There are many powerful decks in Legends of Runeterra. Climbing ranked can be pretty tough if you’re not prepared, but if you’re equipped with a solid deck yourself you’ll stand a much better chance. If you’re looking for a powerful, top-tier deck to take into ranked, this list should give you everything you need. What’s even better is that none of them are too difficult to obtain. Legends of Runeterra is a very generous game compared to other digital card games as you can craft any card you want for free. That means new players can go toe-to-toe with experienced players and not have to worry about having a weak deck. So if anything here looks appealing to you, you shouldn’t have to wait too long before having enough wildcards or shards to get them.
I’ve included links to the deck lists in each section so you can import the codes directly into the game (credit goes to mobalytics.gg). If you’d like to hear more about the best cards in the latest Legends of Runeterra expansion, Call of the Mountain, you can visit our list of the 12 best new cards. And if Gwent is your thing, check out our beginner’s guide to the game. Now without any more babbling, let’s get started with the best decks to climb ranked in Legends of Runeterra.
1. Swain/Twisted Fate
With this deck you can unleash the true power of Noxus.
This is easily one of the strongest decks in the game. While it does feature Twisted Fate, Swain is the real star of the deck. He’s extremely easy to level up using spells like Death’s Hand, Ravenous Flock and Make It Rain. Once he’s powered up he can absolutely annihilate boards if he ever gets a hit on the nexus. It’s important to get a decent board built up though. You can get big damage boosts if you summon Powder Kegs and you need blockers to stay healthy, too.
Twisted Fate is the perfect support for Swain because his red and gold cards help Swain level up. Opponents might spend resources trying to take TF down meaning Swain is free to wreak havoc. In the late game you can drop heavy hitters like Leviathan and Riptide Rex to bombard your opponent into oblivion. All in all, this deck is extremely threatening if you play it right.
Swain/Twisted Fate – Deck List
2. Gangplank/Sejuani
Sejuani and Gangplank work wonders together.
This Plunder package features two champions with identical level-up requirements. All you have to do is hit your opponent’s nexus in 5 different turns. With the likes of Powder Monkeys, Make it Rain or Prowling Cutthroat, this becomes a cakewalk. You can often level up Sejuani on the turn she enters the battlefield. From that point on you can freeze your opponents board every turn and totally dismantle them. Gangplank is a great counterpart because he can hit the nexus with his ability before he strikes, giving you immense damage. This activates Sejuani’s frostbite which shuts down her enemies instantly. It’s very hard to beat this deck once they’re freezing and blowing everything up at the same time. Just make sure you focus on attacking the nexus whenever possible and you should start seeing some crazy results.
3. Miss Fortune/Quinn Scouts
Miss Fortune benefits a lot from having Scout allies.
This is a classic scout deck that centers around Demacia but splashes in Miss Fortune, too. The idea is to build up a strong board by playing units on curve every turn, then attack in quick succession. Miss Fortune benefits a ton from scouts because they let her level up much quicker. Once she’s seen you attack 4 times you can overwhelm an opponent with ease. It’s very rare you’ll lose once Miss Fortune reaches her full potential. The key to getting there is making sure you don’t waste your units. Having a good opening hand is great too, but you’ll need a bit of luck on your side. If you draw into the right attackers, this deck can be very tough to beat.
Miss Fortune/Quinn Scouts – Deck List
4. Lulu Demacia
Lulu might be small but she can make her allies huge with her ability.
This Ionia/Demacia combo is an extremely potent early-game threat. Lulu is one of the best champions added in Call of the Mountain. Her home is in a Demacia deck where you can pair her with powerful early-game units like Fleetfeather Tracker. You can use her to buff challenger cards, which can then pull in an opposing unit of your choice and take them out without worrying too much about dying.
Shen is a great counterpart for Lulu too. You can level him up much quicker by using Lulu’s barriers and Shen can protect her in return. Relentless Pursuit is the icing on top of a very sweet cake, allowing you to Rally and attack your opponent twice in one turn. With the crazy attacks you’re able to pull off with these support synergies, this spell becomes an essential tool to quickly finish off enemies.
5. Ezreal/Twisted Fate
This deck features many ways of drawing cards and targeting your opponents.
The aim of this deck is to basically use your opponent’s deck against them. When you damage their nexus, you can play Plunder cards to get strong effects. Nab is the best example, and you can often take your opponent’s win condition out from under them. Levelling up Ezreal will help you finish them off or you can drop a Riptide Rex to wipe their board out in one. This card is particularly great because it speeds up Ezreal’s level-up a lot.
TF is also a great win condition. When you’ve drawn 8 cards with him on the board he becomes an incredibly powerful tool. You can get there quickly by nabbing your opponents cards with Black Market Merchant or drawing your own with Salvage. Overall this deck is a tried-and-true Bilgewater powerhouse and has plenty of diversity in how you can win the game.
Ezreal/Twisted Fate – Deck List
6. Deep Sea Monsters
Use Nautilus to summon an army of terrifying sea monsters.
