This felt gross to play. Easily one of the strongest decks I've ever drafted at a pre rift. Ironically the hardest matchup was another diana. The undefeated master yi deck I faced in the finals couldn't get to level 6 in both games we played...
2 bewitching + 3 ways to bounce/replay it + doubles of 4 of the good spells + a very solid top end made this feel unlosable.
I fully admit pulling alpha strike with the master yi precon is extremely lucky, but other than that the other rares I pulled were useless aside from eve and shadow. Despite that the deck felt amazing, and the results showed. It puts up ivern bush might numbers, but has the ability to break the other battlefield with mega tusk, skyward strike, eve, alpha strike, and star crossed.
I only dropped a single game against a vi. I only drew 1 hunt unit, and after it and my master yi were killed, i was stuck at 5xp and lost pretty badly. I beat an ivern, kha, and jhin as well.
This is a hold deck, so draft accordingly. I pulled wayyyyyy more fury cards than chaos, but they didn't fit the gameplan. Stun is super strong.
Standout/Better than expected cards:
- alpha strike & shadow: obv alpha strike was amazing, and it single handedly won me one of my games. Shadow being a constant stun threat was insanely strong, and helped hold so my units could hunt. There are very little kill spells in this set, so stuns are super high value.
- soul sword: that +2 might made the difference way more than expected.
- concentrate: draw two for 1 energy was insane. And draw two for 3 felt pretty dang good too. Helped me curve out multiple times. it was never a dead card in hand, although i always mullaginned it away.
- moss stomper: hunt 2 on a 3 energy 4 might unit felt so good. Getting 6 asap is so important and this unit helped me do it
- grim resolve: the 2xp on combat win got me to 6 quickly multiple times. If I couldve run 5 of these I would've.
- skyward strike: I already knew this was good, but omg it's honestly insane because of the stun.
- chaos: eve is just another slightly worse skyward strike, insightful investigators hand rip literally won me a game, mega tusks large might and ganking threat helped contribute to multiple wins, and star crossed helped me break a hold and replay my kinkou initiate. Insanely good color to splash as your third color.
Hope this helps you win your pre rifts if you pull master yi!