LoR: Top 5 Most Unpopular Cards in Standard Right Now

Today, we'll discuss the most unpopular cards in LoR's Standard ranked queue right now. My goal is to see the meta from a new perspective and bring new ideas to the table; maybe even inspire a few of you to create new lists.

Obviously, these are the most unpopular cards for a reason: they're not great for the current meta. Still, I will try to bring interesting lists for them as much as I can.

Legends of Runeterra won't get new cards for a while: rotations will replace expansions in the new schedule, and they'll be everything we get for now. We might get stuck with strong meta lists that dominate the ladder for months, so it's important to try to bring new ideas to the light as much as we can.

Mirror Mage has never been strong in ranked decks, so it was no surprise players forgot about it, and it became one of the most unpopular cards.

Unfortunately, Bandle City only found its place as a region now, with Vex, and, as she doesn't create any cards and doesn't promote this game style, naturally no players considers bringing Mirror Mage to their deck nowadays.

The most viable Mirror Mage deck I found is this one:

This list mainly wants to use Mirror Mage to play Coins twice, as some sort of Karma "at home".

Considering Karma was rotated, this game style practically ceased to exist in Standard, and it only somewhat survives in this deck, which seems to be a very nerfed version of the old archetype.

Despite everything, this list has 70% win rate within 10 matches in the last 7 days, which is great for a new deck.

This is one of the most beloved units in Legends of Runeterra, specially among aggressive players. However, the truth is that it has always been a bit difficult to make this card work consistently. So, even though it is strong, it has always been a bit too slow for past metas.

The current meta hasn't been different: Chirean Sumpworker is too slow once again, and is struggling to find its place in the meta (again).

The best list I found with this card is this one:

This deck is a version of the Predict archetype with Jinx and Ekko, and abuses the flexibility of this archetype to make the Chirean Sumpworker combo work. Some cards that may help you play this combo are Evil Imperfectionist and Careful Preparation, which are great and will give you more consistency overall.

In the last 7 days, this list was played 270 times, and had a very average win rate (50,4%), which is quite promising for a deck that is basically the "weaker" version of its original archetype.

This is one of those cards that has never been meta and was waiting for a new rotation to finally become meta-relevant. However, nothing changed since the new rotation came along, and they all still struggle to find their place in the meta.

Jokes aside, Icy Yeti was popular a long time ago as a strong tech card against Scouts, when Scouts and Ashe Sejuani dominated the meta.

As the years went on, we never had to use Icy Yeti in an Ashe deck again. The Frostbite archetype quickly evolved and focused more on having big units. So, slowly, "Frosbite" became a secondary mechanic in Midrange decks.

In any case, I found two interesting lists that have Icy Yeti and also try to make Frostbite the main mechanic in the deck again.

The first one is this Lillia Ashe list whose main focus is to Sleep Rimefang Denmother multiple times so you can keep on summoning Rimefang Pack.

It is filled with cards that Frostbite so you can stack as much attack power as you possibly can on your Rimefang Pack. Please note that Icy Yeti isn't this deck's main character: it is only a support card that may be useful against enemies that play lots of low-health units.

The second list also focuses on stacking your Rimefang Pack, but it uses Targon as a support region, which makes this entire archetype a bit slower as a result.

This version is quite odd, even more so because it has an absurdly high win rate with just a handful of games. I tested this deck, and it surprised me a lot - even though it seems a bit weak, it has good tools to deal with whatever's meta nowadays. You'll depend on Ashe to win matches, but you certainly have enough cards to survive until you level and play her on the board.

Bilgewater is going through some tough times. Even though it got an extensive package of cards last year with Jack and Nilah, we have to agree that these champions aren't that great when the matter is deck diversity.

This region is stuck to Janna Nilah decks, and Jack seems to have found his place with Sett, finally. Other than that, there are no other Bilgewater decks around, and cards in this region aren't strong enough for you to use it as a support region either.

That being said, Wharf Rat goes by unnoticed among players not because it is a weak follower, but because Bilgewater hasn't been strong for a while. This card really matches Gangplank's game style, and the deck we'll see is centered around this champion.

This deck is nothing more than a version of Pirates for Standard that focuses on dealing damage every single turn to level up Gangplank as fast as possible. Wharf Rat really matches this game style, and, for this reason alone, it is a great addition to this list.

This deck's win rate is quite respectable, considering the meta does not currently favor this aggressive, Burn-centered game style. Maybe we'll see how this archetype really works in the ranked queue if we put in a few more matches with it. In any case, I'll test this deck a bit more because, on paper, it seems quite strong, and this win rate might not represent this list's true strength.

Popularized by BlackBoss and xXWhatAmIXx in Legends of Runeterra's competitive scene, Slippery Waverider is an iconic card from the Gangplank Sejuani Plunder archetype in Rising Tides 4 years ago. This unit was one of the strongest finishers in this archetype.

As the years went on, we never again used Slippery Waverider for anything, and most players forgot about it. It is so forgotten that it was only played 1 time, and lost, in the last 3 days.

Even though it was in 1 match, I couldn't find the deck in which this card was played. As a result, I decided to create my own deck.

This list is my version of the classic Gangplank archetype for Standard, which we can build with the cards in the current format. This list focuses on granting +1/+1 to your top deck, ideally to cards like Monkey Idol, and Slippery Waverider itself, which are the best units you can buff in this deck.

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

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