Riftbound: Deck Tech - Renata Combo

Today, we'll explore Renata Glasc Chem-Baroness and her combo archetype, a fun list that is quite difficult to pilot.

This deck can finish the game with a strong combo including its main champion and Time Warp. However, it is struggling to adapt to the current competitive meta. It's great in Nexus Nights, particularly to steal wins from unaware players, because its greatest advantage is that no one knows how it works. So, let's see it!

Before we begin, however, let me introduce myself. My name is Total, and I used to cast Legends of Runeterra tournaments professionally. I covered all the official tournaments, including Worlds, and I am known for creating deck guides for LoR as well. Now, I am a part of the Riftbound community!

Deck Code:

CMAAAAAAAAAACAQAABM5MAIAAABAGAAAL55NKAIEAMAEKVM3AHFACAQEAAAGO2LO6EAQEAYAIZIQEBAAADIQDYABUIBKOAQHAMAEAWFCAGRQDLQBZEA5YAIAAIAQAAG5AEBAGACKKAAQEAAA2EA6AAIBAMAFQ

This is a control/combo list centered around Holding battlefields. The main idea is to score as many points as possible early on, hold a battlefield, and hoard Gold Gear Tokens in your base. Eventually, you'll have enough resources to play Time Warp, often multiple times in a row, and Ekko - Recurrent and win the game.

The main champion, Renata Glasc - Mastermind, is essential because her effect scores points. Depending on your final board, you can play Time Warp and use Renata Glasc - Mastermind's effect all in the same turn and win.

This list struggles a lot early on, but, if you survive, you can win "out of nowhere". All you need to do is play the combo correctly and draw the right cards.

Renata Glasc is a late game legend that doubles how much power your Gold Gear Tokens give you if you have 5 points or more. This is essential for the main combo because then you'll be able to play Time Warp stress-free and use your main champion on the same turn or right afterward.

So, you must try to get ahead immediately by conquering battlefields early on with cheap units. This way, you'll get the 5 points you need to make all of this work.

Please note that this list "turns" into a Holding list midway through because you need to activate your legend's first effect to get Gold Gear Tokens. However, early on, you must play it like an aggressive Conquering list (but with vulnerable units).

This unit must enter play as soon as you manage to dominate the board and have resources to defend your position.

Try to always play it directly on the board to draw cards immediately.

Only use its second effect if you already have Time Warp + Ekko + Hidden Blade and many Gold Gear Tokens. Otherwise, only use its first effect to look for your combo pieces.

The Arena's Greatest seems counterintuitive because it's better in fast decks. Nonetheless, this deck might be slow, but it needs to get at least 5 points as fast as possible, and this battlefield is a great way to do that.

Treasure Hoard is your main battlefield. It is essential in your late game combos.

Vilemaw's Lair is a meta battlefield. It counters purple lists, Miracle lists in general, and Irelia.

Early Game

The main idea early on is to mulligan after your 2-costs and Card Sharp. You must also keep Hostile Takeover in hand because it's critical. With it, you'll transition to your main Holding strategy after you get 5 points.

Keep in mind that Ravenbloom Student is not useful as an early game unit in this list. It is more of a mid game unit that will help you transition to the main Holding strategy as well.

Use your removals early on to put Gold Gear Tokens in your base, like Blood Money and Wages of Pain.

Avoid using Hidden Blade because it's an important removal later on when you play your combo.

Mid Game

In the mid game, you must transition to a Holding strategy. The main card that will help you do that is Ornn - Forge God, which will grow a lot as you hoard Gold Gears in your base.

Hostile Takeover is also essential. With it, you'll defend your board from attacks with multiple units. Keep in mind that you can't take control of an enemy unit that is on another battlefield if you play Hidden Hostile Takeover. This card, by itself, destroys any enemy attack and puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. It also disrupts their strategy.

As for Shen - Kinkou and Cloth Armor, they are similar. They also help you transition to the Holding strategy. You can play them at reaction speed from your hand directly on the board to defend yourself from an attack.

End Game

The main combo involves playing Time Warp several times to Hold battelfields twice or multiple times in a row.

To play Time Warp twice in a row, you must have 12 runes, at least 1 Gold Gear Tokens in your base, an Ekko - Recurrent in play, and a Hidden Blade or Deathgrip in your hand.

However, you'll often have to combine Time Warp with Renata Glasc - Mastermind's second effect. To do that, you'll need the same cards as above, plus 2 Gold Gear Tokens in your base and Renata Glasc - Mastermind on a battlefield. With this setup, you can play a Time Warp and use Renata's effect on the same turn.

To play Time Warp, use Renata's effect, and, on the following turn, use Renata's effect again, you'll need to have at least 4 Gold Gear Token in your base.

Cut by half the number of Gold Gear Tokens you need to play this combo if you already have 5 or more points. For instance: you only need 2 Gold Gears to use Time Warp and Renata's effect twice if you have 5 or more points.

This deck struggles with direct removals in general. So, any red, blue, or yellow list will be difficult to face because you can't defend your units from enemy spells.

So:

Bad matchups:

Kai’Sa, Annie, Draven, Azir, Viktor, Lux, Ornn.

Good matchups:

Any deck centered around attacking or winning through combat.

Jax, Lucian, Sett, Fiora, Rek’Sai, Rumble.

Balanced matchups:

Ezreal - you can control the game and disable most of their strategies, but you'll struggle to transition to your final game plan if Vex enters play early.

Irelia - you'll have time early on to build your board, but you can't really stop Irelia from conquering the other battlefield multiple times. Whoever plays their combo faster wins.

Bellows Breath is useful against token decks, like Azir and Viktor, but it also works really well against any purple list.

Pickpocket is great in mirror matches. It's also good against Ezreal and any Miracle deck.

Imperial Decree is incredible against lists that play units with deflect, like Jax, Ornn, and Fiora.

Cull the Weak can replace Hidden Blade or Deathgrip as combo pieces, and it can be good in matchups against beefy units. It's great against Irelia.

Salvage is strong against Azir, Jax, and any green or orange list in general, that is, lists that use equipment.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading this article.

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See you next time!