Deck of the Day: Riven Vi

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Riven Vi created by Agigas • last updated 2 years ago

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Champions (6)

followers (20)

Spells (14)

Origins

Hey, Agigas here! Riven Vi is a deck that I noticed last week, and it has really impressed me on the ladder – I was getting destroyed by it! Therefore, I decided to take a deeper look at the archetype that seemed to gain more and more traction.

Riven Vi was built and popularized by Freshlobster, and he played the deck to great success on the ladder during the EU Masters qualification race. Freshlobster was very confident in it and considered it to be a very strong, though complex archetype.

So far, it has been showing decent, but not impressive stats on the ladder, with a 51.3% win rate in Masters over 308 games. However, complex decks tend to have a lower average win rate than they deserve, so I had to dive into the archetype myself to see its real worth.

Gameplan

While at first glance, this decklist might look like a weird twist on Draven Sion, it is actually a very different, combo-oriented deck.

Our goal is to grow a Ballistic Bot, Riven, or Vi – which are all very easy to boost to a very high attack thanks to Blade Fragments from Riven, Blade Squire, and Runeweaver. Next, we look to give our high-attack unit either Overwhelm – with a Heavy Blade Fragment/Blade of the Exile, or Elusive – with Ambush.

If a single hit with our huge attacker wouldn’t be enough, Midnight Raid will surely finish the job. Ruined Reckoner is a perfect fit for the deck, enabling our big evasive unit. Alternatively, we can also finish the game with Get Excited! to the face, once the opponent is low enough.

To make sure our big unit gets through and doesn’t die mid-combat, Survival Skills is a strong protection spell we can play for free.

To round out the combo gameplan and be able to consistently activate our Survival Skills, we bring in the famously strong Discard package of Zaunite Urchin, Fallen Rider, Lost Soul, Poro Cannon, and Rummage. These cards will make sure we do get to our combo consistently, all the while making strong early and mid-game tempo plays.

This package serves as the perfect bridge to our combo, and can even allow us to punish slower opponents through a more standard aggressive gameplan.

Verdict

When playing the deck, I was pleasantly surprised by how strong it felt. The early game is rarely ever a problem, and in the midgame, the combo felt powerful when the pieces were there. It also helps that the deck has a great matchup against Yordle Burn, a new Tier 1 archetype.

However, I also had a fair amount of bricky games and difficult spots. Survival Skills is great when your unit is about to die from damage-dealing effects, but your combo can be messed up through other means (e.g. Freeze, Stun, Recall, or kill spells/effects).

I also did misplay quite a few times as I was learning the deck – I can confirm it is indeed a tricky archetype.

I felt like this deck is very comparable to Zoe Lee, and it trades the access to Deny, as well as some of its other counterplay tools to get a better matchup into Yordle Burn.

All in all, I think this deck is pretty good in the current meta, but I would rate it under Zoe Lee, as it doesn’t have the same inevitability.

That said, it’s definitely a very solid Tier 2 deck at the very least, and the combo is very satisfying to pull off – I would recommend it with no hesitation!

If you have a question, want to share feedback, or discuss this deck, I’ll be happy to answer you in the comments below!

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Thanks for reading!