Legends of Runeterra Patch 2.8: 3 Best Decks to Play

Legends of Runeterra, the League of Legends card game developed by Riot Games, brought forth the Dark Horizon event in Patch 2.8, encouraging players to complete the battle pass and earn cosmetic rewards. If you're looking for a deck that'll bring you success in the ladder this patch, this guide will break down some of the best decks to play and how to play them.

In the previous patch, Patch 2.7, Legends of Runeterra implemented its most recent expansion, Guardians of the Ancient, adding three new champions to the game and plenty of new collectible cards. The expansion has shaken up the metagame and pushed a new deck to the top, but plenty of older strategies from the previous patches are still perfectly viable. Read on to see the three best decks to play in this patch.

Legends of Runeterra Patch 2.8: 3 Best Decks to Play

1. Azir Irelia Aggro

The Azir Irelia deck has surfaced recently as an explosive new deck, quickly rising to the top of the charts in terms of play rate and win rate. As an exemplar of the aggro play style, the point of this deck is to hit fast and hit hard and deal as much damage to your opponent as possible in the early turns of the game before they can react.

The deck capitalizes on the new keyword associated with Irelia: Blade Dance, which starts a free attack with a certain number of Blades. This means that, with the right cards, the deck can typically attack three to four times in one turn. The Sand Soldier package, Azir and Emperor's Dais, will summon an attacking Sand Soldier each time you attack, pushing for even more damage. Other cards like Sparring Student and Greenglade Duo get stronger each time you summon a unit, turning into big threats as you Blade Dance multiple times.

2. Thresh Nasus Midrange

The Thresh Nasus deck became popular with the introduction of Nasus in the Empires of the Ascended expansion, who is a champion that grows bigger with each unit you slay - i.e. kill via spell effect or combat, whether it is an ally or enemy. The purpose of the deck is to level up Thresh, so he can pull out a huge Nasus that typically wins you the game.

The deck has an aggressive early game with strong Shadow Isles threats like Cursed Keeper and Ravenous Butcher, a controlling midgame with cards like Merciless Hunter that make it easy to kill the enemy's units, and a powerful late game with the Nasus-Atrocity combo or just Nasus himself, who after leveling is incredibly difficult to block.

3. Trundle Lissandra Control

The Trundle Lissandra deck is another deck that became popular with the previous expansion and is the best control deck in the current patch. As a control deck, it plays very slowly, seeking to clear the opponent's board and use healing to stall the game until the late game, where your big threats like Lissandra's Frostguard Thralls and the Watcher begin hitting the board.

Cards like Blighted Ravine, Avalanche, and Kindly Tavernkeeper clear the board of early aggro units and heal yourself to stall out the game. Often, you will seek to win using a unique win condition associated with Lissandra: the Watcher, which obliterates the enemy's entire deck, causing them to deck out on the next turn. To do this, you must first level up Lissandra, which can be done by copying Trundle's Ice Pillar with Fading Memories and playing it twice. When Lissandra levels up, she creates a Watcher in hand, which you can then summon for free using Spectral Matron. At this point, the Watcher should be free via its own effect, so you can play it from your hand as a second copy in case the enemy removes your first one.