Riftbound is Riot Games’ new physical trading card game (TCG), released in October 2025. Like every other TCG, there are many different ways to play Riftbound. Riot Games has released the full list of formats, and tournaments have already begun. Here’s a list of the formats to play in Riftbound. If you’re new to Riftbound read more about it here.
Formats can refer to several notions in a trading card game. It can mean the game modes, the match settings for competitive, the rotation of legal cards, or constructed and limited. All of these aspects will be covered here.
It’s worth noting that Riot has said little about this online, with most of the information coming from the manual included when buying a deck.
Constructed is the regular way of playing a card game. Each player brings their deck, and they play with those cards.
Duel is the standard way to play casually. One game between two players, first to score 8 points wins, as the rules describe.
A match has both players play until one of them gets two game wins.
There are two differences with a duel; first, the pick of battlefields during the setup. In a duel, both players pick one of their three battlefields at random. In a match, they choose one of their three battlefields for game 1. Then, they remove it and choose another one for game 2. If there is a game 3, they then use their remaining one.
Second, players can bring an 8-card sideboard to a match. After each game, they can swap any number of cards between their main deck and their sideboard. Players must keep their main deck at 40 cards, and can’t change their chosen champion.
Annie, the Riftbound Legend card that won the Houston Regional Qualifier. Image Source: Riot Games
Skirmishes are like duels, but with one more player.
There are 3 battlefields in play instead of 2 (one per player), and the player who goes first doesn’t draw a card on their first turn. Only the player going last channels an extra rune on their first turn.
A war has the same rules as a skirmish!
With the one exception that the player who goes first does not put a battlefield in (in addition to not drawing on their first turn). Only the player going last channels an extra rune on their first turn. The players still play with only 3 battlefields. War is the closest to Magic the Gathering’s Commander format.
2v2 Teams are Riftbound’s version of a Two-headed giant. Allies don’t share their cards or their resources, and they still only control their cards. However, cards of both players are considered friendly to both. Teams also combine their points: the first team to 11 points wins the game.
In 2v2, the turns alternate between the teams. Team 1, player 1 > Team 2, player 1 > Team 1, player 2 > Team 2, player 2, and so forth.
Just like in War, the player who goes first does not place a battlefield nor draws a card on their first turn. Only the player going last channels an extra rune on their first turn.
Limited is the alternative that most TCGs also offer. When playing Limited, people come without a deck, and build theirs off of booster packs that they open directly at the store, during the event. Limited formats are an amazing way to remove the monetary entry barrier of a TCG, as players all arrive on even footing, and their skill isn’t measured by whether they can invest 300 bucks into their deck or not.
Limited formats require a better understanding of the meta, but offer more replayability and excitement. People never play the same decks, and there’s the thrill of opening excellent (or expensive cards) – that one gets to keep afterwards!
In sealed, each player opens 6 booster packs. The content of these boosters are the card pool they build their deck from. Afterwards, the game or match is played as normal. Limited formats are most commonly played as matches rather than games, though every other format is endorsed, including 3- and 4-players!
Sealed has several differences in deckbuilding compared to constructed, to adapt to the limited card pool.
| Rule | Constructed | Limited |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cards in the main deck | Exactly 40 | Exactly 25 |
| Maximum number of copies of a single card | 3 | None (up to as many as the card pool contains) |
| Domain identity | 2 domains | Up to 3 domains. It is also possible to only use 2 or 1. |
| Champion Legend | The deck must contain a Champion Legend. Its domain identity determines the deck’s domain identity. | The deck may contain a Champion Legend. It can be any Legend that belongs to the deck’s domain identity. The third domain can be any color of the player’s choice.
Note: If the main deck only uses two domains, the Champion Legend can be of one of these domains, and any other. The deck will then have a 3-domain identity, with only two featured inside the main deck. |
| Chosen Champion | The deck must contain a Chosen Champion. Its name must match the Champion Legend’s. | The deck may contain a Chosen Champion. It can be any Champion that belongs to the deck’s domain identity, not necessarily the same Champion as the Legend card.
