Garen, Might of Demacia Starter Guide – Best Decks & Cards

A proud and noble warrior, Garen fights as one of the Dauntless Vanguard. He is popular among his fellows, and respected well enough by his enemies—not least as a scion of the prestigious Crownguard family, entrusted with defending Demacia and its ideals. Clad in magic-resistant armor and bearing a mighty broadsword, Garen stands ready to confront mages and sorcerers on the field of battle, in a veritable whirlwind of righteous steel.

Overview

Spinning into action, League of Legends' resident Beyblade, Garen, mixes the Might and Body domains. That legend is all about amassing a large number of units, in order to trigger its passive ability, or make the most of buff oriented cards.

Garen is fairly straightforward, caring mostly about units and winning the good old-fashioned way. The mix of its domains allows playing both token based cards, or large units the opponent should struggle to remove.

The token approach is a solid direction for a beginner, as that deck is very affordable to craft and simple to learn. However, that strategy tends to struggle in tournaments, as Garen is wiely regarded as the worst legend in RIftbound from a competitive standpoint.

Then, the few players using Garen tend to rely on the other strategy in a high-stakes environment: use OGN-160 and other powerful late game cards available in the Order or Body domains.

Refined Garen Deck

Garen Signature Cards

OGS-024 and OGS-013 pair really well together, and point at a deck based on summoning plenty of units. On the other end, OGS-007 is a weak card struggling to find its identity in Riftbound.

None of these cards typically make it into a competitive environment. At best, one of either Champion Unit will be in the chosen champion slot, while the deck will build in a different direction. However, the fairly simple nature of the gameplay they encourage is well suited for a beginner.

Overall, Garen was designed to be a first step into the game, and those cards achieve that goal very well.

Garen Staple Cards and Synergies

Garen is widely regarded as the weakest legend in the game. It is only logic, as Riot stated they were considering the four starters as a first step into Riftbound, not competitive options. I guess the others didn't get the memo, while Garen followed that order meticulously. Then, deprived of signature cards designed for the competition, playing Garen in tournament means relying on OGN-160 and other powerful cards.

In Spiritforged, Garen got some support in SFD-179, a card perfect to trigger the legend's ability. It didn't revolutionize the deck, nor change Garen's powerlevel compared to the other legends in Riftbound. Yet, it is a card the Might of Demacia should be able to build upon in the future.