Spiritforged released around mid-December in China, with the first City Challenges starting around the 20th. Although the official release for the rest of the world is due for February, most of the community is not waiting, with tournaments held online or using proxy cards. Overall, we have about 34 high stakes tournaments reported for this new set, 31 of them played in China, 2 online and the largest one with 339 players in Italy.
From those, I only kept the tournaments played over the past two weeks, going back to the City Challenges and the Runes and Rift Open 7, played during the December 27th - 28th weekend.
The goal was to remove the inevitable testing period after a new release, and have an idea of the metagame we can expect to see at the first Regional tournaments.
Expect a lot of SFD-185.
Out of 457 players who picked the Glorious Executioner recently, 80 of them made it to the Top 8 of their tournament, representing a 17.5% conversion rate. This makes Draven the statistical best legend in Spiritforged whether you look at popularity, sheer amount of top placements, or conversion rate. The closest legend is SFD-195, with 243 decks, but only 21 top cuts for a 8.6% conversion rate.
With 26 legends in the game, it was inevitable that some were going to disappear from the competitive landscape. During the Origins set, some were only seeing play during Regional Tournaments, where a Best-Of card was at stake. What is more surprising however, is to once again have a legend dominate everyone else, as more picks should bring more balance.
We saw in the Origins metagame Kai'Sa wasn't the unstoppable force China made it look to be. Once North America got involved, Annie was able to challenge the Daughter of the Void, with both legends ending the first set as equals. With that in mind, I was very curious to see whether Draven was posting the same results in China compared to the first tournaments held in the rest of the world:
- Draven won 12 of the 22 City Challenge played since December 27th, so he clearly dominates in that area.
- Draven took 10 of the top 16 slots in Italy, at the Runes League in Bologna.
- Draven took three of the top 4 slots in the Runes & Rift Invitational tournament held online.
It is early, and we now have more legends and cards we can use to adapt to the metagame. However, no matter which way you look at this first month of Spiritforged play : Draven wins.
| Tier | Champion |
|---|---|
| S Tier | Draven 457 Decks / 80 Top 8 / 21 Wins |
| Tier 1 | Irelia 241 Decks / 21 Top 8 / 3 Wins |
| Tier 1 | Kai'Sa 350 Decks / 23 Top 8 / 3 Wins |
| Tier 2 | Viktor 187 Decks / 13 Top 8 / 1 Win |
| Tier 2 | Fiora 94 Decks / 7 Top 8 / 2 wins |
| Tier 2 | Azir 91 Decks / 7 Top 8 / 1 Win |
| Tier 2 | Annie 54 Decks / 6 Top 8 |
| Tier 2 | Sivir 54 Decks / 4 Top 8 / 1 Win |
| Tier 2 | Sett 56 Decks / 3 Top 8 / 1 Win |
| Tier 2 | Master Yi 86 Decks / 4 Top 8 / 1 Win |
| Tier 3 | Ezreal 63 Decks / 4 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Ornn 69 Decks / 3 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Rek'Sai 55 Decks / 2 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Darius 11 Decks / 2 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Miss Fortune 32 Decks / 2 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Lux 36 Decks / 2 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Lucian 30 Decks / 1 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Ahri 16 Decks / 1 Top 8 |
| Tier 3 | Jinx 18 Decks / 1 Top 8 |
| Tier 4 | Lee Sin Leona Teemo Yasuo Rumble Renata Jax Volibear Garen |
- S Tier: Dominant legend, expected to win most events until a metagame shift happens.
- Tier 1: A force in the metagame, expected to make it to the top cut of most tournaments.
- Tier 2: Solid performer, often contending for top cut spots, but typically falling short of winning it all.
- Tier 3: Competitive sparks but needs improvement to become a serious threat.
- Tier 4: Not expected in most tournament's top cut or even to see much play overall. Popularity rises for regional tournaments, with players vying for a Best-of card, arguably easier to earn on these lesser played legends.
S Tier
Draven
Most reviews anticipated the Chaos domain to be very strong in Spiritforged, while the Fury domain was already a force in Origins. Thus, it is no surprise to see their mix post incredible results, especially alongside Draven's ability to make sure cards won't be an issue.
At the moment, there is no doubt this is the legend to beat, and the metagame likely won't change much until a counter, or at least a competitor able to go toe to toe with Draven, emerges.
Tier 1
With almost as many top cut placements with 100 less attempts, Irelia deserves to be ranked ahead of Kai'sa. Plus, the Blade Dancer is a new release more players are learning to play as time passes. On the other end, Kai'Sa quickly found a way to improve her build from the Origins metagame, but is unlikely to progress a ton from now on.
Both fight in the same category, and represent Draven's biggest threats at the moment with three city challenges wins each. However, until a way to edge the match-up against the top dog is found, it is unlikely these two can do more than fight for second and third place.
Viktor also deserves to be in Tier 1, but suffer from same problem he had during the Origins metagame: He doesn't win tournaments.
Blame it on the champion ability not being strong enough compared to those able to cheat resources, or gear removal being too simple to include in a side-deck. At the end of the day, the Herald of the Arcane looks very close to it Origins self : A great best-of-one pick, but a limited legend once in best-of-three.
