LoR’s Americas Seasonal Tournament Deck Highlights
The Seasonal Tournament showcased 32 of the best players from the Americas that Runeterra has to offer competing for their chance at a $10,00 grand prize.
Its format involved bringing a lineup of 3 decks composed of all unique champions. To learn more, check out our previous article on the ruleset.
To watch the tournament replay, you can check the VODs on December 13th at the official Riot Games stream or the Legends of Runeterra Youtube channel.
In this article, Kuvira and Swim will be covering the most popular decks that were brought, the lineups used by 1st and 2nd place, and other unique decks that were notable.
Here’s a quick look at the bracket to show the journeys of the participating players:
Image via Giant Slayer
Although we’ll only be highlighting a few of these players, the other participants are all very good as well so be sure to check them out and keep an eye out for more from them in future tournaments.
Since LoR is still very much a new scene, there may be some new names that you haven’t seen before that will become mainstays as the competitive scene grows.
Popular Decks Breakdown
On the qualification day, we saw that Go Hard, Feel the Rush, and Fiora Shen were the most popular decks. This was also the case for NA’s Top 32.
Fiora Shen
Deck Code: CECAGAICCMQCWBABAAERULJTAEBAAAIBAMAAMAYBAMAA4AQBAISTCAIBAASQEAIDAIKAIAIAA4KTINI
[See Expurgate’s Fiora Shen deck details]
Fiora Shen lists are fairly similar. Some people choose to play 2x, 1x, or no Nopeify! Depending on what they’re targeting with their lineup.
If their strategy revolves around leaving Go Hard open for example, playing more Nopeify! makes sense.
Brightsteel Formation is a great card in the mirror and vs midrange, matchups making it a 2x in some lineups. Relentless Pursuit is a great 1x allowing the deck has the ability to swing games or even finish them.
Some lists were also running Judgment. It’s a great card vs decks like Fearsome to basically counter their The Harrowing. It’s also generally good vs aggro decks as a board clear and sometimes even a win con with Fiora.
Go Hard
Deck Code: CECAEAYFAYIAKAQGAQNB2JR2AEBQMCABAECTCAQBAIDASAYBAUASCNIDAEBQKDACAIDAQIACAECQ6HI
[See thecupismine’s Go Hard deck details]
Go Hard was also seeing play in a high number of the Top 32 lineups.
The lists showed a bit more variety than Fiora Shen decks. Some people chose to run Elise and Twisted Fate, Gangplank with Twisted Fate, or all three of them in one deck.
Generally, 3x Twisted Fate, 2x Gangplank, and 1x Elise are great ratios for the mirror and other matchups.
Running Withering Wail with cards that generate kegs like Dreadway Deckhand or Petty Officer is very useful to deal with aggro decks like Fearsome and mirror matchups.
Commander Ledros is a great card vs control decks like Anivia/SI, Feel the Rush, and is very important in the mirror.
Passage Unearned is also a great tech card specifically added to counter Feel the Rush and Fearsome when they use The Harrowing.
Feel the Rush
Deck Code: CEBQGAYBAYDRMAQBAUOSQBIBAEGBIJZQGIBACAIBAEBQCBIBB4MQEAIBAEVACAIFEE
[See Lazyguga’s Feel the Rush deck details]
Feel the Rush is a control deck that saw lots of play in Top 32 lineups.
Most lists replaced Wydring Stones with Avarosan Trapper as a better 3 drop vs Fearsome and most aggro or midrange matchups.
The ratios on “finisher cards” like Feel the Rush and Commander Ledros can vary. Usually, two of each is a valid strategy against most matchups.
Troll Scavenger instead of Avarosan Sentry is a great tech choice if the lineup is targeting fearsome or other aggro decks.
Puyshipii’s 1st Place Lineup
Puyshipii, the 1st place winner, brought some interesting choices! Let’s dive into his decklists.
Code Deck: CECQIAIDBUSSMKACAIAQMCIBAMAQEAQCAMCQQAIBAEPQGAQBAMHTGAICAMCACAQBAIBACAIBAQAQEAYD
[See Puyshpii’s Overwhelm deck details]
This is an Overwhelm Noxus deck with Frejlord as a second region instead of Targon.
Frejlord offers this deck cards like Ruthless Raider which is a great 2 drop with the Tough keyword making it survive most damage especially when combined with Troll Chant and Elixir of Iron.
Wolfrider and Ancient Yetis are also great Overwhelm units to help push damage midgame. Sejuani can also be used on a unit with higher HP to try to push more damage on the attack.
