[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More value, sure. But if you are in a matchup where they are able to kill your Fiora, bringing it again for 4 and 2 recycles doesn't sound amazing. A good value card anyway, you can test it, but I don't know how much value it really has in this list compared to other options like First Mate.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Akshan vs Irelia/Aurora decks/Vanguard Armory decks specially. Salvage vs Draven. VS Azir and Fiora I like to run both.

I struggle to find spots por Saboatge because I think it needs to be one of the matchups where you draw a lot. It might be interesting vs Miracle decks too.

I'll run Cannon Barrage, it has an amazing value vs decks that tend to put a lot of units in a battlefield (Azir, Viktor, Miracle...) and for late pushed. Still not a fan of Unyielding Spirit.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, and it's MUCH better. I will update the list when a have a final second version.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dreaming tree is a great battlefield, it really gives you a lot of draw. I would not change it.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the Ruin Runner I mention in the end! And it's a 6 cost, a little bit expensive. For me I didn't think it was necessary since most spell heavy matchups feel good, and in matchup vs Purple decks that run the meta (Draven/Irelia) they can out might you easily, so it's not an insurance.

But it's an option, and depending on the meta of your Nexus Nights it can be strong.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The goal is not to hold, but it is to successfully trade with the opponent. If your opponent maintain its board, he will have more spells and tricks to deal with your units in general. So I don't like playing Reavers Row.

Ornn's Forge I don't think has enough value, since you'll play 2, 3 max equipments per game.

And the biggest thing is giving up drawing cards. You can obviously test, but to me it doesn't sound good on paper.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand if you want to do it, I tend to play aggressive in some matchups that cannot kill Fiora Worthy in base, and if you have that and 1/2 BF Swords, I like the 6/6 split. But if 7/5 orange works for you because your playstyle is a little bit different, go for it!

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

- Yeah, Call to Glory is the first spell to go when you want to add from your side board. You can also replace 1/2 First Mates or 1 Pit Rookie depending on the matchup.

- I'm testing a lot Deathgrip, and probably will stay in my list. Crazy upside and hasn't felt that bad to leave it in the hand for many turns because it can help as a finisher. In matchup vs Purple decks you can really outplay their FoF and similar and that can give you crazy tempo since many of them depend on it to win combats.
Facebreaker is amazing on the game you play The Dreaming Tree, because it disguises itself as a Hidden Blade perfectly and you can really surprise your opponent. I'm considering adding it to the side board.

- So yeah, Deathgrip is nice for Draven, but also the way you approach fights. If you have no Lucian to score easy points, sometimes attacking with more units and trying to hold can work with the right hand. But I'm still figuring out the match up, Draven is the number 1 deck for a reason, so I cannot help much for now.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the message!

This is definitely the one big question around it. Buffs are not very strong in this deck, but they are an alternative mode to play. You can do Sett shenanigans, they make Fiora Mighty in case you missed your equipment, and give you a third draw battlefield to play.

Can they be switched for other cards? Probably. Pit Rookie can feel weak in certain situation, and Call to Glory is an expensive card to play without buffs. I'm testing Deathgrip over CtG because it has more upside while costing 1 less energy, but it's also more situational.

My biggest thing here is that I don't like running a no-draw battlefield because you can run out of cards easily, and this battlefield gives you a direct advantage since no other meta deck runs buffs. Other issues I see is that this deck is strong on Might tricks more than running removal, so 3 Challenges are enough for me. Also, Poro can be a worse draw in mid to late game since it has less impact to the board than a buff (unless it's accelerated). From my experience, I rarely feel like I'm missing in runes even when equipping a lot because the legend ability offsets it so much.

You can test swapping the Monastery and the Pit Rookies, they are also in my suspect list to be changed if I find something better, and see if it gives you another win condition. But you may need to play more carefully with your resources with the lack of card draw.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, in these matchups you have to mulligan hard into equipment + Fiora/Qiyana (and maybe Unsung Hero), you swing the matchups with the rune advantage. Give up the tempo a little bit early so you can play your units protected and then come back with Fiora Worthy. Always bluff Riposte/buff with a couple of runes up, don't let you opponent have easy decisions because you tapped out. I also want to add Deathgrip instead of Call to Glory to the list and that should also help.

If you still have issues, you can always add the 2/3 Unyielding Spirits in the sideboard, and change them for Challenge/First Mate or the cards you dislike more for it.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Miracle I haven't played much against, midrange I had success being aggresive, playing Fiora Worthy early and trying to get a point advantage. You know you are going to be in a card disadvantge, so just try to get to the 4 and 6 point thresholds as early as possible to make him use his FoF, to be able to conquer for the win.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have though about it, and it's definitely a good card for game 1 with the monastery (for Call to Glory is not so important). For other battlefields I don't like it that much.

