By Terry Miller

 

Hello, today I wanted to go over the 64-player tournament, which is the first tournament after the full reveal of Origins. These tournaments are free and run every weekend, hosted by Riftbound Meta, and next week's will have 128 players. Viktor won this week's tournament, followed by Aurora Sett in second place and Standard Sett in third.

Going into this week's tournament, most players expected Body to be an obvious contender, as it already had some of the best cards and received additional support from the remaining reveals on Friday. 

1st Place - PochiPoom 

Pochi’s Viktor deck is interesting because it actually plays 0 new cards in the main deck and only sides 2 new cards in gear removal. It also continues to play 12 Order runes, not playing any cards that cost Mind power. Viktor coming in 1st when everyone thought Sett would win makes me wonder how next week’s event will shift.

 

2nd Place - Ghael

Ghael was the only Aurora Sett player in the top 8, with 4 other Setts in the top 8. Almost every domain received gear removal in the remaining cards spoiled on Friday, so I’m not sure if people were scared of that or if they just thought standard Sett was better. One of Aurora Sett’s biggest weaknesses was just dealing with all of their units, as they only play 10, so I do like the 3 Forge of the Future being able to recycle your units to combat this.

 

3rd Place - SouledOut

3rd place was our first non-Aurora Sett variant, and despite there being 4 in the top 8, they’re all fairly different. This was the only standard variant playing Mistfall, so I’m curious to know more about this decision and how the card felt for them. 

 

4th Place - Freakz

In 4th place this week, we have Kai'sa, and those who have been following the articles know this is my favorite deck of Origins. Kai'sa getting top 4 this week is a surprise, since she does not have a good matchup into either Sett variant, and there were 5 Setts total in the top 8. This list is the most unique Kai’sa variant I’ve seen, choosing to run 3 Unchecked Power and 3 Icathian Rain main deck.

 

5th Place - Jadecavy

5th, 6th, and 7th place were all standard Sett variants, with each being fairly different than the others, 5th place being the most unique. Jadecavy chose to play Sett Kingpin over Brawler, being the only Sett player to do so. He’s also playing 5 one-ofs, and he’s playing Reckoner’s Arena to enable an additional Qiyana trigger. I am a huge fan of Sabotage in the main deck, as it has so many good targets in the format. I’m very interested to see how these Sett lists change going into next week after having a full week to test with the new cards. 

 

6th place - Rexkater

Rexkater had the most standard Sett list compared to the other lists in the top 8. His rune split is interesting, only playing 2 Order runes for when he brings in Hidden Blade. I wonder how often he had to play Hidden Blade from hand instead of hiding it and if he would stick with the same rune ratio moving forward. 

 

7th Place - Robomaster18

Robomaster18 also had a unique Sett list, opting to play both Sett Kingpin and Brawler. I think Kingpin still has some defensive uses, but Sett seems to value the more efficient attacks from Brawler rather than trying to hold with Kingpin. This was the only Sett playing 3 Kinkou Monk, which I think is phenomenal for what Sett is trying to do.

 

8th Place - Jey

Finishing off the top 8, we have another Kai’sa list, which is pretty different than the last one. They’re on Riptide Rex, which is my favorite card from the recent reveals. They’re also on two Seals and Eager Apprentice to help alleviate some of the double power costs/Phoenix upkeep. The biggest differences come in the sideboard, not siding a single similar card to Freakz’s 4th place list. 

I think this first week was very easy to go with what has already been solved, i.e., Sett and Viktor. I’m hoping going into next week’s event, there will be more diversity and hopefully some more things we have yet to see.