Leona Card Image

Hail, champions! Welcome to a new daily series of articles showcasing different decks for the new Call of the Mountain champions. To start, we'll be looking at Commander Leona, the Radiant Dawn. Leona is possibly the safest champion craft of the set -- as we'll soon see, she and her early-game Daybreak units create a great tempo package that slots easily many different archetypes. The flip side of that coin is that she and her cohorts provide extremely linear gameplay a la mono Demacia decks, so if that's not your jam you'll need to look to her champion-partner to spice up your gameplay. With that in mind, here are 6 great Leona decks to check out.

You can always find the latest Leona decks in our deck listing!


BruisedByGod's Leona + Aurelion Sol Control

Aurelion Sol Card Image Genevieve Elmheart Card Image

We'll kick off with what is arguably the strongest meta deck for Leona (don't worry -- we'll get to the fun off-meta stuff soon!). BBG has been playing a ton of archetype trying to perfect it for tournament play. He has been actively tinkering it for a while now; this most recent decklist drops a lot of the greedier celestial cards and allegiance in favor of Demacia staples like Genevieve Elmheart, Radiant Guardian, and Single Combat.

 
Bonus: watching BBG discovering how to give Cosmo his bone is pure joy.

ZeroInfinity's Leona + Lux

Lux Card Image 

This decklist that combines Leona and Lux isn't as popular as the aforementioned, but it's just as competitive: it was one of the decks that ZeroInfinity used to climb to Masters. Note the absence of high-synergy cards like Morning Light or Mageseeker Persuader -- instead, this deck utilizes "just good" cards to create solid tempo that can stop aggro and race control.


BruisedByGod's Leona + Swain

Swain Card Image The Leviathan Card Image

Here's another Leona deck from BBG, this time incorporating her into the popular Swain + The Leviathan combo. Leona's stun can activate Ravenous Flock or to open a nexus strike for Swain. This particular decklist doesn't run Zenith Blade, but I've seen similar that do for its Daybreak proc and its ability to give Swain overwhelm.
 
 
 

Agigas's Leona + Karma Daybreak Control

Karma Card Image Starshaping Card Image  Mountain Scryer Card Image

Here's another control deck from pro-player Agigas. The core cards are Daybreak heavy, but he incorporates some invoke cards to make it a Targon-allegiance deck with Ionia splash of Karma, Will of Ionia, and Deny. L2 Karma allows him to do things like cast Will on A Sol or cast double Starshaping to heal for 10 HP.


Charm3r's Leona + Yasuo Stunning Couple

Yasuo Card Image The Infinite Mindsplitter Card Image

Within minutes of Leona's reveal, players were theorycrafting how to pair her with Yasuo. Honestly, I think this partnership is a little too inconsistent but if you are a Yasuo fan sick of playing Noxus then it definitely is a viable alternative. A lot of early takes of this archetype tried to gamble heavily on Leona's stuns and a big Morning Light finisher; here's a more refined list from Charm3r with a more slow-but-steady approach featuring The Infinite Mindsplitter and Singular Will.


HawkTie's Leona + Garen

Garen Card Image Zenith Blade Card Image

Finally, here is a deck that pairs Leona with Garen and Demacia tempo cards. Note the synergy between Garen and Zenith Blade: not only does it give Garen more health to regenerate, but the overwhelm can let him level up on a single attack if he's blocked and overflows damage to nexus.


What Leona decks have you enjoyed playing? Let us know below! And don't forget to come back tomorrow to read our next champion spotlight.