u/CollosusSmashVarian

In Heroes of the Storm, you can queue up commands with shift click. For example, you can click to move somewhere, then hold shift and click somewhere else to move there once you reach your first destination.

This is something that most RTS games have, as it's really important to queue up different commands there when multitasking, but it has its place in MOBAs as well, helping you do small optimisations.

For example, you could recall, then hold shift and right click to the location you want to go after recalling, that way, the moment your recall finishes, you already start moving. Currently, if you try to optimise your recall, you will end up just cancelling it half of the time which really sucks. There are many other use cases and niche interactions with specific champions that would be pretty cool imo.

In this post I'll talk about how most people build Vex, why I believe it's wrong, what the alternatives are and what my current list/take on Vex currently is. For context, I've played a lot of Vex, starting from the initial reveals (about when Vex Apathetic was revealed). In the end, I will also share my personal stats with the list I've been playing.

I wanted to make this somewhat short but then I went deep into card inclusions so the post is really big, I'll just put the list up here if you aren't interested in the in-depth explanation and just want to try a list: https://piltoverarchive.com/decks/view/d5c5f8e5-f82e-473a-b757-9f3e995b67b8

Current Builds and their Pitfalls:

Most of the builds I've seen (and the ones I was playing initially) are trying to play giga hold and scam points via Purple Draven, Green Ahri, Tiana etc. My first build was actually something similar, trying to leverage Draven Audacious and Charms to scam points.

These builds however, have some major weaknesses. First, leaving units at battlefields leaves them incredibly exposed. There's a lot of removal that only works on units at battlefields. Our units are also incredibly susceptible to combat. We can't just keep our good "engine" units in the back, as they only work on battlefields (Vex Apathetic, Green Ahri, Sona, Nami etc), unlike other decks that have their units with important effects sit at base (e.g. Karthus in Leblanc, Ezreal in all the pre-ban Miracle lists).

It's incredibly easy for our opponent to move into our battlefield with a relatively average unit, around 4 might and threaten to kill one of our "engine" units, forcing us to use a stun on the unit. The problem is that this can happen over and over and over again and we can't really do much about it while we are forced into unfavourable trades. While other decks require the opponent to commit a lot of resources to force us to use something (e.g. a big unit, a medium unit with a combat trick etc), with Vex, when we are just trying to play for the hold, that's just not the case.

At the same time, there are a lot of cards that can easily break a battlefield that we can't deal with. Even if they are very expensive, by only scoring on one battlefield, we are giving our opponents ample time to find a card or a combo that completely shits on our strategy (e.g. Camel + combat tricks, Baron + combat tricks, Elder + units/spells). We are at the mercy of the opponent.

Even if they don't have a card that counters our "gigahold" strategy this harshly, many decks can just accept the slower game and outvalue us. That can be Leblanc, Ezreal, Aurora (even without Baron or Elder), even something as simple as Volibear will outvalue us with their Midrange units eventually.

The solution (in my opinion):

All of the above problems arise from the basic idea of the deck, that we are trying to bunker down in one battlefield. But as we've seen, doing that exposes you to many, many problems.

The solution is rather simple in nature but hard in execution: We need to play both battlefields, for which we require some form of mobility. This will allow us to spread out and speed up the game, by gaining 2 points in some situations.

In my opinion, there are only 2 ways this can be done: Either we play Green Vex or we play Boots of Swiftness.

In regards to the Green Vex builds, it's incredibly complicated and I have no idea how to build it, though admittedly, I haven't tried. I've seen some interesting builds in community tournaments and China, but I haven't tried them.

The Boots of Swiftness build:

The initial thing that sparked my interest was this list: https://piltoverarchive.com/decks/view/0f12887e-0e41-4b90-9973-25d13076e6b6

This list got 3rd in a Runes and Rift tournament pretty early into the set. The list really sparked my interest and I've been iterating on it ever since.

The idea of the list is incredibly simple: Play 2 drop and then Vex Apathetic at a battlefield. On your next turn (turn 3) play Boots of Swiftness and equip them on Vex. This gives you a 6 might unit with ganking and deflect, which is incredibly hard to deal with. You want to run over whatever unit is at the other battlefield and then charm and kill whatever unit they have at base.

