An Introduction to Fundamental Archetypes

In Legends of Runeterra, and most other trading/collectible card games, decks fall into rough categories. These are known as "fundamental archetypes" and are often used as a shorthand to describe a deck's playstyle. It's important to note that, in practice, decks often combine aspects from multiple fundamental archetypes, and that they are merely used to describe how a deck plays, not prescribe it.

The five fundamental archetypes are Aggro, Control, Midrange, Tempo, and Combo.

Aggro - Aggressive decks that are looking to win the game as fast as possible. These often run lots of low cost units and spells that deal damage to the Nexus (known as "burn"). However, they often lack a strong late game, so if the opponent survives the initial assault, it's very hard for the aggro player to finish them off through bigger and better units. This is often seen as a very beginner friendly archetype due to it having relatively linear play, but it can still be played at the highest levels of competition. Classic examples of this archetype include Spiders and Support Disard.

Control - In many ways, control decks are the opposite of aggro. They seek to shut down the opponent's threats and stall until they reach the late game, where they take over with expensive and powerful cards, and having more cards left than the opponent. However, they can be vulnerable early, especially to more resilient threats. Classic examples include Atrocity FTR and Teemo/Swain.

Midrange - This is in between control and aggro. Rather than being proactive or reactive, you're adaptive and can take on either role as the matchup or game state requires. Against faster decks, you want to try to shut them down early before playing out your bigger threats. Against slower decks, you want to try to be aggressive and close things out before they can stabilize and take over. Classic examples include Plunder and Akshan/Sivir.

Tempo - Tempo is a bit of a weird archetype. Rather than being proactive or reactive, you're both at the same time. You play out some threats early to apply pressure, then disrupt your opponent's gameplan and keep them off balance long enough to close out the game. This is a really rare type of deck in LoR, but the two that have emerged are Tribeam and EZ Kennen. Fair warning, both of these decks are seen as very difficult to play.

Combo - Combo decks are...their own thing. This is by far the most diverse archetype. The general unifying factor is that their cards have interactions that make them highly synergistic and they play very differently than other decks. Combo decks can be proactive, reactive, or adaptive. A proactive example is Azirelia. Some adaptive examples are Tree and Deep. Reactive ones include EZ Karma and Zoe/Lee. Combo decks are generally fairly difficult to play due to both general complexity and a wholly unique game plan.