Deep is a late-game focused deck which revolves around Nautilus and sea monsters. The whole gameplan is to use cards like Jettison or Dreg Dredgers to toss away cards from your deck. Once you’ve tossed enough cards away you can go “Deep” and give huge buffs to your sea monsters. When you level up Nautilus, you can play sea monsters for less mana and quickly develop an insanely powerful board to overpower your opponent.
This is one of the strongest Bilgewater decks, and we’re pairing it with Shadow Isles because that region has some essential cards for this archetype – primarily Maokai and Deadbloom Wanderer. Maokai gives the deck an alternate win condition (destroying most of their deck in one fell swoop) and also lets you toss more of your cards away to go Deep quicker. Deadbloom Wanderer lets you toss and heal your nexus with a single card, which is extremely useful for a deck that is otherwise fairly weak to early aggression. You can even add the new Stalking Shadows card to find useful followers depending on which stage of the game you’re in.
7. Discard Aggro
Jinx will level up when she sees an empty hand.
Jinx is a very underrated card in Legends of Runeterra. She’s got a very unique level-up requirement (having an empty hand) that seems counter-productive at first. If you play her in a deck like this though, she becomes a huge threat. Discarding your hand with cards like Rummage can help you level up Jinx with ease, and after that you can spam rockets to destroy your enemies. The perfect partner is Draven, who can use his axes to discard things for free at burst speed.
This deck became a serious archetype when two specific cards were buffed: Zaunite Urchin and Sump Dredger. They allow you to discard something and draw another card when you play them. This is powerful if you combine it with cards like Vision, Jury Rig or Flame Chompers, as they all activate when you discard them. It’s very easy to build up a huge board early on with the likes of House Spiders too. This deck is susceptible to removal so it might struggle against decks with lots of damaging spells. Other than that, this deck fares very well and it’s a ton of fun to play. The variant linked below doesn’t use Sump Dredger but you can opt to use that if you’d like.
8. Nightfall Aggro
When night falls, some units gain powerful new effects.
Nightfall is one of the most fun mechanics introduced in Call of the Mountain. Cards with Nightfall gain serious buffs when you play them after another card in a turn. For example, Lunari Shadestalker becomes Elusive when you activate her Nightfall ability. You have to plan your moves ahead of time, because you can’t just drop units on the board in any order. It’s harder to get used to than other aggressive decks, but once you learn how it works it can be devastating.
The deck is full of powerful Nightfall cards, but you need ways to activate them. This is why it includes cards like Solari Soldier, Fading Memories or Stalking Shadows. These are cheap cards with strong effects that let you build up your board overtime. Once you’ve got a solid attack ready, you can unleash the power of darkness. Attacking with a levelled-up Nocturne will make your board Fearsome so weaker enemies can’t do anything to stop you. You can use Diana to pick off units of your choice or even end the game with an Elusive combo. You can even add in Cygnus to make any card Elusive, giving you a crazy finisher. Just be careful when you play your units!
9. They Who Endure
They Who Endure is one of the best finishers in the game.
Here’s another classic. Shadow Isles is a region with loads of cards that benefit from dying. Whether you play Cursed Keeper, Warden’s Prey, Hapless Aristocrat or more, death isn’t really a setback. And which cards benefits the most from your units dying? They Who Endure, an immense titan which gains +1/+1 whenever one of your units gets killed. This will often just overwhelm your opponent and annihilate them. If not, you can use Atrocity on it to one-shot their nexus instead. Getting there can be tough, but cards like Blighted Caretaker combo into Cursed Keeper to create a powerful board on its own. It’s easy to draw cards too with the likes of Glimpse Beyond. They Who Endure can be shut down pretty easily by Hush or Frostbite, but outside of a few spells it’s very difficult to stop this deck.
10. Aurelion Sol Ramp
Aurelion Sol can quickly finish off opponents with ease once he levels up.
Aurelion Sol is one of the strongest late-game cards in Legends of Runeterra. Levelling him up is basically an auto-win, but he’s very hard to get onto the board. Pairing him with Freljord alleviates this problem. Targon and Freljord both have lots of healing cards which can help you stall the game out. Starshaping and Catalyst of Aeons are incredible at helping you survive until late-game. You just have to be careful that you don’t get overwhelmed early on, so keep spells like Avalanche in hand. You can even play Icequake early with the likes of Wyrding Stones giving you a mana boost. Then, drop your big units onto the board and prepare to unleash destruction. This deck struggles against some aggro variants but it’s very tough to take down once you reach that all-important turn when Sol gets dropped onto the battlefield.
And that pretty much does it for this list of the best decks in Legends of Runeterra. With these decks you’ll be sure to start climbing through the ranked ladder once you’ve got to grips with how they work. Legends of Runeterra has lots of different region combinations and strategies so it may take some time to learn them all. Regardless, these decks will give you a solid foundation to start your ascent through the ranks. And if you’d like to learn more about the latest region to be added to the game, check out the Targon showcase.
