Legends of Runeterra: July Rotation - Which Champions Should Return to Standard

Legends of Runeterra's next rotation is almost here! In this article, I decided to see which champions I'd like to see in Standard again.

My goal is to brainstorm ideas with the community, so, please tell us in our comment section below which champions do you think should return to Standard!

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion! No champion in this article will 100% return to Standard.

Udyr was treated quite unfairly in the last rotation, and now can't take advantage of a meta that is most likely one of the most favorable metas for his game style.

Riot rotated him because he would possibly be too strong with the new cards from Dreamlit Paths, namely Demacia's Spirit package. However, we actually needed a list that focused on stacking all the value on your board on a single unit, like Udyr lists.

They could be a great answer to Dragon decks, as Udyr archetypes are faster and curve well on turn 5 instead of turn 6.

In Eternal, Udyr himself isn't in any relevant or popular deck, and, as a result, is quite forgotten. Maybe if he was in Standard again, he would open new doors for Freljord and Demacia, and, who knows, we might even see a list like Galio Udyr in the meta again.

One of my hot takes about why Lux: Illuminated decks haven't been as strong as they should be is that some key cards in this archetype rotated - and Jarvan IV is one of them.

He is one of the most versatile cards in the entire game, and that's why he rotated: one of the main themes in this rotation was removing from Standard every staple in every region (that is, cards that see play in any deck), and focusing only on cards that work in just a few specific decks.

Riot was successful in that sense, but they might have gone a bit overboard with Demacia. Petricite Broadwing and Cataclysm would also make a lot of difference in Lux: Illuminated decks this season, and, considering this champion definitely won't rotate any time soon because she is just too new, if Jarvan IV returns to Standard, she might finally shine!

One of the champions I missed the most in Standard was Aatrox.

Before Elder Dragon came along, Aatrox was the one that had multiple regions in his lists and many different, unusual combinations.

He also rotated because he was a bit too versatile. However, since Elder Dragon will rotate out of Standard in July also, Aatrox can come back and be the king of diverse meta decks again.

Alongside Aatrox, cards like Xolaani the Bloodweaver should also return, and bring back decks that focus on her and are full of units that buff themselves.

Maybe even Reaver's Row lists could make a comeback if these two returned.

Morgana Vayne Aatrox would once again be viable in Standard (if none of them rotate out), which would make the meta extra spicy, as this list loses to midrange but beats everything else.

A lot would change if Aatrox returned, but possibly all these changes would be great for the game. As his Origin isn't nearly as wide as Elder Dragon, we'd hardly see extremely abusive strategies.

Noxus was completely decimated (pardon the pun) in this last rotation, and had been massacred for a long time even before that, when Samira was nerfed.

The only Noxus decks left were Darius Gnar lists.

If they don't decide to do something drastic to change the entire region, like returning the entire Noxus control package to Standard, Darius would be a great alternative to revive aggressive Noxus decks in this format.

Currently, it is merely a support region, and is only really useful to give you access to Might. Nonetheless, after Enraged Firespitter was nerfed, not even these Might decks are relevant in the meta.

We don't know for certain why Darius rotated out, and, to be honest, seeing him leave when his region needed him most made me a bit sour.

It would be interesting to see what he can do in a meta without Elder Dragon, and, maybe, just maybe, he might revive all of Noxus with some meta list.

Targon needs a dominant meta champion as soon as humanly possible.

Taric was a big promise, as we all thought he'd break the game in this last rotation. However, ultimately, it didn't work out because he's just too slow for the current Standard meta.

This new set brought us many exciting strategies that targeted allies we could explore, and they'll be extremely useful for Pantheon if we want him to dominate the "target allies" archetype while Elder Dragon isn't in Standard.

We're talking about Veiled Blessings and Demacia's Spirit package. Keep in mind that Targon is also considered a support region for this archetype, as well as Shadow Isles.

This way, we'd have a champion that goes well with the Spirit archetype, and will finally put Targon back on the competitive radar with an archetype that is neither control nor combo.

Alongside Pantheon, we could also bring back a few other important cards in his kit, like Iula, Wandering Shepherd, and Divine Clerk. All of these cards were extremely strong in the meta once, and are severely missed in Targon right now.

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!