Ziggs Riftbound Legend Guide | Hextech Analytics

Ziggs’ Field Guide

Hexplosives Expert costs one Energy and one Power of any domain and exhausts, so it makes at most one Bomb each turn unless something readies it. It has no Action or Reaction tag, which makes it an open-Main-Phase activation rather than a response to an attack. Deploy lets the Bomb go to any battlefield, including one the opponent occupies. The Bomb stays there through cleanups until it dies or an opponent holds that battlefield. In the opening, I would put Bombs on a battlefield you already control, because no opposing Hold can kill them there until the opponent takes that battlefield. The mistake is spending the Legend every turn while your units fall behind, because Bombs never score points themselves.

How Ziggs wins

Your units score by conquering and holding, so spend each Bomb where it swings a fight they need to win. A stack at a battlefield you control punishes an attack if Explosive defends there or you cast Hexplosive Minefield in the Showdown. If the opponent takes the battlefield anyway, their Hold sets the Bombs off on their following turn. Bombs at a battlefield the opponent controls go off at their next Hold, but damage that does not kill heals when their turn ends. Short-Fused makes each death deal 3, while Explosive adds Bombs and turns them into Might on defense. The Hold that kills your Bombs still scores for the opponent first. Near the finish, spend Bombs on the deciding battlefield instead of saving them for a bigger explosion.

Key interactions

Bombs beside an enemy unit go off together

Hexplosives Expert

Every Bomb deals 2 to an enemy unit there when it dies, then kills your other Bombs there. Three Bombs at a battlefield with enemy units become up to three hits of 2 once any one dies, whether a card kills it or the opponent holds there. Once the last enemy unit there dies, the rest hit nothing: against a lone 2-Might unit, two of three Bombs are wasted. With no enemy unit there, the dying Bomb's trigger has no target and does nothing, so your other Bombs stay put. Stack enough Bombs to clear the units that matter, and spread the rest to battlefields that need their own explosion.

Kill the Bomb where Explosive is defending

Ziggs, Explosive

When Explosive defends, you may kill a friendly gear to give him +2 Might this turn, and a Bomb killed at his battlefield deals 2 to one attacker. With two Bombs there against a 3-Might and a 4-Might attacker, killing one sets off both, and their four damage kills the 3-Might unit before combat damage. Explosive then kills the 4-Might unit at six Might and lives. If you split the hits, both attackers survive with full Might, so their seven damage kills him even though his six damage finishes both. Put both hits where they kill an attacker, then check that the rest attack with less than six Might.

Kill every Bomb you want back

Hexplosive Minefield · Ziggs, Short-Fused

Hexplosive Minefield is an Action for two Energy and one Power that kills any number of friendly Bomb tokens, then at end of turn plays that many Bombs to a single battlefield. Only the Bombs the spell kills are counted: if it kills one of three Bombs at a battlefield with an enemy unit, the other two still die and hit whatever enemy units remain, but one Bomb comes back. Kill all three with the spell and three come back. With Short-Fused on the board, those three deaths deal 3 each before your units move in. Use the replay to guard the battlefield you just took.

Strengths

A Bomb can sit at a battlefield the opponent occupies, so you can threaten a small unit there without moving one of yours into a fight.
Bombs stay where you leave them through cleanups, so several turns of spare activations can build one larger explosion at a battlefield you control or one nobody controls.
Explosive can exhaust for a Bomb and still defend, and killing a gear as he defends turns a stored Bomb into Might and damage in the same combat.

Weaknesses

Bombs do nothing until they die. The Legend and Explosive make them only in your open Main Phase, so they cannot answer an attack you did not prepare for.
Each Bomb from the Legend costs one Energy and one Power of any domain, and that payment competes with the units that actually take battlefields.
A single Bomb deals 2, which leaves larger units standing, and damage that does not kill heals at end of turn. Attack the same turn or stack enough Bombs to finish the unit.