predict spell. The secret is to pick one at a time, but always pick a Predict spell instead of the Backpack to make sure your deck is always full of them. You need a bit of luck for this step. That's why you should have a lot of mana when you do it, as well as draw as many cards as you can before you start doing it.

Keep an eye on your hand limit. Then, just keep playing and shuffling multiple Puffcaps in your opponent's deck.

Please note: piloting this deck is extremely difficult. You'll often hold your opponent hostage and still lose the game because you made one mistake when you played your combo. So, be warned: you'll be ostracized when you play this list, and your opponents will probably hate you for life. Enjoy!

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!