Keeper of the Hammer
Keeper of the Hammer turns each battlefield you hold into XP and, at 3 XP, an extra card. This list ramps with Mobilize, Catalyst of Aeons and Platewyrm Egg into Dazzling Aurora and Elder Dragon, then uses Flurry of Blades, Avalanche and The Ruination to keep the board clear.
Pick Poppy if you enjoy holding battlefields over several turns and turning each Hold into XP and extra cards. Think twice if you would rather trade every unit for an immediate point.
Dazzling Aurora costs nine Energy and two Body Power, and at the end of each of your turns it reveals cards until it finds a unit, then plays that unit ignoring its cost. Elder Dragon is three of the four unit cards in the Main Deck, so it is the most likely hit, and while he is in play any amount of your damage kills enemy units. Wild Claw costs seven Energy and one Body Power, looks at the top five cards, and lets you play a unit or gear from among them for five Energy less (any Power is still owed), which is how I would find Aurora or Elder without waiting to draw them.
Keeper of the Hammer
Legend
Dazzling Aurora
Key card · Body
Elder Dragon
Key card · Body
Wild Claw
Key card · Body
Poppy is comfortable playing a longer game, but the opening still needs decisions that affect the score. Keeper of the Hammer gives you one XP when you Hold and lets you spend three XP and exhaust it to draw a card during your own open Main Phase. It does not reward conquering by itself. Cheap units, removal and protection buy the time to establish a holder that can survive. Paragon gives you a useful catch-up play: when an opponent is within three points of victory, her play trigger readies her and grants three XP. That is a way to recover a pressured board, not a reason to let the opponent score for free.
Poppy wins by holding battlefields long enough for the XP to matter. Each Hold scores a point and gains you 1 XP from the Legend, and every 3 XP you spend becomes another card, so a holder that survives several turns keeps paying you twice. Poppy, Paragon adds 3 XP when she is played while an opponent is within three points of the Victory Score. This list has no Level abilities, so the Legend's draw is the only thing its XP pays for. Keep a holder on the battlefield that decides the game, since a large unit sitting at base scores nothing.
Keeper of the Hammer · Poppy, Paragon
Paragon costs five Energy and has Deflect, so opponents must pay an extra Power of any domain to choose her with a spell or ability. When she is played while an opponent is within three points of the Victory Score, she readies and you gain 3 XP. That is exactly enough for one Legend draw. Outside that window she is a five-Might unit that enters exhausted, so play her earlier only when the body itself is worth it.
Keeper of the Hammer
The Legend gives you XP only when you hold, which happens during your Beginning Phase for each battlefield you still control. Conquering a battlefield scores a point but gives the Legend nothing until you keep that battlefield through the opponent's turn. Holding both battlefields gives you 2 XP in the same Beginning Phase. That is why a unit that survives defending can be worth more than one that trades for a point and leaves the battlefield empty.
Keeper of the Hammer
The draw costs 3 XP and an exhaust, and because the ability has neither Action nor Reaction, you can use it only on your own turn outside a showdown. This list has no Level abilities, so there is no reason to hold XP back once the Legend is ready and the card helps your plan. The exhaust is the real limit, since nothing in this list readies the Legend, so 6 XP still gives you only one draw that turn.
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Deck total $173.66
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2
42
12
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512112If you would rather build your own list, start one in the Riftbound deck builder.
This is my Poppy pick because it is built to turn a few turns of ramp into one board-changing turn. Mobilize, Catalyst of Aeons and Platewyrm Egg build the Energy, and Dazzling Aurora then reveals cards at the end of each of your turns until it finds a unit and plays it for free. Elder Dragon and Mordekaiser, Dominating are the only units in the Main Deck, so an Aurora trigger can only find one of those two, and three of the four are Elder Dragon, which skips his twelve Energy and four Body Power. Elder's play trigger deals 1 to up to one enemy unit at each location, and while he is in play any amount of your damage kills enemy units, so Flurry of Blades becomes a one Energy Reaction that kills every enemy unit at battlefields and Avalanche does the same to enemy units in bases. The Ruination resets the board without him, but it kills your own units too and asks for three Order Power from a rune deck with four Order runes. Wild Claw is how I would find these pieces sooner, since it looks at the top five cards, lets you play a unit or gear from among them for five Energy less, and then lets you Empower that card, so an Egg found this way can be Empowered without paying its Empower cost. Keeper of the Hammer is the quieter half of the plan: each battlefield you hold after the sweep gives 1 XP, on your own turn you may spend 3 XP and exhaust the Legend to draw a card, and Poppy, Paragon readies and gives you 3 XP when she is played while an opponent is within three points of the Victory Score. Dazzling Aurora is a gear, so the turn to watch is the one where an opponent could answer it before the end step.
Forgotten Monument · Platewyrm Egg
Monument stops each player from scoring here until their own third turn, which gives Mobilize, Catalyst of Aeons and Platewyrm Egg time to build the resources for Aurora without an early conquest here. It does not stop units from standing on it and does nothing for the other battlefield, so the other point still needs defending.
The Papertree · Elder Dragon
When you hold The Papertree, each player channels 1 rune exhausted, so the opponent gets the rune too. It is best when your next turn needs it for Aurora or Elder Dragon more than the opponent's next turn needs it for their own plan. You have to hold it first, which means keeping a unit there through the opponent's turn.
Frozen Fortress · Forge of the Future
At the start of each player's Beginning Phase, Frozen Fortress deals 1 to each unit here before scoring. That kills a one-Might Recruit token from Forge of the Future, so Poppy, Paragon, Mordekaiser, Dominating or Elder Dragon is the kind of unit that can keep holding it. The same damage hits the opponent's small units, which can break their hold before they score.
Sabotage · Decree of Strength
Sabotage costs one Energy and one Body Power, shows you the opponent's hand, and recycles a non-unit card of your choice, which is how you remove a sweeper or a gear answer before Aurora comes down. Decree of Strength costs one Energy and recycles a Mind card from the opponent's revealed hand. Bring them in against decks whose important cards fit those descriptions, replacing a card that does little in the matchup.
Salvage · Decree of Unity
The two extra Salvage kill up to one gear and draw a card as an Action, which also replaces itself when nothing is worth killing. Decree of Unity costs two Energy and one Order Power and kills an enemy Chaos unit or gear. Bring in Salvage against gear that matters and Decree of Unity when the opponent's important cards are Chaos, trimming cards with few targets.
Repulse
Repulse is a Reaction that counters an enemy spell or ability that chooses your unit at a battlefield and no other friendly unit. It protects Elder Dragon or Mordekaiser, Dominating from a targeted answer while that unit is at a battlefield, but it does nothing against a spell that does not choose that unit, such as a sweeper. Bring in the two copies when the opponent's removal is targeted.
Mordekaiser, Dominating
The sideboard copy makes two Mordekaiser among the Main Deck's unit cards, so Aurora and Wild Claw find a unit that can kill a threat or a gear more often and Elder Dragon a little less often. Swap it in against decks with one dangerous unit or gear, in place of a setup card you can afford to cut.
