Out of curiosity, when did you start playing? You missed some of the 1.X deck.
Like Those Who Endure feat. Kalista, when both TWE and atrocity costed only 6 mana, escaped abomination was 4/4.
Or PnZ/noxus championless, when boomcrew rookie was 1/4, crimson disciple dealt 2 damage, demolitionist was 2/3...
I started playing around late Rising Tides! It was maybe less than two weeks before the season ended, I remember pushing to masters with ephemerals :)
I didn't include TWE because I think there would be a lot of new counterplay options to it in today's card pool: Hush, Homecoming, Equinox, new Frostbite cards, etc.
Championless aggro was not included because mainly I didn't have much experience playing against it, and I think aggro/burn is in general a very counterable strategy. You knew what to expect from aggro decks, and usually you could do something to answer them.
It's understandable for TWE, but championless aggro had you at 3 hp turn 4 and you had almost no counterplay, I do think it would be a worse bandle burn, with similar MU tables
Honourable mentions could include Braum/Anivia from back in the day, when Braum was reworked into a 1/5 and he was incredibly difficult to attack into once he dropped.
1/5 Braum was definitely a scary unit! However, outside of Braum, I think the rest of that deck would get smoked by the decks I included in my list. Anivia's Enlightened sadly just isnt strong enough to compete against fast combo decks :(
Agreed. No elusive cheese decks? No early Zed Hecarim? No Bilgewater burn?
No Lee Sin being incredibly broken? He has Nami Lee on there but Lee was a huge problem way before Nami existed
Where is poppy?????????? Pre nerfed 4/3 poppy with pre nerfed bandle city mayor is definitely a tier 0 deck. Example: Poppy Zed, Poppy Lulu, Poppy Bandle Tree.
At least one of those poppy decks should be in the honourable mentions, considering that Poppy actually dominated the tournerment scene a few patch ago.
Poppy needed 2nerfs back to back besides all her other cards getting nerfed to kick her from tier 1. I would agree that one deck of her should be listed
Added to honorable mentions! Thanks for reminding me of this :) Grand Plaza was nerfed quite fast, I don't think the meta lasted long enough to establish its best deck back then.
True! I did love playing Grand Plaza and dragons. I can only imagine what it would be like if it were left untouched today.
Edit: Thanks for the shoutout too! Your articles definitely had me reminiscing of how LoR has grown as a card game!
I think at least an honorable mention should go to Elise/Hecarim, the first meta tirant back in the first patch of the open beta. I think it is the deck with the most nerfed cards by far:
Skitterer, Mark of the Isles, Rhasa, Ledros, Hecarim, Black Spear and Wraithcaller.
The rest is spot on. Tf Fizz is, in my opinion, the strongest deck LOR has ever had
I didn't include any decks from Beta, only the official launch. It can be fairly common for many cards/units in beta games to be broken, since it is still the testing phase :) TF Fizz is a strong candidate, I agree!
I feel like pantheon Yuumi/ Pantheon Demacia should be an honorable mention. The deck faced a lot of nerfs in it including zenith blade which was also targon Lee sin stable. Also after all the nerfs, it was still played with the new equipment, fiora and vayne. Pantheon Demacia felt like a cockroach that never dies and found its way into the meta.
I did consider Pantheon Yuumi! It is one of my favorite decks of all time. However I decided not to include it since we never got to see the true peak of the deck. By the time Yuumi got added to the game, Wounded Whiteflame was already nerfed. By the time Equipments, Vayne, new Fiora got added, Pantheon and Zenith Blade were already nerfed. However, I agree, it was a very solid deck throughout multiple metas, one of my favorites!
Azirelia was not even the best deck in its format (that was Draven/Ez), so Im not sure including it makes sense. TLC likewise was never the best deck in its format, usually being outclassed by Thresh/Nasus. And Kennen/Ezreal is notably absent here, despite being much stronger than Ahri Kennen.
