Lady of Luminosity
Lux, Lady of Luminosity draws a card each time you play a spell that costs 5 or more. This list surrounds that draw with heavy removal and a Recruit engine built on Vanguard Armory and Jayce, Man of Progress, which also gives it a route to win at The Grand Plaza.
Pick Lux if you enjoy deciding when to answer the board and when to spend on the engine that makes your next spells easier to cast.
Vanguard Armory is where this list gets its bodies: exhaust it and you play three 1 Might Recruits. Jayce, Man of Progress can kill a friendly gear when he is played and then let you play another Armory from hand while ignoring its Energy cost, so the second copy only needs its 1 Order Power. Gear enters ready, which means that Armory can make three more Recruits the same turn. Lux, Crownguard adds 2 Energy that can only pay for spells, and that helps cover the 5-cost removal that draws through the Legend.
Lady of Luminosity - Starter
Legend
Vanguard Armory
Key card · Order
Jayce, Man of Progress
Key card · Mind
Lux, Crownguard
Chosen Champion · Order
Lady of Luminosity draws a card after you play a spell with a printed Energy cost of at least five. That makes a large answer or token spell easier to follow with another useful play. Lux still needs time and resources to reach those spells, and the Legend does not put an early unit in front of an attacker. Decide which battlefield you can afford to contest before spending the turn improving your future payments.
Use removal to keep the opponent from turning an early board into an unanswerable point lead, then leave units behind after the exchange. Crownguard helps pay for spells once she is ready, but her Energy does not earn points by itself. Permanent Recruits can hold a battlefield, while ready Sprites can take a point immediately but disappear before your next scoring step. Save the board that can finish the game instead of treating another large spell as the goal.
Lady of Luminosity - Starter · Recruit the Vanguard
The Legend checks a spell's printed cost, so a discount does not switch off the draw, and paying a Repeat cost does not count toward the five. The draw also waits until the spell resolves: a countered spell is not considered played, so it draws nothing. Recruit the Vanguard has a printed cost of six, so it draws a card whatever you actually paid for it.
Lux, Crownguard
Crownguard exhausts to add two Energy usable only for spells. It cannot pay for units, Gear such as Vanguard Armory, or abilities. Because her ability is a Reaction, she can also help pay for an Action or Reaction spell during a showdown on the opponent's turn. Keep actual rune resources available for the unit and Gear payments before spending the rest on removal.
Imperial Decree · Bellows Breath
Imperial Decree makes a unit die when it takes damage for the rest of the turn. Bellows Breath can then deal one to up to three units at one location. Choose enemy units when you want your holder to survive. Decree applies to your units too, including damage from the opponent, so opening a combat under it can cost the body you were trying to protect.
21st place · S4 Chongqing City Challenge,
We may earn a commission if you buy through this link.
Deck total $170.71
5
15
55
2
4222
424522521If you would rather build your own list, start one in the Riftbound deck builder.
This is my Lux pick because it does more than trade removal for threats until the hand runs dry. Twenty of its main-deck spells cost 5 or more, so Falling Comet, Drag Under, Imperial Decree and Sprite Burst all draw a card through the Legend, and Crownguard's spell-only Energy makes it easier to keep Comet or Drag Under ready during the opponent's turn. The other half of the deck is Vanguard Armory. Each activation plays three Recruits, and Jayce can kill an Armory you have already used to put the second copy onto the board for 1 Order Power; it enters ready, so you get three more Recruits that turn. Those bodies have real jobs here: they are the unit you give up to Cull the Weak, the target for Shadow's Call, and with Imperial Decree active, any enemy unit they damage in combat dies. I like that this gives Lux a second way to finish. Seven units at The Grand Plaza win the game when you hold there, and Time Warp can give you that Hold before the opponent takes another turn. Sprites from Sprite Burst die before scoring, so build the count from Recruits, Jayce and Crownguard instead.
The Grand Plaza · Vanguard Armory · Recruit the Vanguard
The Plaza wins the game if you hold it with seven or more units there. Recruits from Armory and Recruit the Vanguard can be played straight to a battlefield you control, so take control of the Plaza before you start making them. The battlefield works for the opponent too, which means a wide enemy board there needs an answer as well.
Veiled Temple · Vanguard Armory · Sprite Burst
When you conquer Veiled Temple, you may ready a friendly gear. An Armory you already exhausted this turn can then make three more Recruits, and the ready Sprites from Sprite Burst give you a way to make that conquest the turn you play it. A Gold token can be readied the same way when you need its Power instead.
Proving Grounds
Heisho, Shell of the World · Falling Comet · Drag Under
Heisho makes both players ignore Deflect while paying for spells and abilities that choose something there. This list has no Deflect of its own to lose, so the effect mostly helps Falling Comet and Drag Under reach a protected unit without the extra Power. Against a deck without Deflect, it is simply a neutral battlefield.
Ashe, Focused
Ashe makes the opponent reveal their hand and banishes the card you choose until they hold. Bring her in when one card in hand carries the opponent's plan, in place of a removal spell that has few targets in the matchup. Keeping the opponent from holding keeps that card away longer.
Salvage · Hidden Blade
The two extra Salvages each kill up to one gear and draw a card as an Action. Hidden Blade kills a unit at a battlefield for 2 Energy and 1 Order Power, but that unit's controller draws two. Neither costs 5, so neither draws through the Legend. Trim unit removal that has nothing to hit when gear is the problem, and use Blade when the cheaper kill is worth the cards it gives away.
Safety Inspector
Inspector makes each player kill one of their units when it is played. This list has no way to gain XP, so you cannot pay for the exemption and will kill a unit too, which a spare Recruit makes cheap. It is at its best when the opponent has one important unit and nothing else to give up.
Fallen Feline
Feline names a spell when it is played, and while it is at a battlefield, opponents cannot play spells with that name. Bring it in when the opponent leans on one spell, and remember that the restriction ends if Feline dies or leaves the battlefield. It also adds a 3 Might body for 2 Energy and 1 Order Power.
Decree of Insight
Decree of Insight is a 1 Energy Reaction that gives an enemy Body unit -5 Might this turn and ignores Deflect while you pay for it. Bring it in only against decks whose important units are Body, since it has no other target.