Expect Viktor to lose momentum once regional tournaments kick off, and most competitions feature best-of-three games from the start.
Irelia
Kai’Sa
Viktor
Tier 2
Except for Annie, who gets a pass for her 11,1% conversion rate, second behind another Fury-Chaos legend, everyone in this group won an event in Spiritforged.
Fiora actually won two city challenges, and her play rate is on the rise at the moment. Thus, she gets to be at the top of Tier 2, representing the most likely to take a shot at the upper tier in the near future.
On the other hand, Azir started strong, but struggled to post strong results over the past week. The Emperor of the Sands only recorded one top 8 this past weekend, its worse performance so far. Its debut in Spiritforged allows him to get a good spot on this tier list. However, Viktor posting better results alongside best-of-three tournaments starting soon tell me tough times are ahead for Azir.
The most interesting fact about this group is having five of those six be in the Body domain, while none of the top four use the orange colour. I believe it remains a strong foundation for a deck, but the rise of the Chaos domain clearly hurt a showdown centric strategy, designed to get beefy units in play.
Plus, OGN-145 was a fantastic card to edge against Kai'sa in the first set. With that legend not the dominant force anymore, ways to counter Chaos spells tend to be more expensive. OGN-045 does not block OGN-172 for Master Yi or Azir, while SFD-206 requires to recycle two runes.
Sivir likely has the best answer with SFD-136, but the legend is busy building around OGN-160 at the moment, meaning counters will be used to protect the gear from removal cards.
Fiora
Azir
Annie
Sivir
Sett
Master Yi
Tier 3
In this third tier, made of legends with one to four top 8 performances but no wins, there are two separate groups.
Ezreal, Ornn, Rek'Sai, Darius and Miss Fortune have a shot at the upper Tier in the future, while Lucian, Ahri and Jinx look like legends we will rarely see, although they are capable of the occasional spark.
Lux is in between, relying on the power of SFD-168 first and foremost, meaning the popularity of gear removal cards will play a large role in her ability to thrive. In this early, best-of-one heavy environment, this should be a fine foundation, but I doubt the Lady of Luminosity will get much done once side-decks are used from the start of a tournament.
Back to our group of five with the most potential, and multiple top 8s under their belt. First, we have three new releases in that club, so it is fair to assume Ezreal, Ornn and Rek'Sai have a shot at improving in the future. It might not be a huge leap, as Ornn and Rek'Sai are fairly limited in the way they can build around their ability. Also, Ornn could suffer from gear removal being in every side deck once best-of-3 becomes the norm.
However, Ezreal is a fan favourite outside of China, with two of its four top 8 places earned in the Runes & Rift Open 7 tournament. Who knows, maybe the Prodigal Explorer could be the Annie of this second set.
Darius and Miss Fortune also had to wait a long time before getting their big break in Origins, as their unstable nature made them tough to balance. However, each made strides once refined builds emerged.
In this second set, I expect the Bounty Hunter to be able to repeat that feat, as both her top 8 finishes came recently, meaning some improvements are being made. OGN-160 will be destroyed many times for sure, but the Chaos domain paired with large units looks like a good way to limit Draven's ability.
Ezreal
Ornn
Rek'Sai
Darius
Miss Fortune
Lux
Lucian
Ahri
Jinx
Tier 4
Over the past two weeks, these legends have failed to post any sort of strong performance in tournament play. With 26 legends now available, it is only logic to have some struggle to the point of barely seeing play, although most of them managed to reach the top 16 of a tournament at least once.
Lee Sin
The Blind Monk had a strong performance in the Spiritforged metagame, but it dates back to the early City Challenges held shortly after the release of the second set. Back then, Lee Sin managed to reach the top four in Chongqing.
Unfortunately, except for a top 16 in Nanjing on January 3rd, the legend failed to post any good result. Then, it is likely Lee Sin made the most of the early days of Spiritforged, and will return to be a quiet competitor in the future, just like it was during the Origins metagame.
Leona
Leona had a promising Top 16 in the early City Challenges, held shortly after the new set dropped. Since then, the Radiant Dawn struggled to back up that early performance, ranking in the top 64 or 128 of most tournaments. On January 11th, Leona posted another Top 16, so sparks are possible, but it is far from enough to call this legend a threat.
Teemo
Yasuo
Rumble
Renata
I know this is a top 8 deck so why isn't this legend ranked with the others who managed to record a top cut. Well, this particular City Challenge isn't considered as prestigious as the other ones due to a lack of players. Indeed, most City Challenges typically feature about a hundred competitors, or a full 64 players bracket.
This one was not able to get to that number, so did not count as a high stakes tournament. Shame this is precisely the one Renata Glasc managed to place among the final eight competitors.
Jax
Jax had a couple of Top 32 finishes lately, but failed to reach a top cut yet. Among the new releases, the Grandmaster at Arms is looking like the weakest at the moment.
Volibear
Volibear has 10 results recorded across high stakes tournaments, all placing the Relentless Storm in the lowest ranked group. Indeed, Volibear has nine top 128 out of 128 players and a top 32 in the Runes & Rift Invitational, which had 32 players invited.
Garen
9 players picked Garen for a City Challenge so far. Eight ranked in the Top 128 out of 128 players, while the last made it to top 64... out of 64 players.
