LeBlanc

Deceiver

Mind

OrderAdvanced

LeBlanc makes a successful conquest or Hold produce another ready unit. The best copy is not always the biggest one: sometimes you want its attack, sometimes its text, and sometimes its death.

Should you play LeBlanc?

Pick LeBlanc if you like turning small, expendable units into a board the opponent cannot trade with cleanly. You will make a lot of decisions about what stays alive and what needs to die.

Best for: Value and control players who enjoy recursion, copying useful abilities, and making a temporary threat pay for itself before it leaves.
Think twice if: You want straightforward combat or dislike managing several triggers. Drawing plenty of cards does not help if your last defender dies before scoring.

Key Cards

Karthus makes the Deathknell plan worth building around. A dead Scout becomes two runes, a dead Rex produces two separate four-damage triggers, and a Fragmented copy dying in your Beginning Phase draws four cards. Mixologist turns a sacrificed five-Might body into smaller units again, with another return when Karthus is present. Those are the pieces that let LeBlanc keep spending units without running out of a board.

LeBlanc’s Field Guide

Deceiver rewards a board that has already scored. When you conquer or Hold, you may discard a card and exhaust the Legend to play a ready Reflection at that battlefield, then make it a copy of another unit there and give it Temporary. The copy is useful immediately, but it dies at the start of your next Beginning Phase, before scoring. Mirror Image creates its ready copy at base instead and can choose a unit anywhere on the board. Both effects play the Reflection before it gains the copied text. You get the unit's useful ongoing, attack, and death abilities, not a second use of its play effect.

How LeBlanc wins

Make the first real unit earn a point, then use the copy for a job the opponent has trouble answering efficiently. A strong attacker can pressure another lane; a Deathknell unit can replace the card you discarded or punish the opponent for killing it. Fragmented builds around that exchange, drawing two cards when its death happens during your Beginning Phase. Everywhere at Once supports a different approach by preventing your Temporary effects at her battlefield from triggering. She does not protect copies elsewhere or turn off a trigger that has already happened. Whichever Champion you choose, keep track of the body that will actually remain for the Hold. A board full of Reflections can look much safer than it is.

Key interactions

Copy the death effect you want next

LeBlanc, Fragmented · Ruined Rex · Karthus, Eternal

A Fragmented Reflection that reaches your next Beginning Phase draws two cards when Temporary kills it, or four with one Karthus still on the board. A Rex copy instead threatens four damage to an enemy unit when it dies. Karthus gives that Deathknell an additional trigger, so you can choose where each four-damage hit goes. The choice depends on the board: draw when you need to rebuild, copy Rex when clearing a unit changes the score. Returning the copy to hand or banishing it does not trigger Deathknell. Do not count a scheduled death as guaranteed value against those answers.

Turn a dying Mixologist into another board

Glasc Mixologist · Sacrifice · Karthus, Eternal

Mixologist has five Might, so Sacrifice can kill it as an additional cost. You pay one Energy for the spell, draw two and channel an exhausted rune when it resolves, and get Mixologist's separate Deathknell. That returns a unit from your trash costing no more than three Energy and one Power, ignoring both costs. Fragmented and Karthus fit; Rex does not. With Karthus already present, Mixologist can return two eligible cards. You need two cards available, not one target you expect to return twice. The units enter exhausted, but they may enter a battlefield you control and still defend it.

Make Deathgrip pay for the trade

Deathgrip · Ruined Rex · Watchful Sentry

Deathgrip kills a friendly unit on resolution, gives its Might to another friendly unit for the turn if the kill succeeds, and draws a card. Killing a Rex copy turns its six Might into a combat swing while its Deathknell threatens another enemy. Killing Sentry gives a smaller increase but another draw from the death. This is different from Sacrifice: the Deathgrip victim remains on the board while the opponent responds. If that unit leaves before resolution, do not expect the Might transfer. Karthus increases the Deathknell return, not Deathgrip's own draw or its Might bonus.

Strengths

The units offer different returns when they die. Cards, exhausted runes, replacement bodies, and damage can all make an apparently even trade favor LeBlanc.
Ready Reflections let a scoring unit produce pressure without paying the full cost of another large threat.
Karthus and Mixologist make small units relevant well beyond the opening. A cheap unit in the trash can become part of the next defense instead of being spent for good.

Weaknesses

The Legend needs a conquest or Hold and another card to discard. An opening that never establishes a useful unit cannot rely on Reflections to rescue it.
Temporary kills before scoring. Converting every permanent body into cards can leave you with nothing that will actually Hold.
Banishment, bounce, and trash disruption attack different parts of the engine. Deathknell does not make every kind of removal favorable.

Shadow's Pick

LeBlanc tournament list by TobiаsNаtаleCG

6th place · Riftbound Showdown $25K, 2026-09-12

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Deck total $280.08

Legend (1)

1x$0.20 ea.

Runes (12)

8x$0.12 ea.
4x$0.12 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.25 ea.
1x$0.12 ea.
1x$0.10 ea.

