Riftbound: Deck Tech - Holding Vex

Today, let's explore Holding Vex, which should be one of the strongest decks with Set 3.

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:

CMAAAAAAAEAQAABKAAAAAAIBAAAKMAIEAUAAAKZNFY5LOAIDAMAC2MBTAECABXIBAECACPADAEAABLIBAEBQBYQBAECABDIBAUBQAAFMAGMAFKICAIBQAK6XAEAQIABKAECADFQBAECAF2ABAEAQGABAAIAQIAELAEAQIAMWAEAQCAYAHQAQIAMWAE

Deck Link: Click here.

The main idea behind this list is to prevent your opponent from fighting for the battlfield you're dominating. With Vex - Apathetic, you can disable strategies almost completely, including the new lists with Lillia, Rengar, and any deck that uses Accelerate cards as finishers.

Vex Gloomist was considered one of the worst legends as soon as she was revealed, but, after a lot of testing, we can say she'll certainly be in a high-tier list next season.

Her simple effect is a "free" version of Grove of the God-Willow, the battlefield. So, if you play this legend, you'll have this battlefield's effect at your disposal all the time... Which is incredibly powerful.

Green should be one of the most competitive colors in Set 3 because of the many premium counter spells and combat tricks in this color. Not to mention that, nowadays, this color also draws a lot of cards. Yellow is probably the only color that draws more cards, and blue draws just as much.

Green and purple is an extremely powerful color combination, even though purple was nerfed considerably in the last banlist. In fact, it's still the most powerful color in the game and should remain so.

All of these qualities make Vex Gloomist a competitive archetype that will inevitably change the meta a lot, even more so considering it is quite unique and difficult to play against.

This might be one of the most powerful cards in Set 3, as well as one of the most toxic. It's also this list's main star. It is your win condition and your main way of preventing the opponent from doing anything in the match.

Its effect completely disables strategies that ready cards as soon as they enter play, like Lillia lists.

It's also great against Ambush lists, like Rengar lists.

Not to mention that finishers, like Darius, Watcher, and other cards with Accelerate or that ready themselves, are all vulnerable to Vex - Apathetic.

It forces the opponent to play unoptimally, focusing on hoarding cards in their base, not scoring any points, just to try and fight for the battlefield your Vex is in.

However, as you must imagine, this entire list centers around Vex and protecting it. Your opponent won't be able to remove this card from the battlefield that easily.

Grove of the God-Willow is your main battlefield, the one you'll always play on match 1. Its effect is, as we mentioned, similar to your Legend's effect. So, it's as if you have two legends in every match this battlefield is in play.

Ravenbloom Conservatory is a great battlefield in this archetype because it plays lots of spells. You can activate its effect whenever you pull an enemy card to it, with cards like Charm or Evelynn. So, you will definitely use this battlefield, even if your opponent avoids it.

Windswept Hillock is great for game 3 or 2. It fixes one of the main issues this deck has, which is fighting for the other battlefield. This list is slow and, in most cases, will be behind the opponent in tempo. Like so, they'll be able to conquer the other battlefield and score points before you can. Considering that, eventually you'll need to try to tie or fight for the opponent's battlefield. Otherwise, you may lose. That's what Winswept Hillock's Ganking is for. With it, you'll be able to play your Villemaw on the opponent's battlefield and destroy their defenses.

This list needs to move enemy units with Charm and Evelynn and set up combats to win. Blitzcrank is a great way to do that, but, in this particular list, it's not that great. That's because it's too expensive and usually forces you to spend an entire turn on it.

As this version doesn't play Sona, Evelynn replaced Blitz. These two cards have practically the same effect, but Evelynn is much cheaper and allows you to save up some energy to play reaction spells on the opponent's turn.

Vilemaw is one of the strongest late game cards. You must always play it with some energy saved up to defend it or at least keep a Guardian Angel in your base for it.

Against decks that don't play removals, play it on the battlefield, on curve, as fast as possible. Like so, the opponent will have no chance to fight for your battlefield that early.

If necessary, play Evelynn directly in your base on turn 1. You need to control the board as fast as possible and try to snowball.

Just like Windswept Hillock, Ride the Wind is critical. You'll need it to fight for the opponent's battlefield. Without this card, you won't be able to turn the game back around. Try to use it on your Villemaw or when you're sure you'll win a showdown.

Rebuke is a pretty situational card but it's one of the strongest purple spells nowadays. It might not be useful against some decks, but you definitely miss it when you don't have it. That's why this list only plays one copy of it. If you prefer, you can bring it up when you sideboard.

Lastly, one card that is still finding some space in this list is Emperor's Divide. It seems a bit redundant, but you can use it aggressively to finish the game by attacking the opponent's board.

In any case, feel free to swap this card for any other card you want. I usually bring it up and swap it for the second copy of Vex - Apathetic.

This deck struggles against decks that play direct removals overall. So, yellow decks, like LeBlanc and Viktor, are usually difficult matchups.

So:

Bad matchups:

LeBlanc and Viktor

Against these decks, you need to play your units on the board whenever possible to play around Cull the Weak. Overall, always mulligan for Not So Fast and Defy.

Good matchups:

Lillia, Rengar, Lucian, Poppy, Sett, Jax, and Kha'Zix (orange decks overall).

Against Lillia and Rengar, sideboard Rebuke and Emperor's Divide to get two copies of Vex - Apathetic.

Balanced matchups:

Red decks in general, like Kai'Sa, Pyke, Draven, and Vi. Aurora as well.

Use Disarming Rake against Aurora and decks with lots of gears. Against red decks, Bone Skewer can be great, particularly to disable enemy win conditions.

Mirror match:

Tianna Crownguard is great in mirror matches to tie in points. But only play it when you're behind and have resources to protect it from Charm.

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!