Core Rules

Before the release of Riftbound: League of Legends, Riot Games have released a Core Rulebook so you can brush up on everything you need to know before those all-important pre-releases. We'll give you the cliff notes version right now:

To play you will have a Main Deck, Rune Deck, a Champion Legend, and a number of Battlefields determined by the Mode of Play

Main Decks

Main decks are comprised of at least 40 cards:

• 1 Chosen Champion unit
• Units
• Gear
• Spells

Rune Decks

Rune decks are comprised of 12 cards:

• Cards in this deck must be of the Domain Identity of your Chosen Champion
• Must be shuffled separately from your main deck

Your Rune types are:

• Fury Rune (red)
• Calm Rune (green)
• Body Rune (orange)
• Mind Rune (blue)
• Order Rune (yellow)
• Chaos Rune (purple)

Battlefields

• The number of battlefields will be dictated by your Mode of Play
• Subject to Domain Identity

Getting Started

To start playing, you need to choose your Champion. We've seen from the card spoilers so far that these will include, but may not be limited to:

• Viktor
• Kai'sa
• Volibear
• Jinx
• Darius
• Ahri
• Lee Sin
• Yasuo
• Leona
• Teemo
• Miss Fortune
• Sett

You can construct your own deck, or pick up one of the pre-constructed ones that UVS have kindly built for you! The Champion Legend is the most important card in your deck, as this will define your options for the Chosen Champion who starts faceup on the board and your domains (colours) of your deck's cards. This then defines your strategy, much like other TCGs such as Magic the Gathering or Lorcana. Each domain will feature different strategy types, so choose carefully. You'll then have additional units, spells and gear. If you've ever played League of Legends, you can see where this is drawing inspiration from.

League of Legends Comparison

Think of it as you are choosing your Champion in a game of League - that's your Chosen Champion. Your Units are the other players on your team, which are reflected as other Legends, minions or Jungle Monsters in your deck. Your spells are your QWER abilities, and your gear is what you buy in the shop. Simple, right?

How to Win

To win, you need to win Battlefields. Each player will bring a battlefield as part of their deck, but once the game starts they're all up for grabs. You'll move your champion and other units to take control of battlefields over the course of the game. As you do, you score points - and for each turn you'll score another for as long as you control that battlefield. You fuel your cards with Runes, this is the cost you pay for what's in your deck. Each turn you get two new runes which can be used in one of two ways; tap them to temporarily pay for costs; or use them completely by returning them to your rune deck to pay for more powerful cards.

Hopefully this has outlined the basics of the game for you so far, now let's get onto the most important part of this blog; the card reveals.

Card Reveals, Anatomy and More

The card anatomy is important to know whenever you're playing a new game, whether it be a long-established TCG like MTG or something new like Riftbound. A lot of the time, the knowledge of these games are relatively interchangeable - especially for things such as cost, attack etc. We've added a handy graphic below that outlines the anatomy of these upcoming cards so you can familiarise yourself with them.

Card Anatomy Breakdown

Let's break down each component of a Riftbound card to help you understand how to read and use them effectively:

• Energy Cost: The Energy Cost indicates the colourless cost to play the card. This means you can tap any colour rune to contribute to playing this card.
• Power Cost: The Power Cost indicates the type of Rune you must Recycle (exhaust, put to the bottom of your Rune Deck) as well as the number. This draws from the Runes you have just tapped. This card needs to Recycle 1 Calm Rune to be played.
• Category: The type of card i.e. Unit, Champion, Legend, Spell, Item. Also includes the Tag, the Card Name and any other card attribute applicable.
• Ability: In essence, what the card does. These can be anything from triggered and passive abilities to gameplay effects. This will also indicate the cost of an ability, include keywords and whether an action must be taken (i.e. Tapping)
• Flavour Text: Generally Lore or something pertaining to the character, this has no affect on Gameplay.
• Might: The attack power of the card, as well as their health. For example, Ahri has a Might of 4 so will do 4 damage, but if she takes 4 damage she is defeated.
• Domain: The Rune type you will need for this card.