Last week, nine City Challenges took place in China, and the results indicate two legends dominated this new set: Draven, Glorious Executioner and OGN-247. Across all nine tournaments, these two legends were the most represented in the Top 4, with 15 appearances for Draven and 9 for Kai'sa. This means that together they account for more than half of the 36 players who reached the semifinals of the City Challenge in the first week of competitive play. Unsurprisingly, they also secured the majority of victories, with Draven winning six events while Kai'sa triumphed in two. The only City Challenge won by another legend was in Guangzhou, where a Viktor with his Chosen Champion and 39 spells took the title. Here are some statistics for those interested in the best performances of other legends:
Best Result
- Legend: SFD-199 | City Challenge: Shenzhen | Finals
- Legend: Sett, The Boss | City Challenge: Hangzhou | Finals
Top 4
- Annie, Dark Child | Jinan / Shenyang
- Darius, Hand of Noxus | Shenyang
- Irelia, Blade Dancer | Suzhou / Shenzhen / Tianjin
- Lux, Lady of Luminosity | Guangzhou
- Lucian, Purifier | Chengdu
- Miss Fortune, Bounty Hunter | Hangzhou
Top 8
- Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman | Jinan / Shenyang / Suzhou / Hangzhou / Tianjin
- SFD-197 | Suzhou
- Rek'Sai, Void Burrower | Suzhou
- SFD-181 | Shanghai
- Fiora, Grand Duelist | Chengdu
- Yasuo, Unforgiven | Chengdu
Top 16
- OGN-255 | Guangzhou
- Leona, Radiant Dawn | Shenyang
As you might imagine, 11 legends failed to make the top cut of a City Challenge during this first week. If you want to check all the deck lists, you can find them here. These are just the first competitive events in Spiritforged, but we cannot overlook a legend that won 6 out of 9 tournaments while representing nearly half of all Top 4 slots. There’s no doubt that Draven will be targeted in most side decks in the near future or will convince even more players to use him. In this article, I want to delve into the six winning decks of Draven, Glorious Executioner and see what these players have agreed upon so far. How many staples have already been decided? Is everyone playing the same Chosen Champion? Is everyone building for a similar play style? ... Let’s take a look at the winning decks and see if we can learn something about this emerging force in the metagame that seems to be Draven.
All 9 Winning Decks
Play Style, Chosen Champion, and Signature Spell
All Draven, Glorious Executioner decks were built quite similarly from a gameplay perspective. The rune distribution was 6 runes from each domain or 7 Fury plus 5 Chaos. The unit costs ranged from 2 to 6, while the spell and equipment cards were mostly the cheapest ones, with a maximum of 2, except for the occasional Edge of Night or Void Seeker. Clearly, everyone believes that Draven should be played with a proactive mindset, aiming to conquer early and ensure control of the initiative in that early stage. In this context, Draven, Vanquisher saw much more play than Draven, Audacious, with the former being played as a Chosen Champion only once while being used in another deck as a high-level unit alongside Ferrous Forerunner.
Although the more expensive Champion unit can speed up the count and win the game with an extra score, the 4-cost unit is crucial for paying the many power costs that Draven, Glorious Executioner uses. In fact, most decks utilized a good amount of support cards with an attached power cost, while Kai'Sa, Survivor, Darius, Trifarian, or Ferrous Forerunner also have a power cost. There’s no arguing about Spinning Axe, as three copies of the signature spell were included in every list. This could become the Showstopper of the second set.
Battlefields
Targon's Peak is the clear battlefield to use for Draven, with every player utilizing it. Reaver's Row and Treasure Hoard were also popular choices. Overall, these three cover the play style that Draven wants to impose. A conqueror mentality, supported by powerful cards with attached power costs. Half of the winning decks used that specific trio of battlefields. Two players opted for Power Nexus, which makes sense alongside a Chaos legend that can utilize cheap spells to gain footing at times, while also aiming to generate SFD-T03. This could prove to be a good choice rather than Reaver's Row against other conqueror decks.
Staple Inclusions
Units
In all six decks, Kai'Sa, Survivor and Darius, Trifarian occupied at least five slots in the list, demonstrating that these two will once again be a force for Fury decks in the Riftbound metagame. With Draven, Vanquisher as a new 4-cost option, along with a legend capable of drawing with its ability, it’s interesting to see how most players decided to keep Kai'Sa, Survivor in the deck. That trio was typically accompanied by Ferrous Forerunner, which served as a high-level card for the deck. Another group of units we need to discuss are Treasure Hunter, Overzealous Fan, and Tideturner, which were also very popular.
Among the six winning decks, most players used eight or nine 2-cost cards, with these three often filling those slots. One player used Pouty Poro instead of Tideturner, in what could be considered the most proactive deck on our list. In fact, that deck also utilized two copies of Long Sword and Edge of Night. The intent was likely to get a unit on the board early and buff it, something Pouty Poro excels at thanks to its Deflect keyword.
