Standard Deck Guide: Evelynn Targon - Siren Song

The new set, Heart of the Huntress, is here, and with it, other new decks have started to take over the meta.

The card Siren Song is currently the most popular card in the entire game, and it, alone, is responsible for a very big portion of Evelynn decks and other strategies. For that reason, I decided to bring a guide of the current Evelynn list which I perceive to be the best competitive choice for tournaments and the ranked queue: Evelynn Diana.

Ever since Siren Song was released, the entire community knew this card would be top tier, but, we didn't expect it to be present in so many decks. From the first day onward, the Song has been present in at least 6 different lists, and not all of those decks bring, necessarily, Evelynn.

Even then, I believe Evelynn is still the best option to play this archetype, with Diana as her pair. Let's take a look at the deck.

The main reason this list is the most recommended list is the strong interaction Diana has with the husks. If she goes on board with her stats increased and an additional keyword, she becomes an unstoppable threat - both for other Evelynn lists, and other meta decks.

Not to mention, it is highly recommended that players of this archetype stay in Targon, because the best answer for that type of archetype ends up being itself. This deck suffers severely to cards which have silence effects and spells which obliterate units, and, at the same time, this list brings almost all of these combat tricks in its arsenal.

In just a few days, it became very boring to play mirror matches with this deck. As a result, some lists in this archetype which are not as well-optimized started becoming popular, as they have good matchups against the archetype itself. It is the case of Fizz Targon: that deck is currently the most victorious one in matches between lists that bring Siren Song, but, it is a deck that suffers severely against common lists in the meta, such as Annie Jhin and Sett Karma.

The deck is based on abusing the stats created by the card Siren Song, and abusing the interaction Evelynn's husks have with Xolaani the Bloodweaver.

As Husks die throughout the match, your Xolaani will grow and get many stats, until she is Empowered with more than 16 points of attack, ready to transform your whole board into gigantic units.

The list also has other alternative win conditions, such as attacking multiple times with Steem, abusing the Scout keyword.

It is also common to close out matches by hitting the enemy Nexus with Lunari Shadestalker and her keyword, Elusive. But, even then, all these alternative win conditions are only possible in case you play Siren Song. Actually, the entire deck is heavily dependent on that card, because the only other way for the list to add stats to Husks is through Domination's aura effect.

In case you don't draw Siren Song, the win rate of this list lowers drastically, and we're forced to play Control style, answering our enemy's plays with Targon spells.

Lastly, another way to finish games is by getting some gigantic celestial follower from your Behold the Infinite that comes with Targonian Tellstones. But it is quite rare that you need to resort to that sort of play.

Mulligan Strategy

This list has one of the simplest mulligan strategies of all time. Just always look for Siren Song and, in case you already have it, your second priority will always be your champions.

The perfect hand for the Evelynn Diana deck is:

The best Evelynn followers to have in hand are, in order: Sultur, Domination and Steem. Though Steem is responsible for carrying the deck in many situations, most times, he isn't a priority in Mulligan, because your priority is to look for cards that increase Husks' statlines, besides board presence.

Sultur is very important, as it is a very cheap blocker, and therefore it is the card that helps you not lose immediately to aggressive lists. It is also very important that you have a Husk early in the match, so you can summon your Evelynn levelling her up, and getting an additional keyword at the same time.

Good Matchups

Bilgewater The Poro King - The Poro archetype suffers a lot against Diana and the Control tools Evelynn's deck has. Though it is also a Siren Song list, Poros, contradicting a lot of what was said about this archetype, are not strong in the meta. But, even then, it is still an extremely popular deck, due to its fun thematic.

It is quite common to match against this deck in the ranked queue, even more so if you're playing in Gold or Platinum ranks. As a result, you don't need to worry about this deck if you're playing Evelynn Diana.

Garen Neeko - Neeko also suffers from the same problems as The Poro King, in the sense that she is a relatively weak champion, but also very popular. Neeko's deck is slow enough to let Evelynn's list play its combo cards with no problems at all.

As it is a Demacia list that doesn't focus on protecting its units, Neeko's deck suffers severely when the opponent can block with bigger units, or when they have removal spells. As most of Evelynn's units will be bigger than any Neeko follower, the trend is for our dearest chameleon's deck to become stuck without being able to attack in most matches.

Heimerdinger Jayce - This classic deck has been a Control list option aimed at neutralizing Siren Song decks. But, it is still a list that suffers against Diana and other cheap aggression tools.

That happens because a big portion of that deck's win condition isn't based on just removing all the enemy units, but it also tries to position Heimerdinger's Tech units and hitting with them. These units are really vulnerable to units like Diana, and, in general, they also can't deal with Lunari Shadestalker.

Bad Matchups

Karma Sett - All versions of Karma Sett deal very well with all Siren Song decks due to Deny. Besides that, stun cards, such as Concussive Palm, and other Ionia Control tools are extremely efficient at stopping all strategies these archetypes use.

Karma's deck, before, used to be played in Standard with its Piltover&Zaun version, but now, due to how the meta is full of Siren Song decks, even the Targon version of this deck started being played again.

Annie Jhin - This extremely popular deck is too fast for Evelynn to keep up with. This list benefits from strategies with which the match ends in a single turn, midgame, after the whole board was stunned. And, as the Evelynn list doesn't build a very wide board at first, it is relatively easy to remove blockers from that deck and hit for free.

As much as Targon is the best region to stop Burn decks, Jhin Annie doesn't suffer that much against the healing cards, as it is a list that can put 20 damage on board in a single turn very easily.

Miss Fortune Quinn - The Scouts deck is incredibly efficient ad dealing with lists that can't fill their board with blockers. Miss Fortune's list can easily fill the board with small units and hit many times in a single game, this way making it hard for Evelynn decks, which have but a few units on board in early turns, to block.

Scouts always comes in and out of the LoR metas as a list that can catch many players off guard, and for that reason, if you want to win against Siren Song decks, this is one of the best lists currently.

- The best keywords to get with Husks are Spellshield, Elusive and Tough. Spellshield helps against hard removal spells, Elusive helps against blockers and Tough helps against both.

- Avoid playing Husk-creating Evelynn followers on board before you have played Siren Song and given them global buffs, without having Evelynn herself on board, or without Domination on board. Spending resources aimlessly with this list isn't recommended, as you might run out of space on board to put your Evelynn, and your Xolaani won't grow without the buffs.

- Don't forget that Steem's effect of granting vulnerable to units works with all 1-cost units, not only with Husks.

- Try to always play your Evelynn consuming a Husk, as this way the champion will level, and in the next turn you'll have 2 additional Husks available on board.

- Diana isn't a win condition in this deck. The champion, actually, only serves to neutralize small units and enemy Husks. As a result, when she has already fulfilled her role in the match, don't feel bad about discarding her in a block. This champion will hardly level up in this deck.

- The best target ally to kill when you play a Hate Spike is an allied Husk. If you have an Evelynn on board, the champion will get the keywords anyway, and, in case you get a very bad keyword, like Impact, you can recycle the Husk.

- Blinded Mystic is a unit that has been catching players off-guard in the past few days, and it helps a lot in mirror matches. This card can easily stop a Xolaani or any other enemy unit which is gigantic and on the board. Not to mention, it also works against many other matchups you might face against which you need to remove a unit's Elusive or Overwhelm keyword.

If you've read this far, now you know everything about the most popular card in the meta, Siren Song.

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