League of Legends’ Riftbound TCG: Hands-On With Unleashed, its Newest Set

The League of Legends trading card game, Riftbound, is back with another set this year in the form of Unleashed. The latest set is already available in China, with a global release on May 8th. With this set comes new mechanics such as Ambush, XP, and Stun, just to name a few. There’s even a new card rarity and some extra love to the huge roster of Legends like Vex and Vi, who are prominently featured in the new champion or pre-constructed decks. This is the TCG’s third set, which signals one step closer to a simultaneous global release – something fans can appreciate after the recent bans. From what I’ve played so far, these new additions seem to showcase a bit more power creep than what I experienced in the last set.

First and foremost, the champion decks continue to be the best jumping-in point for new fans of the game. As mentioned earlier, the two new decks releasing alongside the booster set are led by the Legends Vex and Vi. I was able to play games with both, and each showcased the set’s new mechanics fairly well. The Vex deck, for instance, uses both XP and Stun fairly extensively. Sometimes pre-constructed decks shoehorn in certain cards because they’re new, but I was able to utilize both mechanics often if my draws were lucky enough. To keep track of XP, there’s a card where you can keep tokens or dice on as you gain and use XP throughout a match. With XP comes new related keywords, Hunt and Level, that assist with the benefits of XP. For instance, the Mosstomper unit has Hunt 2, which means the player gains 2 XP when it conquers or holds a battlefield. This unit also has Level 3, which gives a buff of +1 Might and the Deflect status for protection. To attain Level 3, the player must have 3 XP or more on their tracker. As long as the XP requirement is satisfied, Mosstomper will always have this Level 3 buff when on the field. The same goes for spells and other cards with the Level keyword, like the card Combat Experience. Normally, this card gives +1 Might this turn, but it becomes +3 instead if Level 6 is achieved at the time of playing the spell. It’s an interesting mechanic that serves as another form of resource. It can be a lot to manage in the thick of all the action, so it’s probably not the best deck for beginners.

With that said, Stun is also a key mechanic in this Vex deck. Stunning a unit means they don’t deal combat damage that turn. So if a showdown triggers, stunned units don’t contribute to the total Might on defense or offense. It’s great to essentially take a unit out of the fight instead of completely destroying a unit through removal spells, which usually has a higher resource cost. Another cool use of Stun is slowing down aggro decks. For example, let’s say there’s a scenario where a unit with 1 Might is defending a battlefield, and a 3 Might unit with Accelerate is able to move into the attack right after being played. If the attacking unit is stunned during the showdown, the 1 Might unit survives and the 3 Might unit has to retreat back to base as defenders keep control on ties. If both had equal Might, they would typically destroy each other, but only one would perish if the other was stunned in this case. One key Stun card in the Vex deck is the champion unit, Vex Apathetic. In addition to having Deflect, she has a passive ability that stuns any opposing units that are played onto the field as long as she is on a battlefield. Those stunned units also can’t move that turn, which is a total counter to aggro decks. To be able to control how your opponents move or deal damage is such a strong ability in the right hands. Units aside, the Vex Legend card, which serves as your leader and passive ability from the start of the game, allows the player to draw one card when you hold a battlefield. Just some great value, if you’re keeping your opponent’s units at bay through stuns and XP abilities. Although rare, other new keywords like Backline and Predict make an appearance in this deck. Backline is the opposite of Tank, where that unit receives damage last. Predict is like Vision, where players get to look at the top card(s) of the deck, but now this keyword allows players to choose cards to go either on top or the bottom of the deck instead. Overall, the Vex deck felt solid to play, and it’s worth piloting if you can manage the XP resource and nuances of Stun.

The Vi deck, on the other hand, has a much simpler playstyle featuring the Ambush mechanic. Ambush is just like Quick Draw, where cards can be played at Reaction speed, but it’s for units this time instead of equipment or spells. It’s yet another way to reinforce on both offense and defense, with the benefit of having another unit to stick around on the field. This Vi deck utilizes Ambush in an aggro strategy containing units littered with the Assault keyword, which raises a unit’s Might when they are attacking. Unlike the Vex Legend that has a nice plus for holding a battlefield, the Vi Legend is all about doing too much damage with these Assault units. The Legend Vi ability allows a unit to be readied if the player conquers a battlefield and assigns an excess of 3 or more damage to opposing units. For example, Vi Hotheaded has a Might of 3 but has an ability to double her Might this turn. If she attacks a battlefield with another unit with 3 Might and uses her double ability, she’s doing 3 excess damage now that her total Might is 6. This triggers the Vi Legend to ready any unit the player chooses. In Rengar Unseen’s case, the card has the ability called Ganking that allows a unit to move from one battlefield to another. Typically, units have to go back to base to go to another battlefield. If Rengar does 3 or more excess damage, he can be readied and sent to attack the other battlefield in the same turn. Between units like this and spells like Square Up that give units Assault 4, there are plenty of instances to overkill opposing units.