Deck Code: CECAEAYFAYIAMAQGAQERUHJGHIBACBI5GUAQGBQIAIBACBIBGEAQEBQIAEAQCBJB
[See Puyshii’s Go Hard deck details]
This classic list of Go Hard is running Elise, Twisted Fate, and no copies of Gangplank.
3x Withering Wail with the 2x Petty Officer is a great tech to deal with Fearsome and aggro decks. It’s also very good in the mirror.
The 1x Commander Ledros was a tech card vs control and mirror matches.
Deck Code: CEBQUAYJDIOCGNSUKVMFYYDEAEBQEFABAEBDCAIBAMEVOAICAMEQGMY
[See Puyshpii Invoke Ionia deck details]
This is a pretty unique deck. It’s an Invoke deck with Ionia as the second region. The shell of the deck is pretty standard, all the Daybreak units including Eclipse Dragon, Leona, and Aurelion Sol.
The only splashed Ionia cards are 3x Deny and 3x Nopeify! These techs are mainly intended for the Shadow Isles matchups, including Feel the Rush, Anivia/SI, and Go Hard.
This is a solid lineup that is essentially very good against other lineups that include Go Hard, Ez/Draven, Feel the Rush, and Anivia/SI.
Against their opponent in the final, Helpless Victim, Puyshpii chose to ban Soraka/Tahm Kench leaving Dragons and Feel the Rush open. Those are great matchups for their lineup.
Helpless Victim’s (2nd place) Lineup
Here’s a look at the lineup of the tournament’s runner-up, Helpless Victim.
Deck Code: CEBAIAYGAQDQQDYHAMER2IZNGM2DOYQCAEBQMCICAMETYVIBAEBQSEY
[See Helpless Victim’s Soraka/Tahm Kench deck details]
This is a classic Soraka/Tahm Kench deck, running only 1x bastion, 3x Sunblessed Vigor, and 2x Broadbacked Protector.
This deck does really well against Demacia decks in general like Scouts and Fiora Shen. It also does fairly well against every deck that doesn’t have The Ruination.
Deck Code: CEBQEAIFDUUAIAIBBQKCCJYCAMAQMFQDAIAQCAZSAEBQCAQDAECQCGJBAMAQGBICAIAQCAJKAEAQKDY
[See Helpless Victim’s Feel the Rush decks details]
This Feel the Rush version of the deck is running Wyrding Stones instead of Avarosan Trapper, 2x Commander Ledros, 3x Feel the Rush, 1x Unspeakable Horror, and only 1x Ruination.
Deck Code: CECAGAIABENB2AYDAADAQCYBAMESGAICAAAQGAIDAACQIAYJAMKVOZABAEABKAYBAMEVKAQDAABQ4AIBAAWQ
[See Helpsless Victim 3rd deck’s details]
This is a pretty unique Dragons list running three champions: 3x Shyvana, 2x Asol, 1x Fiora.
Fleetfeather Tracker, Brightsteel Protector, Egghead Researcher, and Dragonguard Lieutenant are great units to fill out the early curve problem that Dragons decks usually have.
It’s also running 1x Dragonguard Lookout and 2x Relentless Pursuit for the Rally effect to finish up games.
This is a lineup that isn’t necessarily targeting a specific set of decks or matchups but is generally solid vs aggro and midrange matchups.
Other Unique and Notable Decks
Deck Code: CEBQKAIEDMTCONBYAMBQSUCUMAAQGBARAECAGCIPHBKVYAYBAECACAYDBERTGVYBAICAC
[See Jasensational 3 deck details]
This is definitely the most unique deck I’ve ever seen in a tournament. It’s running 3x Heimerdinger, 2x Diana, and 1x Aurelion Sol.
It’s running 1x Subpurrsible and 3x Tri-beam Improbulator. Nine 3 drops work towards leveling up the Tri-beam while also having their own big value.
This deck usually wins with the Great Beyond, The Scourge, and the Immortal Fire in combination with Heimer as a huge value engine.
Deck Code: CECACAQDBEBACAQIB4BACAYKFIAQEAQFAMBQCAQLEEYQIAIDEQXDMNYBAIBASAYBAMBBIBABAIBCKLRYAEAQGMY
[See Jasensational 2 deck details]
Surprisingly, a Yasuo deck made it this far. Their 3x Katarina synergizes well with this type of deck concept.
The deck is also running Stun cards like Steel Tempest, Concussive Palm, and Intimidating Roar for the Yasuo synergy while also having different win conditions like Legion General, Captain Farron, and Minah Swiftfoot.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Kuvira during his streams.
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