Contents
A slow starter in the Origins metagame, OGS-017 could be considered two different legends if we look at the Chinese and English-Speaking communities.
In the east, the Dark Child has been a decent, but far from threatening legend. 53rd in the National Open, alongside 90th, 29th, 165th and 22nd in the four regionals tournaments, and a sole win across the now 30+ city challenges. OGS-017's school report would say something like "Occasional flashes of brilliance, but needs more consistency".
In that particular region, Annie sits alongside OGN-265 or OGN-267, those capable legends, but with no track record to be considered a potential winner in big tournaments.
If we move to the West however, OGS-017 is a different beast. First, the Dark Child was widely considered a Dark Horse pick on global release, potentially capable of making a difference in OGN-247's kingdom. Every week, OGS-017 was in community talks, with new lists shared and her status as a competitive threat a hot topic.
Then, OGS-017 won the big one : SCGCON Vegas Riftbound 10K. The largest tournament in Riftbound outside China's regional and national tournaments.
This weekend, the first ever regional tournament in the West will happen : Houston Regional. In this guide, we'll cover everything one needs to know in order to play Annie in Riftbound. More importantly, let's try to answer the question everyone has been debating for over a month now : Can OGS-017 beat OGN-247 and OGS-019 on the grandest stage ?
Not so fast.
Before we get into the real guide, I feel the urge to correct one crucial detail from that introduction : OGS-017 did not win SCGCON Vegas Riftbound 10K.
Yes, Robert Wagner Krankel posted a nice picture with the trophy on social media, and he was playing Annie in Vegas. However, the top 4 of that tournament was never played, so the win went to the player with the highest seed amongst the last four : Robert Wagner Krankel with the #4 seed.
This remains OGS-017's best competitive result so far, especially as another Annie reached top 4 as well. Plus, Annie also reached the top 4 in Atlanta, the second-largest tournament at the time, while a few players already reported a Skirmish win as well.
Overall, many of the top competitors in America believe OGS-017 is a top tier legend in the game, and we are sure to see several high-profile players pick Annie in Houston. In that context, OGS-017 will be competing for the win simply based on the raw skill of certain pilots.
Yet, I felt it was important to give this bit of context before we dive into the guide.
Decklist
Most players posting strong tournament finishes seem to gravitate towards this list, with a few swaps in between cards filling the same role in the build. We will cover those in the Side Board section.
Core Synergies
OGS-017 wants to start strong, build a lead on the board and the scoreboard, forcing the opponent to take more risks to come back. In that position, our opponent is more likely to use all their runes during their turn.
Especially against OGN-247 using cheap removal and support spells, or Calm legends packing OGN-045, tapping them out of resources makes every thing much easier to plan during our turn.
Winning the Game
Annie is a Conqueror type of deck, looking to go from 6 to 8 points for the win. We can sometimes steal a win with a cheeky hold using our Chaos spells to move an attacker back to base. Yet, our finishing manoeuvre will typically combine OGN-036 and OGN-173 to send a big Might unit to both battlefields in the same turn.
OGN-027 is also large enough to serve in that finishing pattern, although we tend to develop that one whenever we can over the course of the match.
Scoring Units
To score up to 6 points, OGS-017 will rely on a mix of small and mid-sized units.
OGN-013 and OGN-185 are our go-to turn one plays. The Poro is resilient to removal spells thanks to deflect, while the Merchant will start building our trash for OGN-185 later on.
Speaking of OGN-185, we would like to avoid playing it early due to its power cost. However, developing a unit is more important than keeping our runes with Annie.
OGN-039, OGN-027 and OGN-012 represent our chunkier units, this trio carrying most Fury legends in the Origins metagame.
OGN-012 and OGN-027 will be used as enforcers, typically conquering and forcing the opponent to spend more than what we paid to remove them.
OGN-013 is more fragile, but also a great value engine. Typically, we will accelerate the card to guarantee a draw. Then, we can use OGN-013 or OGN-013 to bring it back to our base when our opponent challenges it in a showdown.
Last, OGN-176 is more of an opportunistic card we will play when a battlefield is up for grabs. Except for that scenario, it is a terrible deal to spend 3 energy to get a 2-Might card in our base.
