Riftbound: Intro to Playing Blue (Mind)

The Mind Domain fights its enemies using continuous trickery and splashy effects. What it lacks in strength is made up in value, as its abundance of card draw helps fuel its antics. Through its Hidden cards and endless Reactions, the opponent will always be left guessing what comes next.

When playing this Domain, it’s important to plan ahead. Even with a wide range of options, one key misstep could get you into trouble. However, if you can manage your resources effectively, it’ll feel like there’s nothing you can’t handle!

In this beginner guide, we’ll cover a handful of the themes and synergies that define the Domain, along with some examples. Of course, keep in mind that this is only one half of the equation, as you’ll always have two Domains at your disposal when you start building decks!

Draw

Card draw is one of the most important things in any card game, and the Mind Domain is loaded with options. At a baseline, it has access to units with a built-in “draw 1”, making it incredibly easy to maintain card advantage.

Lecturing Yordle and Watchful Sentry are both great examples, with the former triggering on-play, and the latter triggering on-death. These are flexible inclusions that go into many decks.

Mind also has access to “burst draw” cards like Progress Day and Consult the Past. These can be a bit more costly, but they allow you to significantly refill your hand. As long as you’re not too behind on tempo, these can be a great choice.

Lastly, there’s even some gear with unique card draw effects. Garbage Grabber turns Trash into treasure, and Mushroom Pouch generates value for the “Hidden” archetype. As you can see, there’s a very healthy variety, so you’ll have plenty to choose from whenever you start brewing!

Hidden

While there’s a small handful of Hidden cards throughout the various Domains, Mind definitely stands out among the rest. The tricky unpredictable nature fits right at home, making the blue Domain all the more challenging to play against.

The aforementioned Consult the Past is one such option, but there are also sneaky units that help pester the opponent. While not technically a unit itself, Sprite Call summons 3-Might onto the board. This could provide quite the tempo swing for the low cost of 1-Power.

Even more devious is Blastcone Fae. This little fella reduces a unit’s Might on-play, resulting in up to a 4-Might swing during a showdown. It’s hard to argue with those numbers.

Saving the best for last, it’s everybody’s favorite; Teemo! This is a very explosive effect that can deal up to five damage to an enemy unit. Of course, hitting this amount isn’t exactly reliable, but hey, it sure is fun to roll the dice.

Consistency aside, even dealing a couple points of damage still has some merit. Plus, there are ways to manipulate the top of your deck if you want to.

As for the Hidden mechanic itself, it’s only going to get better as time goes on. We may have limited options with Set 1, but you can imagine its potential impact with a deeper card pool!

Might Reduction

One of the common types of Mind’s interaction comes in the form of Might reduction effects. These temporary debuffs function like combat tricks, and in some cases, can feel like pseudo removal.

While they are all structured to reduce to a minimum of 1-Might, they can still be very valuable for bringing enemies closer in line. After all, most Mind units have average Might at best.

One common inclusion is Smoke Screen. For 2-Energy/1-Power, it can provide a substantial -4, often rendering the enemy useless. Another staple is Stupefy, which provides a -1 for 1, and replaces itself with its draw. Blastcone Fae also fits into this category, and generally feels similar when played from Hidden.

As for a slower example, there’s the gear Orb of Regret. What’s nice is that it’s reusable, although being public knowledge makes it generally more niche. Might reduction tends to work best when it’s unaccounted for, but there can be times where any -1 is useful.

At the end of the day, most of the reduction effects are best used to win minor exchanges. Their cost efficiency makes them great, even if they can’t solve the more difficult problems. However, if you would like to trounce over a much bigger board, there’s always Thousand-Tailed Watcher!

Here we’ll briefly highlight a few key cards you can expect to see in your games. Keeping these in mind is important for recognizing what your opponent may have, giving you the opportunity to prepare and play around it!

Smoke Screen: As mentioned above, 2E/1P for -4 can give you quite an edge in battle. As far as Reactions go, it’s one of the biggest number swings available.

Stupefy: You really can’t go wrong with a cheap spell that replaces itself. Sometimes -1 is all you need, and in those moments Stupefy feels incredible.

Retreat: This is great for countering opposing removal spells, or simply rescuing a unit from combat. On top of that, you get to Channel a rune. Fantastic value for the 1-Energy.

Singularity: Despite only being playable on your turn, dealing 6 damage to two units can be an absolute blowout. Its cost makes it a bit clunky, but it’s certainly impactful.

Thousand-Tailed Watcher: When Accelerated, this can sometimes turn into a one-sided board wipe. It’s extremely strong at dealing with a busy battlefield, and even better when you have other available (and Ready) units in play.