As the second preview patch goes live, we’ve broken down the best decks and cards in Legends of Runeterra so that you can enter the battlefield with confidence.
Legends of Runeterra offers a fresh take on the CCG genre and brings plenty of unique mechanics, flashy card combos, iconic characters, and new interactions that will have both League of Legends fans and card game enthusiasts excited.
Just like other faction-based card games, Legends of Runeterra tasks players with building a deck around League of Legends’ six major regions.
Decks consist of 40 cards and each region is home to its own unique champions and spell cards. Legends of Runeterra certainly isn’t lacking depth, especially when it comes to creating a deck around certain playstyles.
To help you get the most out of the second preview patch, here are a few of the best competitive Legends of Runeterra decks that will give you the winning edge when climbing the ladder.
Fiora Barrier
| Champions | Followers | Spells |
| Fiora x3 | Greenglade Caretaker x3 | Ki Guardian x3 |
| Shen x3 | Fleetfeather Tracker x3 | Single Combat x3 |
| Brightsteel Protector x3 | Prismatic Barrier x3 | |
| Rivershaper x3 | Riposte x3 | |
| Laurent Chevalier x3 | Spirit’s Refuge x3 | |
| Yusari x3 | Judgement x1 |
There are few versions of this deck floating around at the moment, but the main purpose of this deck is to keep Fiora alive with constant barriers. Unlike other champion cards in the game, the Grand Duelist has her own unique win condition when you level her up.
Once Fiora has successfully killed two enemy units, she’ll gain access to a new objective that allows her to win the game when she’s taken down four units without dying. This may seem a little tricky to pull off at first, but fortunately, this deck has plenty of damage nullifying cards that keep Fiora out of harm’s way.
Make sure you’re constantly utilizing the shields from Shen, Brightsteel Protector, Ki Guardian, Prismatic Barrier, Riposte, and Spirit’s Refuge as these cards will negate the damage done to Fiora for one turn. Even if your opponent is trying to avoid combat, you can use Fiora’s Challenger ability to force them into unwanted duels.
Try to chip away at your foe’s cards and lower their health with constant duels and skirmishes that leave their units weakened. Cards like Rivershaper allow you to gain access to your damaging spells, while Fleetfeather Tracker and Laurent Chevalier help steer damage away from Fiora when she is vulnerable.
When you’ve finally managed to level Fiora up, it’s time to move in for the kill. You can either keep forcing fights with her Challenger ability or wipe low health cards off the battlefield with Judgement.
This deck relies heavily on drawing into Fiora and gaining access to the shields she needs, but even when the Grand Duelist is defeated, the cards in this deck are still strong enough to take down most decks if you play your cards right.
Teemo’s Shrooms of Doom
| Champions | Followers | Spells |
| Teemo x3 | Puffcap Peddler x3 | Mushroom Cloud x3 |
| Clump of Whumps x3 | Rummage x3 | |
| Chump Whump x3 | Rush x2 | |
| Shady Character x3 | Deny x3 | |
| Shadow Assassin x3 | Ki Guardian x3 | |
| Astute Academic x3 | Thermogenic Beam x3 | |
| Dawn and Dusk x2 |
Riot’s devilish little tyke has been bringing grown men to tears ever since he first began scouting his way through Summoner’s Rift. With a toxic kit that allows him to effortlessly barrage foes with noxious poison and melt through unsuspecting champions with map-wide mushrooms, it’s certainly not hard to see why Teemo is the most hated champion in League of Legends.
The Swift Scout lives up to that same reputation in Legends of Runeterra. This deck is all about planting toxic shrooms into your opponent’s hand like some crazed farmer, forcing them to take Nexus hits whenever they draw cards. This deck isn’t for everyone and it can take a while to come online, but boy does it pack a toxic punch when it gets going.
In order to begin your nightmarish journey to all-out victory, you’ll first need to ensure you prioritise getting any Puffcap Peddler cards onto the field before using your Mushroom Cloud cards, as this will allow you to plant a total of eight mushrooms for every Mushroom Cloud card you play.
This number ramps up even further depending on how many Peddler or other spell cards you have in play, allowing you to quickly rack up plenty of toxic traps that overwhelm your foe.