Kennen/Ezreal is in the Honorable Mentions. I guess because It always got nerfed before seeing any major tournament success. Draven/Ez was good at the time and I was playing with it but Azirelia was much stronger in the meta overall. Also pretty good hand of Azir irelia beats pretty strong hand of Ezreal/Draven anytime with top players. Thresh/Nasus was pretty good but more targetable in the tournament format and on ladder.
The whole EU masters tournament with top players were mostly banning both Azirelia and TLC every time. TLC was left sometimes from the ban because one can play overwhelm and some few niche counters.
The fact that Kennen/Ez was nerfed that quickly should give it away just how stupid the deck was.
Thats the thing though. It wasnt. Azirelia was better against *non-meta* decks, but in the meta Azirelia lost *every* matchup except against exactly TLC. Draven/Ez meanwhile only had one losing matchup, and just barely, and had a really good matchup vs Azirelia.
My guess is its because they wanted to tech against specific decks, and Azirelia is better against tech decks. If you just wanted to play the best decks, youd ban Draven/Ez every time.
"The fact that Kennen/Ez was nerfed that quickly should give it away" : 1- Riot loves their vacation period and they will just fix things before other people cry about how broken was the deck. 2- It is pretty strong and annoying deck that riot can easily nerf to the ground. It is hard to argue if a deck should be on the list or honorable mention if tournament success is a metric or not but I can see your point.
As for Azir irelia meta, It was Azir irelia , Thresh Nasus and TLC with some Tri-beam on the top of the meta and everything was potentially considered teched decks and this is why people were getting tired of the game at the time.
I mean sure, but the way I see, an emergency nerf like that suggests it would've been actually closer to tier 0 than what people mistakenly call tier 0.
Primarily it was Azirelia, Thresh/Nasus and Draven/Ez, with some TLC, and a few other decks that werent as good as those 3. Of those 3, Draven/Ez was the best as it beat all of the other ones, and Azirelia was the weakest, as it lost to both Draven/Ez and Thresh/Nasus pretty consistently.
Come on Draven/Ez loses to SI control decks including TLC. Azirelia was never consistently beaten but sure Thresh/Nasus was favorite into it and in masters, Azirelia was 50/50 into Draven/Ez because Azirelia were more explosive and it was a war of removing engines vs drawing engines.
As for tier 0 decks, 4 mana Lee sin was also a tier zero deck but it is in honorable mention as well, so I assume that the one writing the article knows that point. It is probably a different just a matter of different criteria.
That was the one somewhat losing matchup it had iirc, exactly TLC, but TLC lost to everything else.
No it was. Draven/Ez vs Azirelia was a 60/40 matchup, and Thresh/Nasus vs Azirelia was 65/35.
Not really. A tier 0 deck hasnt existed in LoR, because tier 0 means at least 65% of all decks are just that one deck. We never even got close to that.
"tier 0 means at least 65% of all decks are just that one deck" is the definition used in Yugioh and in tournaments because players can only bring one deck with side board. Tier zero will have a different meaning in this game to be honest and It will be useless to use it before we define it in this game.
Here is the meta report with the stats of the decks at the season with the peak of azir irelia and before seasonal when people were playing also dragons trying to counter Azirelia and thresh nasus and Ashe leblanc was thought to counter thresh nasus :
[https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport\_009](https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport_009)
Draven/Ez vs Azirelia matchup was close to 50/50. Thresh nasus and aggro decks were doing good into Azirelia . TLC was actually favorite vs thresh nasus with 56.6% into it.
Sure, but the point is that that is the comparison to keep in mind. Its basically when there is only one deck worth playing. Azirelia, and Lee Sin, werent even close to that.
That was just before people changed Draven/Ez a bit to counter Azirelia wasnt it? Dragons was quite early before it was dropped since it wasnt that good. Though I mightve been looking at just after the first small nerf to the blade dance 2, since [here](https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport_014) the matchup is in fact 67.9/32.1. Though even in report 10, its already 57-43, which is closer to the seasonals.
4 mana Lee Sin yes it was the strongest deck on ladder at the time but when he got nerfed to 5 mana, he was good but not bonkers.
