Riftbound: The League of Legends Trading Card Game released its third set upon the May 8 release of Riftbound Unleashed.
The set is aptly named, as Riftbound begins to unleash its latent potential by expanding its mechanical offerings, exploring new design space in what is proving to be both an accessible and surprisingly deep Trading Card Game.
Disclosure: Riot Games provided a product package to Insider Gaming to assist this review. The package included the following contents:
- Vi & Vex Champion Decks
- 1 Booster Box
- 1 Vault
- 1 set of Card Sleeves
- 1 Playmat
Riftbound Unleashed Continues to Stretch Its Design Horizons
Riftbound Unleashed has continued to push the creative boundaries as Riot Games looks to explore the design potential of the increasingly popular TCG.
New to Unleashed are the Ambush, XP, and Hunt mechanics, all of which manage to create new design space for cards without hurting the game’s core accessibility that has garnered so many new fans.
- Ambush: Units with Ambush can be played to Battlefields where the player has at least one Unit as a Reaction.
- XP: A resource players can build up to spend as a resource, or receive passive effects through ‘Levels,’ e.g., Level 1 = having 1 XP
- Hunt: Cards with Hunt gain the player XP when conquering or holding.
Ambush especially highlights what is already so great about Riftbound, showcasing the interactive nature of the game and giving players new concerns to play around.
The mechanic feels satisfying and powerful to play, and just as satisfying to counter by keeping track of your opponent’s open energy and the potential threats in their colors.
Riftbound is at its best when it is at its most interactive. Giving certain Units that same level of interactivity further elevates the game and rebalances the interplay between units and spells.
XP/Hunt is somewhat more of a mixed bag, due to the delayed gratification built into the mechanic. XP is a two-stage mechanic, requiring both setup and payoff.
Initially, cards with XP payoffs will be relatively weak, in some cases lagging behind in stats, until they meet the XP threshold for their payoff.
A typical XP deck may have a payoff that kicks in at Level 3, Level 6, and Level 12. If your deck can successfully curve out your XP, alongside its energy curve, it can feel very powerful.
If it cannot, then the player can be left feeling relatively helpless, with little hope of coming back due to Hunt requiring the player to conquer or hold battlefields.
It can become a vicious cycle where you can’t win Battlefields because you don’t have XP, and you can’t earn XP because you can’t win Battlefields.
Thankfully, certain cards, such as ‘Herald of Spring’, also earn XP on play, with cards like ‘Nilah – Joyful Ascetic’ earning XP upon movement. Those cards give key lifelines to XP-dependent decks when things aren’t quite going to plan.
In addition to new mechanics, Unleashed offers new ways to play through its heavy token emphasis, with LeBlanc’s ‘Reflections’ offering strong synergy clones of Units with Deathkneel, giving players a host of new interactions to play around with.
Lillia’s playset also utilizes temporary tokens, using 3/3 Sprites with a strong support package to overwhelm the opposition with numbers along. As for Ivern, Bird Tokens have never felt so good, as the Champion’s token Battlefield buffs them, and Stalking Wolf can gobble them up to get a powerful Ambush trigger during Showdowns.
Dazzling Aurora Discourse Continues on Social Media
Instead of new mechanics, the criticism of the new set has largely come down to how it interacts with an existing card: Dazzling Aurora, Gear from Origins, which allows players to look through their deck at the end of their turn until they find a Unit, which they can play immediately.
The card’s interaction with Elder Dragon has been criticized. Elder Dragon deals one damage to enemy Units at each location upon entry, with the card including a passive effect, which means that all damage is lethal.
The combo is essentially a board wipe in most scenarios, with the opponent’s board being controlled elsewhere by spells.
The discourse surrounding the card has consumed social media surrounding the set’s release, with many arguing that it’s overpowered, while others argue that it can be played around relatively easily.
Many of those arguments seemingly miss the larger picture: That players do not find it fun or interactive to play against the deck. That is a factor that the win rate cannot encapsulate, but should be of equal concern to Riot.
While the deck may be ‘balanced,’ is it delivering the best of what Riftbound can offer?
The existence of Dazzling Aurora also potentially precludes the design of more powerful high-cost Units, as Aurora will always be there to make them cheaper, at least until 2028 when Riftbound will experience its first set rotation.
As sets continue to release, Riot Games will have to ask itself not only whether interactions are strong but also whether they are good for the long-term health of the game.
Unleashed’s Limited Experience
One aspect that Riot should probably reconsider is its limited strategy. In Prerift, players are currently given a Legend card from the set and a ‘Sealed Deck’ for that Legend, featuring the Legend’s colors. Your five booster packs supplement that to make a (minimum) 25-card deck.
Largely, that system works, making sure that players always have a Legend and a Champion Unit to play if they choose their provided Legend, and allowing for more skill expression through the choice of supplemental cards.
The issue with Unleashed’s prerift specifically is the inclusion of Jhin’s Legend, ‘Virtuoso.’ The card text reads “When you play a spell, if you spent 4 [Energy] or more, you may banish it. Then, if there are four spells banished with me, put each in its trash, channel 4 runs, and draw 1.”
