Contents
A top 128 largely dominated by Kai'Sa and Master Yi, while these two also took the top 8 hostage, China's biggest tournament confirmed what everyone feared already : There is no beating the top two Legends in Riftbound.
Arguably, there isn't that much to learn from a tournament metagame standpoint. Indeed, Kai'sa and Master Yi have been dominant for the past two months, especially in Best of 3 tournaments. Then, the Chinese National was nothing more but their final coronation. The two were #1 and #2 in popularity at all stages, while holding those same top spots for conversion rate as well with 9.33% for Kai'sa and 7.82% for Master Yi.
At best, we can take inspiration from each finalist's build for those looking to refine their Red-Blue or Green-Orange decks :
Now, with China spoiling the fun for everyone else around the world who just managed to get their hands on cards : What is next ?
First, we can look at the reasons Kai'sa and Master Yi are so dominant. Then, maybe that will help figure out if some sort of counter play is possible.
If not, the Origins set might actually be doomed for the rest of the world.
Checking all the boxes of any TCG great deck
In almost every card game, we play with three separate resources :
- Energy, Mana, or Runes in Riftbound's case.
- Cards
- Life, which are points in Riftbound's case. Basically, we can consider our health to be the points our opponent has left to score. The closer they are to 8, and the more we will have to hurry, as the game could end any turn now.
In every TCG I have played, decks at the top of the metagame were able to act on all three resources :
- Energy could be cheated out, cards cost could be manipulated, or the average cost of cards in the deck were on the lower side. Basically, the deck is both very flexible and reliable, able to craft various play-patterns for any given turn, plus quickly seize the board early in a match.
- Solid draw or card generation to ensure it never runs out of gas.
- Strong health manipulator, either because it can bring a lot of pressure in one turn, or turn around a situation most decks cannot get out of.
You probably guessed it : Kai'sa and Master Yi check all those boxes.
Kai'sa runs seven 2-cost units, supported with twelve 1-cost spells. Her champion cards either draw (OGN-039) or can be used twice per turn (OGN-027).
As for the rest of the deck, we got more draw (OGN-096, OGN-087), plenty of very effective cards for their cost, alongside a few energy cheating abilities (OGN-012, OGN-247 herself)
Just looking at the deck's curve, we know this is going to be very reliable early on :
The same could be said about Master Yi. Indeed, that deck runs nine 2-cost units, alongside nine 1-cost spells. Once again, the champion card (OGN-155) draws, but is also able to grant extra energy.
Just like Kai'sa, the rest of the deck is also very effective when it comes to impacting resources. The more expensive cards either draw plus ramp (OGN-075) or have an immediate impact on the board (OGN-082, OGN-161, OGS-009).
We find upsides in the cheapest ones too, as most will draw (OGN-047, OGN-058, OGN-129) or have some sort of immediate impact (OGN-132)
It is no surprise to see both decks sport almost the same curve :
The problem isn't the synergies both decks rely upon. Rather, Kai'sa and Master Yi are just fantastic decks based on any TCG fundamentals.
Most solutions are unreliable
For a major part of this first set, many players have discussed why OGN-160 would eventually solve the Kai'sa issue. Let's explore why that has not happened, alongside why Master Yi top performing lists have cut the card as well.
It is pretty simple : OGN-160 requires unbalancing your deck, while your opponent can remove it with a tech card. For example, OGN-022 you can spot two copies of in the champion's deck, OmegaZero.
When one plays OGN-160, they typically spend their turn on developing the card, so pulling a cheap unit really is out of the question. Plus, if you expect some counter cards to exist, meaning you might not get more than one pull out of your gear, you need to pull something more expensive than OGN-160. Look at Master Yi's deck, none of its card cost more than 8 runes.
In the best of three format, we can't really include OGN-160 in our side deck. If we do, we need to hope our opponent didn't side deck a counter card, while our entire side has to be dedicated to operating a switch to now run a high-cost unit strategy.
The only option would be to run OGN-160 in our main deck, and use our side to play without it in match 2 and 3 in case of a counter card.
In the best of one format, we just follow that same approach, except we believe OGN-160 is the best way to build our Orange deck, as there is no side available.
In both instances, we need to run an unbalanced deck against a low curve, super effective build designed to conquer and hold in the early turns. Once OGN-160 comes down, we need to come back from a big points deficit, something incredibly difficult to do in a game featuring cards like OGN-043 or OGN-029 able to handle large units for a cheap cost.
Most of the solutions offered tend to face that same problem. The Deflect keyword for example, is a great way to force your opponent to spend more runes for their spells.
Yet, that keyword isn't so popular in the game, meaning it is impossible to build a deck with many Deflect units at the moment. Plus, OGN-247's ability grants one extra rune per turn, limiting the impact of the Deflect keyword against that specific Legend.
Closing Words
To be fair, the competitive part of Riftbound is probably already set for this first expansion. Regional tournaments and other high stakes tournaments will likely see Kai'sa and Master Yi be extremely popular, and split most top cuts amongst them.
However, the large majority of the community won't be playing the game in those high stakes tournaments. Instead, we'll attend our local store tournaments or enter smaller, best of one format events. In those, we have seen other champions do pretty well, and the mood is typically more chill, allowing for more diversity to exist.
Overall then, this first set might not be very fun if you look at the biggest events, and follow what the best competitive players are using. However, if you focus on your local scene and attend smaller events, I'm sure Riftbound will be a very enjoyable game, even in a solved metagame.
