Want To Get Into Riftbound? You Should, And Here’s How

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The trading card game market is now more competitive than ever. While classics like Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering have always been popular, new games such as One Piece, Disney Lorcana, and Gundam have emerged in just the last three years, and even more companies are launching their own card games.

Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, recently entered the trading card game market with Riftbound. The first set, called Origins, launched late last month and has already proven to be very popular. According to a recent presentation at PAX Unplugged, Riot has ambitious plans for the game’s future and hopes to involve players in shaping its direction.

Riftbound is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for everyone, especially new players, explains lead designer Dave Guskin. The team prioritized making it easy to pick up and play with friends. While familiar to players of other trading card games, they’ve also specifically aimed to capture the feel of League of Legends champions for fans of that game.

Riftbound has a large and growing collection of Champions, with even more cards planned for the future, suggesting it’s a game that’s here to stay. Now is a perfect time to start playing, whether you’re already a fan of trading card games, a League of Legends player, or simply enjoy collecting cards. Let’s take a closer look at what Riftbound actually is.

The core rules of Riftbound

Riftbound is usually played with 2 to 4 players, all competing to capture and control Battlefields. You get one point for taking a Battlefield, and another point if you can hold onto it until your next turn. The first player to reach eight points wins!

Each deck in a Riftbound game must include the following:

  • Champion Legend
    • This is the Champion the deck is themed around, and it starts the game in a special Legend Zone. Its power can always be activated.
  • Main deck
    • The main deck will include 40 cards, and it can be any combination of Units, Spells, and Gear cards. Each card in the deck must share one of the two Domains, or “colors,” on the Champion Legend card.
  • Rune deck
    • This separate deck serves as the deck’s resource base, where “channeled” runes provide the Energy to cast spells or summon units and gear.
  • Battlefields
    • Each deck must include three separate Battlefield cards. At the beginning of a game, each player will choose one of their three Battlefields to be active throughout the match.
  • Chosen Champion
    • This is a special Unit card that features the same League character as the Legend that the deck is themed around. This can be placed in the special Champion zone, and summoned from that zone once per game.

Okay, so at the start of the game, we all get dealt four cards. Then, we figure out who goes first – usually with a coin flip, dice roll, or even just a quick game of rock-paper-scissors, whatever works! It’s different than Magic though, because even though I go first, you get an extra little boost as the second player – you get to activate an extra rune on your very first turn to balance things out. Pretty cool, right?

The first player to reach eight points by taking or keeping control of locations wins the game. However, there are two ways to score the final point: you must either capture both battlefields in one turn, or hold onto at least one battlefield until your next turn while already having seven points.

Those are the core guidelines, and we’ll cover the details as we continue. Now, let’s talk about why now is a great time to start playing Riftbound, even if you’ve never played a trading card game before.

Card game veterans

People who already play a lot of card games might be hesitant to add another one – space for storing cards is limited! But if Riftbound sounds interesting, now’s a great time to give it a try and see if it fits into their collection.

Right now is a great time to start playing! The number of available cards is at its lowest point, with only the first set, Origins, currently released. It contains a reasonable 298 cards total, including tokens and Battlefields. The next set, Spiritforged, arrives in February, so getting familiar with the game now means you can learn the current strategies before things change.

Because Riftbound is a very new game – less than a month old – its competitive scene is still developing and hasn’t settled into a stable state. While some strategies are proving more popular than others – like builds centered around Kai’Sa, which made up 38% of the decks in a recent Las Vegas tournament with 400 players and a $10,000 prize pool, and Master Yi decks at 16% – these two champions didn’t dominate the top rankings. A Sett deck and two Annie decks actually finished as the top four players, showing that a variety of strategies can still succeed.

As a card game player, it’s super cool to get in on something right at the start, especially when it’s just the first set out. It doesn’t happen often with trading card games! Being able to help build how the game is played – basically, shape the meta – is a really exciting opportunity, and I’m totally here for it.

League veterans

Even if you’re new to card games like Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering, Riot Games has made sure Riftbound is accessible. The Champions in the game are designed to play similarly to how they do in League of Legends, so you can jump in and enjoy them regardless of your card game experience.

Darius is a very strong character who excels as both a fighter and a tank, dealing significant damage. The more cards you play each turn, the more powerful his Champion card, Darius, Trifarian, becomes. Miss Fortune, on the other hand, moves faster in the game and her Champion card gives you a bonus the first time you deploy her to the battlefield each turn.

Riftbound uses some terms similar to those in League of Legends, which might give players familiar with that game an edge. For example, ‘ganking’ in Riftbound means moving a unit between different areas of the battle. And some units can act as ‘Tanks,’ protecting their allies by taking damage first – just like the Tank role in League of Legends.

Champion cards often feature artwork directly from League of Legends. So, if you love a particular illustration of your favorite Champion, you might find it on a Riftbound card.

Collectors

For art collectors, there’s good news too! We previously said the Origins set had 298 cards, but that wasn’t quite right. There are actually 308 cards, including 10 very rare versions called “Overnumbered” cards. These Overnumbered cards feature unique artwork and are identified by set numbers like “299/298” or “300/298,” indicating they go beyond the standard card count.

Beyond the standard variations, some Overnumbered cards are even more special – they include the artist’s signature from the card’s artwork. These signed cards are the most difficult to find and highly sought after by trading card game collectors.

Riftbound is a new trading card game with a lot of potential, and it’s looking promising. If you’re curious, now’s a great time to start playing!

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2025-11-25 20:12