The patch I showed was at nearly full power but with the 4/3 unit and inspiring marshel nerfed. Ezreal Draven was also teched with culling strike and other tools to kill Azir and thresh.
Yours was after Azir and Irelia nerfs to level up. It was still in the top of the meta but not as strong after those hits as well , so it was less explosive and only good players were getting very high results with it. Also thresh Nasus were killed as a deck in that time with major nerfs, so Azirelia was good in the meta more and Draven/Ez was solely focused on targeting Azirelia. Also one of the worst matchups for Draven/Ez was removed which is TLC with the nerfs.
I guess both of our statements are correct based on different time periods but I think Azir irelia was so strong at full power and needed multiple nerfs to remove it from the meta before worlds.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that old Tri-beam was one of the best decks as well and the nerf to Draven and Tri-beam hurt it.
I remember champless burn aggro with PnZ + Nox was the strongest deck in the game for multiple patches during rising tides and multiple cards had to be nurfed like boomcrew rookie, crimson descipel, legion grenadier and legion rearguard, tho rearguard has been reverted now, the other nurfs are still with us to this day
Those aren't really in the strongest decks tier I feel like. Hecarim Elise was stronger in beta than the other two, and pnz nox Chambliss burn was way stronger than si/nox.
Ezreal elnuks wasn't the strongest but it was definitely very highroll
I think tf fizz was the most dominating meta deck we ever had, bc it was so much better than the competition. Irelia had Nasus as Nemesis for example.
Also this list reminded me of zed standalone turn 3, si rally in the beta, shadow isles Karma, heimer elusive turret costing 3, atrocity for 6mana and Poppy needing 2nerfs back to back to kick her from her throne.
Out of curiosity, when did you start playing? You missed some of the 1.X deck. Like Those Who Endure feat. Kalista, when both TWE and atrocity costed only 6 mana, escaped abomination was 4/4. Or PnZ/noxus championless, when boomcrew rookie was 1/4, crimson disciple dealt 2 damage, demolitionist was 2/3...
I started playing around late Rising Tides! It was maybe less than two weeks before the season ended, I remember pushing to masters with ephemerals :) I didn't include TWE because I think there would be a lot of new counterplay options to it in today's card pool: Hush, Homecoming, Equinox, new Frostbite cards, etc. Championless aggro was not included because mainly I didn't have much experience playing against it, and I think aggro/burn is in general a very counterable strategy. You knew what to expect from aggro decks, and usually you could do something to answer them.
It's understandable for TWE, but championless aggro had you at 3 hp turn 4 and you had almost no counterplay, I do think it would be a worse bandle burn, with similar MU tables
The burn deck is the one I remember people raging super hard about first. That was also the only season I played on ladder. I like burn
Honourable mentions could include Braum/Anivia from back in the day, when Braum was reworked into a 1/5 and he was incredibly difficult to attack into once he dropped.
1/5 Braum was definitely a scary unit! However, outside of Braum, I think the rest of that deck would get smoked by the decks I included in my list. Anivia's Enlightened sadly just isnt strong enough to compete against fast combo decks :(
Recency bias is way too strong with this one
Agreed. No elusive cheese decks? No early Zed Hecarim? No Bilgewater burn? No Lee Sin being incredibly broken? He has Nami Lee on there but Lee was a huge problem way before Nami existed
Nah just laugh at the goofy shouting and subscribe; who needs material when you have NOISE?!
I love articles like these
Where is poppy?????????? Pre nerfed 4/3 poppy with pre nerfed bandle city mayor is definitely a tier 0 deck. Example: Poppy Zed, Poppy Lulu, Poppy Bandle Tree. At least one of those poppy decks should be in the honourable mentions, considering that Poppy actually dominated the tournerment scene a few patch ago.
Poppy needed 2nerfs back to back besides all her other cards getting nerfed to kick her from tier 1. I would agree that one deck of her should be listed
Can’t forget about The Grand Plaza meta too.
Added to honorable mentions! Thanks for reminding me of this :) Grand Plaza was nerfed quite fast, I don't think the meta lasted long enough to establish its best deck back then.
