Let me tell you something 1138 Riftbound followers! Raths been thinkin' about Signature Spells. You know how we all collectively agreed that having Legends take up a rare slot absolutely sucked!? Well, Rath is here to go a step further! Signature spells shouldn't take up an Epic slot. Lets look at this in a practical sense: An epic card is intended to be super cool, powerful, with nice tits. They are also intended to be great vectors to build your deck around. Signature spells kind of meet that metric, except in one area: They are restricted only to a specific Legend. Imagine an Epic card is released and doesn't really see play because its effect is too niche or whatever. But then down the line, a new Legend is released that synergizes with that epic. Boom! Awesome! Now that Epic, that was totally worthless, now has a home and can be played! But not with Signature cards. A signature card's playability is heavily linked to its respective Legend. (With some exceptions like Annie) It could literally say "if you play me, you win the game" but that doesn't mean anything if the Legend says "As an additional cost to play a card, pass a kidney stone." Here's a hot take from Rath! Signature spells are both a design mistake, and a product mistake. They shouldn't be epics because they are strictly relegated to a single Legend, which oftentimes means that if you pull one its almost always a feel bad moment unless you're playing that Legend. And they're a product mistake because they just homogenize deckbuilding. It wasn't like this at first, but since about Spiritforged, deckbuilding is always: • Legend • Chosen Champ • x3 copies of that Legends Signature spell Thats not really creative. It makes how viable a deck is significantly more polarizing. If a Legend is bad, having an amazing Signature Spell won't make them good. But if a Legend is good, having an amazing Signature Spell will break the game. Similarly, if the Legend is good and signature is bad, well you still have a good deck because you don't HAVE to run that signature spell. (Again, Annie) Maybe in the future, Riot will retire Signature Spells. That would be a feature that Rath honestly wouldn't miss. But until then, Rath staunchly believes Signature Spells should have their own rarity. So far, in a box, you are pretty much guaranteed 6 epics and 3 alts. Rath thinks that the ratio should be changed to: • 6 Epics • 3 Signature spells • 3 Alts That way, if you buy a box and open a bunch of signature spells, you wouldn't feel like you just passed a kidney stone into your wallet. This concludes Rath's RAAAAAAAAAAAATH talk!

RATH BEST!

Let me tell you something 1196 Riftbound followers! Astral Heron costs HOW MUCH!? Well its a good thing Rath has 5. Now Rath just needs to find someone to take them off his hands.

Let me tell you something 1195 Riftbound followers! Ziggs was a total bust, (no surprise) so Rath is moving on to the deck he actually thinks has some promise: Ezreal. Heres the list: Units: 3 New Kaisa 3 Lecturing Yordle 2 Purple Pyke 2 Watcher 2 Ocean Drake 2 Fizz 1 Purple Ezreal Gears: 3 Seal of INSIGHT (the blue one) 2 Pack of Wonders Spells: 3 Up from the Deep 3 Stupefy 3 Arcane Shift 3 Bellows Breath 2 Singularity 2 Star Crossed 2 Temporal Breach 1 Rebuke 1 Fanfare Battlefields • Rockfall Path • Discard 1 to channel 1 • Void Gate These are not firm. Runes: 50/50 Sideboard: 2 Decree of Insight 2 Vex Apathetic 2 Offer you Cant Refuse 1 Hard Bargain 1 Retreat 1 Singularity 1 uhhhhhh RATH FORGOT!

Let me tell you something 1187 Riftbound followers! Now that Rath has solved the banlist situation, lets solve the Best-Of metal situation! Overview: As it stands right now, the Best-Of metal system has introduced a sort of "artificial power creep" to the competitive scene of Riftbound. If you want to take a legend from Origins or Spiritforged to an RQ or above, well you'd be sacrificing A LOT of potential prizes if you do well because now you won't get a Best-Of metal card. Meanwhile, the Jarvan player that just went 0-8 just won over $10,000, compared to you working your butt off to get top 8 and get... way less. The Solution: First we need to devise a prizing method that incentivizes people to play what they want and then handsomely rewarding someone who does well, regardless of the deck they are playing. First, lets talk current solutions that Rath has heard: "Make it so every Legend in the game has a Best-of, regardless of age." This is not feasible at all. The first issue is that it floods the market with Best-Of metals, which guarantees that they will all lose value. No one wants that. Secondly, we are only on set 5 and already have over 60 different Legends. Combined with prize wall metals, that would be A LOT of *solid metal* that you have to both manufacture and transport. And this cost gets bigger for every set that releases. This also leaves out the Eternal format. Whatever solution we come up with, it has to also be implementable in that format alongside Standard. Rath's Solution: Here is what Rath is saying will be the best way to implement Best-Of metal cards. Firstly, just like right now, only the most recent 3-4 sets of Legends will be eligible for a Best-Of Metal. Secondly, as long as you place high enough, any Legend will be able to win whichever Best-Of metal card they want. Here's how it works: If you place higher than everyone playing your Legend, AND you place within the top [number of Best of Metals available] amongst all highest placing Legends, you will get to select which Best-Of metal card as your prize in the order of placements. Meaning if there are only 30 best-of metals, only the top 30 highest placing Legend of each Legend will get a best of. So if you are playing Kai'sa and get 90th place, but the other 89 places are all just Kennen, Riven, and Irelia, then you will get a Best Of since you placed in the 30 highest placing Legends for each Legend. And to add some fairness: If you would get a Best-Of, you may opt to reserve the Best-Of of your own Legend (if its available) before anyone can pick. So if you won a Best-Of with Akali, you are entitled to the Best-Of Akali before the 1st place player is allowed to choose their prize. (Rath doesn't know why this is so hard to describe BUT IT WAS HARD TO DESCRIBE!) This method would solve all the issues currently plaguing best of prizing: • It allows every Legend to get a Best-Of metal card. • It handsomely rewards people who do well. • It doesn't artificially power creep the Legends that rotated out. ... Though if someone could explain it better than Rath so everyone can get Rath's vision that would be greatly appreciated! This concludes Rath's RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH talk!

