Update #1 - October 21, 2023
With the release of Empires On The Rise, the Legions meta has been completely shaken up, with 9 new Warlords, and a bounty of new options for the existing 8. With such a monumental shift in the competitive scene, many Warlords have been powered up, others have come to the table with a splash, and even more have found themselves surpassed by other new and refined strategies. With everything considered, where do the 17 warlords stack up at competitive tables, and which ones are positioned to find strong showings at the Nerdz Siege Series, and the upcoming Rally The Realms?
>- S-Tier ->
>- A-Tier ->
>- B-Tier ->
>- C-Tier ->
S Tier
Decks in S Tier are the strongest meta competitors in the game. They have powerful game plans, as well as notable additional benefits such as board destruction, disruptive elements, or a resistance to hate cards.
Although the archetype wasn't heavily supported through EOR, Sharn remains the strongest deck in the meta, threatening incredibly fast kills and hard to break up board states. The recent restricted list update took away some of Sharn's consistency, but Outer Rim Exclusion Zone moving to 2 gives the deck more strength in fair or grindy matches.
One of the most punishing decks in the meta with a skilled pilot, Onoskelis can be a brutal control deck to compete against. The fallen discard engine provides an unmatched level of card advantage and selection, alongside powerful pieces such as Treasury Of The Fallen Priestess and Rapture On Mount Bane. The deck is also less reliant on warriors, allowing it to leverage Majik Void Collapse to great effect.
The Mystic Fire archetype was heavily supported by EOR, and pairs an incredibly strong combo kill ability with Mystic Fire Beast Power, with an immense amount of value generation through Feathers in the Wind and Mystic Fire Awakening, and the ability to devastatingly control the board with destruction effects.
A Tier
Decks in A Tier are powerful competitors in the meta with strong game-plans, although they don't reach the same power level of the S Tier decks. These decks have the ability to consistently place in competitive events.
Prometheus has remained one of the fastest decks in the meta and EOR has bolstered this strategy, with a new set of potent control tools in the Arion package. This allows the deck to transition when needed into more value oriented or control based game plans when needed, rather than the traditional glass cannon aggro strategy of primordials. This additional edge pushes Tempo Titans to the top of A tier.
EOR brought incredibly strong control tools to the Grimm archetype including Denial by Doomfire, and the Prysm, Soul Collector Of The Grimm + Esmerelda, The Grimm Necromancer loop, allowing Mortis to act less as a glass cannon combo deck, and more as a truly powerful midrange list with strong kill power and solid control and lockdown tools. The list was hit by a collection of restrictions before the Booster House Siege Series which has toned down the overall strength of the deck, kicking it out of S tier.
The strongest new warlord from EOR, Merrisod shares many of the strengths of Sh'Lara in powerful win conditions and the ability to tear through board states, but doesn't reach the full power of Mystic Fire and is susceptible to eradication hate. Dragons do have many strong tools including a juiced up left side, and the ability to utilize Mystic Fire Dragon Clash more effectively than Sh'Lara with usage of Crystal Dragon Eggs and Lady Darksky, The Dusk Dawn Dragon
Michael remains one of the strongest control decks in the game, able to grind out games into holy-counter filled board states and incredibly strong negates. Michael has also been recently bolstered with powerful new disruptive tools such as Cerebral, The Bound Seraphim Mind and card advantage in Chaos Divine Reconnaissance and Retaliation
Ethelhime has quickly became a powerful and popular deck in the meta game. Exit the Alehouse and Ladonza, The Alehouse Shield Maiden give the deck incredibly powerful interactive pieces that avoid protective effects such as holy counters. In addition, the deck can churn through cards with Alehouse Drink - Skoal. If Ethelhime is allowed to setup, it can have explosive starts, but the deck can be a glass cannon and vulnerable to disruption or hand hate.
Castiel is one of the most powerful new warlords coming out of EOR, with the ability to take incredibly oppressive board control early through Empyrean Empire and Chaos Divine Reconnaissance, and leveraging the most consistent veil flip kill in the game. The deck can however be locked out and lacks some of the sheer power and early aggression seen in decks in S and A+
B Tier
Decks in B Tier are viable options for competition with various strengths and weaknesses that ultimately place them below Tier A. Decks in this tier can successfully leverage their strengths to find competitive success.