After you start clearing the board, your opponent will start developing units in his base, as they can't accelerate their units into you due to Vex Apathetic. This gives you time to Star-Crossed their big units and Charm into your 6 might Vex their medium units. After you do that, your opponent will be in the same situation, they will have to develop their base cause they can't accelerate units into you and you will respond by bouncing them or killing them with Charm again. Fizz helps a lot in this as he can replay whichever spell fits best.

During all of that, you are double scoring the battlefields, accelerating the game by a lot and not allowing your opponent to find and play the game ending threats I mentioned earlier. In most matchups we are playing the points game, not the value game. With the help of our bounce effects and Vex Apathetic stopping Accelerate effects, we can keep postponing our problems until the game ends.

My list:

After a lot of playtesting, I ended up on this list: https://piltoverarchive.com/decks/view/d5c5f8e5-f82e-473a-b757-9f3e995b67b8. You will notice that there is a pretty big changelog, which in reality is way bigger, as I played on TCGA and made changes on the list there, then updated it on PiltoverArchive later, but not always.

The basic premise is still the same as the previous list and I will go over every card inclusion in this list and the reasoning I have for including them. When there are changes from the above initial list I started with, I will go over my reasoning of why I made these changes. I'll also include a list of cards I'm considering, both for maindeck and sideboard. I'm hoping that by explaining my thought process and by giving recommendations, you can make your own variant of the list, which will hopefully be better than mine.

In general in Vex, turn 2 is really, really important. Ideally, we want to play a 2 drop, then conquer with it and play Vex in that battlefield. This allows us to start playing the points game and we get a draw from our Legend. Unfortunately, it makes us exposed to A LOT of cards/combinations of cards that will break our battlefield on turn 2. If that happens, we are generally in a pretty bad spot, unless the opponent committed a lot of runes to do it (and ideally lost all their units so they can't score). This is why, a lot of the card inclusions here are specifically to help us establish ourselves on a battlefield on turn 2.

To help understand the commentary on the cards, I would recommend looking at the list while reading.

The minion package:

Chosen Champion: Vex Apathetic. It's pretty self-explanatory in my opinion. This is one of the best units in Unleashed and the core of the deck. A 4 might 4 energy chosen champion is pretty good. This has deflect and an effect that stops accelerate, stops ambush (well it doesn't exactly stop it but they enter stunned) and stops effects that ready or move our opponent's units by any means the turn they are played. It forces them to sit at their base instead of accelerating their unit into us.

3 Mutated Mouser: On defense, this represents 3 might, which is really good for a 2 drop. The tank helps us defend our Vex/Sona from relatively midrange units that enter the battlefield, which mostly matters on turn 2.

3 Overzealous Fan: This has a similar purpose, it just defends our good units. It's pretty good later on as well. We can also keep reviving it with Last Rites against decks that are susceptible to Fan, but we'll go over Last Rites later.

3 Desert's Call: On turn 1, this is just a 2 might unit, which isn't that impressive. However, there really isn't any other 2 drop that is better for turn 2. This card also allows us to create multiple bodies with the repeat in matchups where it's needed (mostly against Yellow decks). There's also times we don't have any good way to spend our energy and this is just a way to do that. Fizz also Synergises with this, making Fizz a 3 energy 1 power unit that summons a 3 might and a 2 might or 5 energy 1 power that summons a 3 might, a 2 might and another 2 might. It is also a hit for Ravenbloom Conservatory.

1 Shadow: The initial list had 3 Sunlit Guardians. I liked them but they ended up serving a similar purpose to Shadow. I prefer Shadow personally but I don't think either of these cards are good enough to warrant 3 copies in the list. Both of them get hit by Gust, which is pretty prevalant in the current meta and make them a lot worse.

2 Fizz: Fizz is a basic component of this list. He can copy Charms, he can copy Star-Crossed, both of which support our "Force our opponent to develop base, then pick off their units" plan. Into Irelia, he is also really important cause he copies Rebuke. I chose to not have 3 Fizz in the main deck cause he costs a lot of power and I felt like he sometimes bricked in the early game. There are arguments to have him be 3 of in maindeck. Regardless, I have the 3rd copy on Sideboard.

