Region balance issues

This feels like something of a perennial issue with Legends of Runeterra, seeming to emerge despite any/all balance patches through the beta, but there seems to be a real balance problem across the regions. (Note that I'm taking the https://lor.mobalytics.gg/meta-tier-list tier list as my source of truth here.)

On the surface, the games balance seems pretty reasonable - each region shows up in at least one S or A tier deck, and there's a decent array of archetypes available to players. But three regions dominate that tier list: Shadow Isles, Ionia, and Piltover & Zaun. Together, they show up in some 87.5% of meta decks. And it's not hard to see why - SI and P&Z have access to good card draw and damage based removal, SI and Ionia have access to healing, P&Z and Ionia have access to useful aggro tools with Elusives and Direct Nexus damage. This was true throughout the beta, and remains true today despite Rising Tides.

Every other region feels like it's just playing a supporting role to these three, which are doing all of the heavy lifting for defining the metagame. The result is a lot of less exciting deck-building choices, and ultimately less interesting match-ups because you end up running the same "SI Control" package to make any control deck, etc. Many champions (e.g. Lux) end up feeling like a worse version of some other "meta champion" (in this example, Heimerdinger) because of the added burden of being outside of one of those "meta regions."

Some regions work wonderfully as support. Thats normal and sometimes it varies with nerfs and buffs and ppl finding out what is good. Earlier elnuks were meme cards until ppl realized how good they were supporting ezrael deck so ppl played freiljord with pz and the deck was the nuts. Then the elnuks got nerfed and this was after a period where pz was the worst region in the game. Until ppl realized it worked wonderfully for aggro burn and combo decks or just pute control like the corina deck.

Quote From Marega

Some regions work wonderfully as support. Thats normal and sometimes it varies with nerfs and buffs and ppl finding out what is good. Earlier elnuks were meme cards until ppl realized how good they were supporting ezrael deck so ppl played freiljord with pz and the deck was the nuts. Then the elnuks got nerfed and this was after a period where pz was the worst region in the game. Until ppl realized it worked wonderfully for aggro burn and combo decks or just pute control like the corina deck.

You're right, there have been decks (like the Lux Mageseeker deck) that are meaningfully novel and successful around nerfs. But I'm talking about something more endemic to the way the regions have been set up. Those three regions - SI, P&Z, and Ionia - have been given an array of tools that make them indispensable in a way that the other regions are not.

Here's a quick example. SI features drain spells and healing removal (e.g. Withering Wail and Grasp of the Undying). These are very power tools that remove small to midsize minions while healing your nexus. This kind of "deal damage and heal" mechanic is prevalent throughout SI, making the region a staple to any control deck. In the Freljord, a core mechanic is buffing units in your deck (e.g. Omen Hawk, Avarosan Hearthguard), but they lack significant card draw tools, so that mechanic's power level is limited by the card draw you get from any other region you pair with, and only if the extra buffs are worth diluting that other region (the Bannerman Midrange deck might enjoy extra buffs, for instance, has no need for the extra support from Freljord, which would dilute the Bannerman tempo/buff value).

Across all the beta patches, these regions have been major players. Despite many nerfs hitting their decks (typically by nerfing their cards, though your Elnuk example is an interesting case of nerfing one region to weaken another), they continue to rise up because they just have way better, meta-defining cards than the other regions.