By Terry Miller

Today’s article is going to be a little different. Instead of a deck breakdown or meta discussion, we’re focusing on an in-game puzzle to walk through different lines of play and decision-making. One of the best ways to improve in Riftbound is by working through scenarios like this—testing your knowledge of card interactions, timing, and sequencing to find the most optimal line. Below, you’ll see a live board state from an actual match. If you’d like to challenge yourself, try to solve it before reading ahead. After the image, I’ll go over the key details and walk through possible plays, explaining the reasoning behind each one. 

Here’s the current game state. it is Kai’sa’s turn, Kai’sa has 3 Immortal Phoenix in trash, 1 Sky Splitter, and 1 Ravenbloom Student. Jinx has a Flame Chompers and a Vi in her trash, and a Rebuke in hand. The battlefields are Zaun Warrens and Aspirant’s Climb, so you have to get to 9 to win this game. The most important thing to recognize is that Jinx can use Rebuke to bounce our Kai’sa if we attempt to conquer. Because of that, we’re unlikely to score this turn. Instead, our focus should be on establishing a winning board state over the next turn or two, despite the setback.

Most people’s instinct would probably be to play Icathian Rain, clear Jinx’s board, then revive a Phoenix. While this is a solid line, it has major drawbacks: We’d be using Icathian Rain on a turn where Kai’sa is likely to be bounced, meaning our end board would just be a single Phoenix, not a strong position. Worse, we’ve burned our Icathian while Jinx still has her champion zone active. If she draws two 2-energy units or a 2-energy unit and a Hopeful, she can fill the board and re-deploy Jinx, ending up with three units against our one.

Having three Phoenix in the trash makes it tempting to lead with Sky Splitter on Jinx, then reborn all three Phoenix. By floating the cost from the final Phoenix, you can send Kai’sa into the Jinx slot, forcing Rebuke. After the bounce, you can accelerate the Rearguard to trade into the Merchant, leaving you with three Phoenix on board, while Jinx is left with only an Enforcer in their base. It’s a powerful line, but it comes at a cost. You burn your accelerator, which could have been a key finisher in a later turn. It also lets Jinx play out both cards drawn next turn, and then move Enforcer to Zaun for a free draw potentially giving them enough momentum to rebuild.

Personally, I like opening by attacking into Jinx with Kai’sa, forcing a Rebuke that bounces her back to hand. After that, you play Draven since he’s at 7 Might, Sky Splitter now costs just 1. Use Sky Splitter on the Merchant, not Jinx. That clears the slot and lets you revive two Phoenix. You’ll end the turn with Draven and double Phoenix on board. Your opponent can push with Enforcer next turn to go up to 5, but they’ll be facing down a powerful board—and we still have Icathian Rain in hand. The key reason to Sky Splitter the Merchant instead of Jinx is to shut off the Merchant’s draw trigger and deny the Zaun conquer effect next turn. That tempo loss for them can buy us the breathing room we need to convert pressure into a win soon after.

There are a few more lines here you can take as card games will always have a lot of options due to the nature of the games. While we’re still getting reveals, we wanted to post something a little different and go over some gameplay theory. If you like this type of content, please let us know and we will be sure to post more.