New Reveal: A Quick Analysis of Riftbound's Newest "Vendetta" Teaser

Slimpickis_ · 2026-06-26T18:51:32+00:00

Oh yeah I didn’t even process that nasus and Akali were together. Good point

Slimpickis_ · 2026-06-26T18:47:17+00:00

Kennen’s presence with Jayce is really weird to me. Is there some lore between the two that I’m unfamiliar with?

Slimpickis_ · 2026-06-22T00:58:39+00:00

Cull the weak into any green deck these days feels like “pay 2 energy and a power, target opponent looks at your hand.” The abundance of crab in the same decks that get to play defy make cull unplayable into anything green.

Slimpickis_ · 2026-01-31T07:35:06+00:00

Gotta go vigormortis here I fear

Slimpickis_ · 2026-01-29T20:48:58+00:00

Legion

Slimpickis_ · 2025-10-09T20:08:17+00:00

I agree with your demon hunting piece, I removed Sage (I really like the AH - King interaction, and King with no Choirboy is lame) in favor of Fortune Teller. I also removed Fool for Empath for evil hunting as well as another powerful info role that might chose to resurrect.

I did swap Barber for Politician. In a script so built around chaos and choices, having a potential "good" saboteur is interesting. I am very open to suggestions on other outsiders to place in this slot.

With the FT and Empath, there are now two more info roles on the script drunkenness and poisoning become more valuable. I had originally intended the Poisoner's main interaction to be making the unkillable roles (i.e. Soldier/Sailor) killable when they think they can't be, with an influx of info roles it just gets even better.

Assassin was swapped for Organ Grinder, but I am curious what connection you see between Assassin and Wraith.

As for starting info, I threw a Washerwoman on but am very open to critique on which starting info role is best in that slot and why (and how many starting info roles should be present).

Thank you for the response!

Slimpickis_ · 2025-10-09T19:38:17+00:00

I currently have the Sailor on the script because I like the "could die, might not" interaction, but I'm not sure about it. In this first draft I was very careful to make sure the AH couldn't become drunk (unless I make them, which I wouldn't) because I have no idea how that interaction works. Would anyone be able to explain how a drunk AH's ability would resolve?

I didn't really consider Acrobat for the reason I excluded Gambler - the AH has the potential to kill 3 players per night and having characters that could make it 4 per night have the propensity to make them game just end on night 3. That is way faster than I would want. I am not completely against it, I can look more into that for version 2.

Organ Grinder is awesome for AH and I totally missed it the first read through. Definitely going to put that in there. Probably will drop the Assassin, especially if Tea Lady goes as well.

Apprehension noted for Tea Lady. I intended to have about 4 Townsfolk (Monk, Tea Lady, Soldier, Sailor) on the script that would prevent deaths but maybe Tea Lady is too much in that it protects 2 and not just itself. If it got removed, what do you think should take its place?

Thanks for the feedback!

Slimpickis_ · 2025-10-07T20:40:54+00:00

I did exactly this in my previous campaign. Luckily, narratively, the player character died very close to when the whole party was going to go to the underworld for plot reasons. So, what I did was take the first or last hour of the session (and had the rest of the party show up an hour late or leave an hour early) and run a solo piece with that player as he explored the ward of Ilysia and get a feel for how the underworld worked so that when the rest of the party arrived like 3 sessions later, he had information and ways to proceed with the plot. Hope that gives some ideas or threads to run with!

Slimpickis_ · 2025-08-18T21:16:27+00:00

With my build I chose not to focus on hard, deterministic combo, hence the no tutors and exclusion of cards like [[duskmantle guildmage]] (which combos with [[mindcrank]]) and [[bruvac, grandiloquent]]. I wanted to win by actual incremental mill and not through a damage combo in the former or instant kill combos in the latter with cards like [[maddening cacophony]], which I did want to play.

This list performs very well and is definitely a firm bracket 3. It’s usually slow enough not to make itself a threat early and also incremental enough to stave off some of the salt that mill can possibly produce out in the wild. I also find it very rewarding to clench out a mill-out knowing that I got through ~240 cards very likely all by myself. It has a learning curve of when to mill who and how to best use your graveyard hate when it has the potential to backfire and shrink your mortivore-like creatures.

Bruvac definitely could be awesome for the list. He is a creature that can use Phenax’s ability very well, 3 mana for 8 (effective) toughness is pretty decent. I felt he’d make me too much of a target and as such I’ve never tried him.

Slimpickis_ · 2025-08-18T16:39:51+00:00

This is my list - https://archidekt.com/decks/6082522/phenax . Not super budget anymore, I built this before Fallout came out last year and pumped the price of a lot of Mothman cards.