3 Sona: Playing with Sona is what made me believe that this deck is real and has potential. Before adding Sona, there were a lot of times where I would conquer with my 2 drop and be unable to play Vex there, cause it would be really easy for my opponent to break the battlefield. Instead, I would have to play Vex to base, which denied me a draw and didn't let me double score on turn 3 with boots.

But with Sona, if I am scared that my opponent will break my turn 2 battlefield, I can drop Sona and have 3-4 energy saved up for their turn (depending on if I went first or second). This makes it really hard for them to break our battlefield at that point. Sona in general also helps us spend our energy into development and then still be able to hold up a lot of energy during our opponent's turn, making us safe. If we don't run Sona, there are a lot of times where we won't be able to develop units on our turn, cause we will go down runes and it will allow our opponent to challenge our units that are trying to hold. In some broad sense, Sona is like ramping 3 runes (4 runes but you pay 1 to play her)

At one point, I was considering running only 2 Sona cause drawing 2 of them in the same game is pretty annoying, but the card is too good and we want to consistently see it, even if the 2nd and 3rd copy are usually dead draws.

The spell package:

2 En Garde: You will notice that most Vex lists don't actually run En Garde, as they will be stacking a battlefield, which makes En Garde be 1 energy for +1, instead of 1 energy for +2. However, in this list, we will have our units isolated very often, especially our Vex or sometimes our Sona, so we will fully benefit from the spell. It also helps deal with a lot of breakpoints. It helps Overzealous Fan and Sand Soldier not get gusted when we attempt to conquer on turn 2, it helps our Vex break a lot of battlefields with boots on turn 3, as 8 might on a deflect unit is simply too much to deal with at that point in the game. It also helps were evade certain breakpoints when she is equipped with boots, like Singularity. There are arguments to make it a 3 of. It's really good in the early game and then usually falls off later on as we will eventually start swarming the board a bit with our 2 drops, as we are double drawing after all.

3 Stacked Deck: One of the best cards in the game. Helps us find what we want. Helps us find 1 ofs (I've included certain 1 ofs in main board but also in sideboard). Spends our energy efficiently. When going 2nd, sometimes we don't find a 2 drop but Stacked Deck finds us one (if we go 2nd and skip turn 1, the game is usually doomed).

3 Charm: Helps us deal with units at base. It's often a 1 energy 1 power Vengeance. Gets repeated by Fizz as well. Boots helps us isolate our Vex and then Charm a mid-size unit in the early game and outmight it. If our Vex isn't isolated, then we will lose whatever unit is there with her at the time.

3 Defy: Defy is a great card in general. It's also really important in set 3 to start certain strong cards (e.g. Moonfall) which would be really troubling for us. It's also incredibly good when our opponent is trying to kill a Deflect unit, as it will make whatever spell we are countering way more expensive, while we are paying what we would usually pay.

1 Existential Dread: It's more of a surprise factor card. There are some times in the early game where we will have just 1 energy up (usually when 2nd) and our opponent will try to break our 2 drop + Vex battlefield. For that turn, Existential Dread essentially invalidates one of their units and whatever combat spells they used on it. It's also pretty good later on. Don't forget that you can use it to stun 2 different units, you don't actually have to use it on the same unit when repeating. I'm not running more of them cause it only works on defense and costs a power. We already pay a lot of power, we don't want to pay more.

3 Discipline: A generally solid card. Every green deck should run it unless it has a REALLY good reason to not run it and frankly, we don't have such a reason. Similar to En Garde, helps most of our 2 drops survive a gust on turn 2.

1 Hard Bargain: Great counterspell. Only run it if you are going to run Sona, as she gives us a lot of energy during the opposing turn. It hits any spell, even ones that Defy can't, which is really nice. Even if the opponent has energy to pay for it, it's still often good to play this, just to tax their energy for that turn and not allow them to do much else. Could be 2 of in the main deck. It's really good with Sona, really mid without Sona so I'm not sure, it's surely worth experimenting.

