How to get started with Riftbound: the complete guide

Riftbound is League of Legends' official trading card game (TCG), published by Riot Games. To get started, you'll need: a starter deck or a Champion Deck, an understanding of the basics (Champion, domains, energy, runes), and possibly a few single cards to round out your deck.

What is Riftbound?

Riftbound is a trading card game set in the League of Legends universe. Each player builds a deck around a Champion (a Legend card) and battles their opponent using units, spells, gear and battlefields drawn from the game's universe.

The basics of a Riftbound deck

A constructed (standard format) Riftbound deck is made up of:

• 1 Champion (Legend card), which determines the domains allowed in the deck.
• 56 cards in the main deck (units, spells, gear).
• 3 distinct battlefields.
• 12 runes, which provide the energy needed to play your cards.
• Up to 10 cards in the sideboard, to adapt your deck between games.

Two important rules to remember: you cannot have more than 3 copies of the same card (main deck and sideboard combined), and your deck can only use 2 domains maximum, determined by your Champion.

Where should you start?

The simplest way to get started is to buy a Champion Deck: a pre-built, ready-to-play deck centered on a specific Champion, usually including a booster to customize the deck and a playmat. It's the most affordable and fastest way to start playing without having to build a deck from scratch.

You can find our Riftbound decks and bundles as well as our sealed boosters and displays available at Nexus Cards TCG.

What's next?

Once you have your starter deck, you can customize it by adding single Riftbound cards to match your playstyle. Our Riftbound deck builder lets you build your list, check that it follows the official rules (56 cards, 3 battlefields, 12 runes, maximum 2 domains) and see right away which cards you're missing to complete it.

Going further

To avoid buying cards you already own, use our My Riftbound Collection page, which lets you track the cards you own, set by set.