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Even if the cards won't come to us for another two months, the entire world has already started to turn its attention to the second set of Riftbound : Spiritforged.
This week-end, the first Chinese tournaments took place, nothing as serious as a City Challenge, but enough to get a glimpse of certain new synergies. Those tournaments were Best-Of-1, meaning we have no side deck, and probably little adjustments for specific match-ups.
These decks are nothing but a first glimpse at synergies we could build around in the future. It happens from time to time, but it is extremely rare a deck finds its ideal form on the first try. Most of the time, we start with a proactive build, aiming to enforce our synergies and win through sheer tempo and raw power.
More intricate lists emerge only after other decks managed to find what they do best, or certain counters start to be a part of the metagame.
Let's consider this first batch of decks an experimental ground. Imagine we are Jayce and Viktor, Heimerdinger, or even Jinx, working on finding the right balance for that new source of energy we just discovered.
So, which Legends looked the best in this early look of Spirtiforged ?
Kai'sa, Obviously
I said in my reviews of the set I expected OGN-247 to lose some ground in this second set, as units would get beefier and harder to remove. According to the four tournaments with the most attendees, ranging from 29 to 64 players, I was dead wrong, as OGN-247 won all four of those tournaments.
In those four tournaments, we saw two types of builds for OGN-247. In the larger tournaments, the Daughter of the Void played very close to her Origins build, probably to maximize comfort and skill rather than catching the opponent off-guard.
In the winning list from a 64 players event, five new cards made it into the deck :
- the new fantastic 2-cost for any deck with power costs to pay : SFD-069
- The new beefy 6-cost unit SFD-021, which took a slot from OGN-027, as both cards were included twice in the deck.
- Three new spells, all helping with a key area of Kai'sa's gameplan : SFD-023, SFD-087 and SFD-003.
Overall, we could consider this an improved but safe build of OGN-247. The play style remained the exact same, just like the curve didn't change much. Only strong standalone cards were included, and the spells fit what OGN-247 aimed to do in the Origins metagame already.
Now, if we were looking for something spicier :
Another build of Mech Kai'sa also won a tournament, but this one built more around the Mech synergy, looking to summon units from multiple sources, and overwhelm the opponent doing so.
At the core of that game plan is SFD-026, supported by all three battlefields, OGN-298, OGN-286 and SFD-212. We can also summon some Mechs through SFD-076, while SFD-021 represents three on its own.
Once on the board, our mech can be supported with SFD-089, another key card for that strategy to function. Indeed, without this card, this would just be a midrange deck supported with token generation.
With SFD-089 in the mix, we force our opponent to react in a rush, as the card will generate value every turn you leave it at a battlefield. This haste will naturally cause our opponent to commit their resources, opening the way for OGN-247 to do what she does best : punish an opponent unable to react.
Obviously, this will need to be polished in the future, especially when it comes to the balance of every card or situational inclusions. The deck had to cut a copy OGN-027, OGN-116 and OGN-029 to fit all those mechs, which is surprising considering their impact during the entire Origins metagame.
Overall, OGN-247 will improve in this second set, especially when it comes to her ability to develop her side of the board. In a way, this Mech build reminds me OGN-242 in Darius, except we use SFD-026 to summon units.
This is a clever way to build proactively, and focus on developping our side of the board rather than attempt to react to opponents we know very little about at the moment. In the future, expect the spells to be polished, to fit the popular units we would have to remove in the mid-game. Until then, SFD-069 generating a Gold gear token will allow to play OGN-029 for no power cost.
Four Origins legends lead contenders pack.
OGS-017, OGS-019, OGN-253 and OGN-269 all placed well at one or more tournaments. However, compared to OGN-247, the lists don't feel as polished, instead exploring the strength of certain cards rather than building with a cohesive game plan in mind.
Here is the best performing deck for each of those legends, alongside a quick review of what I like in each decks :
SFD-208 is a great battlefield for any legend not required to be tapped for their ability. Not only you create asymetry against those with an engage trigger, you also edge against anyone not using equipments. The deck also runs plenty of cheap and midrange units, meaning we should have targets to equip at all time.
The goal probably was to conquer SFD-208 with our turn one unit, play SFD-115 and equip it for free immediately.
While I understand the synergy, I feel it might be a little too situational for my taste, and very weak to gear removal. I probably would have jammed one more OGN-082 in there for another source of buff, and reliably find that top curve unit.
If the goal is to score aggressively with SFD-115, we need to find our closer in time.
In the Origins metagame, the Chinese playerbase failed to figure out OGS-017, and the Dark Child had to wait for the North American metagame to become a force.
Looking at the early builds in Spiritforged, it feels like the Chinese community still believes in a midrange OGS-017 build rather than the agressive build we saw dominate in Houston.