1 Rebuke: The initial list had 2 Rebukes but I found that my opponent's often didn't even make it to a battlefield before getting charmed and dying or getting bounced by star-crossed. The new orange counterspell, repulse, is also a really good answer into Rebuke, but it's only playable when their unit is at a battlefield, so we want to just bounce their units with Star-Crossed before they make it to the battlefield. It's still really, really important into Irelia cause it can't get hit by Defy, which is why we have another in the sideboard, specifically for that matchup (and some very niche matchups where they don't have any counters to it but have good units for us to bounce like Rumble, I guess) and we also copy it with Fizz in that matchup.

1 Back Off: This is only here cause it's good with Sona. It's generally too expensive for our deck cause we spend a lot of runes, but Sona gives us the energy to play it. Sometimes on the last turn we can just hide it or we can hide it on turn 2 to secure our hold. Ideally we don't want to be going down on runes on turn 2, especially when it isn't Sona, but sometimes it can't be helped.

2 Star-Crossed: Very important card for our deck. I tried 3 Star-Crossed main deck, it was obviously too much. There are also matchups where it isn't that good, mostly against swarm decks, but it's generally really good. It's insanely strong with Fizz. Ideally, we play Fizz, play a spell off of him, Star-Crossed him, play him again, Star-Crossed him again and then play another Fizz spell, though you can also just Star-Crossed one of your 2 drops, play Fizz and Star-Crossed him back.

The Gear:

3 Boots of Swiftness: I went over it a lot. It's a core card in the deck. You don't really want to see 2 of them, but you ALWAYS want to see 1, so it has to be a 3 of in the deck. There are times where you will have to equip them on Sona and play around her instead of Vex. It's generally harder cause of lack of Deflect but it can be the correct play sometimes.

Also, don't forget, if your opponent is stacking on one bf trying to prevent you from double conquering to 8 points, you can suicide your Vex to free up your boots and keep equipping it on your small units and going in 1 by 1 to break that battlefield.

On turn 3, sometimes you may have to first equip your 2 drop, trade it with one unit on the other battlefield and then equip Vex to outmight their other unit. This usually happens when they conquer with their 2 drop and then play a 4 drop in that battlefield to reinforce it. Going down 2 runes is bad, but in that case, their board is empty, so you will score to 3 points, then hold to 4, conquer with your ganking to 5, all while they are at 1 point, so it's fine.

1 Last Rites: This may seem weird at first, but let me explain. The initial list was running a 2nd copy of Vex Apathetic on the mainboard and a 3rd copy on the sideboard. But, we don't really want 2 of them as their effects overlap and we always have one available, so if we don't have a Vex, it's cause she is on the graveyard. This allows us to replay her. Multiple times if needed. It can also buy us back Overzealous Fans, which can be incredibly good towards the end of the game. In some matchups like Kai'Sa, it's just a nice value engine to have.

It giving 2 might permanently is also really nice, as a big part of our deck is isolating our Vex and attempting to outmight their units. When you have one big unit instead of multiple small ones, it means that winning combat results in losses no might. If you attack with 2 units that both have 2 might, a battlefield with one unit with 3 might, you will win that combat, but you will be left with only one unit. However, if you just had a 4 might unit, it would outmight the opposing 3 might unit and leave you with 4 might left instead of 2. This is a very basic and important principle in Riftbound that the entire deck leverages and any might buff helps.

It also helps us replay certain 1 ofs in the side board, if we find them, like Allay and Vex Cheerless, which can be pretty backbreaking for our opponent.

IMPORTANT LAST RITES RULINGS IN THE CONTEXT OF VEX: First of all, holding happens before the draw phase. If you draw a card and then attempt to use the Last Rites trigger, it's already too late (you can't even exhaust the Vex legend and that point).

When you hold, you first need to put Last Rites on the chain. To put it on the chain, you don't have to pay of the cost of whatever you are attempting to revive, but you have to declare what you are trying to revive. Then, you put your Vex Legend on the chain. This makes it so your Vex legend resolves first, so you get your draw and then you get to decide if you want to play the card from Last Rites and subsequently pay for it or not.

Battlefields:

Blind: Ravenbloom Conservatory. For our blind battlefield, we really don't want one our opponent could really benefit from for going there first. Even in this more dynamic Vex list, we are defending more often than attacking and we have ~60% of drawing a card from it, so we generally benefit more than our opponent. Try to use Charms while on this battlefield to force more combats therefore more draws.

