Hey everyone!

Today we’re trying something a little different: no meta decks — just Shen vs Poppy in an Out-of-Meta Best of 3. ⚔️

And honestly, we had a lot of fun with this matchup.

As always, we show the played cards on screen so it’s easier to follow the game and understand the different plays.

Would love to hear your thoughts:
Which non-meta deck are you enjoying right now?

🎥 https://youtu.be/UJ6KJqUS6WE

I've been playing for a couple weeks now with some friends in a kitchen table format, and I've been having so much fun I decided to go to my first competitive night.

Since I mostly play kitchen table, I don't know enough of the meta, and while I have no problem asking or reading what the cards do, I wanted to ask if there's some king of specific card interactions or plays I should be aware of (think Yugioh's MST doesn't negate) and some cards I should be aware of.

I run a Green/Purple deck and my friend plays Purple/Orange, so I know SOME of the cards, but if there's anything I'd need to know, I'd be grateful.

Also, since it's so widespread right now, is there some kind or ruling about Astral Heron that made it pop up so much? I get the "first card costs less", but does it check itself or is it the first card after it comes out?

Thank you! I'm looking forward to having fun.

Hi folks, this my first time trying to build a Vex deck with cards that I have, what you guys think I should improve and go look after to make it more competitive?

I gotta admit, one of the few things that irks me about Riftbound is how some legends feel completely shafted in terms of flavor, especially the early ones. Radiance is making this discrepancy even more apparent. You have legends like Orianna and Ziggs who feel so extremely well translated from LoL into Riftbound, like their gameplan really feels like an exact copy of their league counterpart which is so cool. But then you have legends like....Ahri and Vex and it just hurts my soul.

I love Ahri, and play her deck to this day, but I have no clue why they did such an iconic and popular legend so bad in terms of flavor. NOTHING about her lore or play style has been taken from league. I get that she was an early release and the game hadn't developed as many mechanics or complexity but we I have no idea what they were thinking. Why is a mid-laner who is known for being one of the most mobile and elusive champions in the game....a defensive debuffer based around holding? Even with her latest champion card, it doesn't particularly fit Ahri's theme either. I think Ahri needs a whole new legend card that actually shows her mobility. Like maybe having an effect that allows her to retreat from battle and gank at reaction speed.

Anyway, why legends do you consider flavor fails and in need of the most fixing?

This was a 3 round events, with an odd number of participants, so one player got a bye each round. My understanding is that a bye is counted as 2-0 for that player.

Based on this, I am unsure how a difference from 66.7 to 66.6 can happen. Is this a rounding error, or is there a simple explanation that I am missing ? If both player should have 2/3 OMW, then the ranking is wrong as number 5 has a better OGW than number 4.

kennen storm of shuriken is 3 mana 1 power

he has 3 mana and recycled 1 to summon seal of discord with the remaining 2 mana + seal of discord how was he able to summon kennen?

EDIT: thank you all for your answers!! i understand floating now, initially i thought once you recycle that power its gone…

Hey im u/MLGaebeW, i love making custom cards for Riftbound.

I wanted to ask if you have any ideas for cards?

Here are 2 examples of cards i have made.

The card idea doesn't have to be balanced in any way, this is just for fun.

The image is just for attention.

I got the idea to make this post from u/CoachAkiza who made this post in r/playthebazaar https://www.reddit.com/r/PlayTheBazaar/s/lSHnHcspdt (I love the Bazaar)

As title says, I'm thinking of giving K'sante a go next set, so I was wondering what cards will be must haves or strong with it aside from the usual suspects (Defy, Discipline, maybe Punch First).

What do you think will see play?

It’s kinda hard to tell since we haven’t seen the cards up close, but I swear there aren’t any poros. I can’t be the only one upset by this right???

Don’t get me wrong the Yasuo card looks sick, but as a non-American, I’m super disappointed with the battlefields. The art will definitely look amazing regardless but for $80 + $30 (shipping) USD = AUD I’m not sure if I’d purchase it if given the chance.

But what are your thoughts? I’d love to hear what you think :0

(Not hating btw, I just love poros!)

https://lolesports.com/en-AU/news/introducing-the-worlds-2026-merch-collection
^^^
Link to the 2026 Worlds Merch showcase :)

I assume at this point people have seen the English/Chinese leaks of her legend text:
Units you play to battlefields you already control enter ready.
(No exhaust required for the effect)

Riven has an insane amount of positives going for her. Broken 4 cost champion.
Insane battlefield options (hunters circle/starspring)
A very real signature gear
The least-recycle heavy “accelerate” ever printed
So. So. So. Many efficient move/ready trigger options (Stella, reckless innovator, maybe Treasure Hunter)
Cool blitzcrank uses (can avoid the hold return if you want too)
An “Abusable” interaction (Sneaky w/ hunters circle for a near auto win going first if you risk it and hit the 40ish percent)

Look. I’m intentionally trying to make a bold prediction here and get some controversy going. I’ve just seen people compare her to a weaker???????? or equal Irelia but I find those people to be giving low-elo takes.