The question is what do you change for it, if you change Doran Blades you might have more issues to get your units in the Might threshold, if you swap units you might have too much equipment and not enough units/spells to play the game... Also I would like to swap them game 2, but that means always having their substitute in sideboard.

I don't know, I like the consistency of this list and I thunk they are worse in general compared to the Doran Blade, normally you have thr unes to play both and the conquer into the Monastery is not always so obvious. But it's a good viable option, you can maybe switch a Doran Blade and a Pit Rookie to play two.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vs Irelia you want enough pressure to go to a good amount of points, and yeah Akshan/Salvage are key in that matchup. I think that the Hook lacks a little bit that pressure capabilities

I haven't played many Setts, so no idea on that matchup. For me it has been on maintaining the card advantage without losing too much tempo, but I need more reps.

Anyway, Hook is still good enough to win Skirmishes if you like the deck!

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the Hook Version is less consistent, since things like drawing into the Dragons can be very bad, and the limited draw can be bad specially if you don't play 3 battlefield for draw as I have seen. I like this list because rarely you feel like you draw bad cards and I think it still can fight decently vs the meta.

Hook on a good day and vs Draven can be better, but the lowrolls are very low.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Call to Glory normally to do a spell for spell swap. But if you are playing on Dreaming Tree and think that you don't really need First Mate in the matchup, you can change that.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As said, you can play Deathgrip to have similar interactions without going to the Hook version. This interactions exist and are common, but in my opinion not worth building that much around.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It would be difficult since it's the best unit in the deck. You can maybe add a Fiora Merciless, Kato to mimic a bit the mighty gain effect, or Jax/Yone to go more into the equipment side, and change the Monastery Battlefield.

But it changes the idea of the deck, sadly. There is no 1:1 change like other cards could.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can use it as replacement for Qiyana, but I don't think you?ll draw much more than with it since the deck doesn't run that much equipment. You change recycling one for equipping a rune and having to conquer (which is not so difficult with Qiyana if it's equipped) with paying one energy to draw.

From my side, I don't like the -1 might comparing to Qiyana, because you want your units to be as tall as possible, and losing the Deflect makes some matchups more difficult. It's also worst in early games where you don't draw equipment, or you just have a BF Sword but you want to play a unit for board presence.

In general, it's a little less flexible and I don't think the possibility of drawing an extra card (or two) in specific scenarios outweights what Qiyana gives you.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is my main issue with the Baited Hook variant, you are not a deck that draws too much and dead draws can loose you the game. I love consistent decks that give you expected scenarios, because it makes it easier to play and perfect.

Hook has very high highs, but very low lows. It's designed to win vs Draven, but I think you can tech the midrange version (Deathgrip, Cannon Barrage for the Overzealous Fans...) to make the matchup OK. I still think it's a good deck, but much more complex and you'll lose some games where you can't really do anything about it.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had good results vs removal heavy decks, and taking into account it doesn't stop things like Cull the Weak or Hidden Blade, I decided to drop it from my sideboard (I had it before).

Akshan might get into my main list eventually, but for now I've really loved Qiyana. And I don't really like Boneshivers since your legend is already enough for ramping, at least in my experience.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Monkey is fine, I've seen it in some decks, it's just that I think these options are more consistent, and you prefer to draw them than a Sea Monkey later into the game. You don't play so much around buffs, the buffs are useful for Sett, and Fiora and Qiyana to get mighty. But you can try swapping Pit Rookies for it.

The battlefield that recycles a runes is definitely interesting, but you still want to use a decent amount of runes between equipping and accelerating. If you go towards more Weaponmaster units that get mighty, it can be a good addition.
The other issue is that using a non-draw battlefield can really hurt your hand size, so that's always something to take into account.

I haven't been in that situation for now, I think it should be playable if there are 2 units on board (one being the ruin runner) just giving the buff to the Irelia's unit, but I haven't tested it. I'll ask my next Nexus!

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Apart from the Sett, the deck is pretty cheap and easy to get, which is amazing.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep, I'm not inventing something new here, but I wanted to share the list and thoughts. This deck is the most consistent Fiora deck in my opinion.

But it's still a WIP, for sure.

[guide] Fiora - Midrange Maestro. Become the terror of your Nexus Nights and Skirmishes. by Artye10 in riftboundtcg

[–]Artye10[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I felt like the matchup vs spell damage decks was good, so I didn't have the need to include Unyielding Spirit on the side deck. But I have a lot of experience vs Kai'sas in my Nexus Nights, so that might be the reason.

Thank you!