What is a spell?

Spells are one of the three kinds of card in the main deck of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, next to units and gear. You play a spell for what its text does, such as dealing damage, drawing cards or moving a unit. Once the text has been carried out, the card goes to the trash.

Spells are how a deck removes enemy units, wins a close fight at the last moment and answers the cards of its opponent. Every domain and every set has spells of its own.

How is a spell different from a unit or gear?

A spell does its work once and leaves, while units and gear stay. The Core Rules, which Riot publishes on its Rules Hub, call units and gear permanents, because they remain on the board after they are played, and they set spells apart as the main deck cards that do not (rule 133.4). A spell has no Might, never fights and is never on the board.

You can tell a spell by its type line, which reads Spell, and by the spell symbol in its top right corner, where a unit shows its Might. Like units and gear, a spell has an Energy cost and often a Power cost, paid with your runes. About three in four of the spells in the game cost 1, 2 or 3 Energy. At the other end, Time Warp from Origins costs 10 Energy and four Mind Power and gives you an extra turn.

What happens when you play a spell?

Every spell goes through the same steps.

1. You put the spell on the Chain, make its choices, such as its targets, and pay its cost.
2. The spell waits on the Chain, and each player in turn may answer it with a Reaction. An answer resolves before the spell it answers.
3. When every player has passed, the spell resolves, and its text is carried out from top to bottom.
4. The card goes to the trash of the player who owns it.

A spell still resolves when its target is gone (rule 359.3.e.1). Suppose you play Falling Comet, a Mind spell that deals 6 to a unit at a battlefield, and your opponent answers with Retreat, which returns their unit to their hand. Retreat resolves first, so by the time Falling Comet resolves, its target is no longer on the board and nothing takes damage. Falling Comet still goes to your trash.

A spell that is countered does nothing at all. It goes to the trash as well, and the cost paid for it is not given back (rule 426). Not every spell ends in the trash, though. Time Warp banishes itself as it resolves, and Abandon, a Chaos spell from Unleashed, counters a spell and sends it back to its owner's hand instead.

When can you play a spell?

A spell without a timing keyword can be played only on your own turn, in your Main Phase, while no showdown is going on and nothing waits on the Chain (rule 155). Two keywords widen the window in which you can play a spell, each with a short reminder on the card.

• Action adds showdowns, on your own turn and on your opponent's. Its reminder reads "Play on your turn or in showdowns."
• Reaction adds every moment when something waits on the Chain, so the spell can answer another card before that card resolves. Its reminder reads "Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve."

Vengeance, which kills a unit, has no keyword, so you can play it only in your own Main Phase. Primal Strength is an Action that gives a unit +7 Might this turn, so you can play it in a showdown, on either player's turn. Wind Wall is a Reaction that counters a spell, so you can play it while the spell it counters is still on the Chain.

What can spells do?

Spells cover nearly every job a deck has, and many do one thing in a single line of text.

• Removal. Soul Harvest kills a unit at a battlefield with 3 Might or less, and The Ruination kills all units for 9 Energy and three Order Power.
• Combat tricks. Back to Back, an Order Reaction, gives two of your units +2 Might each for the turn.
• Cards. Premonition, a Mind Reaction from Spiritforged, draws three cards.
• Movement. Charm moves an enemy unit.
• Tokens. Recruit the Vanguard plays four 1 Might Recruit unit tokens.
• Counters. Wind Wall counters any spell, and Hush from Radiance, the fifth set with its release on 23 October 2026, counters a spell with a Power cost of two or more.

Every spell so far belongs to at least one domain, so there are no colorless spells, and a spell fits only in a deck whose Legend has all of its domains (rule 103.2.b.4).

Which other keywords appear on spells?

Besides Action and Reaction, three keywords change how or from where a spell can be played.

• Hidden. On your turn you may pay one Power of any domain to place the spell facedown at a battlefield you control that holds no other facedown card. From the next turn on, it has Reaction and you may play it from there without paying its cost, with its targets chosen at that battlefield (rule 811). Hidden Blade kills a unit at a battlefield, and the player who controlled that unit draws two cards.
• Repeat. Repeat is an extra cost you may pay as you play the spell, and if you pay it, the effect of the spell happens a second time (rule 820). Desert's Call plays a 2 Might Sand Soldier unit token for 2 Energy, or two of them for 4 Energy when you pay its Repeat cost of 2. Spells with Repeat come from Spiritforged and Unleashed.
• Flow. A spell with Flow can be played again from your trash for its Flow cost, and it is banished afterwards (rule 829). Dredge Up draws a card for 2 Energy, and once more from the trash for its Flow cost of 2 Energy. The spells with Flow so far all come from Vendetta.

What are signature spells?

A signature spell belongs to one champion, and only a deck whose Legend carries that champion's name may play it. Most signature cards are spells, and every signature spell so far is an Epic with the same two domains as its champion's Legend.

Super Mega Death Rocket!, the signature spell of Jinx, deals 5 to a unit, and when you conquer a battlefield you may discard a card to return it from your trash to your hand. Final Spark, the signature spell of Lux from Proving Grounds, deals 8 to a unit. Encore, the signature spell of Seraphine from Radiance, lets you pick two of four effects, such as dealing 2 to a unit.

A deck may hold at most three signature cards in total, whatever their names.

How many spells does a deck play?

No rule sets how many spells a deck holds, so how many spells a deck should run next to its units and gear is a matter of its plan. The ready-made decks show how far the number can vary: the Master Yi deck of Proving Grounds plays 19 spells, while the Zed Showdown Deck from Vendetta plays 9.

The spells page lists every spell in the game, the newest set first, and in the deck builder you can narrow the cards your Legend allows down to its spells. A gear does the opposite of a spell: it is played to your base and stays on the board, working turn after turn until something removes it.