Vendetta will be out soon, and Riftbound is thriving! With this upcoming set, the meta has settled in and we can see what some of our players are most keen to play. With our first ever in-house competitive Riftbound tournament coming up on 18 June 2026, let’s take a deep dive into the two most played decks at Classroom Uptown!
The first deck we will be looking at is Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman. Although Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman is only found in Origins - Proving Grounds, its rarity is not an excuse for its popularity. A huge part of the deck requires you to hold battlefields alone as this helps to not only to increase your score, but also to benefit from Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman’s ability to give units that are defending alone +2 Might.
The deck plays in Calm and Body and brings the best of the two Domains by pushing out a tempo and mid-range strategy. Body gives the deck its ability to buff defending units and maintain their status as a defending unit by fighting units not attacking it, while Calm allows the deck to protect its units and maintain its defending nature by moving around your enemy’s units instead.
Due to this unique strategy of defending alone, the deck utilises units such as Lonely Poro and Fiora, Peerless that already have an advantage when used alone. Another Unit that gains advantage from Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman’s ability is Rengar, Trophy Hunter. This Unit allows you to ambush an open battlefield that your opponent is attempting to conquer, which in turns makes him a unit that is defending alone.
Spells like Charm helps the deck to keep itself on the defense while still “attacking” the opponent’s unit, while spells like Challenge does this in a more direct manner as a removal. This way, the deck can maintain its status quo of defending alone, while still actively attacking and blocking the opponent’s plan.
Another huge factor for the deck’s strategy is card advantage. Other than the obvious card advantage such as with Discipline, Lonely Poro and Scuttle Crab with their draw card ability, the deck also allows its player to glean information about their opponent’s strategy. Both Scuttle Crab and Sabotage allow the player to see their opponent’s hand, while Scuttle Crab has the added advantage of seeing any Hidden cards while Sabotage gives the ability to remove any key cards in their opponent’s hand.
A new ruling from the Hartford Regional Qualifiers has also given this deck added strength. The new ruling has deemed that Emperor’s Dais’s ability to return a unit you control as a cost, meaning that you are now able return any unit you own after conquering the battlefield even before reactions as well as without paying the 1 Energy cost. With this new ruling, this deck is now able to easily return their Rengar, Trophy Hunter from a battlefield after defending with his Ambush so that it can trigger the Ambush again, or use it to return their Scuttle Crab so that they can re-play it and trigger the draw ability again.
As for the sideboard, the deck runs gear removal, in anticipation of Baited Hook and Dazzling Aurora, in the form of Disarming Rake. The deck also usually carries Alpha Strike, Master Yi’s Signature Spell, in the sideboard which is essentially extra copies of Challenge. The deck can also run with Ruin Runner if fighting against more spell-heavy match ups such as Diana.
A big part of Diana’s strategy is the ability to churn out cheap but powerful spells. This includes spells like Stacked Deck, one of the best draw spells in Riftbound currently. Its cheap cost of only 1 Energy makes it a staple in almost any deck that runs Chaos. Outside of Stacked Deck, the deck also runs bounce spells like Gust, Rebuke, Retreat or Star-Crossed, as well as spells that reduce Might such as Stupefy and Eclipse. Hard Bargain also works as a good counter during the early game as most of the time, the opponents will be strained for Energy. All these spells are generally in the 1-3 cost range, and are all Actions and Reactions, making them not only extremely efficient in what they do, but also synergistic with Diana, Scorn of the Moon as she can be used to exhaust for Energy during Showdowns.
During this early stage, units like Ravenbloom Student shine as the deck will be constantly using their cheap spells to either deny their opponents or cycle through their own deck quickly in search of their finishing pieces. It also plays units like Traveling Merchant to give even more chances to cycle through their deck, as well as Diana, Lunari, the Chosen Champion that gives the ability to Predict the deck and look for extra spells during Showdowns. Fizz, Trickster can give spells recursion while Vex, Apathetic allows the deck to further slow their opponent’s units. Outside of units and spells, Sprite Fountain is a gear that can give quick aggro pieces if needed.
Once the deck has all their pieces in hand, they can finally start aggressively deploying units like Hwei, Brooding Painter. His ability that lets you to either draw more or increase his might through discard can be triggered indefinitely, making him extremely strong as a finisher. Spells like Ride the Wind or Flash can be used to trigger this ability, as well as Tideturner with its swap ability. If left unanswered, Hwei, Brooding Painter can become a huge problem for the opponents as he can easily dominate the battlefields.
All this adds together to create a deck that is not only reactive but aggressive. By constantly removing their opponents of their spells and units, the deck slowly builds their own hand and board before completely annihilating its enemies with its combo pieces. This way, Diana has not only conquered the battlefield during the game but also our local meta.