Note: If used, the Chosen Champion counts as one of the 25 cards of the main deck. |
| Signature Spells | The deck may contain a Signature Spell. Its name must match the Champion Legend’s. | The deck may contain any number of Signature Spells that fully belong to the domain identity. Both colors must be included, but there are no other restrictions. |
| Rune Deck | The player brings their deck of 12 rune cards, all belonging to the deck’s domain identity. | The event organizer brings an infinite pile of free-to-grab rune cards that all players can borrow for the duration of the event. The player builds their deck of 12 rune cards, all belonging to the deck’s domain identity. |
| Battlefields | The player brings their 3 different battlefields. | The player must use 3 battlefields. They can also use “blank battlefields” among those three, which have no effect. They may use different copies of the same battlefield, provided they opened them. They may use blank battlefields regardless of how many battlefield cards they opened in their card pools. |
| Sideboard | The player brings a sideboard of exactly 8 cards. Only the main deck can be changed. | The sideboard is every card in the card pool that isn’t in the main deck.
Riot has not stated whether the other sideboard rules apply, regarding Champion Legends, Chosen Champions, or the rune deck. |
| Additional rules | If the player opts to not use a Champion Legend or a Chosen Champion, they draw one extra card during their first draw step. If they choose to use neither, they still only draw one extra card. |
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| Additional rules | At low levels of play, it is allowed to change the structure of the deck between matches. |
There is currently no Booster Draft format in Riftbound, at least officially.
However, anyone could make their own by combining the Booster Draft rules from Magic: the Gathering and Riftbound’s Limited construction rules. This would then mean 3 booster packs per player, picking one card and passing the rest, and everything else being like in Sealed.
Kai’Sa, the Riftbound Legend card that dominated the Origins meta. Image Source: Riot Games
Standard refers to the pool that players are allowed to use cards from. Most of the time, Standard will refer to the most recent 4 to 8 sets. Until the end of 2027, all sets will be legal in Riftbound Standard.
At the start of 2028, Set 10 will come out. Then, sets 1 to 5 will be removed from Standard as the first rotation.
At the start of 2029, the second rotation will take place alongside the release of Set 14. The second rotation will remove sets 6 to 9 from Standard.
This rotation cycle will continue each year.
Eternal formats are formats that let players use all cards that exist, regardless of their age or set.
There is currently no Eternal format in Riftbound, since this is irrelevant until 2028 and the first rotation. However, Riot has announced that there will be an Eternal format once rotation takes place.
Competitive tournaments are all played using 1v1, Best of 3, Constructed matches.
The next obvious step for Riftbound formats would be the addition of an official Booster Draft format. Like in other TCGs, tournaments might also start including a Limited portion.
We could also start seeing formats restricting the cards used, such as:
Other than these, Riot’s already got everything covered.
Commander Ledros from Riftbound, a card that originated in Legends of Runeterra. Image Source: Riot Games
This is an unofficial FAQ, albeit made from official information.
There is no official Commander format, but War gets close. It’s a free-for-all 4-player game, and the default Riftbound rules already enforce using a Legend as “Commander” and centering the deck identity around it. You can then add your own Singleton restriction!
Stock availability. Most stores around the world immediately sold out on Origins products and aren’t able to restock enough to meet the demand. As such, most LGS don’t have boosters in stock to host Sealed events with.
Modified Champion Deck (pick a starter deck, open two boosters, make your final deck for the event from all those cards) was a format used for the release events. Riot has stated no intention of re-using it in the future.
Only if absolutely necessary. “[Riot] would never use bannings as a tool to shake up the metagame for its own sake, but rather to correct extreme circumstances that we felt were to the detriment of the overall health and fun of the game.
Featured Image Source: Riot Games
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