Support Spells
The second key aspect of OGS-017 game play are support spells, which we will typically use during our opponent's turn, with the runes we ready at the end of our turn.
Except for OGN-029, all of our spells are Actions or Reactions, meaning they can be cast during our opponent's turn. There are five to keep in mind :
- OGN-169 is the flexible tempo tool. We will use it to build our early lead on the scoreboard. They want to conquer the other open battlefield with their turn 1 unit ? Gust it. A 3-Might unit comes to challenge OGN-013 or OGN-185 ? Gust it.
- OGN-024 is our main removal in the first three turns, while OGN-172 will come in later against larger units. Recycling a rune is annoying, but a cheap price to remove the opposing OGN-039.
- OGS-011 is our protective tool, allowing us to move our units back to the base, keeping them safe from a lost showdown to use in future turns to conquer.
- OGN-168 is the more flexible of our 2-cost spells. We can use to protect one of our units like we would with OGS-011, move an opposing one to ease up a conquest, or send one back to their base to deny a conquest and maybe score from holding.
If you don't need those runes, you can always cast OGN-183 during a showdown. Don't be too greedy if you intend to play it during your opponent's turn, simply cast it once you know you won't need that rune for reactive spells.
Battlefields
OGS-017 is an aggressive legend, looking to pressure the opponent with a high score they have to react against in a rush. This battlefield helps reach that high score, sort of lethal range faster.
This is a situational pick if you run OGN-194 in your deck, while the other three are the staple battlefields for Annie. It is not the popular way to play Annie, but represents another way to bring some pressure against slow strategies.
This one is widely used across the metagame, so it can help our opponent as well, so it is important to focus on this battlefield first when we pick it. Once in control, we have plenty of cheap spell with OGN-004, OGS-011 or OGN-173 in the deck.
A replica of OGN-185's ability, perfect to grow OGN-036.
Side Board
Annie typically sides generic strong cards rather than specific answers for a match-up. For example, OGN-179 is available in Chaos to counter OGN-160, but we typically beat that strategy through our fast-paced strategy.
Some Annie players like to run OGN-182 instead of OGN-183, which increases the value of OGN-179 as a side board inclusion.
More copies of OGN-169 and OGN-029 are to be expected, allowing the deck to adapt towards answering an aggressive early game or remove mid-sized units.
OGN-172 and OGN-180 are also popular inclusions in the side deck, to improve the deck's ability to handle larger threats. OGS-017 is already pretty good against slow developing strategies, but it is usually necessary to deal with one or two large units once they sided their anti-aggro options.
The last common inclusion is OGN-035, included for extra value against defensive decks. The card shines against an opponent trying to remove our units and starve us. Once we reach 7 runes, we have more than enough to play OGN-035, bounce it back to our hand, and still be flexible during our opponent's turn thanks to the extra two runes we get from our legends' ability.
Rarer cards included in OGS-017's side board include :
- OGN-028 to act as another enforcer if three of OGN-036 would not be enough.
- OGN-188 if you wanted a unit instead of OGN-180. OGN-203 is another option against high-cost units, but will be much more situational.
- OGS-003 is a good early option with no power cost attached.
- OGN-201 is a fantastic card against value decks, allowing to both play very aggressively, and reduce their hand size down to four cards.
- OGS-018 is an option against wide strategies such as OGN-265.
Match Up Tips
Both legends in this match-up will look to gain tempo through their ability, making removal spells the key to win the Kai'sa - Annie match-up.
OGN-247 should play reactively early on, as OGS-017 getting ahead on the scoreboard early will greatly limit Kai'sa's ability to develop larger units later on. Our best early unit is OGN-013 and its Deflect keyword. Also, OGN-176 is great to score without our opponent being able to react. It isn't considered a move to play the card directly at an open battlefield.
The card we want to dodge is OGN-029, as it is backbreaking to lose two units to such a cheap card. When doing so, our opponent is often able to develop OGN-039 safely, and force us to use OGN-024.
A 3-cost spell taking out a 4-cost unit might sound like a good deal, but OGN-247 won't break as many runes as we do with its ability, while it also packs the better lategame. As such, making us focus on removal is exactly how they reach enough runes for OGN-116 or OGN-248.
