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Later this year, Riftbound will finally release sets at the same time in every part of the world. Until then, even if we are in the middle of the last two Regional Qualifier tournaments for Spiritforged, we can't help but peak at what is happening oversea, in the first competitive events featuring Unleashed cards.
I compiled the results of all 10 City Challenges in this chart, alongside the interesting decks for each legend. Obviously, this is very early data, coming from the Chinese region which we know plays the game differently than us in the West. As such, there is no point in overanalyzing these decks. Yet, it doesn't hurt to take a peak, and see which synergies managed to win, or at least top a tournament so far.
| Legend | Performance in 10 City Challenges |
|---|---|
| Fiora | 3 Wins / 3 Top 8 |
| LeBlanc | No Wins / 11 Top 8 |
| Lillia | 1 Wins / 6 Top 8 |
| Irelia | No Wins / 8 Top 8 |
| Rengar | 1 Win / 4 Top 8 |
| Sett | 1 Win / 3 Top 8 |
| Diana | No Wins / 5 Top 8 |
| Vex | No Wins / 5 Top 8 |
| Azir | 1 Win / 2 Top 8 |
| Sivir | 1 Win / 2 Top 8 |
| New Yi | No Wins / 4 Top 8 |
| Old Yi | 1 Win / 1 Top 8 |
| Annie | 1 Win / 1 Top 8 |
| Draven | No Wins / 3 Top 8 |
| Kai'sa | No Wins / 2 Top 8 |
| Ornn | No Wins / 2 Top 8 |
| Jhin | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Viktor | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Khazix | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Volibear | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Jax | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Pyke | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Miss Fortune | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
| Lucian | No Wins / 1 Top 8 |
Fiora
There isn't too much to say about Fiora, although she won three city challenge tournaments this week. Indeed, all three wins came from OGN-242 decks, which we already were the best way to build around the Grand Duelist during the Spiritforged expansion.
In that context, it is difficult to gauge how strong this improved build of Hook Fiora is, as many legends in the field are still experimenting with various synergies.
LeBlanc
A lot of people had LeBlanc on their radar when the first reveals appeared, to the point OGN-236 became a hot topic. Indeed, UNL-172 looked poised to be a fantastic draw engine combined with its legends ability.
With the most top 8 performances across the board, the hype seems to translate into results so far. Now, LeBlanc needs to win in order to avoid becoming this new set's Irelia.
Lillia
Built around many of strongest cards in both the Mind and Calm domain, Lillia doesn't seem to rely on the temporary synergy at the moment. It is a big part of the deck, with UNL-078, UNL-084 or UNL-069 in the mix. Yet, Lillia seems to use her Sprites as standalone solid units, not design the deck around them specifically.
Irelia
Quite a lot of changes for Irelia in the units department, although the deck still builds around SFD-057 first and foremost.
The arrival of UNL-150 in the 4-cost slot is the most intriguing change, tilting the deck towards more disruption in the mid game, while the draws will come from other cards.
Rengar
A true Fury-Body legend deck here, with a large emphasis on strong standalone units and ways to protect or enhance them.
Arguably, Rengar is one of the easiest legends to build for early tournaments, as it is a proactive legend with a fairly obvious play style. Plus, UNL-011 or UNL-114 provide some draw, so the deck won't run out of gas anytime soon.
Sett
With UNL-173, Sett finally found that draw engine it has been lacking for so long. The card only functions with Mighty units, but synergizes so well with The Boss' ability, it should be a building block for See in the Unleashed expansion.
Diana
The Scorn of the Moon is an intriguing mix of reactive and tempo oriented tools in the same deck. At first glance, it looks like Diana aims to seize initiative early on, leveraging her ability to cast the likes of OGN-169 or OGN-095 for free. Once in the lead, I would assume her signature spell and UNL-080 are in charge of taking over the mid game.
In the side deck, we can spot a few late game options, but the deck otherwise seems to rely on its early tempo burst, and ability to generate value as its main win conditions.
Vex
The legend's ability was naturally going to lead to a Hold oriented deck. With that in mind, it is no surprise to see Vex experiment with cards able to control opposing units. In both decks, OGN-073 is a key card, allowing to have some runes available during our opponent's turn, and not be forced to recycle too many runes early on for hidden cards, another emphasis of those decks.
