Update #8 - December 31, 2025
There's been an incredible amount of change in the metagame between Masquerade Of The Macabre and Wintertide, and I decided to pair that change with a big update on the LRAW Snapshot Tierlist!
So what's different? Apart from the decks being moved around, the format of the tierlist has changed, making more room for the expanding metagame, as well as a brand new flashy visual update!
The previous Warlord categories for the Overview write-ups have also been updated. Instead of every single Warlord having a separate category, they've been moved together into one category for each Legion to detail the changes and movements in that Legion.
Heroes
With the support from MOM, WW25, and the Sapphire Empress Structure deck, there are two particular hero decks looking to be rising, with Fandorian Midrange and Rogue Tempo. While both of these decks have been solid for a while, the new pieces allow both archetypes to stand out on their own with significantly less reliance on setup and control tools from other Hero archetypes. Fandorians specifically look to be in an incredibly promising position post-Wintertide.
The other Hero archetypes look interesting, but the Magi and Wall pieces seem to be falling behind in contrast to the now much more flushed out Fandorian Midrange tools. That being said, both archetypes received notable tools in Wintertide, and there's still room for both archetypes under the umbrella of the Soup style hero Midrange archetypes. At the Northern War Table Siege there was some experimentation with Magi, and it's possible that these may continue to be much better sub-packages for Midrange Hero lists then expected.
The Dark Wood archetype also received some new Warriors in Masquerade Of Macabre that help to heavily amp up the options for the archetype, and I'll personally be curious to see if there's any potential in the archetype alongside existing Dark Wood Fortified cards, and Steadfast Courage.
Orcs
Sharn continues to be good, especially with the Errata and resulting SRL change for Sildud's Call Of The Orcbane pushing the card back to three copies. There's not much more to report for the archetype, other than that it'll likely continue to be one of the top aggro decks in the metagame.
While Duxvox doesn't look like he'll be unseating Sharn, the archetype has been significantly upgraded from previous iterations. The new engine cards and starters available have drastically increased his ability to setup, maintain pressure, and recover from an opposing advantage. While it's a deck that'll still take some experimentation to see where it falls in the meta, the deck is significantly more attractive then before.
Blood Majik has also picked up a few new pieces through both sets, and I'll be curious to see if there'll be enough support to start seeing the archetype creeping into a more relevant position as a sub-archetype, or potentially as it's own competitor in the metagame.
Angels
Angels continue to look good, and with several solid new tech options to tech out the existing angel archetypes, I see no reason to expect Michael Seraphim Midrange/Control or Castiel Lost Messiah Tempo to move particularly much on the list.
The Sanctify version of Michael has seen an interesting iteration in the most recent Siege Series, with Jordan's 7th place list being almost entirely empty of Angel ACT cards, focusing primarily on the powerful engine pieces of Chaos Divine Reconnaissance and the new Alexandria, Purifier Of The Heavens to power out an incredibly consistent set of Warriors.
The two new archetypes being supported, Light and Night Watchers are both interesting, but I'm not yet convinced that we'll see them pushing the metagame quite yet. Night Watchers received more support out of the wo, but much of what we've seen so far is relatively tame, and rather in-archetype dependent. While some of the unique Warriors like Amariel have potential in more generic lists, it seems like much of what Night Watchers has to offer will have to wait for more consistent support.
For the time being, Light might be able to carve out a better slot in the meta as a sub-archetype, with Guiding Northern Light having some very notable DCM recovery to pair with a small but powerful number of Light Warriors.
Demons
Demons are looking solid, but not necessarily too diverse at the moment. Black Magic has picked up two new Tomes to help the deck's consistency and support the archetype outside of it's fastest erad-mill plans. The deck still seems hit or miss with the power of strong hate cards against the deck, but these new tools help to give the deck more power in situations where it isn't able to go off without a hitch.
Fallen didn't get quite as much, apart from a few little tech options, but the deck does look like the best home for two new archetypes being supported with Wicked and Hell-Plains. Wicked specifically has already seen some experimentation, with a third place finish for Force Draw at the Northern War Table Siege. With tools in both Fallen and Black Magic, this seems like a strong package for Demon decks to try out.
Hell-Plains looks neat, with a selection of solid Warriors in Virgil and Beatrice, but I'm not sure that either is worth pushing a full archetype quite yet.
Undead
The main focus of Masquerade Of Macabre, Vampires look like a decent deck out of the box, but a few more pieces will likely be needed to push the deck into a stronger metagame position. It'll be interesting to see not only the strengths of the deck, but also how it performs into some of the top decks, like with Fandos big Warriors or the Warrior hate options available for Michael.
Mal'ady continues to be a top contender with a 2nd place finish in the NWT Siege. The list doesn't appear too different from what we've already seen, but Rosaline, The Fractured Queen looks like a huge consistency piece for the archetype to set up important Warriors smoothly with the help of Meg'Saria. Additionally, with the Loyalty Warrior Meg'Saria, Grimm Vizier Of The Vault, the archetype has access to more burn then ever before.
