While Riot Games dabbled in the past with card gaming in Legends of Runeterra, Riftbound is its all-in go at a proper physical trading card game. Not content with merely shipping a Magic: The Gathering clone with a League of Legends coat of paint, Riftbound boasts a unique gameplay flow and ruleset that cleverly leverages the wildly varying playstyles of iconic League of Legends champions. In fact, players who enjoy a particular champion in League of Legends may find they enjoy that same one in Riftbound thanks to surprisingly faithful thematic transitions to the card game format.
Recently, Game Rant attended a hands-on preview event where we got to experience Riftbound first-hand, including the deckbuilding process with free range of the game’s initial 298 cards. We tried out numerous decks and playstyles from the ramp-up-style Volibear deck to Yasuo’s highly mobile deck, and found a refreshing variety of approaches to achieving victory in Riftbound. Since the game is a race to score points rather than eliminate opponents, it’s also highly suitable for multiplayer: deckbuilding can often involve considering one’s teammates, and politics erupt during play as alliances are formed and broken.
Following up after our hands-on experience, Game Rant was given a set of three cards to debut exclusively before they’re added to Riftbound’s official card gallery. Similar to other TCGs like Disney Lorcana and Magic: The Gathering, Riftbound cards are divided into sets of colors such as red, blue, green, and purple. Each deck is comprised of a combination of two colors: for example, Yasuo is a green/purple deck, Darius is red/yellow, and Ahri is green/blue. All three cards we’re revealing today fall under the green category, so they’d be usable by the likes of Yasuo and Ahri, among others.
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Three New Riftbound Cards Revealed
The Rune Prison Spell Card
The first card is Rune Prison, a green spell card that’s playable as an action. Riftbound‘s Action cards may be played either during one’s turn or when opposing forces face off on a battlefield card, making them potential game-changers at the right moment. Rune Prison stuns a single unit, removing its damage from the equation during showdowns that turn and possibly turning the tide.
The Last Stand Spell Card
Next up is Last Stand, another spell/action card that’s quite high risk and high reward. Last Stand doubles a friendly unit’s Might for the turn, but also inflicts it with Temporary: the unit will be destroyed at the beginning of the following turn. This has potential synergy with Rune Prison, where stunning an enemy and doubling a friendly unit’s Might may ensure it survives until the following turn.
The Taric – Protector Champion Card
Lastly, there’s Taric – Protector. League of Legends fans ought to recognize Taric as a tanking champion, and he reprises his role in Riftbound. Taric has the Shield keyword, which increases his might by +1 when he’s defending, and, of course, he has the Tank keyword that forces combat damage to focus on him first in a showdown. Taric also generously grants all other friendly units on his battlefield Shield. Taric can synergize with the earlier-mentioned Last Stand card by doubling his might, tanking up to 9 damage, and potentially saving other friendly units from destruction during defense.
- Franchise
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League of Legends
- Original Release Date
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2025
- Player Count
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2+