What does each part of a Riftbound card mean?

Every card in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game is laid out the same way, so once you can read one card you can read them all. The top corners tell you what a card costs and how strong it is, the band across the middle says what kind of card it is and what it is called, and the text box says what it does. The line along the bottom edge holds the set, the rarity and the domain. This article goes through each part with Jinx, Demolitionist from Origins as the main example, because that one card shows nearly every part a card can have.

What do the numbers in the top corners mean?

The top left corner holds the cost of the card, and the top right corner of a unit holds its Might. The cost has two parts, Energy and Power. The large number is the Energy cost, and each rune you exhaust adds one Energy to pay it. The domain symbols stacked under the number are the Power cost: each one asks for one Power of that domain, which you get by recycling a rune of that domain. Many cards have no Power cost at all.

Jinx, Demolitionist costs 3 Energy and one Fury Power and has 4 Might. Falling Star costs 2 Energy and two Fury Power, shown as two red symbols under its number. Brutal Hunter, a Body unit from Vendetta, costs 3 Energy and one Body Power and has 4 Might.

Might, marked with a sword and shield, is the strength of a unit in combat and also the amount of damage that kills it. Only units have Might, so a spell or a gear shows the symbol of its card type in the top right corner instead.

What does the line above the name tell you?

The short line above the name is the type line, and it names the card type: Unit, Spell, Gear, Legend, Rune or Battlefield. A supertype comes before the type when the card has one, such as Champion on a champion unit and Signature on a signature card, and a printed token puts the word Token there as well. Tags come after the type. Most frames print each tag in a small box of its own, while the slim gold frame of an epic, such as Ivern, Friend to All, separates them with small diamonds.

The type line of Jinx, Demolitionist reads Champion Unit, Jinx, Zaun. Tags have no rules of their own, but the deck rules and other cards refer to them. The champion tag Jinx ties a Legend to its champion units and its signature cards, while a region such as Zaun or a creature such as Dog on Gustwalker matters when another card counts it.

Why do some cards have a name and a subtitle?

A champion unit has a short name, which is the champion, with a subtitle under it, and for every purpose its full name is both together. The card is called Jinx, Demolitionist, not Jinx. That is why it and Jinx, Rebel count as two different cards, and a deck may hold up to three copies of each under the copy limit. A card printed in another language has the same name as its English printing for play and for deckbuilding, even though the words on it differ.

How can you tell which domain a card belongs to?

The domain symbols in the lower right corner show which of the six domains a card belongs to. The band behind the name tells you the same at a glance: red for Fury, green for Calm, blue for Mind, orange for Body, purple for Chaos and yellow for Order. A card with two domains shows both symbols, and its name band runs from one color into the other.

The domain decides which decks a card can go in. A deck takes its domains from its Legend, which shows them as large symbols in its upper left corner, and a card with two domains fits only a deck whose Legend has both. Battlefields and tokens carry no domain symbol, which makes them colorless, and a colorless card fits a deck of any domains.

How do you read the text box?

The text box holds the rules text, which is everything the card does. Keywords are printed in small colored boxes, such as Accelerate and Assault 2 on Jinx, Demolitionist, and most are followed by reminder text in italics and in parentheses. Reminder text only sums up a rule and changes nothing in the game. Inside the text, a number in a small circle is an amount of Energy, a domain symbol is one Power of that domain, a swirling rainbow symbol is one Power of any domain and a small card turning sideways means exhaust.

Many cards end with flavor text, a line in italics in a shaded bar. Flavor text and the illustration have no effect on the game. Equipment adds one more part: Doran's Ring has a second text box under its rules text, called the effect text, with a Might bonus of +1 in its lower right corner. Neither does anything until you pay the Equip cost and attach the gear to a unit, which then gets +1 Might and the ability in the effect text.

What is printed along the bottom edge?

On the left of the bottom edge are the set code and the card number: OGN 030/298 on Jinx, Demolitionist means card 030 of the 298 numbered cards of Origins. The other codes are OGS for Proving Grounds, SFD for Spiritforged, UNL for Unleashed, VEN for Vendetta and RAD for Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026. Cards from Vendetta on add a language code, EN on English cards. To the right come the artist's name after a small brush symbol, the copyright line and the domain symbols.

In the middle sits the rarity gem, and its shape gives the rarity: round for Common, triangular for Uncommon, square for Rare and pentagonal for Epic. A hexagonal gem marks a showcase printing, such as an alternate art, overnumbered or signed card, which plays exactly like the standard card it reprints. On main deck cards the frame shows the rarity as well: bronze for commons, silver for uncommons, a gold full-art frame for rares and a slim gold frame for epics. A letter after the card number, or a number above the size of the set, marks another printing of the same card.

Do Legends, runes, battlefields and tokens look different?

Yes. None of them is played from your hand, so each one leaves out the parts it does not need. A Legend such as Loose Cannon has no cost and no Might; its upper left corner shows its two domains, and its type line reads Legend, Jinx. A basic rune such as the Calm Rune shows only its type, its name and a large domain symbol, because the rules already say what every basic rune does: exhaust it to add one Energy, or recycle it to add one Power of its domain.

A battlefield such as Aspirant's Climb lies on its side and prints its text twice, once upside down, so that the players on both sides of the table can read it. A printed token such as the Recruit from Vendetta shows a Might but no cost, because a token is created by another card during play, and its number is T04 rather than a number out of the set. The four cards below, Loose Cannon, the Calm Rune, Aspirant's Climb and the Recruit, show the four layouts side by side.

The backs differ as well. The back is the side with the Riftbound logo, and there are three of them: one for main deck cards, one for rune deck cards and one for battlefields and Legends.

Where can you compare more cards?

The quickest way to learn the layout is to look at a few cards from different sets side by side. The card list holds every card of every set, each kind of card has a page of its own, such as units, gear and Legends, and the rarity guide shows every gem next to an example card. Playing a card means paying its cost, so the part to learn next is the Energy cost, which tells you how many runes a card needs.