Legends of Runeterra: 5 Ways to Play Elder Dragon in Eternal

As Eternal is in right now, we decided to show you the 5 most popular ways to play Elder Dragon in this format.

Recently, one of Elder Dragon's Standard decks was nerfed, and the classic Dragons game style is no longer the most efficient way to play it.

Let's see which Elder Dragon decks are rising in popularity in Eternal, and what these lists did to reinvent the most efficient way to play with it, considering we can play all the cards in the game in this format.

You're probably all sick and tired of facing this list on the ranked queue.

This archetype is a new version of the old Spectral Matron combo, but it takes advantage of Elder Dragon's Origin to bring other regions besides Shadow Isles.

It is extremely consistent, as well as one of the strongest Eternal lists, because it is incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, to stop this combo.

As all effects in this deck happen when you summon your units, your opponent can't answer your plays: you won't create any type of stack as you play them. Therefore, when you double the size of your units, or discount their costs in your hand, there's nothing your opponent can do about it - unless to try to remove your gigantic units from the board.

Currently, there are only a few lists that can beat this archetype, and they all win before you play the Spectral Matron combo. This means most of the time, if you play Matron on the board, you've won the game.

As usual, if an Elder Dragon deck is popular, there is an Elder Dragon deck to beat it.

This list is practically the same Spectral Matron combo as above, but it plays both Freljord's ramp kit and Frostbite kit, besides a few other cards to deal with aggressive decks.

Currently, I believe this is the best list in the format (to the day I am writing this article), considering it answers nearly all powerful meta lists.

I'll highlight Troll Scavenger, an incredibly old unit that has now returned to the meta as one of the best answers to aggressive decks. It is one of the best blockers in the entire game if you Behold an 8+ cost card.

We also have It That Stares, which is an answer to multiple landmarks and multiple units. And lastly, there's Buried in Ice, which is simply the best card to stop your opponent's Spectral Matron combo, but might just surprise your opponent as well if you use it to remove half their board.

With these cards, plus the regular Spectral Matron combo package, you'll be armed with a list that is much more versatile than the original. You'll just be missing some Demacia luxuries, like the reach of Strike spells.

The They Who Endure Shadow Isles Aggro archetype is perhaps one of the oldest in the entire game. This list has taken on many forms and many names, but it always plays the same: you kill your units, and grow your They Who Endure until it's big enough to win you the game on its own.

This list is incredibly powerful in this meta because it is great against aggressive decks, and also has some healing, as well as great early game blockers. Not to mention, the entire deck is full of removals and giant units.

It's a really modern, complete list that takes advantage of newer mechanics, like Arbiter of the Peak. This unit, besides discounting its cost any time whenever you play a unit on the board with a Dragon Boon, interacts really well with all the self-slay spells in this list (as they also target allies).

To complete our list, we have Scuttlegeist, which gets cheaper quite fast as you play, considering you kill units every turn. This way, you'll often play, on the same turn, an Arbiter of the Peak and a Scuttlegeist, and thus make sure your opponent can't block efficiently, no matter how hard they try.

Currently, this deck has one of the best win rates in Eternal because it is a rising list, and has everything to be one of the best lists in the format. It is also one of the few decks with Atrocity as a win condition, and this is one of the best finishers in the entire game.

In Standard, this Elder Dragon list was one of the few that survived through all the nerfs because it is entirely different from the regular Dragons list you see in the ranked queue.

It didn't change much in Eternal outside of Minah Swiftfoot, which is one of the best removals for the current meta.

The most significant difference is that now your portals will bring Eternal cards, which drastically widens the range of units you might get with them.

There are many incredibly strong Eternal-only cards around, and they might just change the course of your match. Indirectly, they make this deck's earlier turns way better when compared to the Standard version, even though both lists have the same cards.

So, this list abuses the fact it can create, now, any unit in the game (that costs 2 or 3 mana) randomly on the board. Elder Dragon's control archetype is one of the best in all of LoR, and was even in Eternal grassroot tournaments recently, despite its list including 99% Standard cards.

This is what you could call a classic Eternal list.

And, like any other Elder Dragon deck, it is nerf-proof because of its broken Origin.

This version used a few units that have since been nerfed, like Ancient Yeti and Enraged Firespitter. However, this isn't an issue at all because we have many other extremely powerful cards that can take their place.

Such as, for instance, Grimm, which is great to keep pressuring the board and remove any enemy attacker, and Horned Swarmcaller, which, despite nerfed, is still incredible to stop Overwhelm or Elusive units.

However, If you're not used to this list, be careful, because it is extremely difficult to pilot.

It basically focuses on Akshan's landmarks, which will draw you cards. Without them, you can't cycle through your deck and play the combos you need to discount the cost of Arbiter of the Peak and put pressure on your opponent.

Keep in mind that Dragon Boons count as "targeting" an ally that turn, and enable cards like Grappling Hook instantaneously, as soon as you summon that 6+ mana unit.

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!