To be fair, I'm not a fan of this build as I don't think this plays to the legend's strengths. There are some great synergies, such as SFD-130 joining OGN-185 as another moving piece. SFD-022 is also a fantastic card alongside OGS-017, as we can play the card during our opponent's turn with the Runes we readied at the end of our turn.
I expect Annie to change her list quite a bit in the future, once again building with a more agressive mindset.
Three copies of SFD-118 feels very heavy, especially as we can't equip it to our chosen champion OGN-164 on turn two due to the equip cost requiring energy. With that said, I feel like this deck leans heavily on drawing OGN-232 early in the match, and snowballing from there. I guess SFD-105 is the other target, but turn three might already be too late against an agressive opponent.
Once set on the board, this deck packs a ton of ways to deal with the opponent's board. OGN-270 and OGN-128 are fantastic cards when the opponent cannot interact with our unit. Plus, the trio of SFD-097, OGN-213 and OGN-207 takes care of larger units later in the match.
Overall, I like the direction of this deck, as the win condition is clear, and there is plenty of support cards for it. However, this feels very rigid in how it plays, and likely loses to itself from time to time.
OGN-253 placed second in two of the four tournaments with the most players. This list comes from the 64 players Spiritforged Release Tournament, and caught for my interest for its simplicity.
OGN-242 is out, the build instead focuses on strong units with a lot of might for their cost, and able to snowball a position. SFD-026 could be considered a replacement, but we aren't running many mechs here. There is another synergy with very little cards to support it, with three copies of OGN-207 but only OGN-217 to create a buff.
The battlefields also don't make much sense, with OGN-280 and OGN-279 being hold oriented while we are running OGN-039, SFD-026 and OGN-011, all conquer based units.
Overall, this list doesn't make a ton of sense, at least from a synergistic standpoint. However, if this could reach second place, even if it was mostly a casual tournament to celebrate the new set, it tells us a lot about the raw power of Fury Units.
Six new legends make it to a top cut
None of the new legends managed to reach the finals of a tournament with more than 20 players so far, although most made it into Top 4.
Riftbound is a complex game, and we've seen how long it took to reach a refined build for most of the Origins legends. With that in mind, it is no surprise to see the new arrivals also struggle early on. Actually, half of the new twelve legends making it into a top cut isn't so bad. Several managed to top multiple tournaments, such as SFD-197, SFD-185 and SFD-205. In total, the Spiritforged crew took 11 of the 32 spots across the four tournaments top 8 cuts.
There are a lot of different cards in this list, which I am never a big fan of, but it can be a great way to test which feel best.
There are very little units in the deck, but they all share the same synergy. Going forward, I expect the deck to build around moving SFD-130 and SFD-048 for sheer value. Once that balance is figured, SFD-195 will pick the flexible cards depending on the metagame.
The list is very proactive, with little ways to interact with the opponent except for OGN-168 and SFD-145. I guess SFD-128 might be considered enough to hold at times, which allows to focus on how to conquer.
We knew SFD-185 would focus on winning fights and scoring fast. Yet, this might be a little too one-dimensional, especially if our early units are removed immediately through spells, and we can't get our equipments on the board.
A lot of equipments are needed to use SFD-197's ability every turn. However, this might push it a little too far, as 12 equipments and just 7 units mean we only have our tokens to rely on.
We have seen how OGN-265 progressed through the Origins metagame, going from a token heavy deck to running more spells to deal with the opponent's board.
This is a first build, but I expect SFD-197 to follow a similar course, as this build would get cooked in side board format. I would remove a couple of SFD-042 for more interaction for sure.
I expected SFD-201 to be a puzzle to build, but I really like the direction here. SFD-085 is a fantastic unit for this deck, while SFD-069 plus SFD-155 has to be among the best early tandems in the game.
SFD-171 is alone in the mid-game, meaning we have to create a Gold gear token to play her without delaying SFD-085 by a turn. Maybe some other options for turn two would be good, although SFD-070 or SFD-162 to remove opposing units sounds like a good play in a hold deck.
I'm very curious if that can be a competitive pick in the future.
This is a weird build as it does not feature any of the stellar fantastic units from the Body domain. I guess the goal was a low average cost in order to be able to play the cards we would reveal with SFD-187 or SFD-188's ability.
This is a good way to build around the legend ability specifically, but passing on all these great units feels weird.
There is a solid balance amongst units and support cards in this list. However, there are too many equipments in my opinion, and I feel like SFD-167 is too situational and demanding to make Mighty. I would rather just capitalize on OGN-155's ability or SFD-218 to draw. That would allow to also remove SFD-161 from the list as well, opening slots to run strong standalone cards such as SFD-069 to pay for power-costs, or match-up cards once the metagame will be more advanced.
It will be an uphill battle to beat OGN-269 as the best Order - Body legend, but this is a good start.
