LoR: Best Anti-Meta Decks - January 2025 Rotation

In this article, we'll go through the best lists to beat the most popular meta decks in Standard. These lists have great matchups, sometimes even bigger win rates than other popular lists, and might be the best options for you if you're tired of losing in the ranked queue.

Let's see them!

Currently, Mordekaiser lists are the best control lists in the meta. They're also the most popular archetype in the ranked queue, and is dominating this season.

Mordekaiser sees plays in many different ways - the strongest version right now is with Norra.

To beat this deck, you need to attack Mordekaiser's Nexus constantly, or create value on the board every turn. The perfect way to do that is with Norra lists that create lots of Portals in your deck.

Portals are popular right now and slowly dominating the meta. They're one of the most consistent strategies to deal with the most popular archetypes in the game.

The list we brought today plays the entire Ionia control package and Heimerdinger. The plan is to create lots of Portals, fill your board with random units or Heimerdinger Turrets, and eventually play Eclectic Collection. This way, you'll also shuffle many Puffcaps in your opponent's deck, which, in turn, will deal a lot of damage to them as they draw cards. They'll also still have to deal, turn after turn, with your board full of random units.

Mordekaiser can't deal with this strategy because his main win condition is exhausting the opponent's resources by removing their units. However, you'll play so many units on the board that Mordekaiser won't be able to deal with how much value you'll create, and will eventually end up losing the match.

The most popular archetype nowadays is Fearsome Shadow Isles. This archetype comes in many different shapes, with many region combinations, champions, and win conditions.

However, all these lists are terrible against this classic Freljord/Shadow Isles list.

That is because Shadow Isles Control is one of the few archetypes that can kill units during enemy attacks with fast removal spells. The idea behind Fearsome decks is to set up open attacks in offensive turns, and not let the opponent do anything at slow speed on their turn. Classic Control lists don't care about that, and often play removals and other answers to easily kill Aggro units.

This Freljord Control list plays one Feel the Rush and Lissandra's Thrall package as main win conditions. Its late game is incredibly consistent.

Level 2 Lissandra makes your Nexus tough, so you'll take a lot less damage overall, which is great against Fearsomes because they deal damage by attacking with a full board. A Tough Nexus blocks 6 damage if your opponent attacks you with 6 units, which can save your life in most matches.

Lurkers are always popular and strong, as well as an old favorite of casual players and beginners.

Recently, the ranked queue has been filled to the brim with beginners, so, as a result, you'll probably face Lurk a lot more than you'd like to.

This archetype's greatest weakness is that its early game units don't have a lot of life and are terrible against Overwhelm archetypes.

Currently, Draven Rumble with Freljord is the only Overwhelm list in Standard. It is the most classic build with this mechanic, and plays very old elements, like Ancient Yeti and Bone Club, which were popular in the very first decks that used this strategy.

The list we showed above is really easy to play and quite powerful, so it's perfect for you if you're tired of facing new players. This deck is not only great against Lurkers, but also against all other aggressive lists that play units with very little life. You might lose all the matches against Control opponents, but you'll win against the rest of the meta 70% of the time.

In higher ranks, you might struggle to climb with this list because you'll face more strategies that interact with your board. However, until you get to Diamond, you'll most likely have an easy ride with this deck.

Lee Sin Akshan and Ionia Viktor Heimerdinger are quite popular because they are great against everything in the meta in general. However, these strategies fail miserably when they need to stop the Elusive units that this list, Ahri Katarina, plays.

All decks that try to win by exhausting the opponent's resources really struggle against this strategy because its protection spells are very cheap and go really well with its main game plan: Recalling allied units to your hand.

As you answer your opponent's control cards, you'll level up your Ahri, and who will eventually run out of resources is them, as they won't have any other removals for your units.

Not to mention, no deck in the meta right now plays Elusive units, so, you'll most likely be able to attack with your allied units very easily in most matchups.

And, finally, Katarina is very oppressive, as she Rallies when you level her, and, in most matchups, your opponent won't have enough mana or resources to block your attacks.

Nowadays, Fearsomes only lose to Shadow Isles Control, and might just be the strongest archetype in the game.

Matches between Fearsome lists are extremely complex and play out very similarly to the old Vex mirror matches we used to play in 2024. These lists play a few specific cards to counter specific enemy plays.

In this case, we found out that Mono Shadow Isles is often the best Fearsome list to beat other Fearsome lists because it doesn't play Burn or cards like Might. Instead, it only develops Fearsome units every turn. This makes the entire deck more consistent and grows its board presence - it plays more units that complement the entire archetype as a whole, and spells that create combos, like Soul Cleave.

It also plays 2 copies of Passage Unearned so you can Obliterate enemy units that were brought back by The Harrowing and, for once and for all, destroy their main win condition.

This list also activates Mistwraith's Allegiance 100% of the time, which is essential in mirror matches because you'll always be ahead in terms of units this way.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading this article.

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See you next time!