How to Play · Riftbound
How to Play Riftbound: The League of Legends TCG
Riftbound is Riot's official League of Legends TCG. Instead of racing to reduce a single life total, you fight over Battlefields to score points — first to 8 wins. It rewards positional thinking and feels distinct from anything else on the shelf.
I Game Objective
Score 8 points by capturing and holding Battlefields. Points are awarded for controlling Battlefields when they're scored.
II Building Your Deck
Deck size
1 Legend + 1 Champion Unit + a 12-card Rune deck + a 40-card Main deck + 3 Battlefields.
Card types
- Legend
- Your champion identity. Defines which Domains (colours) your deck can use and gives you a unique passive ability.
- Champion
- Powerful, recursive Units tied to your Legend. They come back to your deck or hand under certain conditions instead of being permanently removed.
- Unit
- Standard fighters you deploy to a Battlefield to capture and defend it.
- Spell
- One-shot effects ranging from buffs to direct damage to board control.
- Gear
- Equipment that attaches to a Unit to grant stats or abilities.
- Rune
- Resources played from a separate Rune deck to pay for the costs of your cards.
- Battlefield
- The locations you fight over. Each Battlefield has its own score value, and is contested by Units sent there.
Deck restrictions
- Maximum 3 copies of any card with the same name (excluding Runes).
- All cards in your Main deck must match the Domains (colours) defined by your Legend.
- Main deck must be exactly 40 cards. Rune deck must be exactly 12 cards.
III Setting Up the Game
- Place your Legend face-up in the Legend zone, and your starting Champion in your Base.
- Shuffle your Main, Rune, and Battlefield decks separately.
- Reveal the starting Battlefields between the two players.
- Determine the first player.
- Draw your opening hand.
Starting hand
4 cards.
Mulligan
Once, you may select any number of cards in your opening hand, shuffle them back into your Main deck, and draw the same number of replacements.
IV Turn Flow
- Begin Phase
- Ready your cards, gain your turn's resources, and resolve start-of-turn effects.
- Action Phase
- Players alternate taking single actions — playing a card, moving a Unit between Battlefields, attacking, or passing. The phase ends when both players pass in succession.
- Score / End
- Score the current Battlefield based on who controls it, then reset and prepare the next Battlefield. Resolve end-of-turn effects.
V Good to Know
- Riftbound's win condition is positional — you can lose every fight but still win if you control the right Battlefields at the right time.
- Runes are separate from your Main deck, so resource flood/starvation is less common than in older TCGs.
- Riftbound is a recent release — rules and formats are still evolving, so check the most current rulebook before tournament play.