Riftbound Deck Building Tips for Beginners
A beginner’s guide to building your first Riftbound deck, with simple tips to help you make better decisions from the start.
How to Build Your First Riftbound Deck
Building a deck for the first time can feel overwhelming. These tips will help you make smart choices from the start and avoid the most common beginner mistakes.
Start With a Champion Deck
If you are completely new to Riftbound, the easiest way to start is with an official Champion Deck. These are pre-built 40 card decks designed around a single champion and are ready to play straight out of the box. Playing a Champion Deck first teaches you how that champion is meant to be played before you start making changes.
Origins Champion Decks include Jinx, Viktor and Lee Sin. Spiritforged Champion Decks are also available and include Fiora among others.
Understanding What Goes in a Deck
A complete Riftbound deck has several required components.
Your Champion Legend is the heart of your deck. You bring exactly one. It determines which Domains your deck can use and has a powerful ability that influences every turn. Build everything else around what your Legend does best.
Your Chosen Champion is a Unit card that matches your Legend’s tag. It starts in the Champion Zone before the game begins and can be played any time you have enough Runes. You must include exactly one as your designated Chosen Champion, though you can include up to 3 copies of that card in your Main Deck as well.
Your Main Deck must contain exactly 40 cards. These are your Units, Spells, Gear, and up to 3 Signature cards matching your Champion Legend’s tag.
Your Rune Deck must contain exactly 12 Rune cards matching your Legend’s Domains. If your Legend covers two Domains, splitting your Runes evenly between both is a solid starting point.
Your Battlefields are three cards you bring to every game. In a best of one game one is randomly selected. In a best of three you choose which to present each game, but cannot reuse one already played that match.
Stick to One or Two Domains
The most important rule of deck building is focus. Your Legend gives you access to two Domains. Build around them and do not try to use cards from outside them, you cannot anyway, but the point applies to how you balance between the two. Cards within the same Domain often work better together and reward you with Allegiance bonuses for committing to one colour.
Spreading your deck too thinly across both Domains without a clear plan produces a deck that does nothing well. Pick a primary strategy and build toward it.
Build to Exactly 40 Cards
Your Main Deck must be exactly 40 cards. A tighter deck means you draw your best cards more consistently. Every card you add beyond your strongest choices makes your deck less reliable. Resist the urge to include extra cards just because they seem useful.
The Rule of Threes
If a card is good enough to include, run 3 copies of it. If it is situational, run 1 or 2. Consistency means seeing your best cards regularly rather than hoping to draw the one copy you included.
Balance Your Rune Costs
A common beginner mistake is filling a deck with expensive high cost cards. You need cheap cards to play in the early turns while your Rune pool is still small.
Aim for a mix: plenty of 1 to 3 Energy cards, some 4 to 5 Energy cards, and only a handful of expensive cards for the late game. If all your cards cost 4 or more Energy you will do nothing for the first few turns and fall behind before the game has started.
Also think about Power costs. If many of your cards require Power, make sure your 12 Rune cards include enough of the matching Domain to cover those costs consistently.
Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
Not enough Units. Spells are powerful but you need Units to actually fight for Battlefields. Aim for at least 20 Unit cards in your deck.
Going above 40 cards. It feels tempting to include everything you like but a bigger deck just means drawing your best cards less often.
Copying competitive decks without understanding them. Tournament decks are built for experienced players who know every card interaction. Start simple and learn the game first.
Changing your deck after every loss. Give your deck time to reveal its strengths and weaknesses before making big changes. One bad game is not enough information.
Ignoring your Battlefields. Your three Battlefields are part of your deck strategy too. Choose ones whose abilities support what your deck is trying to do.
Building Your Collection
Start with a Champion Deck to learn the game. Then buy a booster box to expand your options. Focus on completing cards within one or two Domains before branching out. Trading duplicates with other players is one of the best ways to fill gaps without spending more money.
Looking for cards to complete your build? TCGPlayer is the best place to find singles and sealed product, with multiple sellers competing on price so you can see exactly what things cost before you buy.
New cards are coming in Unleashed on May 8. Our Riftbound Unleashed overview covers everything confirmed so far.