As we're getting into the last week of previews for Origins, decks are finally starting to come to fruition with a good idea of how the game is going to look when the set releases in the coming months. With this, one deck has stood out among the rest in initial testing, and has even risen to the top of some initial tournaments.
Mono-Order Viktor is an aggressive, unit based deck in Herald of the Arcane's domains of Order and Mind. However, this deck doesn't run a singular Mind Rune, and most of its cards are in the Order domain. With this, the deck is incredibly aggressive while providing consistency and value due to its flexible removal and draw options.
In this guide, we're going to go through how this deck plays and why you should consider going into the Origins release playing it. Of course, as time goes on there's a good chance that this deck is overshadowed by other decks that have learnt how to counter its strengths. But for now, it's definitely a contender.
Mono-Order Viktor Guide
Deck
For this guide, we're going to be using Al808's list from MaxTapera's tournament on July 06th, 2025. Right now, only small tournaments can take place due to being in a pre-release phase, and so this is the best 'competitive' data we have until cards hit shelves.
Mono-Order Viktor is a Herald of the Arcane and Viktor Leader deck, that looks to leverage the power of cheap units and effective removal. By being able to make a bunch of Recruit tokens and play cards with a ton of on-play or Deathknell effects, you can reap the benefits of cards like Hidden Blade to keep your hand healthy.
However, on the flip side, Hidden Blade and Cull the Weak make great removal spells, which means that you can control the boardstate fairly well earlier on too. With this, you can stay a step ahead, while either amassing small units or playing above-rate units like Cruel Patron to keep ahead of the game.
There are a few cards in Mind, like the duo of Watchful Sentry and Ravenbloom Student, and the powerful +1 of Consult the Past. None of these have any Power costs though, and so you can just run a whole mono-Order Rune Deck, meaning you're never going to fall into any Power Cost inconsistencies with your Runes.
When it comes to endgame finishers, Grand Strategem and Siphon Power can be key to holding a battlefield, or taking one back after a key turn. Harnessed Dragon is a big investment, but it kills your opponent's best unit while also being hard to deal with in-of-itself. Otherwise, you generally want to try to win the game before your opponent gets to their endgame.
Battlefields
The battlefields of choice here are Obelisk of Power, Reaver's Row, and Trifarian War Camp. The obvious main one is Trifarian War Camp, as this battlefield is huge considering the sheer amount of units we'll have access to in a singular game.
The other two battlefields are just generically good and provide ramp and utility, with Obelisk of Power being great to try and get your units out as early as possible, and Reaver's Row just being great utility in the event that you need to retreat from a battlefield.
Generally speaking, I'd try and save Trifarian War Camp for Game 2 (if winning) or Game 3, as I think you can go without it into every deck and you probably want to save your power battlefield for when you want to close out the game rather than use it early on and then lose the whole match due to an opponent using a powerful battlefield when you don't have yours.
Metagame Analysis
It's quite difficult to say, but it's seeming as though Viktor is looking incredibly strong in the metagame on an initial glance. He can generally beat the other top decks in the metagame, and has a really linear gameplan that is a great neutral game into any deck (without considering any of the sacrifice tricks that he can do).
While it's maybe not the best competitive data compared to a more structured tournament, the tournament that this decklist originated from had three Viktor decks in the Top 8, placing 1st, 3rd, and 7th respectively. However, Viktor was the most popular deck too, with a count of six total Viktor players throughout the 32 entrants.
Against the other main deck to beat, Ahri, Viktor excels due to his units having low Might anyway. This cancels out Nine-Tailed Fox and makes Viktor a real aggressive threat into the control deck, being able to do a chunk of damage and take the game before she really has a chance to be in it.
However, one of the major things to consider is that Sideboards were not enabled in this tournament. In a world of Sideboards, cards like Flurry of Blades might turn the Viktor - Volibear matchup on its head, and will allow other decks to be able to tech against Viktor without having to dedicate maindeck slots to it. So, once we have sideboarding rules, it could be a whole different story.
Closing Time
Viktor is looking to be a potent deck out of the gates, with a ton of value and aggression to be able to have a great neutral game into any deck. Time will tell if it has staying power at the top of the metagame as reveals and deckbuilding progresses, but for now you should definitely check this out if you want to play a great deck going into Origins.
If you're looking for the best RIftbound content, take a look at what we have to offer at Riftbound.gg. From guides to tier lists and other great competitive content, we're second to none when it comes to making great content for all of you. So, keep an eye out as we get closer to Origins' release.
Otherwise, thank you so much for your time, and I'll see you on the rift!
