Riftbound is a new trading card game from Riot Games. It takes inspiration from many different card games, as one tends to do, but when set and laid out, it resembles a whole lot of what I like about card games in general.
The game is pretty young, and to my knowledge, has only had high level competitive events in China, so knowledge is pretty scarce. That said, I want to touch on why I’m very much looking forward to playing it in the long term.
Those that know me know that I love Commander. I love the fact that it exists, I love how supported it is, and I love how no game will ever be the same. Everyone builds differently, and it shows. The socializing and politicking is great, and The overall atmosphere is exactly what I look for in Magic these days.
Except one thing…
I hate multiplayer…
It’s not anyone or anything’s fault. It’s not the game itself. I just cannot stand playing multiplayer Commander. I’ve always, since day 1, enjoyed playing Magic 1v1. This included Commander. When it first got popular here in NYC, I pretty much always wanted to play with one other person. Those days are long gone now, but Riftbound seems to have a lot of what I want in exactly that niche.
I won’t go too much into how to play the game, but to put it as simply as possible. The goal is to control battlefields, and you gain points for controlling them, first to 8 points wins. You start the game with a Champion Legend card, which functions very similarly to a Commander. Said Champion Legend will also be accompanied by a Champion Unit, which is the card we actually play. Think Commander with a Background. This is a direct nod to how to build Commander decks, which is my absolute favorite part. As said, the game is pretty young, but in the long term, being able to have different functions of a specific champion adds a very cool layer of depth in the deckbuilding process.
Let’s take a very simple example:
Dark Child Annie is my Champion Legend, which means that I have to play an Annie Champion Unit. This Annie Unit gives me 1 bonus damage to all of my spells and abilities, so it’s pretty clear what this archetype wants you to do on the surface. With Dark Child as my Legend, I get to, in Magic terms, untap 2 lands at the end of my turn, which makes a lot of sense if I end up playing a lot of spells that want me to act on my opponent’s turn, or interact outside of my own turn in general.
In the future, they could release an Annie Legend that further enables bonus damage, or an Annie Unit that gives me a bonus for each readied rune, or something to that effect, which could completely shift how I want to play things, despite playing the same Champion. These are exactly the kinds of things I want to look out for when building, and this isn’t even talking about building actual decks and the like.
This sort of top-down deckbuilding, on top of being in a 1v1 format, is what makes me excited for Riftbound. There’s so, so much more to this game than mentioned here of course, but expect to see a whole lot more about the game from me. I’m genuinely excited to play competitively, and I’ll have more in store in the coming months!
Anthony Lowry (they/he) is a seasoned TCG, MMORPG, and FPS veteran. They are extensively knowledgeable on the intricacies of many competitive outlets, and are always looking for a new challenge in the gaming sphere.