7 Decks You Should Expect to See for the Between Worlds Seasonal Tournament
We might be in the between worlds season, but the seasonals are still the top of competitive play when it comes to Runeterra.
My name is Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson, and whether you’re an old hat or a new face, hyped up to be getting in through the gauntlet, you’re going to want to know the pillars of the meta as your draft your lineup.
Let’s check them out.
To dive into the stats for deck matchups, don’t forget to also check out our LoR meta stats.
1. Sion/Draven
Deck Code: CECAIAIEEYTS2NABAQCBAAYFAMAQSDICAEBRILQDAECQGBABAECACAIDAMHQGAQBAMRTGAIFAQMACAYEBM
[See Sion/Draven deck details]
After being hit with the nerf stick three or four times this old powerhouse is still kicking. Combine a ridiculous stream of value with an impressive suite of burn and hard-to-answer Overwhelm threats at the top end, it’s going to be difficult to call that a bad deck.
With the removal of Aloof Travelers, there certainly are decks that counter Sion. Now that you can rely on your answers staying in your hand instead of fleeing from you Lee and anyone packing Minimorph come in around the top of the list. But without a plan, this deck will just straight-up run you over.
2. Plunder!
Deck Code: CECAQAQGAUFSAIJGFU5DYAIDAYEACBAGBIAQEAICAEBQEBQCCQRACAIEAEEQ
[See Plunder! deck details]
Plunder is almost undeniably the king of the current metagame. My version is still a bit old school, focusing more on holding down the early game and interaction than the full-out aggressive versions we’ve been seeing lately, but the game plans are much the same at the end of the day.
You apply pressure and get your champions leveled as quickly as reasonably possible. Sometimes you apply so much pressure your opponent simply keels over. If not, then Gangplank and Sejuani end games ridiculously quickly and forget about surviving if an unanswered Dreadway hits the field.
Then if you really want to tilt your opponent and none of that has worked you can just take the cards out of their deck and hit them in the face. Every time this deck plays one of my Atrocities I must admit I need to take a break before I am ready to get back into the fight.
3. Warlord Sivir
Deck Code: CECAKBAHBUKDMZ4CAEAQCAAJAEBQADQBAIAACAYDAEAAMDY5AQCAOXMAAGAQDCQBAECAAAQA
[See Warlord Sivir deck details]
I don’t know how many times I am going to be putting versions of this deck at the top of the metagame, but until it stops being true I’m going to keep saying it. Sivir and Absolver are together one of the most powerful sequences of play there is.
Firstly you’ve got protection spells galore from all your buffs to keep your engines running. Then Akshan’s value, backed up by Preservarium, means that just when you think you’ve run out of resources you often find that small push necessary to slam the game home.
Between Concerted Strike, some Vulnerable triggers, and Radiant Guardian, you even have a reasonable amount of interaction tools to pave your way as well. This deck is quintessential midrange and it is going absolutely nowhere in the foreseeable future.
4. Bandle Burn
Deck Code: CEBQQBIKA4UTCRKJOSRQDJQBAMAQGAQPFABAEAYDAQAACAIFBI2A
[See Bandle Burn deck details]
Honestly, sometimes I worry that y’all will forget about shady. Sometimes you just need to quit all the fancy nonsense and punch a fool in the face. That is exactly what this deck is best at. We swarm, swarm, and swarm some more, and then burn them out from wherever they land.
Decks that can answer our early game may have significant problems with Poppy and Lecturing Yordle. Decks that can’t are often dead before the first card hits play. We also have nine cards in our deck that replace themselves so in aggressive mirrors, we are often sitting pretty.
When all that fails there’s only one way to turn. Treasured Trash can pull some absolutely unreasonable wins out of absolutely nowhere. Let me tell you, the first time you pull Battlefury off of that nonsense is not something you forget. And it won’t be something your opponent does either, not for a long time.
5. Lee
Deck Code: CEBQMAYJBENSGM3A24AQKAQCAMCQMCAJAIAQEDBRAAAQCAYJKU
[See Lee deck details]
I’ve been playing this deck basically all season and I’ve got to say it feels about as powerful now as it did at the beginning, if not more so. Your Eye of The Dragon game plan can just absolutely stomp all over any aggressive decks that come your way, often healing more than twenty a game.
Solari Priestess provides solid play into midrange decks as well. She makes Lee Sin showing up to close games more consistent and simply Comets anything she doesn’t like right out of existence.
When it comes to control, you have all the answers in the world. Nothing that isn’t Minimorph is particularly threatening when your opponent’s removal will often be trading tempo-negative into your answers to it.
The only real bad matchups are hard-control Minimorph style decks such as Darkness, and powerful Rally decks. Rally decks like Sivir or the next one on the list have always been this deck’s weak point, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a strong choice and a strong contender for the upcoming seasonal.
6. Poppy/Zed
Deck Code: CEDAEAIABEOQCAQAA4CACAQGBEGDSAIDAAHACAYCBIAQKCRJAQAQCAQRAEBQEFABAQAAEAIBAAKQEAIBAILACAIABM
[See Poppy/Zed deck details]
This deck gets a lot of hate, but it’s been around the block a few times and it’s not going anywhere. Rallying is such a powerful effect, and this is the deck set up to take the best advantage of it. Whether it is champs that love to attack or buffed up Elusive menaces, a rally will always be a terrifying thought.
We also get to play an impressive amount of protection for our key pieces, making those who think they will just remove our low health champions get another thing coming. That other thing generally being death as some of our best matchups are those that think they can go toe to toe and remove our units.
Last but not least if you get your Challenger pieces ticking you can actually do a fair impression of a tempo deck as well. Sometimes even sufficiently to power through other more midrange decks that think they’ll be able to stall successfully. All that means this is a top contender for sure.
7. Tree
Deck Code: CEBAQBIKFF2JQANGAGTQDLYBYAA4EAIBAEBTOBABAIDC4AQFBIA4MAIBAIBQSAIBAMXAGAIFBKQACAIDAIBACAYDBU
[See Tree deck details]
Bandle Tree is an oft-forgotten archetype that I think needs to not be slept on. It gets to have multiple powerful game plans as simple swarm mechanics backed by Poppy will do in many an unprepared opponent.
Following that, you have an awful lot of control tools and value to simply out grind any frustrating midrange or control players looking to stop you. And then at the very top end, your signature card can simply win the game, generally between turns eight and ten, in a difficult to interact with fashion.
Any deck with that many different difficult-to disrupt plans while maintaining its own power and interactive abilities seems like it has a serious fighting chance. Especially in a tournament format where you can ban out its worst matchups.
This one might feel like a bit of a sleeper but I would be very surprised not to see at least a couple of copies fight their way through the press into the power of the top thirty-two.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (Tuesday-Thursday around 3PM PST and weekends for tournaments).
WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx around 10AM PST every day