Spells and Equipment
There was a good amount of support cards with an attached power cost. In many decks, Rebuke was used two to three times, while the two players who used only one copy had three Falling Star in their lists. Clearly, Treasure Hunter and Draven, Vanquisher are influencing these choices, as their ability to create SFD-T03 alleviates those power costs that would otherwise slow you down from a timing perspective. To these cards, we also add the signed equipment Spinning Axe that the deck seeks to play early to dominate encounters. Lastly, Ride the Wind was another very popular inclusion and additional testimony that Draven is a conqueror-type deck. Two additional spells could be considered staples: Fight or Flight and Hard Bargain, representing the more disruptive side of the deck.
These are two spells that the opponent is forced to keep in mind whenever 2 runes are available. In fact, countering a key spell or bouncing a unit back to hand can be decisive in some situations. These two are particularly important with Targon's Peak being a staple battlefield. Not only do we prepare the right amount of runes at the end of the turn, but these spells allow us to deny our opponent from conquering and preparing their own runes.
Flexible Inclusions
Units
Vex, Cheerless was included in half of Draven's winning decks, with varying quantities each time. The player with three copies was also the one using Pouty Poro, in a list aimed at forcing the opponent to respond to pesky units one after another. I’ve already mentioned how Draven, Glorious Executioner is trying to mitigate power costs with Treasure Hunter and Draven, Vanquisher. Well, Vex, Cheerless works very well in that strategy. The card requires recycling a rune when played. It’s not so bad since this is one of the more expensive cards in the deck, which means we should play it at a time when keeping all our runes isn’t as important. However, if we can keep Vex, Cheerless alive, we gain a discount on our future spells, which will more than compensate for that earlier investment. Even though I don’t like the card on its own, I believe it can shine in a deck built to gain the initiative early, combined with many units that the opponent must quickly remove. In that mix, Vex, Cheerless represents another problem the opponent has to deal with and another opportunity for us to cheat on resources.
Darius, Trifarian has proven its worth and will likely remain a staple in any Fury deck. However, not having 7 or 8 cost units, Draven can afford to use more mid-range units to solidify that portion of his development. The other units included in more lists were Pouty Poro and Noxus Hopeful, both included in a main and side deck. These were staple inclusions in the Origins metagame and make a lot of sense for Draven, who seems to play similarly to Kai'sa or Annie. Depending on your opponent, the raw power of these two may be more valuable than the potential of some easier-to-remove cards.
Spells and Equipment
There were many more differences in this part of the deck compared to the units, even though most decks were built with the same idea in mind. In general, we can categorize spells and equipment into three types of utility: empowering our units, with Long Sword, Blood Rush, and Cleave competing to accompany Spinning Axe. This is the least clear part, as Long Sword and Cleave were in three decks, while Blood Rush in two plus one side. Long Sword is fantastic and more flexible when going first with Targon's Peak in play and Treasure Hunter on the first turn, as the card is practically free after we conquer on the second turn. However, spells are a bit easier to use during our turn, as they require fewer runes, but we can’t keep them on the board after using them.
Dealing with opponent units, which has typically been done through Fight or Flight or Rebuke. However, Falling Star remains a stellar timing tool if we can afford the power cost, while Switcheroo is a nice 1-cost inclusion to surprise your opponent. All three players using Falling Star or Switcheroo were not using Long Sword, so the key is to find a balance between cards with power costs. Other types of support, such as Angle Shot or Stacked Deck were common but do not seem so important overall. Instead, these cards will be perfect to fill the last slots once we’ve found the right balance. If we have a cohesive build of 40 cards, those can be removed or set aside for match-ups where finding certain cards is crucial.
Will Draven be a Tyrant of the Metagame?
It would be easy to define Draven, Glorious Executioner as the next OGN-247, especially since the Glorious Executioner plays similarly to the Daughter of the Void. Both seek to cheat on power costs and use powerful mid-range Fury units as the foundation of their strategy. However, I believe it is too early for any legend to deserve that nickname of "problematic legend." First of all, Draven was not a legend difficult to understand. Annie and Kai'sa have shown how to build around the Fury domains in Origins, while the ability to draw when winning a fight is another big clue on how that deck should be conceived. Keeping this in mind, it’s only logical to see this particular legend perform extremely well at the start. Moreover, I believe building a deck against Draven will be easier than it is for Kai'sa, as the legend’s ability is not the core of the game plan. In fact, if we can remove Draven, Vanquisher and Treasure Hunter before they manage to create some SFD-T03, Draven will not be able to develop like OGN-247 or Annie, Dark Child might.
Consequently, I consider Draven, Glorious Executioner a great legend, likely one that will remain competitive for the entirety of Spiritforged. However, I also anticipate that side decks will adapt in the near future, making it much harder for Draven to cheat on power costs, which will inevitably limit his field development or ability to play support cards.