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Riftbound's first substantial tournament was played in the Riftbound Community Discord Server this weekend. Hosted by MaxTepera, the tournament took place on Tabletop Simulator and was streamed on his Twitch. There were some interesting developments, and a certain subset of Champions are definitely looking to be strong from this initial outing.
The tournament was on Sunday 6th of July, and had 32 participants. With a diverse metagame and a host of variants, there's a lot to talk about regarding the initial metagame and how people are looking at Riftbound as we reach the end of the Origins preview season.
In this report, we'll take a look at the general metagame and the Top 8 breakdown. Right now, this is a small tournament and bigger tournaments will give us more indication over time, but it's great to see that people are already getting out there and making competitive decks to battle with.
Tournament Metagame
Viktor: 6
Sett: 5
Ahri: 4
Master Yi: 4
Lux: 3
Jinx: 3
Annie: 1
Darius: 1
Kai'sa: 1
Lee Sin: 1
Leona: 1
Volibear: 1
The wider tournament metagame was pretty diverse with twelve of our sixteen champions making an appearance, including three Proving Grounds champions in Annie, Lux, and Master Yi. The obvious favourite going into the tournament was Viktor, with Sett, Ahri, and Master Yi closely behind.
Interestingly, there was only a singular Volibear entrant which is peculiar considering that Dazzling Aurora has been the talk of the town recently. It's hard to say, but there's a good chance that either naysayers are overlooking Volibear's ramp power, or the card is simply just weaker than people think and doesn't actually make the champion top tier.
Notable omissions from the whole tournament include Yasuo and Miss Fortune, both of which have the consensus of having decent strategies and being fun to play. Time will tell if this is just a preference from this tournament or if the metagame has shifted as a whole. Importantly, a singular tournament isn't enough of a sample size to come to those conclusions.
Top 8
1st: Viktor by Al808
Read our full Mono-Order Viktor guide for more info on this deck.
Viktor was already a favourite coming into this tournament, but the Mono-Order Viktor deck by Al808 is definitely a huge contender for the best deck right now. It's consistent, aggressive, has value and removal, and has a decent-to-good matchup into every other deck on paper due to its flexibility and speed.
2nd: Ahri by Samabr
Ahri Control looks as expected, with a lot of spells that consist of mix of tricks and defensive tools, and a small number of value-oriented units. Right now, Ahri is looking like the bottleneck to beat for a lot of decks, with her efficiency and ability to be able to control the game with ease. However, it's uncertain if Viktor is a great matchup for the Nine-Tailed Fox, due to his aggression and lack of care for the Nine-Tailed Fox legend.
3rd: Viktor by DrRickMarshall
This is another version of Viktor, that has both Order and Mind Rune in its deck. The only real reason that the deck is running Mind Rune is because of Ahri Inquisitive, which I'm unsure if is worth it compared to the consistency of the Mono-Order deck.
4th: Jinx by Qzmk
Right now, Jinx is looking like an aggro-midrange deck, curving out at 5-cost cards and playing a lot of recursive spells and units. Immortal Phoenix and Super Mega Death Rocket! seem to be a great combination here, and I do think that this is going to easily be one of the most popular decks when it gets to Origins release because of its consistency.
5th: Lee Sin by Howtosurvive
Lee Sin plays a lot like a Ahri but with more of a focus on unit-based control, with the tricks to hold battlefields still making an appearance. It's looking like the Buff mechanic isn't a massive deal in this deck, but Blind Monk does help in growing creatures to keep them around.
6th: Lux by Blanket
Lux is interesting, as she's a Proving Grounds champion and is obviously weaker than her Mind/Order counterpart in Viktor. However, she plays as more of a traditional control deck, playing huge spells to control the boardstate and a heavy emphasis on spell-based gameplay rather than Viktor's unit-based gameplay.
7th: Viktor by Void
Once again, this Viktor deck looks far less consistent than the one that won the tournament, as the only real reasons that the deck is playing Mind rune is for Unchecked Power and Ekko Recurrent, both being cards that I don't think particularly fit into Viktor's gameplan very well.
8th: Darius by AEbonrock
Darius is looking pretty close to Viktor in DNA, but with more aggression and less of an emphasis on the controlling and value-oriented side of the deck. Instead, Darius definitely looks more aggressive and like he's wanting to curve out into bigger threats rather than keeping low-to-the-ground with buffs on smaller units.
Closing Time
This tournament has definitely given us some food for thought when it comes to champions and how they're going to shape up as we get closer to the release of Origins. Of course, this is a small sample size, but it'll be interesting to see how this all changes as time goes on.
If you're looking for great Riftbound content, Riftbound.gg has you covered. Between tier lists, tournament analysis, and deck guides, we've got everything you need to be able to succeed at your locals and beyond. Keep an eye out for more of our articles as we get to the full release of Origins!
Otherwise, thank you for reading, and I'll see you on the rift.