Unlike the Vex deck, there’s not much else to the Vi deck, other than maybe one instance of Stun and some Deathknell units to play token units. That’s not a knock on the deck, though, because the fairly linear playstyle means the Vi Legend is more likely to trigger. I’ve had a handful of instances where I conquered a battlefield for a point, readied an Assault unit, and brought them back to base to attack whatever my opponent plays on the next turn. If anything, this deck can be very overwhelming to play against if the player gets the right cards in hand. Even the stuns of the Vex deck may not be enough. For example, Vi Hot Headed could be swinging in with 6 total Might just on her own, while a cute Loyal Poro gains Assault 4 twice by Square Up bringing in another 11Might. Even if you stun one, the other one is still coming in with some major damage. The Vi player can even feint a bigger attack by not doubling Vi Hot Headed or playing the spell card yet. So prepare for some extra mind games while you’re being barraged by battle hungry units. Of the two, I preferred this deck the most due to the overwhelming nature of the aggro. It lands better on average than the stunning and XP of Vex. With that said, both decks came with some really powerful cards that had a bigger impact on me than the champion decks from the Spiritforged set.

Another offering alongside the decks this set is the Vault. Similar to Disney Lorcana’s Trove boxes, the Riftbound Vault serves as a tool for players to stash their decks while also getting some packs and exclusive goodies like three full art tokens. In addition, this set is also introducing the first ever Ultimate rarity tier in the form of Baron Nashor. It’s so rare that the chance of pulling one in a pack is 0.1%! Aside from having the new Ultimate tier, Baron Nashor is also a wildly strong card that literally creates its own battlefield. Not to mention, it cannot be targeted by spells or abilities and gives a +2 buff to friendly units. You might as well forfeit if you don’t have an army of units to smash into this thing or have a spell that doesn’t target like Unchecked Power. It’s a costly card to play, but it’s practically a game lock if it’s safe to do so.

Looking to the future global meta, we’re seeing some of it already with the China release back in early April. The decks topping so far include Master Yi Wuju Bladesman and Leblanc Deceiver. Master Yi is a green (calm) and orange (body) deck featuring new Unleashed cards like Master Yi Tempered and Vilemaw. The Master Yi Tempered unit has Hunt 2 for XP and gains Deflect and Ganking when the player is Level 6. With the Master Yi Legend buff to solo defending units, this sticky unit can hold a battlefield for a good while in the early to midgame. As for the tanky Vilemaw, the unit has Ambush and an overpowering ability that nullifies weaker opposing units that are in a showdown with it. Alongside the buffs and counter spells that green and orange provide, it’s tough to get around these units without making some sacrifices.

Speaking of sacrifices, the Leblanc Deceiver blue (mind) and yellow (order) deck is all about that in regards to her Legend’s ability to create reflections or temporary copies of allied units already on the field. Specifically, when the player conquers or holds a battlefield, the player can discard a card and create a readied temporary unit. That’s right! The temporary unit can also do things after being created, and they last throughout your opponent’s turn until your next turn begins. In addition to these reflections, many units in the Leblanc Deceiver deck have the Deathknell keyword, which gives effects when the units die. So if the opponent doesn’t choose to get rid of the reflections themselves, they’ll die anyway to reap the rewards. So much value! Some choice cards that capitalize on these combos include Leblanc Fragmented and Karthus Eternal. Leblanc Fragmented gives draw when she dies, which is always handy in a game where players only draw one card at the beginning of their turn. Karthus Eternal on the other hand allows units with Deathknell to trigger a second time. So instead of drawing one card when Leblanc Frangmented dies, she can draw two or even four in the right situation. This deck really ensures you see all the cards you need to make or break a game.

In regards to the unaligned release schedule and the meta, global players saw high performing decks ahead of their release, which means we usually see a flood of the same decks in many tournaments. The devs behind Riftbound understood this and that’s why we saw the first bans ever for the card game. Their concerns included unhealthy impacts to every level of competitive play, cards causing more problems as the game grows, and just plain not having fun. Having played a card game competitively for at least five years now, I’ve seen this happen with certain cards or deck archetypes and I totally understand the feeling. Eventually, the game will just not be fun anymore if certain cards or decks persist with overwhelming results. So it’s good to see these changes sooner rather than later.

Overall, this set is very promising, with a handful of new cards that feel very powerful out of the gate. The new Vex and Vi decks are both competitive and balanced, and the set’s mechanics make for intriguing mind games and interactions in these highly contested battlefields. Riftbound is still very young, and the team behind it is making sure this game prospers long after its honeymoon stage. For more on Riftbound, check out our hands-on impressions of the last set, Spirtiforged.

Mike Mamon is a Syndication & Digital Specialist at IGN, devil fruit user, and world-renown JoJo poser. Let’s chat anime or TCGs on Bluesky @xpmnms.bsky.social