Updated for Vendetta

Annie

Dark Child

Fury

ChaosBeginner

Annie lets you develop during your turn, ready up to two runes, and still keep a response available for the opponent.

Key Cards

Dark Child readies up to two runes at the end of your turn, letting you develop and still keep a response available for the opponent. Stubborn returns a spell from your trash when played. Flash can move endangered units from a battlefield to base, but that move does not replay them. To use Stubborn's play trigger again, return her to hand with Star-Crossed or Grim Apothecary, then pay to play her again. Flash moves units between board locations; those hand-return effects set up another Stubborn trigger.

Annie’s Field Guide

Annie wants to make the opponent commit before you decide how much a fight is worth. You can put units into play during your turn, let Dark Child ready two runes, and still have Flash or Hard Bargain available on theirs. That does not mean every answer is covered. A three-Energy play needs another ready rune beyond the two you get back, and recycling a rune for Power leaves nothing there to ready later. Before ending your turn, decide which card you expect to use and leave the resources for that card. An expensive answer in hand is not protection if you cannot pay for it.

How Annie wins

Take points with efficient attackers, then make the opponent pay for trying to clear them. Sometimes the right answer is another unit in the fight. Sometimes it is a spell, and sometimes it is sending your valuable unit home while the opponent has already spent their turn attacking it. Stubborn keeps a good spell available for another exchange, so you do not have to treat every Flash as your last one. The danger is getting too interested in saving everything. A retreat that keeps your hand and board full but gives away the winning point is still a losing play.

Key interactions

Get a real unit out of your setup spell

Stacked Deck · Noxus Hopeful

Stacked Deck finds the best of your next three cards and turns on Legion for Hopeful. The spell costs one Energy and the discounted Hopeful costs two, giving you a 4-Might unit for three Energy spent across the sequence. That is a useful opening when you need both a body and the best card from the top three. Hopeful does not have to be exactly your second card; any earlier card that turn can enable the discount. Avoid paying four for it just because it is the first unit you noticed in your hand.

Know which escape gets Annie back to hand

Annie, Stubborn · Star-Crossed · Grim Apothecary · Flash

Star-Crossed can return Annie and an enemy unit to hand. Play Annie again later and she can recover the Star-Crossed you just used. Grim Apothecary gives you another way to pick her up from a battlefield while adding a body. Both lines ask you to pay for Annie again, so use them when the spell and the board you keep are worth that next four Energy and Chaos Power. Flash is cheaper and can save two units, but it sends them to base. It does not ready Annie or give you another play trigger.

Change the fight after they have committed

Rengar, Pouncing · Inferna · Long Sword

Rengar can enter the battlefield you are attacking with Reaction timing and contributes 5 Might while attacking before other modifiers. Inferna can Ambush where you already have a unit, giving you a smaller way to add an attacker after the fight starts. Long Sword can be played and attached as a Reaction when an existing unit needs another 2 Might. These are different payments and different kinds of reinforcement, so count the answer you actually have. Inferna is only 1 Might while defending before other modifiers, and Dark Child's two-rune refresh does not pay Rengar's three Energy and Fury Power by itself.

Strengths

The two-rune refresh lets you develop during your turn and still threaten a useful response on the opponent's.
Stubborn can recover the spell that matters in the next exchange instead of asking you to draw another copy.
Reaction units, combat tricks and retreats make it difficult for the opponent to know whether their first commitment is enough to win a fight.

Weaknesses

The Legend gives you no extra unit or Might on its own. If your opening cannot put a useful body into play, the ready runes do not fix that.
Replaying units and spending Power can get expensive. A hand full of answers can still fall behind if using them keeps delaying your next attacker.
Saving units is not the same as keeping a battlefield. You need to recognize the turns when taking the trade is better than giving up the point.

Shadow's Pick

Annie tournament list by YBE аrtes

148th place · Riftbound Regional Qualifier - Barcelona - Final Standings, 2026-08-23

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Deck total $305.93

Legend (1)

1x$4.94 ea.

Runes (12)

5x$0.11 ea.
7x$0.10 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.08 ea.
1x$0.12 ea.
1x$0.22 ea.

