Tempo13X's Riven Allegiance Overwhelm Deck List & Guide - Runeterra Deck Spotlight

Hail, Champions! We're proud to ring in the new year by announcing the start of a new weekly series focused on a more in-depth spotlighting on a specific deck in Runeterra! Each Wednesday, we'll be doing an in-depth look at a particular archetype. And to kick things off, we're going to look at Tempo13X's Riven Allegiance Overwhelm deck!

Riven has ironically been the least popular of the new Cosmic Creation champs. Despite having above-vanilla stats and a strong passive ability that constantly generates value, she just hasn't been as ubiquitous as Zoe or as inspiring as Viktor. We believe this will be a temporary condition, however -- put simply, clever players will always find ways to utilize solid low-cost champions eventually, and Riven is definitely above average on paper. Runeterra streamer and regular-Master Tempo13X agrees with us, which is why he built this Noxus allegiance deck around her.

Riven Allegiance Overwhelm Strategy

This deck is essentially a Noxus allegiance midrange framework built around Riven and Draven. Ideally, you'll play either Draven on curve if you're attacking on odds (i.e., so you can attack with a 3|3 Quick Attack immediately) or Riven on curve if you're attacking on evens (so you get her shard and the option to open-attack at the start of Round 4). Notice that unlike many Noxus allegiance decks, this deck doesn't have much burn or early chip damage -- instead, it's trying to setup for some a strong midgame starting with a big tempo swing on Rounds 3 from either Riven or Draven. Most of your nexus damage will come from units with high attack and overwhelm. Basilisk Rider, Crowd Favorite, and Kato The Arm apply the pressure in the following rounds, and Decisive Maneuver, Captain Farron, and The Harrowing provide potential closing options.

This deck intentionally has only a single Round 1 option, Blade Squire. In most games, you'll want to float your Round 1 mana anyways so you can take advantage of an early Reforge from either Runeweaver or Riven to play a weapon hilt from spell mana while still curving into your midgame units.

Don't feel bad using your life as a resource and taking early-game damage with this deck -- using a mid-sized unit to block a smaller attacker is usually not worth the risk of them using a Pale Cascade or Sharpsight to create a value trade. Also, remember that your spiders and Runeweavers have the potential for additional value later thanks to cards like Crowd Favorite, Decisive Maneuver and Kato The Arm.

In case anyone is unfamiliar with the Decisive Maneuver trick, let's quickly review the following example.

Let's say you attack with Captain Farron (8|8 overwhelm) and he's blocked by Rahvun, Daylight's Spear (5|5). This would normally resolve as Farron living at 8|3, Rahvun "absorbing" 5 points of damage as he dies, and the "extra" 3 points of damage overwhelming into the enemy nexus. If you cast Decisive Maneuver on Rahvun after he's announced as a blocker but before combat damage is assigned, however, not only is Farron buffed to 10|8 but Rahvun is removed from combat as he gets stunned. This means nothing is there to absorb Farron's attack, so all 10 damage will overwhelm the enemy nexus. As a bonus, all your other attackers will get +2|+0 as well (+4|+0 for L2 Riven if it's her first attack buff); this often gives you enough extra damage to create a lethal attack. You'll usually want to use this trick against whichever enemy blocker is blocking an attacker with overwhelm and has the highest health -- if the attacker doesn't have overwhelm, it only deals traditional damage which will be entirely mitigated by the "ghost block" created as the blocker gets stunned.

Here's Tempo13X's deck guide in video format:

Riven Allegiance Overwhelm Mulligan Guide

• You really want to play either Riven or Draven on curve.
  • If you have the choice between both, you'll want Draven if attacking on odds.
  • Riven if attacking on evens; however it isn't worth tossing.
• House Spider and Runeweaver are both great Round 2 plays, especially if you miss the single 1-drop, Blade Squire.
• Blade Squire is worth keeping but as mentioned earlier floating your Round 1 mana is totally fine
• Culling Strike is clutch against particular matchups -- Miss Fortune, Fiora, Lee Sin, Soraka, Lucian, etc.

Riven Allegiance Overwhelm Deck List

Riven Allegiance Overwhelm Card Substitutions

• A lot of this deck's power comes from playing aggressively with the tempo Riven and Draven generate if played on curve in Round 3.  If you're short any of the recommended 3 copies of each, Tempo13X recommends substituting Iron Ballista
• Kato The Arm's overwhelm provides a lot of reach, and his +3|+0 will double on L2 Riven if it's the first attack buff she's seen for the round. If you substituted Iron Ballista for any of your champion slots, Darius is the best alternative. Otherwise, Decimate, OverwhelmBADCARDNAME, a 3rd Decisive Maneuver, and a 3rd Captain Farron are other options.
• Captain Farron is one of the best closers cards in the game, and all players will already have 1x copy from their starting collection. Farron is one of the best epics in the game and worth investing a wildcard to craft; however, if a substitution is absolutely necessary then you could consider any of the cards mentioned for Kato's slot.
• The Harrowing is a tech card and the only non-Noxus splash. While it provides some nice closing power, it's entirely optional -- Hush, Deny, Sharpsight, Pale Cascade, and Moonlight Affliction are all alternatives.