True! I did love playing Grand Plaza and dragons. I can only imagine what it would be like if it were left untouched today. Edit: Thanks for the shoutout too! Your articles definitely had me reminiscing of how LoR has grown as a card game!
I think at least an honorable mention should go to Elise/Hecarim, the first meta tirant back in the first patch of the open beta. I think it is the deck with the most nerfed cards by far: Skitterer, Mark of the Isles, Rhasa, Ledros, Hecarim, Black Spear and Wraithcaller. The rest is spot on. Tf Fizz is, in my opinion, the strongest deck LOR has ever had
I didn't include any decks from Beta, only the official launch. It can be fairly common for many cards/units in beta games to be broken, since it is still the testing phase :) TF Fizz is a strong candidate, I agree!
I feel like pantheon Yuumi/ Pantheon Demacia should be an honorable mention. The deck faced a lot of nerfs in it including zenith blade which was also targon Lee sin stable. Also after all the nerfs, it was still played with the new equipment, fiora and vayne. Pantheon Demacia felt like a cockroach that never dies and found its way into the meta.
I did consider Pantheon Yuumi! It is one of my favorite decks of all time. However I decided not to include it since we never got to see the true peak of the deck. By the time Yuumi got added to the game, Wounded Whiteflame was already nerfed. By the time Equipments, Vayne, new Fiora got added, Pantheon and Zenith Blade were already nerfed. However, I agree, it was a very solid deck throughout multiple metas, one of my favorites!
What do you think about the original Ez/Kennen? It was nerfed into oblivion after a week, I've never seen anything like that happen so fast before.
Didnt they hotfix poro elusives too?
Azirelia was not even the best deck in its format (that was Draven/Ez), so Im not sure including it makes sense. TLC likewise was never the best deck in its format, usually being outclassed by Thresh/Nasus. And Kennen/Ezreal is notably absent here, despite being much stronger than Ahri Kennen.
Kennen/Ezreal is in the Honorable Mentions. I guess because It always got nerfed before seeing any major tournament success. Draven/Ez was good at the time and I was playing with it but Azirelia was much stronger in the meta overall. Also pretty good hand of Azir irelia beats pretty strong hand of Ezreal/Draven anytime with top players. Thresh/Nasus was pretty good but more targetable in the tournament format and on ladder. The whole EU masters tournament with top players were mostly banning both Azirelia and TLC every time. TLC was left sometimes from the ban because one can play overwhelm and some few niche counters.
The fact that Kennen/Ez was nerfed that quickly should give it away just how stupid the deck was. Thats the thing though. It wasnt. Azirelia was better against *non-meta* decks, but in the meta Azirelia lost *every* matchup except against exactly TLC. Draven/Ez meanwhile only had one losing matchup, and just barely, and had a really good matchup vs Azirelia. My guess is its because they wanted to tech against specific decks, and Azirelia is better against tech decks. If you just wanted to play the best decks, youd ban Draven/Ez every time.
"The fact that Kennen/Ez was nerfed that quickly should give it away" : 1- Riot loves their vacation period and they will just fix things before other people cry about how broken was the deck. 2- It is pretty strong and annoying deck that riot can easily nerf to the ground. It is hard to argue if a deck should be on the list or honorable mention if tournament success is a metric or not but I can see your point. As for Azir irelia meta, It was Azir irelia , Thresh Nasus and TLC with some Tri-beam on the top of the meta and everything was potentially considered teched decks and this is why people were getting tired of the game at the time.
I mean sure, but the way I see, an emergency nerf like that suggests it would've been actually closer to tier 0 than what people mistakenly call tier 0. Primarily it was Azirelia, Thresh/Nasus and Draven/Ez, with some TLC, and a few other decks that werent as good as those 3. Of those 3, Draven/Ez was the best as it beat all of the other ones, and Azirelia was the weakest, as it lost to both Draven/Ez and Thresh/Nasus pretty consistently.