Going First: Targon's Peak. It's a pseudo Sona, which is really good. If we go first, play our 2 drop, conquer, play Vex and our opponent leaves us alone, we are really, really happy. You can also use the battlefield again by putting your 2 drop in base on turn 3 and reconquering the battlefield on turn 4 with your vex with ganking.

Going Second: Abandoned Hall. Incredibly good with Charm. We run a lot of small spells so we can use it well. It also helps us get out of range of a lot of removal. You would think that you would get destroyed against Irelia by giving this to your opponent, but frankly, it doesn't really do much. The matchup is won by bouncing Irelia over and over and over again, not by actually outmighting her. The scary matchup is Diana and Ezreal, as they make great out of this battlefield with Stacked Decks, Stupefies etc, but it's generally better for us than our opponent in most cases.

Sideboard:

2 Hard Bargain: I had 1 Hard Bargain in the Sideboard (as I said, could even be in the main board) and 1 Not So Fast, but as of writing this guide I realised that Hard Bargain is pretty much a better Not So Fast here. There really isn't any cheap spell that we can't really Hard Bargain or Defy but Not So Fast deals with. Having Vex get Rebuked is kinda fine in all honesty outside of the last turn but it seems like a niche scenario. I don't even think most people would keep their Rebukes in the main deck against this list after game 1.

Great against any deck with expensive spells, like Kai'Sa. If they play an expensive spell, they usually won't have enough runes to pay for Hard Bargain, especially since you keep forcing them to pay for deflect. It's also great against decks where you want to counterspell wars with. A deck like Irelia can't really hold up a lot of runes in a lot of cases and will have 1-2 counterspells up. This helps us make sure our spells go through.

It's great into Punch First decks, as they also spend a lot of energy to develop and rely on their low energy high power cards during the opponent's turn (Punch first, Riposte), which Hard Bargain can shut down.

Also great into Imperial Decree decks. It's good into Viktor cause it can block their Decree or Singularity (or at least make them pay so much that they have no follow up) and it's really good into Lux I guess though I haven't seen a Lux in ages.

If you are going to run 3 copies, you should use it just to tax energy on the opponent's turn by using your Sona energy, having multiple of them in crucial turns doesn't help so might as well throw them out earlier.

1 Rebuke: Mandatory for the Irelia matchup. It's just the Irelia tax, can't do much about it. In the Irelia matchup, if they play Irelia too early, we can sometimes just outright kill her with Charm. If they get to play her and then next turn (since they can't ready her cause of Vex), move her to a battlefield, we want to Rebuke her. Rebuking her gives us essentially 4 points, as we will double conquer, they will replay her and we will double hold. When she is at base, you ideally want to play Star-Crossed on her and try to win the counterspell war. Every time you bounce her, that's buying you a whole turn, which is 2 points. You will generally end the game at 2-4 runes, I've had a game end at literally 0 runes, but what matters at the end of the day is your point total not your rune total.

1 Allay: She is really good when the opponent has to target your stuff. That means she is great against Kai'Sa, especially the new lists that their only unit is the new 3 cost guy that they can infinitely replay, great against Ezreal, great against Diana and some others. If you hate those decks, you can run her as a 2 of on the sideboard.

She is incredibly, incredibly good at helping us defend Sona from these decks. Sona doesn't have deflect, unlike Vex, but is also really important for us and a big investment. Opponents will often try to remove her with their spells. Allay gives Sona deflects and helps us get really good trades while defending our Sona.

1 Last Rites: In any matchup where you really want a certain unit (matchups where you want another Vex in case they kill her, matchups where you want a lot of Fans, matchups where Allay is good), you put your second Last Rites in. It's also again, a really good value card.

1 Fizz: That's the 3rd Fizz from the main deck. Mostly for matchups where Star-Crossed is really good or our opponent is really susceptible to Charm.

1 Star-Crossed: Just use it when it's a good matchup for it. Opponent is playing medium/expensive (hopefully with a rune cost) high impact units that you don't want them to get use out of. Side this in against Leblanc. Bounce their Mixologist and Ruined Rex. They will hate you.