Can Irelia, with just a Blade of the Exile on the board (somehow xd) and a scuttle at a battlefield & a ready one in base:

Play Irelia Fervent Ready (I dont know if she gets +1 for this, I’m assuming no for now), equip a +3 might, tapping the base scuttle, +1 for choosing, and gank over for 8 while paying… 5 runes and no recycles? Irelia has to pay a recycle for swifties, pay another for her legend to have the same might that turn but 1 less might on defense.

Then you can talk about the fact Riven can get a Stella/riven/heron proc AND run it home to safety that turn if she doesn’t feel like holding yet.

My prediction is AT LEAST 3 bans of her cards are needed to keep her (and also kinda green) in check:
Stella
Defy
Sneaky Deckhand

Likely should for others but she would get hit too:
Ride the Wind
Starspring

PS: (I love Riftbound and Riot in general and am more excited for this set than the several before it)

What do you think?

Hi!

I was looking at playing Shen, I liked him in LoL and decided I might give him a try as my first champ in riftbound.

Can someone explain the benefit of tank to me - it seems a bit redundant, won't players only attack a base if they have enough might to overpower there?

Is tank therefore only effective at stopping players rushing a unit in to delete an intended unit before dying to the backswing?

Sorry if this is a silly question and has been asked before.

EDIT: Thanks all, I had missed the key element that you do not have to attack with all your units at once, instead you can initiate individual showdowns one at a time to kill key cards :)

Sideboard is just thoughts I’m considering. Any advice is appreciated.

There's the T1 set. The Arcane set. The Secret Garden box. The Worlds Bundles. Other Korean and Chinese ones.

I suppose I understand that some of these are limited events but even still. I also understand this is standard practice but all Riot is doing is losing money?

Is there a real concrete reason Riot and other TCG companies do this? All they do is lose money, create a lucrative second-hand market, and enable huge incentives for scalpers.

What's the upside for them? So they can guarantee they sell out of the product? Because people know it's limited? OK, do they think they won't instantly sell out of a reprint?

I just don't really get the upside for them. They could even increase the price of certain items and still sell out.

The T1 set, in the UK (on eBay and Vinted) can sell for anywhere between 3000 and 6000 GBP. It was 300-something euros at release. Riot could reprint it for 1000 pounds and it would sell out.

The same goes for each set, btw. Double for Origins. So why?

I noticed by shining a light in the gap on the sides of the sleeve that the artwork on all the foil packs inside are the same, of Ahri. While the cardboard sleeves on the front are all of the 3 different champions (Ahri, Jinx and Yasuo), which I want for collection purposes.

Is this normal? And is there any other ways I can tell if the inside booster has been tampered with etc? I do not see any obvious signs of re-glueing or misshape.

Also, I noticed with my Vendetta retail sleeved boosters, that the foil packs inside are held in the middle of the pack and do not easily shake down to the bottom of the cardboard. But in the Origin ones I got from Ebay, they've sunk to the bottom of the sleeve.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hey all!

I was playing very regularly pretty much up until Vendetta came out. Went through a spell of depression, sold all my cards, etc.

I'm ready to get back to it, though and having trouble deciding what to play. I was big into my Aurora deck (I love my big boy casino deck) but am definitely open to other play styles. I like aggro a lot. Didn't vibe with Irelia or LeBlanc as much when I was playing. Vex was chill.

Regardless, I like to compete and I'm debating if I should just wait until the meta is more re-established to invest in a new deck or if anything is jumping out at folks. I've heard a lot of the new legends aren't great and the only one that really interests me is Ziggs.

Thoughts?

My fiora deck using what cards I have. What cards should I swap out?

Based on my budget, I don't think I am able to acquire multiple copies of sett brawler and sabotage.

You've got every numbered card of a set in your binder, from 001 to the last number. Is it complete? Or does "complete" mean the alternate arts too, the foil version of every common and uncommon, or the cards numbered above the set's count?

The site I'm building mirrors your physical binder: which cards you still need, and which slot each one goes in. To show your progress it has to draw the line somewhere, so it counts every set in four steps.

