What are tokens?

Many cards in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game put something on the board that was never in a deck: a few 1 Might Recruits, a Sprite that is gone by your next turn, a piece of Gold to spend later. These game pieces are tokens. Spells and abilities create them during the game, they move, fight and die like the cards they resemble, and they vanish as soon as they leave the board.

Tokens matter because a small unit standing alone on a battlefield conquers and holds it just as well as a big one, and tokens let a deck put more units on the board than its cards alone would allow.

Where do tokens come from?

A token comes into play only when a card says so, and that card names the token it makes, as in "Play a 1 Might Recruit unit token" or "Play a Gold gear token exhausted". Spells, units, gear, Legends and battlefields can all make one.

• Spells. Sprite Call from Origins plays a ready 3 Might Sprite unit token with Temporary.
• Units. Vanguard Captain plays two 1 Might Recruit tokens where it enters, if you have played another card this turn.
• Gear. Forge of the Future plays a 1 Might Recruit token at your base when you play it.
• Legends. Herald of the Arcane, the Legend of Viktor, plays a 1 Might Recruit token each time you pay 1 Energy and exhaust it.
• Battlefields. Altar to Unity plays a 1 Might Recruit token in your base when you hold it.

Because tokens are created during play, no token is ever part of a deck, and you never draw one.

Which tokens are there?

Most tokens are units, and the Core Rules spell out the Might, tags and abilities of each kind. These are some of them.

• Recruit is a 1 Might unit with the Recruit tag. Viktor's cards make them, and most of the other cards that do are Order cards.
• Sprite is a 3 Might Fae unit with Temporary, so it is killed at the start of your next Beginning Phase, before scoring. A Sprite can conquer a battlefield, but it is gone before it could hold one.
• Mech is a 3 Might unit with the Mech tag, which Rumble, Scrapper plays each time he holds a battlefield.
• Bird is a 1 Might unit with Deflect, so an opponent pays extra to choose it with a spell or ability.
• Reflection is a 0 Might unit that becomes a copy of another unit, such as the one Mirror Image, a signature spell of LeBlanc, plays.

Some tokens are not units at all. Gold is a gear token with a Reaction ability: you kill it and exhaust it to add one Power of any domain. Most cards play Gold exhausted, so it is ready to spend from your next turn on. The Bomb is a gear token of Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026. It has Deploy, and its Deathknell deals 2 to an enemy unit at its battlefield when it dies. Two of the printed tokens are battlefields: Baron Nashor adds the Baron Pit to the board as he is played, and Green Father, the Legend of Ivern, can replace a battlefield with Brush. A token battlefield can never be one of the battlefields a game starts with.

How does a token play?

A token plays like a card of its type, unless the card that made it says otherwise. A unit token enters exhausted, can move, deals damage equal to its Might in combat and dies when the damage on it reaches its Might. Spells and abilities that choose or affect units can choose or affect it.

The card that makes a token can change some of this. It can name the place the token goes, as Noxian Drummer plays its Recruit at the battlefield it just moved to, and it can make the token enter ready, as Sprite Call does. Without such words, a unit token goes where any unit can be played: your base or a battlefield you control. Renata Glasc, Industrialist makes all of your tokens enter ready.

Tokens are not cards, but the Core Rules say they are still played. An ability that triggers when you play a unit also triggers when you play a unit token. Lillia, Protector of Dreams gets +1 Might for the turn whenever you play a token unit.

How is a token different from a card?

The Core Rules state plainly that tokens are not cards, and that changes four things.

• A token has no cost. It has no Energy or Power cost, and the rules treat its cost as 0 whenever a card asks for it.
• A token has no domain. It belongs to none of the six domains, unless a card in play gives it one.
• A token does not count as a card. Legion asks whether you have played another card this turn, and the Recruits of Vanguard Captain do not count toward it. Some cards spell the difference out: Swain, Visionary scores you a point when he conquers only if you have played a non-token unit, a non-token gear and a spell this turn.
• A token stops existing off the board. A token can exist only on the board or on the Chain. One that dies goes to the trash and stops existing at once, and so does one that is returned to a hand, recycled or banished.

A token that dies has still died, so abilities that trigger when a unit dies see it as well.

Do you need the printed token cards?

No. The Core Rules let anything stand in for a token, such as a coin, a die or a spare card. At Competitive and Professional events the Tournament Rules are stricter: a token has to be shown by a card that can be turned to show whether it is ready or exhausted, in a way every player in the game can understand. A printed token is handy all the same, because it shows the token's Might and text.

Riot prints tokens as cards, such as the Recruit of Vendetta. Every booster pack has one slot that holds a token or a rune, and the Champion Decks of Spiritforged and Unleashed come with the tokens their cards make: the Spiritforged Champion Deck: Fiora has five Sand Soldier tokens, and the Unleashed Champion Deck: Vi has four double-faced tokens with a Bird on one side and Gold on the other.

Single Riftbound cards come from local game stores, from Cardmarket in Europe, from TCGplayer in the United States and from CardTrader on both sides of the ocean, and the Sprite of Origins, a printed token, sells as a single card for $0.17 today.

Unleashed also printed a Buff card and an XP Tracker card in the style of a token. They are reminder cards rather than tokens: a buff is a counter on a unit, XP is a number each player keeps, and the Core Rules let anything keep track of either.

Which decks make the most of tokens?

Tokens suit decks that want many units on the board at once, spread over the battlefields. Several cards reward that plan.

• Soul Shepherd gives your token units +1 Might.
• Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken plays a 1 Might Tentacle token when you play her and when she scores, and she has +1 Might for each token unit you control.
• Zilean, Time Mage lets you play an extra copy of a token unit once each turn while he is at a battlefield.

For a first deck built on tokens, the Viktor cards are the plainest way in, since his Legend, Herald of the Arcane, turns 1 spare Energy into a Recruit every turn. The cards of Lillia make Sprites, and those of Azir make 2 Might Sand Soldiers.

The tokens page shows the printed tokens, the newest set first. Most cards that make tokens have a domain, and the domains of a Legend limit which cards a deck may hold, so a deck built on tokens begins with the choice of Legend.