Mortis looks to be a little better thanks to the addition of Amethyst Talisman as an anti-erad piece to combat Topaz Amulet, helping to strengthen one of the decks greatest weaknesses. With this addition, I imagine that Prometheus will continue to have the upper hand in the matchup, but it's certainly much less one-sided, which definitely helps the deck's potential.
Titans
Gaia and Prometheus both look to be continuing solid competitors, even with the recent SRL hit to Strength Of Atlas. The addition of two new Rift Warriors to the Legion is relevant for both lists to amp up their ability to remove problematic cards on board.
Prometheus made a top 8 placement in the NWT Siege, with new solid additions, including the two new top end Primordial Warriors. While some of the decks' engine pieces were tuned down, the new pieces from Masquerade and Wintertide look ready and primed to fill in the slots to keep Prometheus as one of the best Midrange/Aggro lists out there.
The new spice for Titans is with Ethereals, with a whole swath of support from Masquerade. The strong set of Warriors and engine pieces look incredibly appealing, and the deck was close to making top 8 at Northern War Table. While it'll still need a lot more testing to explore variations of the deck and different supporting Engines, the bulk of the list looks very promising already.
Mythical Beasts
Myth Beasts look to currently be a mix of solid powerhouses, and experimental sub-archetypes.
Sh'Lara and Merrisod both stay good, with a few nice top end additions for both. None of these additions push either list too much further then they already were, but I see no reason for either deck to be dropping. The new Clara'Bella, The Essence Sprite is interesting as it makes the Sprite focused pieces significantly better then before, and I do think there's some room for a Dragons deck that experiments with leaning more heavily into the Sprite pieces available.
Now the fun in the Mythical Beast Legion comes in the plethora of new archetypes supported and rewarded. Jinns have got their left side, and a pile of relevant new tools. The archetype certainly has potential, but the build for the deck seems complex, so it may be a bit for a refined list to come onto the competitive scene.
Sirens were also introduced in Masquerade, with more support in Wintertide. While there isn't a ton of density for the archetype quite yet, the tools available include some really solid engine tools and cards that seem potentially worth building around. With whatever the main archetype may be, there might be room for a Siren sub-archetype to become a relevant contender with notably powerful Warrior/Keyword hate.
Dwarves
The faster portions of the Dwarf Legion seem good so far, with new relevant additions to both Alehouse and Blastforge. For Alehouse, the new pieces offer a bunch of new Drinks for Sapphina, and I think we'll see both Aggressive Alehouse decks utilizing Serenasada and more Tempo oriented lists making use of the new Drinks with Sapphina.
One Frozen Winter's Night was already enough to revitalize the Frozen archetype for me, but Wintertide Wonders has completely amped up the archetype. While it'll need some testing to see how the new pieces interact, there's a whole swath of tools available to the archetype that I think have the potential to push it way up on the Tierlist. That being said, it'll be difficult to justify a push without seeing the deck in action.
The Arcane package added in Masquerade is also exciting, and I've personally had a ton of fun testing it out so far, with the new Majik Mask - Arcane Fortune as an incredibly impressive win-condition. The archetype looks potentially interesting as a sub-package to support Frozen, but frankly I'm curious to see if both archetypes may have enough juice to stand out alone. These two decks are ones that I personally think have a lot of room to move up on the Tierlist with further testing.
Bounty
When it comes to Bounty, there's three relevant decks to talk about right now.
At the top of the metagame is Middiogin Majik Midrange. It's a difficult archetype to pin down with it's ever-shifting Warlord choice, but it's the list most heavily leaning on Path To Middiogin Majik that we've seen with Merrisod, Sh'Lara, and most recently Mal'ady. Despite running with non-bounty Warlords, It's pretty clear cut that this archetype is effectively Bounty, with small splashes of support, like with the removal tools from Sh'Lara or the burn support from Mal'ady. The latest iteration doubles up on the Mal'ady burn tools with more Majik Void pieces to make use of Majik Void Staff. With a First place finish for at Northern War Table, this list
Another list from the top 8 at NWT, Freakshow aggro had an explosive introduction at the tournament with a list that plays seemingly very similar to Sapphire Storm does. While in my testing the list isn't quite as good at the brute force early kills, it's not far off with the ability to easily end games against unprepared opponents. The "unprepared" part is important to note here, and I'm curious to see how the deck performs into a Metagame more aware of it's existence. There's potential for the list to have similar fall-off to Sapphire Storm, but in my testing it is atleast more relevant so I'm curious to see how it'll move in the future.
The last list to talk about here is Majik Masks, although the report is more specualtive then succesful. While Masks weren't able to make top 8, I do think there's already some very interesting tools in the Merryman's arsenal and I'm curious to see how the deck will evolve when it comes to what Bounty sub-packages are worth including, and which ones might just weigh the deck down. Ultimately the deck might just need more support to "get there", but with the existing power and placements with older decks using Majik Mask Monstrosity, Malediction, I'll be keeping an eye on the deck.