Grandmaster at Arms
Jax moves Equipment between several cheap carriers, and this list adds Irresistible Faefolk and Rengar, Trophy Hunter so it can start fights where it wants them.
Pick Jax if you like winning combat through preparation and changing the opponent's calculation with one well-timed Equipment. You get plenty of decisions before the fight and inside it.
Unmatched gives your Equipment Quick-Draw, so a Brutalizer or Guardian Angel in hand can be played as a Reaction and attach during a fight. Brutalizer gives its bearer +1 Might, plus another +2 on the turn it was attached to that unit, which is why moving it with the Legend is worth the exhaust. Irresistible Faefolk decides where the fight happens: when it moves to a battlefield, you may move an enemy unit to that battlefield too.
Grandmaster at Arms
Legend
Jax, Unmatched
Chosen Champion · Calm
Brutalizer
Key card · Calm
Irresistible Faefolk
Key card · Body
Jax lets you change which unit is worth fighting over. Grandmaster at Arms can exhaust to transfer an attached Equipment to another friendly unit, without paying Energy or Power. Attaching a detached Equipment instead costs one Energy and the exhaust. Both abilities need an open Main Phase on your turn, so make that decision before entering combat. You cannot wait for the opponent's removal and move an old Guardian Angel across in response. Unmatched supplies the other half of the plan: while he is in play, your Equipment everywhere has Quick-Draw. A new Equipment can then arrive as a Reaction and attach through its play trigger. You still pay the Equipment's play cost, and the opponent can respond before the attachment resolves.
Use Equipment to turn a modest opening into a fighter the opponent cannot trade into cheaply, then keep developing behind it. The Gear normally survives when its bearer dies or leaves the board, detaching and returning to base if necessary. That means the next unit can pick up where the last one stopped. Jax makes moving already-attached Gear cheaper too, but you still need enough bodies to defend one battlefield while contesting the other. A huge attacker is only useful if the points it wins are worth the resources you leave exposed elsewhere.
Grandmaster at Arms · Brutalizer
Brutalizer's extra two Might depends on being attached to its current bearer that turn. Transfer it to another unit before that unit attacks and it supplies the full +3 again. The old bearer loses the bonus immediately, so check any damage already marked on it before moving the Gear.
Guardian Angel · Counter Strike
Guardian Angel gives +1 Might and replaces its bearer's death by killing the Equipment, healing the unit, exhausting it, and recalling it to base. That saves the card, but it can still leave the opponent with the battlefield. Counter Strike prevents the next damage event instead and draws a card. Use it when keeping the fighter in place matters. Neither card is a general answer to banishment, returning a unit to hand, or removing the Equipment itself. Guardian Angel's replacement is mandatory, and a saved Scuttle Crab has not died for its Deathknell.
Irelia, Fervent · First Mate · Discipline
Fervent gets +1 Might for the turn when you choose or ready her. First Mate choosing an exhausted Irelia, then actually readying her, gives two separate increases: she goes from four Might to six before other effects. Discipline gives her the usual +2 and a card, with another +1 from choosing her. Those are good reasons to use Irelia when the hand already has these support cards. Do not spend First Mate expecting the second increase if she is already ready, or mistake a ready unit at a battlefield for one that can move directly to the other battlefield without Ganking.
Riftbound Regional Qualifier - Los Angeles,
We may earn a commission if you buy through this link.
Deck total $197.71
2
12
1
3222
5352352132
414If you would rather build your own list, start one in the Riftbound deck builder.
This is my Jax pick because it chooses its fights instead of waiting for the opponent to offer them. Irresistible Faefolk can pull an enemy unit to the battlefield it moves to, and Rengar, Trophy Hunter can be played directly onto a battlefield with enemy units even when you have no units there. Those two cards give the eight Equipment a specific combat to win rather than just making one unit bigger. Before moving Faefolk, use the Legend to transfer Brutalizer onto it: a newly attached Brutalizer gives its bearer +3 Might that turn, so the one-Might Faefolk attacks with four. Moving it to an empty Forbidding Waste and pulling a lone holder there makes that unit defend alone at two less Might, and the opponent loses control of the field it left, which a ready Scuttle Crab can often take at zero Might. Lucian, Merciless picks up an Equipment as he enters, and once Jax, Unmatched is on the board, Brutalizer and Guardian Angel become Reactions that attach mid-fight. I like that this list keeps its Equipment busy on several cheap carriers. Just be careful about pulling a unit you cannot beat, because if your attacker dies, the opponent establishes control of that battlefield and scores it on your turn.
Sunken Temple · Rengar, Trophy Hunter · Brutalizer
Conquering here with a Mighty unit lets you pay one Energy to draw a card. Rengar and Unmatched are Mighty on their own, and a freshly attached Brutalizer or Punch First can lift a smaller carrier to five. The opponent's Mighty units get the same reward, so treat Temple as a bonus for fights this list already wants rather than a reason to attack with an unprepared unit.
Ornn's Forge · Brutalizer · Guardian Angel
I like Forge when I have the earliest chance to take it, because its discount keeps working every turn you hold it. While you control Forge, the first non-token Gear you play each turn costs one less Energy, so a two-Energy Equipment costs one. With Unmatched on the board, that includes an Equipment played as a Reaction on the opponent's turn. It does not reduce Equip costs or the Legend's one-Energy attach.
Forbidding Waste · Irresistible Faefolk
A unit defending alone here has -2 Might, which helps you retake the field from an early holder. Faefolk can also bring one enemy unit here to defend alone. Your own lone defender suffers the same penalty, and an attached Equipment does not count as another unit, so keep a second body here when the hold matters.
Ruin Runner
Ruin Runner can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities, which makes it a safer home for Brutalizer or Doran's Blade against targeted removal. The Equipment itself can still be chosen, and Runner costs six Energy. Bring the two copies in for carriers the opponent's removal keeps answering cheaply.
Disarming Rake · Tomb-Raider Barbara
Rake is a two-Might unit for three Energy and one Calm Power that may kill a Gear when played. Barbara needs seven or more runes when she is played; she kills an enemy Gear, or disempowers it instead if it is empowered. Swap them in for a combat trick or a Faefolk when an opposing Gear is the real problem.
Sabotage
Sabotage costs one Energy and one Body Power to reveal the opponent's hand and recycle a non-unit card from it. It has no Action timing, so play it in your Main Phase before committing to the fight. It fits against hands built around counters or removal, replacing a Punch First or Rampage that does less in that matchup.
Not So Fast · Decree of Focus
Not So Fast counters an enemy spell or ability that chooses a friendly unit or Gear, which covers removal above Defy's cost limit. Decree of Focus gives four Might only to a friendly unit in combat with an enemy Fury unit or being chosen by an enemy Fury spell. Bring the one whose condition matches the opponent's cards in for a Defy or Discipline.
Onslaught
Onslaught gives a unit +6 Might for four Energy, and Flow lets you play it once more from the trash for four Energy before it is banished. It has no Action timing, so it belongs in your Main Phase: before a Rampage it lets your unit deal six more damage, and it makes any unit Mighty for Sunken Temple. Swap it for a Punch First when the larger number matters more than playing it during a showdown.