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- Read more: How to earn cards in Legends of Runeterra
To make matters even better, Teemo levels up after you’ve planted 15+ Poison Puffcaps and he gains the ability to double the number of shrooms in the enemy deck whenever he hits their Nexus. While Teemo might be the weakest champion in terms of strength and defence, his Elusive ability means that he can only be blocked by another Elusive unit, so don’t be afraid to put the Swift Scout onto the battlefield when going for those sneaky Nexus hits.
Anivia and Tryndamere Control
| Champions | Followers | Spells |
| Anivia x3 | Avarosan Sentry x3 | Vile Feast x3 |
| Tryndamere x3 | Wyrding Stones x3 | Avalanche x3 |
| Avarosan Hearthguard x3 | Catalyst of Aeons x3 | |
| She Who Wanders x3 | Withering Wail x2 | |
| Grasp of the Undying x3 | ||
| Vengeance x3 | ||
| The Ruination x3 | ||
| Warmother’s Call x2 |
The icy winds of the Freljord are incredibly harsh and only the strong can survive against this frightfully frosty deck. If you’re tired of facing the ever-popular Fiora’s barrier decks and losing to Elise’s spiderling hordes, then this deck will give you the tools needed to wipe them off the board.
Anivia and Tryndamere both have the revive mechanic, allowing them to come back even stronger when they take fatal damage in battle. This works incredibly well with late-game cards like The Ruination that kills all units on the board, while Avalanche, Withering Wail, Grasp of the Undying, and Vengeance can remove particularly troublesome cards from the board during the early to mid-game.
Unless your enemy has plenty of reactionary removal cards in their hand, they’ll not be able to counter the barrage of deadly AoE and single target damage spells.
In order to make the most of this deck’s win condition, you’ll need to ensure you have enough mana to cast your most powerful spells. We recommend taking Wyrding Stones and Catalyst of Aeons to help generate mana gems as this will ensure there is not a lull in your spell casts – after all, this deck relies heavily on barraging your foe with waves of lethal magic.
Even if you happen to take a few hits in combat, the healing from Grasp of the Undying and Withering Wail will help keep your health ticking over until you can unleash your heaviest hitting cards. Those of you who like to dictate the flow of battle with board wipe and denial cards will feel right at home when using this deck.
Jinx and Draven Discard
| Champions | Followers | Spells |
| Draven x3 | Draven’s Biggest Fan x3 | Rummage x3 |
| Jinx x3 | Zaunite Urchin x3 | Jury-Rig x3 |
| Academy Prodigy x3 | Mystic Shot x3 | |
| Sump Dredger x3 | Vision x3 | |
| Flame Chompers x3 | Get Excited! x3 | |
| Augmented Experimenter x3 | Whirling Death x1 |
This deck is all about running you and your opponent out of cards. It may seem like a counter-intuitive deck, but it works wonders when you have cards like Augmented Experimenter and a leveled-up Jinx. Both these units allow you to draw cards once your hand is empty, giving you plenty of opportunities to draw into your most lethal powerhouses.
During the early-game, try to fill the board with your Sump Dredger and Zaunite Urchin cards to force fights and begin deleting your weakest units from your hand. Draven helps to amplify this further as his Spinning Axe allows you to discard one card while amping up another unit’s strength.
Once you have access to your key draw cards (Rummage, Jinx, and Experimenter), you’ll be able to constantly deliver single-target damage with Get Excited and bolster your units’ strength with Draven’s Spinning Axe.
If played properly, Draven should be constantly buffing his attack and smashing the Nexus for huge amounts of damage. The constant discarding nature of this deck will also starve your opponent of cards, making it even easier for you to chip away at their health, so keep up the pressure until the cracks in their defences begin to show.
If any meddlesome units enter the field, then you can force them to battle with Draven’s Whirling Death. This is particularly useful against Fiora themed decks and can shut them down before they can reach their win condition.
Discard and destruction is the key to success in this deck, so take Draven’s whirling axes for a spin if you’re looking to dish out the punishment.
The Legends of Runeterra second preview patch opens up on November 14, and will run for five days. A full launch is expected in mid-late 2020.