Riftbound's Mel Is Good at Everything and Great at NOTHING | First 40

Mel, Soul's Reflection is Riftbound Vendetta's new Mind + Chaos Legend, and her signature spell Rebuttal is one of the best counterspells ever printed: one energy, one power, counter it or pay a power and steal it outright. This First 40 breaks down Twisted TCG's 18th place Ottawa Mel deck, a tempo build with the full decklist, all three battlefields, the complete sideboard, and an honest verdict on Mel being a jack of all trades and master of none. Learn the free Shock Blast trick with an empowered Applied Researchers, why Rebuttal exists to protect Applied Researchers and Zed, Without a Sound rather than to trade, how Traveling Merchant turns Up from the Deep and Dredge Up into extra cards through Flow, the Zed plus Ride The Wind clone swing, and the Questionable Tome loop that a control Mel would want instead. Then tell me in the comments: is there a lane between tempo and control that only Mel can fill? ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 Mel Intro 3:40 Strengths 4:45 Weaknesses 6:17 Twisted TCG's 18th Place Ottawa Deck 6:50 Battlefields 8:25 Core Pieces 12:30 Sideboard Choices 14:10 Maybe Board 16:45 Mel vs Ezreal vs Diana 🔥 The free spell: empower Applied Researchers, then order the reductions yourself. Researchers takes a power and an energy off Shock Blast, empower takes two more, and neither one floors at 1. Shock Blast costs nothing. 📊 Best-of decklists, tier list & event coverage: https://turnemsideways.gg/ 🛒 Playmats, dice & merch: https://shop.turnemsideways.gg/ ======= SOCIALS ======= Follow us for more competitive Riftbound content: 🎥 YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@TurnemSideways?sub_confirmation=1 🐦 Twitter – https://x.com/TurnThemSide ⏲️ TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@turnemsideways 📸 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/turnemsideways/ 🎧 Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/0qFsptquUddq21pGXu9Thx 🍎 Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-winning-point/id1847709608 🎮 Discord – https://discord.gg/MNFCaxFGpZ 🩵 Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/turnthemside.bsky.social 📝 Threads – https://www.threads.com/@turnemsideways