The card is by no means weak; it’s designed to be put in a deck with lots of high-cost spells to make the most of the channeling and drawing bonus.
The issue comes when this heavily constructed-leaning mechanic comes into contact with a limited format, as the Sealed Deck itself does not provide the necessary spells to make use of the mechanic.
If you’re unlucky with your packs and don’t get many four Energy spells, your Legend may never have a chance to use its ability, leaving you intrinsically at a disadvantage against those who can… use their Legend.
Judging by social media reaction, the majority of people who pulled Jhin in Prerifts were left feeling like they did not get the full prerelease experience, with many choosing a compromised experience and moving to another opened legend simply to limit their disadvantage.
A set should not be built around only its limited play; of course, constructed play will be the majority of the set’s lifespan. It is more than Riot should consider in the future whether a mechanic is suitable for limited.
That being said, Unleashed’s limited experience is still lots of fun. The set’s overall more interactive feel allows for plenty of skill expression in deck building and in gameplay.
Players will have to balance their Units with their removal spells, will have to work out what curve is best for their playstyle, and will have lots of judgment calls to make in gameplay as they decide whether it’s worth it to counter their opponent’s plays.
There’s a lot more to the format than simply what Legend you start with, but if skill levels are equal, those with weaker legends may suffer.
Preconstructed Decks Provide a Strong Base for New Players
As part of this review, the Vi and Vex preconstructed decks were thoroughly tested, and I’m happy to say that they’re a fun time.
The decks showcase the new mechanics, with Vex featuring Hunt/XP cards, and Vi’s deck heavily featuring Ambush cards. They both play intuitively and have strong, explosive cards that feel powerful to play.
Additionally, the preconstructed decks continue Spiritforged’s Epic and Rare distribution, which was much more generous than the Origin precons.
Each deck features:
- 2 Epics
- 6 Rares (excluding the Legend)
- 15 Uncommons
- 17 Commons
- 3 Uncommon Battlefields
- + Deck-relevant tokens
We can contrast that with Origin’s Jinx decklish, which contained:
- 0 Epics
- 3 Rares (excluding the Legend)
- 13 Uncommons
- 24 Commons
That value means that players get a solid range of their Legend’s flavor to test if they like Vex’s stun-heavy gameplay or Vi’s explosive Ambush plays. The Epic cards of each deck are a Champion Unit ( Vex – Apathetic/Vi Hothead) and a Signature Unit/Spell (Shadow/Hextech Gauntlets).
The additional Epics and Rares not only make the deck more exciting to play in and of itself, but also make the deck a far more viable path for players to upgrade with cards they either open or acquire as singles.
As preconstructed decks are often a gateway into the game for new players, the upgraded package in the precons is a big win for Riftbound. Unleashed’s strong supply should mean that those singles are relatively affordable, making precons with upgrades a strong option for new players.
The only issue with the precons as a pair is their matchup mechanics. Vex Apathetic stuns enemies upon entry, hard-countering Ambush as a mechanic.
Once the card is removed, the matchup returns to an equilibrium state, but if that’s not possible, it can feel pretty neutralizing to have a handful of Ambush with no choice but to play it to your base (stunned).
In that sense, it feels a little strange to have the decks paired against each other, with one deck countering the other.
Where Does Unleashed Leave the Meta? The Esports Scene Will Decide
As far as where the new cards leave the meta, that is something which cannot be tested in a review setting. However, data from China, where the cards have been legal since April 10, indicate that LeBlanc’s ‘Reflection’ clones, Lillia’s Spirit tokens, Yi’s XP mechanics, and Diana’s extra energy are having strong effects on the meta.
However, it remains early days in terms of the meta, and making any sweeping judgements of how the new cards will alter the game is beyond the scope of what can be tested. Instead, we’ll have to sit back and observe Riftbound’s various Regional Qualifiers to see how the set plays out.
The next notable Riftbound Regional Qualifiers are:
- Sydney: May 15-17
- Vancouver: May 29-31
- Utrecht: June 12-14
Meta players will undoubtedly want to keep an eye on what developments occur during those events, and what counters players come up with for some of the most powerful combos in the game.
Riftbound: Unleashed Review Verdict
Overall, Unleashed provides another step in the right direction on multiple fronts, with the game’s complexity growing, precons providing more value, and supply chains also proving to be more robust for Riftbound Unleashed, lowering costs for players.
However, Unleashed at times also shows that Riot’s inexperience, with questionable prerelease experience and card interactions proving to be sources of grievance for its fanbase.
Those issues do not overcome the overall excellent package that Riftbound: Unleashed offers to players, as the TCG continues to move from strength to strength as League of Legends and TCG fans enjoy the new set at Local Game Stores across the world.
Local game stores continue to offer valuable third spaces to players. With Riftbound remaining a purely in-person game, one cannot underestimate the social and community benefit that TCGs can provide.
Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server if you’ve been enjoying Riftbound or if this review has persuaded you to invest.
For more Insider Gaming reviews, check out our coverage of Mixtape
Riftbound: Unleashed
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Riftbound: Unleashed
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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