Let me tell you something 1160 Riftbound followers! As with most banlists we have gotten, the issue with the game is not it having no balance. The issue is that we don't have effective answers to the most popular decks. Riven is ultra-high movement + tons of draw, while Kennen is just ultra-high movement and also slamming 10 Rhasas. We have gear removal, unit removal, mass removal, and conditional reaction spells like Unyielding Spirit that prevent direct damage. But we don't have graveyard interaction (that's actually useable), as well as cards that punish moving so often or drawing half your deck. We have Vex to curb playing ready units, or ambush, and we have Invert Timelines to kind of deal with drawing a ton of cards. But those all have their own issues that make it so they don't fix the overarching issue. So until we do have cards that allow us to answer these cards, we should have more bans. Besides, do you really want THIS to be our future? Look at all those Riven decks, and the deck JUST came out! riftdecks.com/riftbound-tour… Lets do this! ***********************First ban: Defy************************** Rath has been against banning Defy for ages, and for those ages Defy has been a fine card. Its strong, but balanced. But now that the power of the format has gone up a bit more, Defy's starting to become a major problem. The issue with Defy isn't the fact it is a counterspell. The issue is that it hits almost everything in the format. Back when Irelia first came out, Rath remembers Defy being cut down to a 2-of because the primary threat to Irelia was Rebuke, which couldn't be defied. But now if you're playing Green, running 3 Defy is mandatory. But that's not even the main problem with it. Lets say LeBlanc suddenly gets super good. Everyone and their mother suddenly starts playing more Gusts and Star Crossed. LeBlanc can't really do much about that other than forcing their way through, or using stuff like Sacrifice and Deathgrip so they can keep some kind of power on board. This doesn't occur for Green decks. If a Green deck becomes good, the people who bring in the interaction to deal with whatever the Green deck is doing will also have to deal with Defy. Defy makes it so Green has a lot of safety, meaning any deck that is strong will be made even stronger. If Defy costed more than 1 energy, this wouldn't be as eggregious of an issue, but that's the other issue with Defy. It's extremely efficient. As Rath said earlier in the post: Defy hits almost everything in the game at only 1 energy and 1 power. Defy has officially overstayed its welcome, and its time for it to go to the banlist. **************Second Ban: Stellacorn Herder*************** Rath has made it no secret that he doesn't like Stellacorn. Rath has been calling for Stellacorn to be banned from day 1. This card is nuts. The primary reason that people say Stellacorn shouldn't be banned is the fact it doesn't see play in all Green decks, which doesn't matter. In the decks that can play Stellacorn, which are Riven, Irelia, and Akali, if you stick a Stellacorn, you win the game. There is almost no contest to a Stellacorn that has been allowed to live for more than 1 turn. Combined with a turn 1 Zhonyas, Stellacorn effectively becomes a 4-energy wincon. Just get rid of it. Something else that is released in the future will absolutely break it again. ************Third Ban: Rhasa the Sunderer***************** Thus far, all the hits have been for mostly Riven. But with Riven out of the way, Kennen will have free reign to take over the format again since he now has 6 Stacked Decks again. The issue with Kennen is that he is too consistent. Having access to this much card draw allows him to always have the perfect hand, while at the same time filling up his trash for Rhasa. Honestly, Rhasa feels like a break in the color identity of Purple. Purple is notorious for having weak units, but here's Rhasa, a 1 power 0 energy 6 might unit that Kennen will always have 3 of on board. Rath thinks if we take away Kennen's strength, then the fact he has unmatched consistency becomes a non-issue. Hell, even give back his Stacked Deck so the other Chaos decks can have their consistency back. *****************Fourth Ban: Star Spring********************* Rath was initially skeptical of banning Star Spring. But now that there is even more decks that can abuse it, Rath is convinced its time for Star Spring to go away. Funnily enough, it appears that having battlefields that can move your units is proving to be too strong of a battlefield effect. The decks this hits is LeBlanc, Rengar, and obviously Riven. But Riven and Rengar are the primary threats. Rengar initially abused Star Spring's power by playing Faefolk turn 1, a move so powerful it became a meme in how it pretty much guaranteed a win. But then Riven came along and REALLY broke it. Thanks to Riven's Legend ability, Star Spring is effectively a free win for Riven on account of how much safety it gives her. You conquer it, play a unit there, and then you can retreat everything back to base. Boom, instant value, and extremely hard to stop. Combined with Riven's great conquering ability, you better have a Rocket Barrage to send that Riven straight to hell. Its fairly obvious that this card is going to be broken over and over in the future as more cards come out. Just ban it. *****************Fifth Ban: Dazzling Aurora****************** Let me tell you something Dazzling Aurora that Rath hates with all his might! Rath will storm Riot HQ and eat all the copies of Aurora if thats what it takes to get rid of you! This card should be banned simply because it is THE MOST UNFUN DECK TO PLAY AND TO PILOT IN THE GAME! ************First UNBAN: Draven Vanquisher*************** When Draven was first born into the world, it was only the second set. So obviously, the resources available were not enough to deal with whatever nonsense Draven had. And since all the cards needed to beat Draven were also Red and Purple, obviously your only choice was to just play Draven yourself. But that time is long gone, and the game has opened up quite a lot. With all this considered, and the fact that Draven is pretty much non-existent in the meta, perhaps it is time to give a little love to Draven and unban his Chosen Champion? **************************Conclusion*************************** Let me tell you something person who is reading the last part of Rath's extremely informative and objectively CORRECT post! Rath loves you! <3 This concludes Rath's RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH talk!

