Riot Games has announced the first wave of bans for Riftbound’s Standard Constructed format.
Cards
- Called Shot
- Draven, Vanquisher
- Fight or Flight
- Scrapheap
Battlefields
- Dreaming Tree
- Obelisk of Power
- Reaver’s Row
According to Riftbound developers, there are three key factors that are taken into consideration when approaching ban conversations:
- Is the card overrepresented in an unhealthy way?
- Are the problems with the card likely to get worse over time?
- Does this card promote play patterns that negatively affect the game in other ways?
While powerful cards and decks will often times fall into one or more of these categories, action is not always guaranteed based on that criteria alone. Instead, these factors act as “multipliers” that contribute context to the ban conversation.
Called Shot & Scrapheap
As Riftbound’s competitive metagame took shape, “Miracle” decks utilizing Chaos cards like Called Shot and Scrapheap to “draw through most of their deck and play a series of undercosted units in the same turn…” quickly became an outlier. In addition to a high win-rate, the deck also required players to make a greater number of decisions, which contributed to heavily to “significant round delays…” in tournament play. Due to these factors, the Miracle archetype is being considered “unhealthy” for the game, and developers have opted to take action now to allow room for innovation within the Chaos card pool.
Draven
According to the developers, the Midrange Draven decks have also proven to be too powerful, but unlike the Miracle decks, much of that power comes from deck’s Legend (Glorious Executioner). To that end, Riot admits that they “made a mistake” with the design of Glorious Executioner, but rather than cut players off from playing Draven decks entirely, they have opted to ban Draven, Vanquisher instead.
Contributing to a uniquely difficult situation, Draven decks are remarkably well rounded, with a “…powerful Legend, a strong Champion, a highly efficient card pool, and Battlefields that synergize particularly well with the strategy…” making it difficult to narrow down a truly impactful ban. By banning Draven, Vanquisher, Riot believes that the archetype will remain a key player while being slowed down enough for other decks to get out from under the early-game pressure.
Fight or Flight
The third and final Chaos spell hit by today’s announcement, Fight or Flight has proven to be too flexible and “…best in class in too many scenarios.” While Fight or Flight’s design is cited as an example of what Riot believes is “core to the Chaos experience,” the card itself was crowding out other designs, and by removing it, they believe other colors will better be able to compete with Chaos.
Battlefields
Since Battlefields “…start in play, can’t usually be modified or destroyed, and can be played in any deck regardless of the champion or domains…” it makes sense that they would be at a much higher risk for “…over representation and repetition…”. To account for this, Riot has developed different criteria by which they can evaluate Battlefields: Does this Battlefield support a strategy or tactic or is this Battlefield defining the game?
According to Riot, the answer to those questions was clearly the latter for the three cards above, and as such, they have been banned.
These bans will go into effect on Tuesday, March 31.
For a full breakdown of Riftbound’s first bans, read the original article from Riot.