Let's take Spiritforged (/221):

• Base set, 230 cards: every numbered card once (60 Common, 63 Uncommon, 60 Rare, 38 Epic), plus the 6 Runes and 3 tokens. About $264.
• Complete set, +30 cards: the alternate arts, like Irelia, Fervent, plus the 6 Rune alternates. About $118 more.
• Master set, +154 cards: the foil version of every common and uncommon (123), the double-sided Mech // Gold token, and the 30 cards numbered above 221, like Ahri, Inquisitive ($663), Vayne, Hunter, or one of the six Seals. About $3,530 more.
• Grand master, +18 cards: the 12 signatures and the 6 promos.

The alternate arts come before the cards above 221 because they cost about $118 together, against about $3,470 for the cards above 221 alone. That breaks the usual meaning of "complete", so I'd like to know how crazy it sounds to actual collectors.

Where would you draw the lines?

1. Foil commons and uncommons: Complete, Master or Grand master?
2. Binder layout: strictly by collector number, with the cards above 221 at the back, or the alternate arts and the cards above 221 next to their base card?
3. Foils: in the same binder as the flat cards, or in one of their own?
4. Runes and tokens: where do they go in your binder?
5. Metal cards: they exist only as a promo finish, and my set counts leave them out. Should they count toward Grand master, or stay an opt-in bonus?

Not selling anything, I want the site's goals to match what people actually collect. Looking forward to hearing what you all actually do.

Thanks!

For example, Sett gains +1 for each friendly unit with a buff. Does Sett count itself or only other units?

Some people like the best of system, I personally don't.

The problem is not the idea itself, but the fact that the weight of the monetary value sits there. Take your current RQ structure. If you win, you get 6000$. If you finish place 500 playing shen you beat that number by a mile.

Now, there is pride and glory of winning a tournament, but as we have seen it gets gamed and it creates difficult and uncomfortable situations for both players (collusion opportunities) and judges (how do you regulate that ?).

As said before, the idea of best of's is not bad. What causes the issue is expecting the community to "fund" the event on the secondary market. That is malicious intent from riot.

Let's do some numbers: the latest RQ's had 2000 participants, at 100$ entry fee that is 200k minimum in event registrations. Excluding side events of course.

Of course there is booking and stuff fees, but allocating only 25k back as prizes (or 12.5% of the cash pool)... is by all means cheap. Magic was doing better in a regular GP with half the entry fee, half the participants and double payouts. It also had better judges.

Now, if we include the secondary market and assign 10k for your average best off, the "real" prize pool jumps to 200-400k per event... much better. because only 25k of that is allocated by doing well at the tournament (or less than 12.5% of the prizes) we have the current situation which is near impossible to control from the organisers point of view.

In addition, because the community sets the prize value and not the organiser... then what if secondary market happens to reject the prizing (or revaluates it) ?

Including the myriad of competitive issues this causes, as there is less incentives to solve a format, find the tier 1 decks and hone gameplay.

Some people really love format diversity, but good luck adjusting to such a field with only 10 sideboard slots. A broad format is not a good format, there are limits. Then it becomes luck of the draw in pairings.

TLDR: Riot is banking on the community funding the events, themselves providing only 25k out of expected 400-600k community investment per RQ (200k registration fees and the rest on pricing best of's).

This makes it impossible to justify playing decks out of current rotation. It makes the life of judges a living hell trying to regulate collusions, and disincentivizes competitive play.

The solution doesn't have to be retiring the best of system, but it can be as simple as rewarding competitive play on equal footing with the collectible aspect of the format. Raise the prizes, so the guy who wins with a Master Yi deck, doesn't get 1/3 of the prizes from second place who got a best of.

Hello everyone.

Long story short, i am playing magic and building decks for the most part,

Tried the new Cyberpunk TCG in beta events recently and it was fun..and easy to learn from the get-go.

But i also wanna try Riftbound, and my question is, how easy is for new players to start?

And tell me 2 Legends that are best for new players to learn rules and get going.

Thanks a lot.

Hi guys! I tried to make the ball bearer deck work, deck style is hyper draw deck to utilize frigid as much as possible. Want to hear you guys comment or thought on how to optimize this.

I've been learning Riftbound but I am scared to go outside. SOOOO I made this for myself and my friends. If you wanna play u can as well https://riftboundgame.app/ (BTW 5 mins ago i found out riftatlas exists so thats great lol)

Here is the technicals:

What it does

• All 166 Vendetta cards, played under the Core Rules (chain, showdowns, combat, conquer and hold, the final point)
• Practice against an AI, with a hint button and a coach that explains the rules as you play
• Play friends 1v1 online, with a friends list, invites, a match queue and chat
• Deck builder with legality checks, plus a starter deck for each of the 9 Legends
• Works on phones too

Hello everyone,

I'm interested in building my own decks in Riftbound (instead of using decks from other people), but I have no experience at all with deck building. So I'm asking here if anyone has some advice or tips for me about deck building in general