Let me tell you something Riftbound players! If you've played against Riven, (which Rath has) you will understand why there are a lot of people demanding bans. And to everyone complaining that people are calling for bans, would you rather Riot not ban anything? Would you they rather just let the game play out and let a single deck dominate the game? Bans are a necessary part of all TCGs, and Rath commends Riot for being so quick to deal with problem decks in the past. Its just a shame Riot has had to ban so many cards in the past year. Though each ban has made the game better and corrected design mistakes.

Let me tell you something 1156 Riftbound followers! Rath has tuned his Ziggs deck to have more controlling elements to it. -3 Kaisa -2 Zed -2 Satchel -1 Treasure Hunter +2 Ocean Drake +1 Pack +2 Falling Star +1 Rebuke +2 Detonate The goal is now to go second, and also our turn tempo is to play a unit turn 1, move to a battlefield turn 2, play Ziggs there, and play a bomb there so we can hold easily. For battlefields: - Vilemaws Lair - Ornns Forge +Void Gate + God Willow

Let me tell you something 1146 Riftbound followers who are awaiting Rath's deliciously spicy Ziggs build! Currently Rath is 1-1. Round 1: Ornn 0-2 Rath actually approached the game wrong and misplayed horribly. But its okay because Rath got the turn tempo down and now he's ready to go for a RATH TAC U LAR RIDE! Round 2 Vex 2-0 Rath employed his turn tempo and it worked well! ...Is what Rath would say normally. No shade to the opponent, but this was the equivalent of playing chess against the special kid at school. He didn't really put up much of a fight, but that doesn't matter BECAUSE HE WAS ONLY THERE FOR A GOOD TIME! AND EVERYONE HAS A GOOD TIME WITH RATH BECAUSE RATH TOOK HIM FOR A RIDE! If Rath catches anyone bullying your local special needs kid, RATH WILL SHOW YOU A TIME! Notes: Both Zed and Kai'sa are AWFUL in this deck, and Rath barely even used them. Rath might lean more heavily into the pack build, and has some ideas. But first Rath needs to finish this tournament to curate more notes. Expect another post in about 3 hours.

Let me tell you something Rath who got the product mistake and design mistake backwards! IT GOES THE OTHER WAY! Sigs are a design mistake because of how they affect deckbuilding. And they are a product mistake because of how awful it feels to pull them as your epic.

Let me tell you something 1137 Riftbound followers! READ RATH'S ARTICLE! xitter.cf/RAAAAAAAAATH/status/21…

Let me tell you something 1137 Riftbound followers! Rath has cooked his first article! However the deck is mostly untested right now. That's not an issue though, because Rath is taking this deck FOR A RIDE tomorrow! Rath will come back with notes.

Let me tell you something 1111 Riftbound followers! Wait-- Life from Stone has Reaction!? ... *Adds Ornn to the list*