Lucian Counter Riftbound: How to Beat Purifier Equipment Pressure

Lucian - Purifier is an equipment-tempo deck. It wants to develop a Body/Fury unit, attach a gear, and turn that ordinary attacker into a larger Assault threat while movement keeps the attack from becoming a fair one-for-one exchange. The deck is strongest when one equipped unit both wins a battlefield and leaves before your counterattack.

Lucian is now a reasonable uncovered matchup to learn. Current public event archives place Purifier near the front of Baltimore data and record a Purifier win in the 600-player Lucca Showdown Series. Those records are not yet matched by one official Riot final recap and a verified current list, so this is a role-based counter guide. Riot's official Singapore Top Decks, Barcelona Top Decks, and Vancouver Top Decks recaps provide earlier Lucian shells for role evidence, not a current decklist. Read exact text in the card database, build a test shell in the builder, compare public shells in Riftbound decks, and map the matchup on Riftbound Counters.

We do not have a verified current Vendetta Lucian decklist in RiftStorm's first-party corpus. We will not turn an older Riot-published shell or a public event snapshot into a 40-card list with invented counts. The useful part that survives the missing list is the role structure:

• equipment that gives the attacking board extra Assault through Purifier;
• cheap units that become more threatening once they are equipped;
• movement that attaches equipment and can send a conquering unit back to base;
• combat bursts that make exact blocks fail; and
• a hard-to-target late unit that punishes a deck relying only on targeted spells.

That is enough to test the matchup without pretending to know the current 40.

Purifier's printed ability is the deck's identity: your Equipment each give Assault. Assault gives the equipped unit +1 Might while it is an attacker. The result is not a slow gear engine like Ornn. Lucian wants equipment to make a normal battlefield body overperform at the exact moment it attacks.

The deck usually wants to:

• Play an early Body or Fury unit that can contest a battlefield before the gear turn.
• Attach equipment so Purifier's Assault bonus matters in combat.
• Use First Mate to create another ready action or a movement spell to change the lane after committing.
• Convert the equipped attacker into a conquer before your blocks line up.
• Reuse the same body or open a new lane instead of leaving the first attacker exposed.

Your counter question is not just whether Lucian can be removed. It is whether the equipped attacker can be stopped before it gets a clean conquer, and whether you can keep the next battlefield live after that exchange.

These cards come from Lucian's confirmed kit or recurring role package. They are not a claim about exact current counts. Read the current wording in the card database before sideboarding.

• Purifier gives every Equipment controlled by the deck Assault. The bonus applies to the equipped unit while it attacks, so do not use printed Might alone for block math.
• Relentless Pursuit moves a friendly unit, may attach up to one Equipment with the same controller to it, and gives that unit a conquer trigger that can move it to base that turn. This explains why an equipped attacker can threaten a score and exit the battlefield.
• Doran's Blade, Trinity Force, and other equipment turn otherwise ordinary units into larger attackers. Use a gear answer when it breaks an immediate scoring line, not automatically on the first harmless attachment.
• First Mate readies another unit when played. Do not assume the first Lucian attack is the only meaningful action that turn.
• Punch First gives a unit +5 Might this turn at Action speed. Treat open Body rune as possible combat math.
• Sabotage reveals your hand and recycles a non-unit card. Protect the one answer you cannot afford to lose.
• Ruin Runner is a 6-cost, 5-Might Body unit that cannot be chosen by enemy spells or abilities. Plan to beat it in combat, with a legal non-targeted effect, or by making its arrival too late to matter.

The package has two jobs: equipment turns combat into a burst, while movement and ready effects stop you from getting a clean counterattack. Answering only one half leaves the other half intact.

Break the attack, not just the equipment.

An equipment card is only frightening when the equipped unit is about to win a battlefield or force you to spend a full turn rebuilding. If the Lucian player attaches a gear to a body that cannot conquer, you have gained time. If you remove the gear but leave a ready unit and an open second lane, the deck may still convert its movement plan. Count the attack, the combat burst, the exit, and the next lane as one sequence.

1. Contest Before The First Gear Turn

Lucian is easier to beat when the first equipment has to go on a unit that is already under pressure. Play an early unit and make the battlefield matter before the opponent can spend a turn attaching without consequences. A quiet first turn gives Purifier an uncommitted body, spare resources, and a clean attack target.

You do not have to remove every early body. You do have to make it expensive for the first equipped attacker to enter a winning combat.

2. Count Purifier's Extra Might Before You Block

Each Equipment gives its equipped attacker Assault through Purifier. Add printed Might, gear bonuses, and temporary combat effects before deciding whether a block works. Punch First adds +5 Might at Action speed. If your block only wins when the Lucian player has no combat trick, it is not a safe block.

Spend a flexible answer after you know which unit is receiving the equipment and which battlefield the deck is trying to conquer, unless the equipment itself is about to create immediate value.

3. Make Relentless Pursuit Defend

Relentless Pursuit can move a friendly unit, attach an Equipment, and give that unit a conquer exit to base for the turn. Do not spend your entire turn chasing a unit that is about to leave. Pressure the battlefield or second lane that the movement cannot also protect.

If Pursuit rescues a losing attacker, the card and movement were spent on survival rather than a clean score. If the move creates a winning attack, answer the scoring unit or break the battlefield before the exit resolves.