The unit we have to be careful about is OGN-103, as we can only use OGN-169 when our opponent has one rune available, or they could get it to 4-Might. Again, OGN-024 will take it out, but sets us back tempo wise.
A key step in the match is to play OGN-027 before they do, that card being the most difficult to take out for both decks. If we manage to score early on and keep some cheap units on the board, OGN-027 will force OGN-247 to be very defensive, as the 5-cost is able to score two points on its own.
Typically, we will aim to play it with enough Runes for a second card alongside it. When going first, OGN-004 or OGN-183 will do just fine when at six runes.
The key in this match-up is to deny our opponent the ability to use their cheap support spells efficiently, especially early in the match. Indeed, Calm legends excel at dodging damage based removal spells or winning showdown thanks to OGN-058 or OGN-046.
Then, our goal will be to aggressively seize the battlefiels to deny OGS-019's ability, and force our opponent to attack us. From there, we can force them to use their support spells during their turn, and play against a opponent with no runes available during our turn, easing our conquests.
We are totally fine with both players scoring a lot early on compared to a stalled situation, with the scoreboard moving slowly.
If we can do so, our Chaos spells will shine once the larger units are played, as we will be able to dodge showdowns through returning our or the opponent's unit to their base.
Sett is quite annoying to go against, as this legend is able to stack multiple mid-sized units at the same battlefield, making it impossible to conquer without a huge OGN-036. Plus, OGN-155 and OGN-232 both have deflect, limiting our ability to target them with spells.
Arguably, our best course of action is to win before they manage to get a comfortable position, even if it means taking some risks early on to build our lead.
To do so, we want to break Sett's pace through disrupting their early development.
If they don't have many units on the board, we want to stop their support spells from helping them control the pace of the match. OGN-270 is a pain to deal with due to its low cost, but we can act against other spells :
- Move the target of OGN-213 to its base to cancel that effect.
- Punish OGN-154 through taking the buffed unit out of the showdown, sending it back to base or your opponent's hand.
- Make them play OGN-128 to remove your units. Otherwise, move them out of showdowns to maintain a decent total might on the board. Except for OGN-027 or OGN-036, none of our cards is strong enough to win one on one.
On the other end, if they are playing units mostly, we need to keep their total count as low as possible through taking out the smaller one in showdowns, or with damage spells. We can always move away one unit, or rely on OGN-027 or OGN-036 to win a one on one.
Our main issue is when multiple units start stacking on the same location, as we don't have a good way to deal with a group of mid-sized units.
Other Legends
Past this top three, I would recommend playing most of the other match-ups with tempo and initiative in mind.
OGS-017 main course of action is to quickly score to force the opponent into a defensive stance, then use the two runes granted by our legend's ability and cheap support cards to stay ahead until OGN-027 or OGN-036 close the match with OGN-173.
If we can do so, most of the legends without a fantastic comeback mecanism will struggle to get out of that position. Plus, that early lead makes it so much easier to safely play OGN-039 or OGN-027, often game winners if left unchecked.
This is particularly important against other fast-paced legends such as the mirror match or OGN-263.
Closing Words : Will Annie win Houston ?
Considering the momentum she is riding in north America, I believe OGS-017 has a real shot at winning the tournament. However, this feeling is a mix of Annie being good enough to compete, and several top competitors sharing their intent to bring the Dark Child to Houston. If the regional tournament were in Europe, I probably wouldn't feel as confident for Annie, since she doesn't have the same hype in that region.
Riftbound is young, with all the top competitors so far being veteran card game players coming from Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, One Piece or recognizable names from the Legends of Runeterra days. Except for OGN-247, the pilot goes a long way into certain legends posting consistent top cut placements. American players definately helped Annie in that regard.
Overall, even if she has been making strides lately, OGS-017 cannot be considered dominant, at best on par with OGN-269 amongst legends able to rival OGN-247 with an experienced pilot at the helm. Plus, it is likely Annie will be targeted in side decks a lot more due to her recent hype, which could lead to a tougher environment to navigate.
Good Game Everyone,
