Contents
One of the top three decks in the format, Sett has been an incredibly popular choice going into the world of Riftbound. Even since near the beginning of the preview season for Origins, the community has really taken a liking to this beloved League of Legends tank.
In Riftbound, Sett is a midrange deck that looks to use buffs to create value throughout the game. Through cards like his legend The Boss, and the incredibly potent Monastery of Hirana, Sett can provide a ton of value and advantage for no real cost. On top of this, you have a great midrange deck on numbers and effects alone, with all of this value on top.
In this guide, we're going to go over the Sett midrange deck in Riftbound and everything that you need to know. We'll take a look at how the deck functions as well as anything else that might be important such as tips and sideboard, so you can hit the ground running in taking Sett midrange to online tournaments and further..
Sett Midrange: The Deck
We'll be using Vendorty's 1st place Sett deck from the RIftlab Trials for this article.
Sett is a midrange value-oriented deck that looks to take advantage of buffs as much as possible; using them for immense benefits such as keeping units from death, drawing cards and more. With this, the most important part of playing Sett is deploying strong units with potent effects, looking to win the game through attrition.
Cards like Pit Rookie and Kinkou Monk are effective units that will buff your better ones, to ensure that they can stick around through Sett’s legend card, The Boss. With this, you can consistently ensure that your best units stay on the battlefield resiliently through removal and showdowns. Arena Bar is a gear that's also very effective in keeping your units around, and is essential to your gameplan if you can play it out due to essentially being able to give any creature that enters the chance to feign death if you play correctly.
When it comes to spells, most of the spells in the deck are removal of some kind. Sabotage[/card can get a non-Unit out of hand before it’s played, and [card]Cannon Barrage can wipe a battlefield of small units with ease. With this, though, comes a really important card in Call to Glory, which your opponent has to play around at all times; if you have a buffed unit they can easily fall victim to it at a surprise.
Champions
Sett has a bunch of Champions in the deck, all of which are potent midrange units that can work well on their own. Qiyana Victorious is able to create value out of an aggressive game plan, drawing whenever you Conquer. On the other hand, Fiora Victorious is just a great unit in combat that can be really tricky to deal with.
While he seems weaker on paper,Sett Brawler is remarkably aggressive for a champion that you have access to at all times. Using a card like Showstopper can buff him to 7 or 8 if sequenced correctly, which is massive for a 5 cost unit.
The biggest benefit of this though is that Sett's legend lets you keep all of these around even longer, making them more powerful and more difficult to deal with altogether. This kind of value is what sets Sett apart from other midrange decks, and allows him to shine through the rest by having a great neutral game with great units that never seem to go away, no matter how much effort you put into removal.
Battlefields
Sett’s battlefields are all incredibly potent, with the obvious standout being Monastery of Hirana. This card is brutally good, and it means that Sett can draw another card for free when conquering it. Especially into decks that don’t use buffs, the upside to the Monastery is massive and should definitely not be ignored to get that first game win.
Reckoner’s Arena is also very strong, in that it combos with Qiyana Victorious to keep your hand full and Sett Brawler to keep him alive and buffed every turn. When set up correctly, the Arena can be a very potent battlefield, and is definitely a great pick for game 2.
Vilemaw’s Lair mainly stops your opponents’ units from being able to retreat, which is a fine effect and can catch out certain decks. But outside of those situational moments, this is definitely the worst of the three battlefields and is only there as a decent neutral hate card, rather than a proactive choice.
Sideboard
As mentioned previously, Cannon Barrage is a great card for aggro matchups, in that it’s a reaction speed boardwipe. This can be massive into decks like Viktor that really want to go all in on aggression, and can blow them out out of nowhere.
Noxian Drummer is more of an aggressive option against decks that want to coast, as you can easily create a board presence using its ability whenever it dies (if buffed). It can also be used with Showstopper to create an extra unit in a given turn, which means it can create a bunch of tokens if required.
Anivia Primal is decent into aggro, but it’s stellar into tempo decks like Kai’Sa, where it can take out their smaller threats while also presenting a threat of your own that can help carry you to victory.
How to Play Sett Midrange - Tips and Things to Consider
The most important thing about playing Sett is utilising buffs and playing around them. By making sure that your legend is active at the right time, you can essentially ensure that your best units stick around no matter what. Because of this, spending your buffs wisely is also very important, and you need to be careful to not spend your buff and leave your guards down if you’re spending the buff of a unit you want to stick around.
Otherwise, Sett is a very straightforward deck to play. He’s aggressively slanted, and so you want to try to take charge of the game and then get ahead with value, rather than playing reactively. You also don’t want to waste any buff maker, as your buffs are essentially your contingency plan; using your legend will turn it off for the turn, so be aware.
However, if you’ve got a way to guarantee a conquer, you can take advantage of your legend’s ability by using it, then conquering to ready, and being able to keep it up for the next turn. You can turn a unit into a removal spell by doing so, which can be incredibly handy if done correctly.
Metagame Analysis: Should I Play Sett Midrange?
As explored in our weekly metagame update at the start of the week, Sett is an incredibly competitive deck right now. His deck came first in the Riftlab Trials, and he’s cemented himself as one of the S tier decks in the format; and he’s not going anywhere any time soon.
Being a powerful midrange deck, he has an insanely good neutral game that can just perform well into any deck through gameplay. With this, I feel as though Sett is going to be an equaliser in the format for a while, as a good Sett player seems like they can push through any metagame and win.
Whether that is the case will be apparent with time, but his recent top 8 appearances do seem to show that good Sett players can perform, especially when considering metagame proportion. So, Sett is definitely worth considering as a choice, and he feels as though he’s going to stay in the top tier for a long time.
Closing Time
Sett is definitely one of the most popular decks going into Origins, and also one of the most exciting. With multiple top finishes and a domineering performance, he’s solidly in the top tier of Riftbound decks, and is a deck that you should pay attention to; as we’re probably not going to stop hearing about him anytime soon.
If you want more great Riftbound content, keep an eye on Riftbound.gg. We’re here all the way to the Origins release, and beyond, with great content including tier lists, deck guides, and more. If you’re looking for your Riftbound fix, look no further.
In any case, thank you for your time, and I’ll see you on the rift!