4. Force Equipment To Do Defensive Work

Gear is most valuable when it adds Might to an attack. Make the opponent attach to a unit that must defend, or make the equipped unit spend its next action holding instead of conquering. A gear that saves one combat is useful, but it is not generating the same tempo as an attack that wins and retreats.

Two-lane pressure matters. If Lucian stacks everything in one lane, take the other. If Lucian splits the equipment plan, the individual attacks become easier to contest.

5. Do Not Rely On One Targeted Removal Spell

Ruin Runner cannot be chosen by enemy spells and abilities, and the Lucian deck can protect an important unit through movement. Keep at least one answer that works through combat, a broad or non-targeted effect where legal, or a battlefield reset. A hand with three targeted spells and no early body is a mulligan against the matchup.

6. Trade For The Scoring Unit, Not The Cheapest Gear

A gear may be the engine piece, but the unit carrying it is what turns the turn into points. If you remove the unit before it conquers, the equipment is no longer converting that attack. If your deck has efficient equipment removal, use it when the gear is attached to a unit that can win the fight or when removing it changes the combat math immediately.

Keep hands that do at least two of these:

• Contest a battlefield on turns one or two.
• Present a second lane or a follow-up unit after the first exchange.
• Hold flexible interaction that works after equipment is attached.
• Force the Lucian player to spend a movement card defensively.
• Continue developing after one attacker leaves for base.

Ship hands that are all expensive removal, all gear hate with no board, or all late payoffs. A narrow answer is not a keep if Lucian can attack a different lane. The ideal opening has an early body, a second question, and one answer that remains live after the first equipment turn.

Turns 1-2: Put A Body In The Way

Contest early and spread the problem if you can. Your first body does not need to kill a unit; it needs to make the first equipment turn answer a real battlefield. If Lucian spends resources protecting an opening unit, Purifier is not spending those resources on the attack that matters.

Turns 3-4: Identify The Carrier

Track which unit will carry the gear, whether First Mate can create another ready body, and whether Relentless Pursuit can move the attacker into a better lane. Hold the answer until the scoring line is visible unless the equipment itself is about to create immediate value.

Turns 5-6: Break The Conquer Sequence

Lucian wants an equipped attacker, a combat burst, and an exit. Make that sequence fail at one point. A stun or exhaust before combat, removal on the carrier, a movement reset, or a winning block can all work if they prevent the same unit from scoring and leaving. Do not let the opponent answer your only battlefield while the other lane is empty.

Late Game: Close Before Ruin Runner

A late Ruin Runner can ignore targeted interaction, while old equipment and movement cards make one large unit difficult to pin down. If you are ahead, convert the advantage before the 6-cost body lands. If you are behind, preserve a combat answer and keep two lanes relevant so one untargetable threat cannot close the whole map.

Build by counter role rather than an invented Lucian list:

• Early contest: bodies that can fight before a 2- or 3-cost unit receives equipment.
• Combat math: a flexible buff, stun, exhaust, or removal effect that works after the gear is attached.
• Equipment interaction: answers that are also useful against ordinary units or battlefields.
• Two-lane pressure: a second threat so Relentless Pursuit cannot make one lane safe and the other irrelevant.
• Late answer: combat, broad, or otherwise legal interaction for Ruin Runner and any equipped high-Might carrier.
• Recovery: a follow-up that can score after the first Lucian attacker returns to base.

The current public Lucian package is not validated card-for-card in our corpus. Official Riot deck recaps are useful for seeing Purifier shells combine equipment, Relentless Pursuit, First Mate, Punch First, Sabotage, and Body/Fury units, but they do not prove today's counts. Search legal options in the card database and assemble the package in the builder.

• Blocking without Purifier's Assault bonus. Equipment changes the attack math before Punch First or another combat effect appears.
• Using all removal on small bodies. The unit that carries the gear and converts the score is usually the important target.
• Chasing a unit after Relentless Pursuit. If it returned to base, take the empty battlefield or pressure the second lane.
• Keeping only targeted answers. Ruin Runner cannot be chosen by enemy spells and abilities.
• Playing gear hate with no board. Lucian can attack a different lane while your narrow card does nothing.
• Treating First Mate as a normal 3-Might body. Its ready effect can create a second meaningful action.
• Ignoring Sabotage. The opponent can inspect your hand and recycle a non-unit answer before the key turn.

Use Riftbound Counters to place Purifier beside the other equipment and tempo matchups. Read Purifier, Relentless Pursuit, Ruin Runner, and the exact card text in the card database. Build your real deck and a Lucian testing shell in the builder, then browse Riftbound decks for public shells without treating any unvalidated package as canonical.

Run focused games around three questions: can you contest the first battlefield before gear; can your answer stop the equipped carrier without losing the second lane; and can you close before Ruin Runner makes targeted interaction irrelevant? If the answer to any question is no, change a role, not just a single card.

Lucian - Purifier wins by turning equipment into Assault and pairing that combat edge with movement. The dangerous turn is the sequence where an equipped unit wins a battlefield, Relentless Pursuit or another effect changes its position, and your only answer is now pointed at an empty lane.

Beat Purifier by contesting early, counting the extra Might before blocking, forcing equipment and movement to defend, and preserving an answer for the unit that would actually conquer. Use combat or legal non-targeted interaction for Ruin Runner, keep two battlefields relevant, and do not copy an unvalidated current list.