How a Riftbound Deck Is Built

Legend, Champion, main deck, runes, battlefields and the 10-card side deck — the anatomy of a Riftbound deck, explained with real examples.

New to Riftbound deckbuilding? A constructed deck is made of a few distinct parts. Here's how the current tournament lists are put together.

The parts of a deck

• Legend (1) — your identity card. It sets your deck's direction and which Champion you build around (e.g. Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman).
• Champion (1) — your signature unit, tied to your legend (e.g. Master Yi, Tempered).
• Main deck (~40 cards) — your Units, Gear and Spells. This is where most of your strategy lives.
• Runes (12) — your resource cards. Their colours must match your deck's domains.
• Battlefields (3) — the locations you contest during the game.
• Side deck (up to 10) — extra cards you can swap in between games at tournaments. This went up from 8 in the July 2026 tournament rules update, effective 24 July 2026.

Add it up and a full tournament list is 66 cards (56 in the main deck plus a full 10-card side deck).

Two rules govern what can go in that side deck:

• No Runes, Legends or Battlefields. Those live in their own zones and can't be sideboarded.
• The 3-copy limit is shared. You may run at most 3 copies of a card across your main deck and side deck combined — 3 in the main leaves you 0 in the side.

Domains and runes

Riftbound has seven domains — Fury, Calm, Mind, Body, Chaos, Order and Colorless. Most competitive decks commit to one or two domains (for example Master Yi is Body/Calm, while Irelia is Calm/Chaos). Your 12 runes are split to match those domains, which is how you reliably cast your cards.

Building on a budget

A deck's cost is dominated by a handful of chase cards — the commons, runes and battlefields are cheap. Paste a list into the Deck Builder and it shows the build cost broken down card-by-card, priced in your own market, so you can see exactly where the money goes and where to save — then tweak it and re-price your own version.

Mulligan: keep or ship your opening hand

After you draw your opening hand you get one chance to mulligan — shuffle back any number of cards and redraw that many. A good keep usually has:

• Enough runes to cast your early plays — a hand with no resources, or all resources and no spells, is a mulligan.
• Something to do on your first few turns — a cheap unit or a tempo spell so you're not passing turns.
• A plan that matches your domains — if your runes can't cast the expensive cards in hand, ship the dead weight.

Against aggressive decks, keep cheap blockers and removal; against slower decks, you can keep a slightly greedier hand with your stronger mid-game cards.

Sideboarding between games

At tournaments you play best-of-three, and between games you can swap up to your full side deck (10 cards since 24 July 2026, up from 8) in and out. The idea is to tune your deck to the matchup: bring in extra removal against go-wide decks, more resilient threats against control, or anti-aggro tools when you're on the back foot. Plan your swaps before the event — for each common matchup, decide which cards come out and which come in, so you're not guessing at the table.

The two extra slots are worth more than they look. Eight slots usually forced you to cover only the two or three matchups you expected most; ten lets you keep a dedicated answer for a fourth deck without cutting your core plan, which is exactly why the change landed alongside Vendetta and its sideboard-oriented designs.

Want to try these ideas out before committing? Price the final deck across every store first, so you know exactly what the build costs before you buy.

FAQ

How many cards are in a Riftbound deck?

A full tournament list is 66 cards — 56 in the main deck plus a full 10-card side deck. The parts are a Legend, a Champion, a roughly 40-card main deck of Units, Gear and Spells, 12 Runes and 3 Battlefields, plus the side deck of up to 10.

How many runes do you need in a Riftbound deck?

Twelve. They are your resource cards, and their colours must match your deck's domains — splitting them to match is how you reliably cast your cards.

How many domains are there in Riftbound?

Seven: Fury, Calm, Mind, Body, Chaos, Order and Colorless. Most competitive decks commit to just one or two of them and split their 12 runes to match.

Is the Riftbound side deck 8 or 10 cards?

It is up to 10. The limit rose from 8 in the July 2026 tournament rules update, effective 24 July 2026, and at tournaments you can swap up to your full side deck between games of a best-of-three.

Can you put runes in a Riftbound side deck?

No. Runes, Legends and Battlefields live in their own zones and cannot be sideboarded, and the 3-copy limit is shared across your main deck and side deck combined.

How much does it cost to build a Riftbound deck?

Most of the cost sits in a handful of chase cards, while the commons, runes and battlefields are cheap. Paste a list into the Deck Builder to see the build cost broken down card by card, priced in your own market.

Source: https://riftcompare.com/guides/how-a-riftbound-deck-is-built