Spells (12)

2x$0.15 ea.
Energy
1
3x$2.55 ea.
Energy
2
1x$1.35 ea.
Energy
2
3x$12.77 ea.
Energy
1
2x$0.16 ea.
Power
1
Energy
3
1x$1.37 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2

Gear (3)

3x$0.28 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2

Units (25)

1xChosen$4.53 ea.
Might
3
Power
1
Energy
4
3x$1.99 ea.
Might
6
Power
1
Energy
6
2x$0.17 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
1x$0.18 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
3x$0.09 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2
3x$62.18 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$0.35 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
1x$0.10 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
3x$0.82 ea.
Might
3
Power
1
Energy
3
3x$0.20 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
2x$13.91 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4

Sideboard (10)

2x$0.29 ea.
Energy
2
1x$0.15 ea.
Energy
2
1x$0.13 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$0.13 ea.
Energy
1
1x$17.35 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
1x$0.25 ea.
Might
4
Power
1
Energy
4
1x$0.27 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2
1x$0.16 ea.
Power
1
Energy
3
1x$0.30 ea.
Power
2
Energy
5

Shadow's take

What I like about this Annie list is that the cheap plays still lead to a board the opponent has to answer. Stacked Deck into Noxus Hopeful gets a real attacker down without spending the whole turn on setup. Inferna and Rengar let you add to a fight after the opponent commits, and Long Sword can make the unit already there big enough to survive it. The part I would be careful with is treating every unit as something that has to come home. Flash is there to save a useful board, not to make you give up every contested point. Grim Apothecary and Star-Crossed are the better way to get another Stubborn trigger when you can afford to replay her. Later, Ferrous Forerunner gives you a unit that you can actually trade: a death leaves two Mechs at base, while returning it to hand gives you another six-Energy unit to pay for. I would start with the cheap board, keep one relevant answer ready, and use those extra cards and retreats to make the next attack better. If you are spending every turn protecting the last attack without scoring, something needs to change.

The Game Plan

Early gameLook for a cheap unit and a hand that can follow it with more board. Traveling Merchant is a useful early body, and Stacked Deck into a discounted Hopeful gives you a stronger attacker while letting you choose the best of your next three cards. I would send back an opening overloaded with Forerunners, Star-Crossed and Long Swords but nothing worthwhile to protect. Annie is already available from the Champion Zone; you do not need to force her into play before there is a spell worth recovering. Merchant's moves let you discard and draw, so use them to replace cards that are not helping the next turn. Flash sending Merchant from a battlefield to base triggers that filter too. A spell you discard can be Stubborn's next pickup when you play her, but giving up a point just to filter again is not worth it. Do not throw away the only answer to a problem just because you would like to see another card. Once you take a battlefield, choose what you will keep ready after Dark Child triggers. Two Energy can be Flash or Hard Bargain, not both.
MidgameMake the opponent show what they are committing before spending the card that changes the fight. Rengar can join your attack, Long Sword can add Might to the unit already there, and Cleave is cheap when you have an open Action window rather than a spell you need to react to. Gust Monk can add Assault 2 if you pay its extra Energy and have a trash card to banish; be careful about consuming a spell you wanted Annie to recover. Vex belongs at a battlefield before the opponent plays the unit you want stopped. She stuns their newly played unit and prevents its movement that turn, but does nothing to stop an attacker that was already on the board from moving in. Overzealous Fan can kill itself to send one attacker home when it defends; check that the other attackers do not still win the fight. For a threatened Annie, Apothecary or Star-Crossed can turn the escape into another spell later. Keep the extra Energy for those three-cost plays. The two runes readied by the Legend will not pay for them alone.
Late gameDecide whether you need another attack or a board that survives the opponent's last one. Accelerating Kai'Sa costs five Energy and one Fury Power and gives you a ready unit that can draw a card from a successful conquest. Forerunner is slower, but its death leaves two 3-Might Mechs at base to build the next turn around. Do not spend Flash automatically when that trade is good for you. Switcheroo can turn a small unit into the important body in a fight by swapping its current Might with a larger unit at the same battlefield. From hand it is an Action; hiding it on an earlier turn prepares a cheaper Reaction at that battlefield. Stubborn can recover the spell that fits the last exchange, whether that is a retreat or an answer to the opponent's spell. Count the point before choosing the clever line. If leaving the battlefield lets the opponent win, keeping Annie alive for another replay is no longer the plan.