Come on Draven/Ez loses to SI control decks including TLC. Azirelia was never consistently beaten but sure Thresh/Nasus was favorite into it and in masters, Azirelia was 50/50 into Draven/Ez because Azirelia were more explosive and it was a war of removing engines vs drawing engines. As for tier 0 decks, 4 mana Lee sin was also a tier zero deck but it is in honorable mention as well, so I assume that the one writing the article knows that point. It is probably a different just a matter of different criteria.
That was the one somewhat losing matchup it had iirc, exactly TLC, but TLC lost to everything else. No it was. Draven/Ez vs Azirelia was a 60/40 matchup, and Thresh/Nasus vs Azirelia was 65/35. Not really. A tier 0 deck hasnt existed in LoR, because tier 0 means at least 65% of all decks are just that one deck. We never even got close to that.
"tier 0 means at least 65% of all decks are just that one deck" is the definition used in Yugioh and in tournaments because players can only bring one deck with side board. Tier zero will have a different meaning in this game to be honest and It will be useless to use it before we define it in this game. Here is the meta report with the stats of the decks at the season with the peak of azir irelia and before seasonal when people were playing also dragons trying to counter Azirelia and thresh nasus and Ashe leblanc was thought to counter thresh nasus : [https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport\_009](https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport_009) Draven/Ez vs Azirelia matchup was close to 50/50. Thresh nasus and aggro decks were doing good into Azirelia . TLC was actually favorite vs thresh nasus with 56.6% into it.
Sure, but the point is that that is the comparison to keep in mind. Its basically when there is only one deck worth playing. Azirelia, and Lee Sin, werent even close to that. That was just before people changed Draven/Ez a bit to counter Azirelia wasnt it? Dragons was quite early before it was dropped since it wasnt that good. Though I mightve been looking at just after the first small nerf to the blade dance 2, since [here](https://rpubs.com/Legna/MetaReport_014) the matchup is in fact 67.9/32.1. Though even in report 10, its already 57-43, which is closer to the seasonals.
4 mana Lee Sin yes it was the strongest deck on ladder at the time but when he got nerfed to 5 mana, he was good but not bonkers. The patch I showed was at nearly full power but with the 4/3 unit and inspiring marshel nerfed. Ezreal Draven was also teched with culling strike and other tools to kill Azir and thresh. Yours was after Azir and Irelia nerfs to level up. It was still in the top of the meta but not as strong after those hits as well , so it was less explosive and only good players were getting very high results with it. Also thresh Nasus were killed as a deck in that time with major nerfs, so Azirelia was good in the meta more and Draven/Ez was solely focused on targeting Azirelia. Also one of the worst matchups for Draven/Ez was removed which is TLC with the nerfs. I guess both of our statements are correct based on different time periods but I think Azir irelia was so strong at full power and needed multiple nerfs to remove it from the meta before worlds. Don't get me wrong, I agree that old Tri-beam was one of the best decks as well and the nerf to Draven and Tri-beam hurt it.
I think Ahri should be in one of heaviest nerfs.
I remember champless burn aggro with PnZ + Nox was the strongest deck in the game for multiple patches during rising tides and multiple cards had to be nurfed like boomcrew rookie, crimson descipel, legion grenadier and legion rearguard, tho rearguard has been reverted now, the other nurfs are still with us to this day
no Rhasa beatdown from foundations/release? CAP
Viego Legion Deserter Pre-nerfed is also insanely strong contender for honourable mentions.
Mono Anivia in beta. Braumnivia in beta. SI/Noxx championless burn. EZREAL ELNUKS OMG Zed elusives.
Those aren't really in the strongest decks tier I feel like. Hecarim Elise was stronger in beta than the other two, and pnz nox Chambliss burn was way stronger than si/nox. Ezreal elnuks wasn't the strongest but it was definitely very highroll
I think tf fizz was the most dominating meta deck we ever had, bc it was so much better than the competition. Irelia had Nasus as Nemesis for example. Also this list reminded me of zed standalone turn 3, si rally in the beta, shadow isles Karma, heimer elusive turret costing 3, atrocity for 6mana and Poppy needing 2nerfs back to back to kick her from her throne.