Riftbound: Deck Tech - Competitive Pyke

Today, let's explore probably the best Pyke list we have, "Competitive Pyke". This archetype is one of the hardest to build nowadays because of the massive amount of power it needs to play its cards. The way we built it, though, you'll be able to get to the end game with lots of resources and ready to play Baron.

Before we begin, however, let me introduce myself. My name is Total, and I used to cast Legends of Runeterra tournaments professionally. I covered all the official tournaments, including Worlds, and I am known for creating deck guides for LoR as well. Now, I am a part of the Riftbound community!

Deck Code:

CMAAAAAAAAAQCAAAA4AACAIAACTACAAEAMAAAHNXAG4QCAIDACBACAQEAADIAAIBAQARYAYBAAALAAIEAMAAGGMIAGGACAQEACEADEYBAQBAAAFMAHAACAYDACIQDWYB3QAQGBAAXEA3UAOWAEAQIAMRAEAQCBAAPEBACAAAXYAQCAYAQ4AQCAIDACJQCAIEAGIQC

Deck Link

The main idea behind this list is to stay ahead in tempo, get a huge advantage over your opponent, and delay their game plan. You'll be able to do this by returning cards to their hand, playing units directly on battlefields, and starting out really strong with your hidden chosen champion straight away.

You'll need to create lots of gold tokens with your legend, Treasure Hunter, or Treasure Hoard. That's why you'll often conquer your battlefield, return an allied unit in it to your hand with your legend, and leave your battlefields free for your opponent.

This might seem counterintuitive, but this list actually works a lot better when you're attacking because it plays many incredibly strong cards with Assault, Accelerate, and similar effects.

So, your strategy should be to stay ahead in tempo and resources and, when the right time comes, attack the opponent with a combo full of units and make it impossible for them to defend themselves.

Eventually, you'll have enough energy to play Baron and it will end the game for you. It scores a point immediately when you play it and makes things very uncomfortable for your opponent. After all, they can only remove it through combat.

The strongest combo you can play is to keep a hidden unit to play in the Baron Pit and also keep a few units in your base to attack after you buff them with Baron.

Pyke's effect might seem incredibly slow, but it's actually quite valuable, particularly in the end game, when you'll have to play your combos. For instance, when you play Fizz twice or play Sneaky Deckhand to win the game by scoring twice in the same turn.

Early on, using your legend will feel bad because you'll "apparently" lose part of your board as a result. However, if you have anything in your hand that can come into play ready, you'll be able to turn this around quite fast and keep putting pressure on the opponent.

Please do not keep returning your Bewitching Spirit again and again. It has a strong effect in some matchups, but it only has 2 might. Use its effect in critical moments and return it only if you believe that you really need to discard cards.

Purple Pyke is much better than red Pyke as a champion for a few reasons.

The first one is that it creates gold gear tokens for you. It's incredibly strong against LeBlanc and Lillia precisely because it will create these gold gear tokens all by itself.

The second reason is that it defends your battlefields really well early on compared to red Pyke. Red Pyke ends up spending more resources than purple Pyke because you need to spend 1 power to set it to 4 might. In comparison, purple Pyke doesn't force you to spend anything and can end up creating resources for you.

You might lose some tempo by playing purple Pyke, but you'll get enough value in return to make up for it.

Treasure Hoard will be your main battlefield in game 1. You must play around it and spend 1 energy to create a gold token whenever you conquer it. This battlefield will carry you to the end of the match and is extremely important because it's how you'll be able to pay for your cards.

Ripper's Bay is the battlefield you should play when you're first to play. Matches with this battlefield are a bit slower, and you'll have to play around Baron. Ideally, you should keep control of this battlefield and always put the card you'll return with Star Crossed in it. Like so, you'll be able to pay 1 energy to ramp. Don't use its effect early on because you'll lose too much time.

The Papertree is the battlefield you should play when you're second to play. If you play it, focus on attacking your opponent and their battlefield. Papertree will create value for you when your opponent no longer tries to fight for their battlefield or when they're too far ahead of you.

This list is extremely difficult to pilot, and you'll have to be patient to play it well. Any mistake you make will result in punishment, and you'll most likely lose as a result.

So, we recommend you play it multiple times before you enter a tournament with it, and always think twice before playing a spell or spending power.

Only play your spells on units with Deflect if you must. Ideally, you must manage your board in a way you can always set up a powerful attack when necessary or keep enough resources to play Baron and attack on the same turn.

This deck doesn't draw lots of cards, so you must pay attention when you use Stacked Deck. You may often end up sending useful cards to the bottom of your list. Traveling Merchant will often be essential. Ideally, you should discard something you can bring back with Fizz or an early game unit you won't play anymore, like Treasure Hunter.

Bad matchups -

Vex lists are difficult to face because Vex - Apathetic disables your strategies completely, and you'll have to spend a lot to remove her. Not to mention, all the spells you play (except for Rebuke) can be answered by Defy. And you really need the right setup to attack a Vilemaw.

Lillia is also a tough opponent. Your strong removals and attacks are not that efficient against their token units. They'll always be ahead and attack you, and you'll have to spend too many resources defending yourself.

Rengar is also tough because you can't deal with orange Rengar and Ambush units all that well.

Good matchups -

A surprisingly nice opponent is LeBlanc because she'll let you play early on and you'll be able to discard their entire hand with Bewitching Spirit. LeBlanc draws lots of cards, but, to do it, she has to discard other cards and set up several combos that you can disable.

Aurora decks are good opponents because you can play around Elder Dragon and score points quite fast. They'll struggle a lot against you.

Orange decks, like Kha'Zix, Sett, and Fiora are all great opponents because they're very vulnerable to your bounce effects.

Diana lists are also decent opponents because you can deal with their spells and also catch them off guard with attacks they can't prepare themselves to face.

Use Factory Recall against Aurora decks and decks that play or rely too much on equipment, like Fiora, Azir, etc.

Use Bewitching Spirit when your opponent plays lots of units with Deflect, as Falling Star won't be that useful in these cases. Use it against LeBlanc as well.

Kog'Maw is great against Vex lists and other holding lists.

Downwell is great against holding lists overall and green lists.

If you read this far, thank you. I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading this article.

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See you next time!