Battlefields

Blind

Zaun Warrens

Zaun gives you something useful from a conquest without first asking you to control the other battlefield. Discard the card that is least useful for the next exchange and draw another. A spell put in the trash can become Stubborn's next pickup, so the discard is not always a card you are done with. This suits a deck that wants to keep attacking without getting stuck with the wrong half of its hand. The opponent gets the same filtering when they conquer it. Do not give them an easy retake just to save a unit you can afford to trade.

Going First

Seat of Power

Use the early position to set up a conquest at Seat while you still control the other battlefield. In a normal one-on-one game, that gets you one extra card. Taking Seat while you control nothing else gets you no draw, so attack order matters. Keep enough behind at the first battlefield that moving your attackers does not give up the position you need to count. Seat does not reward a hold with another card, and taking it again after already scoring it that turn does not keep drawing. Choose it when your opening can turn the first position into a useful second attack.

Going Second

Forbidding Waste

Forbidding Waste makes a lone defender smaller by 2 Might, which helps your retake when the opponent reached the battlefield first. Hopeful, Rengar and a timely Sword can put pressure on a unit that would have been harder to clear elsewhere. The effect is symmetrical. Once you take it, your own lone defender gets the same penalty; an isolated Inferna is a particularly poor plan for the next fight. Leave a second body when the position needs to hold, or keep the resources for a legal reinforcement. Do not count on the battlefield to win an attack into several defenders, because none of them is defending alone.

Sideboard

Decide whether the gear needs to die

Brittle Steel · Factory Recall · Thermo Beam

Brittle Steel is the clean answer to a gear you need gone. Play it during your own open Main Phase; it has neither Action nor Reaction, and Flow does not change that timing. Factory Recall costs less and has Action timing when putting the gear back in hand is enough to win this fight. Expect the opponent to replay it, especially if it has Quick-Draw. Thermo Beam is for a board with enough important gear that clearing all of it is worth five Energy and two Fury Power. It kills your Long Swords too. If Beam is coming in, think about trimming a Sword rather than filling your side of the board with the gear you intend to destroy. Otherwise, cut an attack trick that has not been making a meaningful difference.

Stop the spell for this turn

Abandon · Hard Bargain

Bring in Abandon when the opponent can pay through Hard Bargain or has a spell you cannot let resolve in the important fight. It counters the spell and lets you Predict, but normally puts their spell back in hand. Use the window to score or establish the position you needed; do not assume the answer is gone for the rest of the game. Keep Hard Bargain when the opponent is regularly spending down to very little Energy. It is useful precisely when the tax is difficult to pay. Make room by trimming a narrow attack trick or a slow unit before cutting the cheap bodies that give these counters something to protect.

Remove the unit instead of saving yours again

Falling Star · Rebuke · Star-Crossed

Falling Star can remove two small units or put both 3-damage instructions into one larger target. Plan it on your own turn before a Showdown; it has neither Action nor Reaction. Rebuke is an Action that returns a unit at a battlefield to hand without requiring you to pick up a friendly unit too. The extra Star-Crossed is the Reaction option when you have a useful friendly unit to return, especially Stubborn. All the bounce effects give the opponent a chance to replay their unit, so use the space they create to take a point. I would trim Cleave when another attack buff is not solving the blocker, or a Forerunner if the game is being decided before you can spend six Energy on it.

Answer the board they are actually building

Against the Odds · Kha'Zix, Mutating Horror

Against the Odds is strongest when several enemy units are fighting at the same battlefield. Two enemies there make it a +4-Might Reaction, which can let one of your units survive a fight that Cleave would not help you defend. It does not protect against an outright kill effect. Kha'Zix asks for the opposite board: an enemy alone at its battlefield when it attacks or defends gives it +2 Might for the turn. Ambush lets it arrive where you already have a unit, but its four Energy and Chaos Power need to be available. Bring the option that matches what the opponent showed you, replacing a less useful trick or an expensive unit you cannot deploy in time. Neither is a substitute for a cheap opening body.

Updated for Vendetta

Annie

Dark Child

Fury

ChaosBeginner

Annie lets you develop during your turn, ready up to two runes, and still keep a response available for the opponent.

Key Cards