Riftbound: Deck Tech - Pyke Disrupt

Today, let's go over this Pyke Hand Disrupt list, which is possibly one of the best decks in the current meta. It will certainly be one of the most annoying lists to face because it plays many removals, ways to discard cards in the opponent's hand, and strategies that simply break the rules of the game.

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:

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Deck Link: hyperlink

The main idea behind this list is to control the opponent by removing all their win conditions. You'll do this by either discarding their cards with Bewitching Spirit or killing their cards with your removals.

This deck can also ramp indirectly because of its Legend's effect. You'll be able to be quite fast with it.

This is one of the few decks in this meta that can play Baron Nashor, one of its main win conditions. Considering it's not an Aurora list, this is pretty impressive.

We thought Pyke was worse than Draven in this meta. However, now that Riot released the first banlist, Draven became a bit inconsistent, and, as a result, Pyke can compete with him for the red/purple legend slot.

His effect is extremely powerful. It lets you ramp indirectly as you set up combos with your cards.

The main target for Pyke's effect is always Bewitching Spirit, but you can also set up pretty interesting strategies with Sneaky Deckhand and Mindsplitter.

This champion is pretty solid and plays a very specific role.

It protects your battlefield early on so that you can score points by holding it.

Other than that, it is a "bonus" card that often gets into play for free after you use your legend's effect (which pays for Pyke - Returned's hidden cost).

Ripper’s Bay - This battlefield is Pyke-centered and incredibly strong in his archetypes, as expected. It lets you ramp even further, now directly, so that you can progress your main game plan even faster. As this deck is a bit more predictable, setting up combos instead of focusing on combat, you won't lose that much time by paying 1 energy to ramp in the first few turns.

Treasure Hoard - This battlefield is a great way to hoard resources. In this list, it will allow you to focus even more on removals. Cards like Falling Star and Rebuke will be much easier to play.

Hall of Legends - This battlefield is better in game 3. It is a bit more situational and weaker than the other battlefields. Its effect is better in the late game when you set up combos with more than one card. Nonetheless, you can play other battlefields instead of this one. It will possibly lose space in this archetype as soon as set 3 comes out. For now, it might be the best option we have for this deck as it is.

This deck doesn't kill enemy units with its own units. Your best bet is focusing on the free battlefields. Only after you hoard gold gears can you go for your removals.

Your main card is Bewitching Spirit. With it in your opening hand, you'll certainly be able to play stress-free. You'll be able to control the opponent all the time this way. The real challenge is defeating the enemy without this card.

If you don't have Bewitching Spirit, you should focus on scoring points fast with Sneaky Deckhand and hoard resources to try to end the game with Baron Nashor.

Speaking of Baron, this deck might be the only one that can play this card consistently without playing Aurora. Baron will come in and already score a point, which makes a huge difference. Not to mention, this card can't be targeted by enemy spells or abilities. Like so, your opponent will have to remove it as fast as possible. Otherwise, it will score a point by holding its battlefield right afterward, and you'll become unstoppable.

Because of how this deck works, Baron enters play relatively stress-free. You won't have to worry about the opponent removing it straight away because you'll have discarded many cards from their hand. If you managed to remove some enemy units along the way, the opponent will have even less resources to kill it.

Ideally, you should move Baron from the Baron Pit as soon as possible, preferably to another battlefield, with Ride the Wind. This will allow you to play another Baron directly in the Baron Pit later on. Other units in other battlefields will also struggle to gank your Baron with Baron Pit's effect if you do this.

Bone Skewer is hit or miss: it either wins the game for you on the spot or it doesn't do anything. However, even if it doesn't do anything, it reveals the opponent's hand. So, even if you don't pull any of their units into combat with Draven - Audacious or Baron, you'll gain a lot of information.

As for Darius - Trifarian, it is the way this deck can come back into the match and try to conquer two battlefields. It doesn't fit this list exactly because it doesn't draw a lot of cards. But you usually only need a turn to put it in play and activate its effect straight away to score a point. So, even though it is a bit inconsistent in this deck, it is often the best finisher for you if you can't find Baron.

Bad matchups:

Once set 3 comes out, the worst matchups for Pyke will be Rengar, Master Yi V2, and LeBlanc.

Rengar can attack your fragile units very easily with Ambush and the chosen champion this list plays. This deck itself can perform really well even when they have to rely on the next card they draw. So, even if you manage to discard their entire hand, they can still do something, even if it's just 1 card per turn.

The same applies to Master Yi V2. The units in this deck are beefy and can snowball quite easily if they stay in play. In this matchup, if you can't find 3 copies of Death From Below, you can't win. Another issue is the green counterspells it plays, as they can stop all your removals.

LeBlanc is the best archetype in set 3 and should have a chance against all decks in the meta, including Pyke. Even if you manage to discard all their cards, they'll draw a bunch of them back. Like so, you'll both battle for the battlefields, removing units constantly, and LeBlanc usually plays more removals than Pyke. Not to mention they can easily deal with your Baron with Cull the Weak.

Good matchups:

Any deck that relies on combos or is a bit slow.

That means Vex, Ornn, Jhin, Poppy, Diana, Lillia, etc.

Mirror match:

This is one of the worst matchups of all time, maybe in the history of all TCGs. It will all depend on who starts playing or who plays their combo first...

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!