Although weaker than the more recent and flexible tempo version of Prometheus, Primordial aggro remains a powerful meta force as one of the fastest and strongest aggro decks in the game. The aggro version of Titans is streamlined towards the blisteringly fast early game kills that the deck has always been able to threaten, although the deck can be vulnerable in sacrificing the strong control and tempo tools provided by EOR.
The archetype soup of Fandorian Midrange is able to take advantage of various strong mini synergies that create a deck that can take control of a game and overwhelm the board. The deck leverages some of the most powerful negates in the game such as Hood Protection Cloak and Anti-Magic alongside powerful armaments, but if you can remove warriors through stacks of armaments and interaction the deck can struggle to pull back into the game.
Despite lacking her specific archetype pieces, Marianas has found competitive success as one of the most consistent veil-flip aggro decks in the format. Marianas can effectively use a lot of bounty cards and packages like the Magik Void Collection and Bounty Hunters in a way that many other archetypes can't, and her veil ability is one of the strongest in the game. The deck can notably be interrupted in a few ways, for the moment locking it out of A tier.
Bolstered with a wide range of new options from EOR, The strategy of Frost tempo hasn't changed much, utilizing rich interactive options and the ability to turn on a dime for a powerful potential veil flip kill. New options include Blastforge Melt-Hammer, the Frozen Adventurer package, as well as lists dipping into Alehouse tools for interaction and draw power.
Gaia might have the strongest survivability in the game, with an incredible amount of healing, the ability to lock down your opponents attackers with blockade, and one of the best mist effects in the game in Unstoppable Defence. That being said, the deck can fail to setup it's board lock quickly enough and can struggle with translating a winning board state into an actual win.
Upon Angelica's release, two distinct playstyles began to form. Both a Warrior-light combo build, as well as a Warrior-backed midrange build. Data is still being collected on both of these builds, but the combo build has put up more results competitively. The deck struggles due to the random nature of dice rolling, which prevents it from moving upwards.
Duxvox entered the meta from EOR with a wide variety of pieces and synergies with bombs, scorpions, and doomsday counters. The deck can be vulnerable to early aggression, but has access to a wide variety of powerful tools and various disruptive control elements. The various moving parts of the deck will reward skilled pilots, but it's slow speed can be taken advantage of.
Adramalech was recently hit with restriction, toning down the consistency of the deck, and knocking the list down a tier. Despite this, the deck is still a fast and consistent powerful combo threat able to kill or secure a won position within 2 turns. The deck does find itself susceptible to various hate pieces popular in the meta however.
C Tier
Decks in C Tier are lacking in some pieces necessary to provide the deck with the power to compete at the same level as the higher tiered decks. Decks in Tier C will require more work and experience to compete with top decks.
Whilst Mal'ady's current package from EOR isn't powerful enough to support the deck as a fully meta list, players have found success in running a lists focused mostly on the Grimm package, swapping Esmerelda, The Grimm Necromancer from Mortis, for Mal'ady's Putrid Mausoleum, enabling a combo loop with Sir Grimm Crimson and Across the Soul River Styx. The combo is powerful and can kill earlier and more consistently than Mortis Grimm, but can be weak to interaction and lacks some strong tools.
Burnforge focuses far less on the powerful Blastforge archetype pieces, and focuses on the power of the Viviana Alburdunn package, alongside burn abilities like Seasons of Majik Reflection, and Born of Blastforge Fire. The decks existing reliance on Viviana has some potential with the printing of Alburdunn's Mayoral Announcement, but the deck remains overall slightly outdated.
The Blastforge archetype was pushed closer to the spotlight in EOR, receiving more pieces to act as an independent archetype, rather than just the package currently found in Frost Tempo. That being said, the deck is still missing a lot of pieces and can be weak to interaction, although it has access to powerful lines with Into the Blastforge and Blastforge Blast Bombs
Mal'ady received a variety of powerful options and tools in EOR including Spores from the Suffering Cyprus and Mal'ady's Putrid Mausoleum, but ultimately the deck has struggled to find the success of higher tier decks, and the deck is missing pieces needed to bring it into a more competitive place without relying heavily on grimm synergy pieces.