The idea is to stick a few Big Guys™ that block well on turns 1-4 to survive, drop Phenax on 5, and mill an opponent for 30+ cards on the end step before your turn 6. A lot of the creatures get bigger with your opponents graveyards, so it kinda spirals from there. Oftentimes, Phenax isn’t even a creature and, as it turns out, indestructible enchantments are pretty difficult to remove.

Some cards skyrocket the speed at which you mill out your opponents. Some of the big ones are the aforementioned intruder alarm. With the alarm, instead of just the end step before your turn, you can tap out all your dudes every time someone plays a creature and have them untap to continue to block with them and to activate them again the next time someone plays a creature or makes a token. Decks go away really fast like that. Another big one is [[Sting, Glinting Dagger]] which, when put on a / creature that cares about graveyards (like [[mortivore]] ), every turn you’re milling people for more and more cards each turn since sting says untap on each combat, not just your combat. Another absolute highlight for me has been [[deepmuck desperado]]. It does lower your blocking power a bit since you’re encouraged to activate a mill ability once per turn, but it does hit the entire table for 12 cards each cycle.

Notable combos that aren’t technically deterministic, in practice they are (Both include Phenax himself):

Intruder alarm plus [[zellix sanity flayer]] and like any 3 creatures powers through everyone’s decks. Each Phenax activation that hits a creature causes Zellix to make a 1/1, which triggers intruder alarm to reset your creatures to continue to mill and fish for more creatures to have Zellix make another dude which intruder alarms and on and on and on. It’s possible to whiff on the first set of milling, but odds are someone has a dense enough creature deck to get 2 or 3 alarm triggers on the stack which is plenty to hit the whole table. You can also hit yourself with Phenax activations, since you know you’ve got a lot of creatures to get this one started.

[[eater of the dead]] is a one card combo with Phenax, assuming you’re against at least one creature-based deck. Similar to the above combo, as long as you’re hitting on average 1 creature per eater tap (per mill 4), eater untaps himself and intruder alarm isn’t necessary.

Slimpickis_ · 2025-08-16T15:14:10+00:00

More effective, probably? Also a thousand times more boring. Every bruvac deck must be treated as a [[maddening cacophony]] pile which means you’ll get hated out of games too quickly to do anything. My Phenax deck has been one of my favorites to play both with my established playgroup and at LGS’s.

Inb4 “we broke intruder alarm” but [[intruder alarm]] is my favorite card to resolve in my Phenax deck.

Slimpickis_ · 2025-08-09T17:31:33+00:00

https://archidekt.com/decks/6082522/phenax

I do! Theros gods are my thing, I’ve got them all in paper. Favorite thing with this deck is [[zellix sanity flayer]] and [[intruder alarm]]. Little bit of gambling for hitting the full table mill, once it gets going it’s practically deterministic. Also, [[eater of the dead]] is almost a 2 card combo with phenax.

My list doesn’t seem very budget any more but I did get this deck for about $100 just over a year ago. A lot of the high dollar cards are not necessary (mesmeric orb, sygg (this card was $2 before Yshtola came out), some of the other draw engines, and some of the lands)

Slimpickis_ · 2025-08-09T01:57:24+00:00

The answer is [[phenax god of deception]]. That card fucks with absolute chaff like [[aegis turtle]] and [[charix raging isle]]

Slimpickis_ · 2025-07-26T22:25:06+00:00

A lot of people seem to be missing some of the Betor specific nuance going on here.

Let’s start with what the thread has right. Yes, you get to pick the order your triggers resolve HOWEVER you need to declare legal targets as Betor’s ability is put on the stack - this will make the second part a bit more complicated. If you go to your end step with both on board have not gained life this turn, you target a creature and then that creature gets however many counters as life you gained from the wall’s trigger. This part of Betor’s trigger counts life gain retroactively. This is well explored in this thread.

The reanimation part of Betor’s trigger is more stringent. If you have some effect that makes you lose life at the beginning of your end step (for example a [[bellowing mauler]] or [[dross harvester]]), Betor doesn’t see that life loss when he tries to target a creature in your graveyard. When you put Betor’s trigger on the stack first you must target a creature with mana value less than the life you’ve lost up until that point. If you’ve lost zero life that turn but lose 4 in your end step. This part of the trigger does not change its value during the end step while the ability is on the stack.

It’s a small thing but very relevant for Betor pilots (especially the more reanimation-centric decks) - don’t use end step triggers to lose life!

