Table of Contents
The last two regional tournaments from China (Nanjing and Dalian) showed us SFD-185 could be beat if we designed our deck to do so. I guess the western community took notes, as Draven once again failed to reach the big game, with all three top performers losing in the quarterfinals.
Overall, the Glorious Executioner still deserves to be called the best legend in Riftbound. Indeed, Draven ends Bologna with the best conversion rate into day 2* and the top win rate over the thirteen rounds of swiss. Unfortunately, being the best also means the metagame is geared towards beating you, is exactly what happened in Bologna this week. It isn't all grim for Draven though, as the western community might start considering another legend when it comes to designing their side deck: SFD-199.
In all fairness, the Prodigal Explorer does not deserve to be heavily targeted based on global results. Only 5% of the field played that legend, achieving a win rate of 52.4%, placing Ezreal fifth in that category, and a conversion rate of 18%, once again fifth overall. However, nobody is going to remember those broad numbers. Rather, the entire community will keep in mind how AlanZQ won the event without losing a series with Ezreal, and impressing everyone watching when on stream.
Heading into Vegas, the question everyone needs to answer is: Who is the bigger threat, the very popular Draven, or the few fantastic pilots on Ezreal?
In my opinion, which barely matters considering I won't be in Vegas, I feel like Draven should remain the focus. First, Ezreal's precise deck list is now revealed, on top of plenty of footage available to review in order to find possible weak spots. Then, beating Ezreal will probably only matter once in the top cut, when losing to Draven means likely failing to make it to that stage of the tournament altogether.
Plus, we will keep Ezreal in mind due to its win and AlanZQ piloting skills, but there are other legends worthy of some spotlight:
- OGN-267 made it to the finals, on what has to be considered an upset. Indeed, not only did the legend do nothing to build momentum during the Chinese metagame, it also had bad numbers overall in Bologna, especially its 39.9% win rate.
- OGN-265 showed sfd-197 the war for the best Token Control deck is not over, reaching the semi-finals on the back of an uncommon list, far from the common unitless build from China.
- SFD-203 had a fair win rate with 49.4%, but a great conversion rate at 19%, proving once more the Battle Mistress might be more skill intensive than one would guess. Plus, two Sivirs reached the top 16 while on widely different builds.
- OGN-251 followed a similar path to Sivir, with 8 of the 47 participants making it to day 2, and two of those reaching the top 64. OGS-017 also had a similar performance, although it is not much of an upset to see Annie do well, at least compared to Jinx.
Overall, the Chaos domain once again proved it is on top of Riftbound competitive play. In the top 8, seven players had a legend in the Chaos domain, Viktor being the sole exception alongside three Dravens, Two Ezreal, SFD-195 and Miss Fortune. Plus, seven of the thirteen different legends in the tournament's top 64 are within that domain as well, with all three Fury - Chaos and both Body - Chaos making it.
Compared to China, Europe seemed to lean on the power of that domain even more. OGN-195, SFD-149 or SFD-150 have become a deadly trio, flanked by a ton of other fantastic cards.
Trying to beat a certain legend is achievable, but stopping an entire domain might be too difficult to accomplish. In the end, Riftbound might suffer from the same balance issues as every other card games, except the battle to be the best on a certain legend is keeping the metagame more diverse than it really is.
*To make it into day 2, one had to score 18 points during the first day, across 8 swiss rounds. Except for the odd case of 5 wins and 3 ties, it means only players with a 6-2 or better score advanced to Day 2.
The top performing list for certain legends are still missing. This post will be updated as soon as they get shared.
Ezreal
- Top Ranked Player: Winner
- Total Picks: 5% - 77 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 18% - 14 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 52.4% over 519 matches
Miss Fortune
- Top Ranked Player: Finalist
- Total Picks: 2% - 35 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 9% - 3 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 39.9% over 238 matches
Irelia
- Top Ranked Player: Top 4
- Total Picks: 9% - 129 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 26% - 33 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 53.4% over 880 matches
Viktor
- Top Ranked Player: Top 4
- Total Picks: 4% - 54 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 11% - 4 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 49.1% over 354 matches
Draven
- Top Ranked Player: Top 8
- Total Picks: 15% - 219 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 38% - 83 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 60.8% over 1415 matches
Sivir
- Top Ranked Player: Top 16
- Total Picks: 4% - 53 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 19% - 10 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 49.4% over 360 matches
Master Yi
- Top Ranked Player: Top 16
- Total Picks: 2% - 28 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 11% - 3 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 51.8% over 205 matches
Annie
- Top Ranked Player: Top 16
- Total Picks: 5% - 67 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 16% - 11 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 49.8% over 451 matches
Lucian
- Top Ranked Player: Top 32
- Total Picks: 3% - 41 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 12% - 5 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 45.3% over 305 matches
Kai'sa
- Top Ranked Player: Top 16
- Total Picks: 11% - 165 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 19% - 31 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 50.4% over 1049 matches
Jax
- Top Ranked Player: Top 32
- Total Picks: 2% - 34 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 6% - 2 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 45.8% over 247 matches
Jinx
- Top Ranked Player: Top 64
- Total Picks: 3% - 47 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 17% - 8 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 47.8% over 335 matches
Fiora
- Top Ranked Player: Top 64
- Total Picks: 3% - 47 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 8.5% - 4 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 46.4% over 309 matches
Azir
- Top Ranked Player: Top 64
- Total Picks: 3% - 48 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 4% - 2 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 52.9% over 326 matches
Ahri
- Top Ranked Player: Top 64
- Total Picks: 4% - 54 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 15% - 8 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 50.9% over 358 matches
Teemo
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 2% - 27 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 7% - 2 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 40.1% over 188 matches
Rumble
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 2% - 25 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 4% - 1 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 45.3% over 156 matches
Rek'Sai
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 3% - 51 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 6% - 3 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 48.9% over 350 matches
Lux
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 2% - 34 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 6% - 2 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 44.5% over 238 matches
Yasuo
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 3% - 39 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 3% - 1 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 44.8% over 281 matches
Lee Sin
- Top Ranked Player: Top 256
- Total Picks: 1% - 19 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 11% - 2 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 47.4% over 140 matches
Sett
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 2% - 29 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 10% - 3 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 45.8% over 207 matches
Volibear
- Top Ranked Player: Top 32
- Total Picks: 2% - 28 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 11% - 3 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 44.1% over 183 matches
Renata Glasc
- Top Ranked Player: Top 256
- Total Picks: 2% - 26 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 4% - 1 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 44.4% over 186 matches
Darius
- Top Ranked Player: Top 128
- Total Picks: 2% - 23 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : 17% - 4 Decks
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 54.6% over 189 matches
Ornn
- Top Ranked Player:
- Total Picks: 2% - 33 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : None
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 30% over 215 matches
Leona
- Top Ranked Player: 512
- Total Picks: 1% - 20 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : None
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 37.5% over 132 matches
Garen
- Top Ranked Player:
- Total Picks: 1% - 15 Decks
- Conversion Rate into Day 2 : None
- Win Rate without Mirror matches : 40.5% over 44 matches