Azir
Although there are a few new arrivals in the deck, Azir still plays very close to its Spirtforged strategy. Considering the legend's ability, the deck is forced to play a ton of gears, naturally limiting how much freedom we have in the deckbuilding department.
Sivir
It is early and city challenges are played in the Best-of-1 format for the major part of the tournament. Thus, it is no surprise to see an OGN-160 deck do well at this stage of Unleased.
New Yi
The new Master Yi legend builds around the new XP mechanic, and got enough cards to make it work immediately. There might be a few tweaks and counter cards to consider to reach a refined list, but the concept won't change much going forward. The early results are fine, but don't point at a particularly strong synergy either.
Old Yi
The Old Master Yi legend took some cards from its Unleased self, but still builds around the same concepts overall. The main is the fact Unleashed brought cards to beef up the mid game, improve its ability to hold, and a champion playable early in a match.
Annie
Annie runs a few new cards, but has not changed a thing to her core idea with this Unleashed build. It is almost as if UNL-022 took over the banned SFD-020, allowing Annie to build like the ban-list did not happen.
Draven
Just like Annie above, the main change for Draven happens in the 4-cost slot, with UNL-022 joining OGN-039 as another must remove unit. Obviously, there is more fine tuning to do, but Fury-Chaos legend seem to improve their Spritforged decks rather than experiment new avenues.
Kai'sa
It is almost as if Kai'sa included UNL-007 to blend it with the Unleashed expansion. By far, this is the deck with the least changes, almost running a build from the Origins set with strong standalone cards from following expansions added.
Ornn
Even if associated with the Temporary synergy, UNL-078 makes so much sense in Ornn you can expect the gear to stay in this deck on the long run. UNL-089 is an unexpected nice surprise, and should represent a tempo play in the mid game Ornn has been desperate to fight during the Spiritforged metagame. When paired with UNL-069, the two combine for a strong turn, able to buy the legend more time to develop SFD-085.
Jhin
I wasn't excited about this legend, as I felt the ability would mostly serve to mitigate the tempo we lost while focusing on expensive spells. So far, the results seem to point in that direction. However, Jhin isn't a simple legend to figure out, so it might just be a case of the right balance still being out there.
Viktor
A good amount of new cards for Viktor, who stayed true to its control oriented play style early in the new set. So far, the results are quite disappointing for a legend typically doing very well in the early, best-of-1 metagame.
Kha'Zix
In true Body-Chaos fashion, Kha'Zix joined Sivir and Miss Fortune as another OGN-160 legend. While the gear remains a very strong card, it doesn't make too much sense with the ability, aimed at winning combats.
It is a simple way to build early in a new set, and both UNL-147 or UNL-118 are great new units for that strategy. Yet, I expect Sivir or Miss Fortune to be more suited for an OGN-160 deck.
Volibear
It took three sets, but the Dragon synergy might finally have enough units to build a full deck around. It probably won't be good enough to compete, but it gives Volibear another direction besides OGN-160, and a more flexible one when it comes to units to consider in the deck.
Right now, it just looks like a pile of Dragons alongside a few strong standalone units, but it gives me hope for the future.
Jax
Jax mostly gained some draw capacity with Unleashed, adding UNL-114, UNL-053 and UNL-097 to the mix. This was a big limitation for Jax during Spiritforged, so it should be welcomed support. Now, someone just needs to figure out how to win with Jax, as the rules changes associated with the ban list on March 31st were extremely tough for this legend in particular.
Pyke
Pyke is trying to play a value, disruption oriented play style, which isn't working very well at the moment. There are a lot of ways to disrupt the opponent in this deck, with some discard, pure removals, or ways to return units to their owner's hand mixed together. Most likely, it will take some balancing to find out what Pyke is really capable of.
Miss Fortune
All three Body-Chaos legends are playing the same synergy, and Miss Fortune once again seems to lose that battle to Sivir.
Lucian
We have seen a good amount of Body legends do well in this batch of city challenge tournaments, with Fiora, Rengar, Sett and Sivir each winning one of those. Unfortunately for Lucian, this legend is stuck building around gears, which isn't the there of Unleashed. Thus, expect the Purifier to add some good standalone cards, but likely not have much room to grow.