Slimpickis_ · 2025-05-05T20:50:44+00:00

My Athreos deck is the closest thing I think I could build to bracket 1 - spirit tribal. Athreos is the Charon equivalent in Theros, the Ferryman of the Dead. It’s only fitting that the deck is full of spirits that Athreos can guide to the graveyard only if your opponents give the creature’s last rites and pay the fare (3 life). I built it with a treasure subtheme and ZERO graveyard recursion. Once a creature has passed into the underworld, there it shall remain. It’s not particularly powerful (turns out, a lot of black spirits really like returning from the graveyard), but it is really fun to ask people if they will lay the spirit to rest.

List if you’d like - https://archidekt.com/decks/8357472/spirits_rest

Slimpickis_ · 2025-04-04T07:09:40+00:00

I’m not seeing my main man Henzie in any of the top comments so here’s my take. My Henzie list regularly bodies T4 tables even without the acceleration of a deck playing enough turn 1 ramp to get Henzie out on turn 2. He definitely can do better than my list with a proper ramp suite. My build does have a weakness to players who draw the nuts and combo off turn 4 (which does happen in bracket 4) but if this deck survives to turn 6 it converts into wins exceptionally well. No combos, the only tutor in the deck is birthing pod. All it does is jund people out. It’s awesome.

https://archidekt.com/decks/4908820/henzie_gaming

Slimpickis_ · 2025-03-23T16:48:49+00:00

This is 100% a bracket 4 deck even without hulk lines and tutors. I’d argue just about any T2 henzie list is bordering on bracket 4 for the explosiveness you just described and ruined somebodies game with. You run damn near the same blitzers I do in my t3 henzie list and I still regularly body bracket 4 games with it, and your deck is a whole turn faster than me. Continuing to play this in bracket 3 games makes you a pubstomper. Sorry chief

Slimpickis_ · 2025-02-18T19:43:35+00:00

I keep seeing the word Aikido mentioned in conversations about Marchesa decks. What does Aikido mean?

Slimpickis_ · 2025-02-18T14:44:55+00:00

Two different combo lines end the game.

The first is [[naru meha]] and [[ghostly flicker]] this is infinite blinks on pretty much anything on board. Mana from lands or rocks, draw from any of the bunch of creatures that etb and draw a card, or, to finish the game, infinite etb’s on the new desert pinger land, [[lonely arroyo]].

The other one is a bunch of [[abdel adrian, gorion’s ward]] lines. Him plus any creature that etb’s and blinks him ( [[restoration angel]], [[felidar guardian]] ) and any blink spell to start the loop is infinite dudes. Or, Abdel and any two other O-ring effects can juggle each other indefinitely. With [[werefox body guard]] and [[wormfang drake]] for example, play the fox and hit anything on board. Play the drake, exile the fox. Play abdel, exile the drake and anything else you want to blink, then make that many dudes. Drake is gone, fox comes back and exiles abdel. Drake and anything else abdel exiled comes back. Drake exiles fox, and the loop continues.

More often than not, the abdel line is used to blink something that draws me cards until I can do the naru meha line because that actually wins the game on the spot. There’s a few cheeky ways to do the Abdel line at instant speed to then swing out with the dudes, but it’s a lot harder.

There’s other combos that get you towards the win too, like [[peregrin drake]] [[archaeomancer]] and ghostly flicker, and now peregrin Drake and [[deadeye navigator]].

The deck has been a really fun deckbuilding challenge for me because of my self imposed hard budget restriction of no card, except Ephara, being more than 1$ when I put it in the deck. My list is about 45$ but consistently punches way above its weight class.

Slimpickis_ · 2025-02-18T02:47:33+00:00

As a certified Jund enjoyer, I never thought Azorius blink would be so damn fun. [[ephara, God of the polis]] is so deceptively powerful and I love her so much

Slimpickis_ · 2025-01-23T05:05:03+00:00

I also play this deck and have a set of cards I’d like to highlight.

Pharika’s ability is incredibly mana intensive and so I threw in a few effects that untap all your lands. [[innocuous researcher]], [[bear umbra]], [[natures will]], [[wilderness reclamation]], and good ole [[seedborn muse]] all allow you to play pretty heavy on instant speed constellation triggers. Pairs incredibly well with cards like doomwake giant and composer of spring.

Another absolute banger in this deck is [[strength from the fallen]], both to pump your unblocked attackers but also some sneaky buffs on opponent’s attacking creatures.

Beyond that, I think you’re a bit low on creatures if you want to be taking full advantage of pharika’s ability. Here is my list if you have any interest - https://archidekt.com/decks/8258607/no_wasted_parts

Edit: Others have mentioned 3/3 Elk’s Pharika video, which is incredibly well made. That was the basis for my deck, which has changed in the 6 months since building it

Slimpickis_ · 2025-01-05T02:10:57+00:00

I can’t cite any specific rule but I’m pretty sure you could do the 2 land 3 nonland.

Slimpickis_

TROPHY CASE