Spells (7)

3x$3.22 ea.
Energy
1
2x$0.96 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
2x$12.09 ea.
Power
2
Energy
3

Gear (3)

3x$42.96 ea.
Energy
3

Units (30)

1xChosen$0.39 ea.
Might
3
Power
1
Energy
3
3x$0.14 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2
3x$1.86 ea.
Might
6
Power
2
Energy
8
3x$0.14 ea.
Might
2
Energy
2
3x$0.33 ea.
Might
5
Power
1
Energy
5
3x$0.08 ea.
Might
6
Power
1
Energy
6
2x$0.16 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2
2x$21.48 ea.
Might
7
Power
1
Energy
7
2x$0.09 ea.
Might
2
Energy
3
2x$6.11 ea.
Might
7
Power
1
Energy
8
3x$1.77 ea.
Might
3
Power
1
Energy
3
3x$4.46 ea.
Might
5
Power
1
Energy
5

Sideboard (10)

2x$0.24 ea.
Might
3
Energy
3
2x$0.38 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$21.48 ea.
Might
7
Power
1
Energy
7
1x$3.82 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
1x$0.53 ea.
Energy
2
1x$3.26 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
1x$0.24 ea.
Might
7
Power
3
Energy
10
1x$0.35 ea.
Energy
1

Shadow's take

This is my LeBlanc pick because Baited Hook turns the Deathknell bodies into a route toward the larger threats. Sacrificing a five-Might Mixologist lets Hook find a six-Might Harnessed Dragon among the top five cards, while Mixologist can recover a small unit from the trash. That is a possibility to plan around, not a guaranteed Dragon. I like that the deck still works when Hook misses: Scout and Dignitary develop runes, Sentry draws, and Karthus doubles the useful Deathknells. The Legend and Mirror Image can copy those bodies for another exchange, while Rex makes sacrificing a unit threaten the opposing board. Keep a permanent holder behind before cashing in the rest. A ready Reflection can earn a point now, but it will not survive Temporary to hold on your next turn without help.

The Game Plan

Early gameStart with Scout, Sentry, or Broker according to whether the hand needs future runes, cards, or Gold. Fragmented is available from the Champion Zone for three Energy and one Order Power. Karthus can support Deathknells from base, so he does not need to join every attack. Avoid an opening full of Dragons and Heralds with no small unit or resource development to reach them.
MidgameChoose the body Hook can afford to spend. Its activation costs one Energy, one Order Power, and an exhaust before killing a friendly unit and looking at the top five. A five-Might Mixologist permits a six-Might Dragon if one is revealed, while its Deathknell can recover eligible small units such as Karthus or Fragmented from this list. The search can miss. Sacrifice instead guarantees its draw and exhausted rune once resolved, but needs a friendly unit with at least five Might as an additional cost. Do not cash in your only holder just to improve the hand.
Late gameUse Dragon's play trigger, Rex's Deathknell, or Watcher's temporary Might reduction to clear the next scoring route. A Reflection becomes a copy after being played, so copying Dragon does not give another Dragon play trigger. Copy a useful Deathknell body when you want value from the token's eventual death. Mirror Image starts its ready copy at base; a Legend copy starts at the battlefield that scored. Hillock can let a ready copy leave that battlefield for the other lane. Leave a lasting unit behind before Temporary removes the copy.

Battlefields

Move the ready copy onward

Windswept Hillock

Units at Hillock have Ganking. A ready Reflection made there can move directly to another battlefield, giving the Legend's copy a scoring job before Temporary removes it. Keep another unit at Hillock if leaving would give away an important Hold.

Punish a lone defender

Forbidding Waste

A lone defending unit loses two Might here. Use that opening to take the battlefield, then leave enough bodies that your own defender does not suffer the same penalty. A Reflection can help for the current turn, but it disappears before your next scoring step.

Return the unit you want to reuse

Star Spring · Vi, Peacekeeper

The first non-token unit you play here each turn can move another friendly unit here to base. Vi's Ambush can supply that play when you already have units at the battlefield. A Reflection is a token and does not trigger Spring. Returning the only other holder may preserve a card while losing control, so choose the move for the board you need afterward.

Sideboard

Remove the Gear that matters

Pickpocket · Salvage · Decree of Unity

Pickpocket kills Gear costing at most one Energy and leaves exhausted Gold if it succeeds. Salvage handles a Gear without that Energy limit, while Decree of Unity kills an enemy Chaos unit or Gear. Start by trimming a slow threat when the engine must be answered sooner; do not bring Pickpocket expecting it to kill an expensive Aurora.

Change the fight

Thousand-Tailed Watcher · Decree of Insight · Deathgrip

Watcher reduces enemy units by three Might for the turn, to a minimum of one. Insight gives an enemy Body unit -5 Might and ignores Deflect in its payment. Deathgrip can kill a redundant friendly body, add its Might to another friendly unit, and draw. Keep enough actual bodies that adding these exchanges does not leave you without a holder.

Keep copies or finish with one threat

LeBlanc, Everywhere at Once · Atakhan

Everywhere at Once prevents your Temporary effects at her battlefield from triggering, allowing copies there to remain while she is present. Atakhan instead converts a sacrificed unit's printed costs into a cheaper large threat with Ganking. A Rex reduces him to four Energy and two Order Power while still producing its Deathknell. Choose the plan the opponent has time to answer, trimming a less useful expensive threat rather than cutting the cheap resource bodies.