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Master Yi wins two of four China City Challenges

While the Stuttgart Regional Championship Top 8 is nothing but Riven, Kennen and Kai'Sa, China ran four more City Challenges on Saturday, November 7, and the picture looks very different: Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman took two titles, in Foshan and Shanghai, Kha'Zix won Hangzhou and Riven only claimed Tianjin. That's 412 players across the four events. The data comes from the RiftDecks archive, summarised on Reddit by u/i92segoa: it isn't a standings page published by Riot, but the winning lists are public, card by card.

by Riccardo Emanuele Eustor3 min readSource: u/i92segoa on r/riftboundtcg

Master Yi winning decklist at the Shanghai City Challenge, Riftbound

ResultsFour cities, four winners

City Challenges are the events of China's official organized play circuit, and this is the second weekend of Season 5 with Radiance legal. We covered the first one here: Riven won two of four, with Vex and Irelia taking the others. This time the map shifted again.

Season 5 City Challenges, Saturday, November 7
CityPlayersWinnerOther Top 8 decks
Hangzhou128Kha'Zix, VoidreaverVex, Azir
Foshan71Master Yi, Wuju BladesmanZiggs, Ekko
Shanghai128Master Yi, Wuju BladesmanRengar, Evelynn
Tianjin85Riven, The ExileKha'Zix, Irelia

A quick primer. The Legend is the card that leads your deck and gives it its name, so "Master Yi wins" means a deck built around that Legend won. The Top 8 are the eight players who reach single elimination. The right-hand column only lists the decks u/i92segoa flagged as notable, not all eight.

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The listsAn Origins Legend is back

The headline is Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman, the Legend from the Origins starter deck. Its ability is simple: when one of your units defends a battlefield alone, it gets +2 Might. The two winning lists from Foshan and Shanghai are close cousins: both run 7 Body and 5 Calm runes and share two of their three battlefields, Emperor's Dais and Seat of Power. Runes are the cards that pay for everything else; Body and Calm are the Legend's two domains, or colours.

Kha'Zix winning decklist at the Hangzhou City Challenge
Kha'Zix, first in Hangzhou out of 128 players · RiftDecks via u/i92segoa

Hangzhou went to Kha'Zix, Voidreaver, the Unleashed Legend played in Body and Chaos. It's not out of nowhere: a week ago in Orlando, Kha'Zix was leading after Day 1. Tianjin, finally, went to Riven, The Exile, the Legend that is winning almost everything in Europe.

Riven winning decklist at the Tianjin City Challenge
Riven, first in Tianjin out of 85 players · RiftDecks via u/i92segoa
China, 8 events

Riven 3, Master Yi 2

Across both weekends: three titles for Riven, two for Master Yi, one each for Vex, Irelia and Kha'Zix.

Stuttgart

4 Riven out of 8

The Regional Championship Top 8 features only Riven, Kennen and Kai'Sa.

Why it matters to us. After Stuttgart, the European meta risks looking like a three-horse race. China tells a different story: in the same format, at least five Legends can win a 100-plus player event, including one from the very first set, Origins, released a year ago. Anyone in Italy getting ready for a Nexus Night or a local event should have a plan for Master Yi and Kha'Zix, not just for Riven.

In short

  • Four City Challenges in China on November 7, 412 players in total.
  • Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman won Foshan and Shanghai, Kha'Zix won Hangzhou, Riven won Tianjin.
  • Over two weekends Riven has won three of eight Chinese events: strong, but beatable.

Source: u/i92segoa on r/riftboundtcg, data and lists from RiftDecks. Images: RiftDecks, cards by Riot Games.

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