1 Vex Cheerless: You will notice that she doesn't discount a lot of our spells. And that's fine, the best part about cheerless is forcing our opponent to play cards during the combat, as they will cost a whole lot more. Try to force counter wars with her in combat. Your Defy costs 1 energy, their Defy costs 2 energy 2 power. Even if they win the counterwar and the combat in general, they will go down so many runes it doesn't matter.

You will notice there's no Aurora tech. The reason is simple: We don't really need it in all honesty. Star-Crossed is a really, really good answer to Elder Dragon. It makes the aura go away, making the 1 damage pings not actually kill your units. You sometimes win after bouncing the first, but you don't have any trouble finding a 2nd Star-Crossed to bounce the 2nd Elder Dragon, as you will be running 3 Fizz and 3 Star-Crossed into Aurora. Just make sure you have defy ready if they will have 10 runes on their Aurora turn, to be able to defy a reaction blade flurry.

Potential inclusions I'm considering:

Edge of Night: It's almost exclusively for the hidden. It's the only hidden that can increase the might of our Vex and is also uncounterable. Due to Vex Apathetic being so good into Lillia and Rengar, some players of these decks have started putting Crescent Strike and Void Seeker respectively into their sideboards to try to kill our Vex somewhat efficiently when we are tapped out. A hidden Edge of Night prevents that even if we are at 0 runes. It also generally helps us outmight units which is pretty important.

Gust: It's currently really strong cause it counters Leblanc and is nice into 2 drops. I'm afraid if I run it I will run out of cards and it will brick when the opponent doesn't have any low might units (as we don't have any shrink effects), but in reality, every deck that isn't Aurora runs small guys.

As I said, the main argument is beating Leblanc, but this deck completely shits on Leblanc anyways, I believe I'm 10-0 or 11-0 into Leblanc with this deck. Maybe it's in general good idk.

Treasure Hunter (in place of Desert's Call): I initially didn't run it cause it's one might. You can't prevent it from getting gusted and is incredibly weak turn 2. However, it's really good after that. We often spend the gold created on turn 2 by equipping boots or playing Charm or playing Sona. I will start trying this after posting the guide, could be pretty good. Partially a problem of the card is that it takes 3 turns for her to do something (you play her, then she moves, then gold is ready) so maybe she is just too slow if you dont have her exactly on turn 1.

Janna: I was considering her before adding Sona, should be a lot better with Sona, I'm just not sure against what deck I actually want her. I would generally rather stun and kill something than FoF it back.

The Academy (as a blind battlefield). I haven't tried it. The battlefield should be good for us in general, I just haven't studied the lists of other legends enough to know how much value they will get off this and therefore if it's worth it. There's a chance it makes the Ezreal and Diana matchup a lot worse and that's enough to make us not run it.

Whirlwind: As far as I know, you can use this to bounce an opponent's Baron Nashor. If the Baron Irelia list ever catches on, this has to be in the sideboard as it's our only response in the colors. At least Baron enters stunned and cant move so they cant immediately ready him with Boots + Irelia Legend, so maybe we could just try to bring everything over and kill him? I've only played the matchup against Baron Irelia once so I don't know in all honesty.

My own results:

I played this deck in the R&R unleashed ladder (among other platforms). In the R&R ladder, I was 1900 MMR, with a score of 38 wins and 12 losses (76% winrate). My winrate in private matches (either with friends or random people testing set 3 games in the R&R server before the ladder went up or the Riftbound community server) must be even higher, though I'm not sure what it is, probably ~85-90%

If you read through this entire post, thank you so much. I wanted to make this relatively short but I ended up expanding on it more and more. I put a lot of effort on it so I hope you enjoyed the guide and will have fun playing the deck.

After the UNL pre-con event, decided to look up the prices of cards I opened and I really only had one thought:

The set is releasing right around the corner, so surely demand is at an all-time high while supply is at an all-time low.

But why are they all so low? Most rares are ~1 euro (cardmarket), epics seem to be in the 8-15 range (even the new Rengar Trophy Hunter which is a 3 of in a lot of body decks in the upcoming set is ~15). I'm genuinely surprised by this.