How many units, spells and gear should a deck run?

A deck for Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game has a Main Deck of 40 cards, and every one of them is a unit, a spell or a gear. The rules do not say how many of each kind you play. That choice is part of building the deck, and the right answer depends on the Legend you build around and on how the deck plans to score its points.

The decks Riot sells in a box and the decks that do well at tournaments show how wide the range is. Most lean on units, while gear runs from none at all to almost half of the deck.

Does a deck have to hold a set number of units, spells or gear?

No. Rule 103.3 of the Core Rules asks for a Main Deck of at least 40 cards, made of a chosen champion unit as well as units, gear and spells, and it sets no number for any kind. In a Constructed event, the Tournament Rules ask for exactly 40 cards in the Main Deck (rule 402.1), but the split is still up to you.

The one unit every deck must have is its chosen champion, a champion unit that matches the Legend and counts as one of the 40 cards. The other deck rules, such as the limit of three copies of a name, apply to every kind of card alike, and a legal Riftbound deck keeps to all of them.

Why do most decks play so many units?

Units are the only cards that can take a battlefield and keep it. Rule 190.4 of the Core Rules gives control of a battlefield to the player who has units there when a showdown or a combat ends, and that player keeps it for as long as their units stay. Almost every point in Riftbound comes from conquering and holding battlefields, as the article on how to win a game explains, so a deck without enough units has little to score with.

Spells and gear help units score rather than score on their own. Discipline is a spell that gives a unit +2 Might for the turn and draws a card, which can turn a fight. B.F. Sword is a gear that attaches to a unit and gives it +3 Might for as long as it stays attached. Some spells and gear put units on the board as well: Guards! plays a 2 Might Sand Soldier unit token, and Sprite Fountain plays a ready 3 Might Sprite unit token that is gone at the start of your next turn. When you count the units of a deck, count the cards that make unit tokens too.

How do Riot's ready-made decks split their 40 cards?

Six ready-made decks have full lists that Riot has published, and they play between 20 and 31 units, between 9 and 16 spells and up to 10 gear. The table counts those six decks, with the chosen champion counted as a unit. The two decks of the Radiance Showdown Decks, with their release on 23 October 2026, are not in it, because Riot's overview of Radiance sets 16 October 2026 as the day for their full decklists.

Units are the largest group in every one of these decks, and the gear follows the Legend. Grand Duelist, the Legend of Fiora, can exhaust to channel one more rune when one of your units becomes Mighty, which a unit is while it has 5 Might or more. So the Fiora deck plays ten Equipment, such as B.F. Sword and Doran's Blade, to push its units over that line. The Zed deck plays no gear at all and puts 31 units in its place. The four decks of the Proving Grounds starter box go the same way: its rules booklet describes their 40 Main Deck cards as units and spells.

What mix do tournament decks play?

Tournament decks spread much wider than the boxed decks, and on the whole they play fewer units and more spells. On 30 September 2026 Riot published 36 decks from the Regional Qualifier in Los Angeles, the last Regional Qualifier of 2026: the eight decks of the Top 8 and a high-placed deck for most of the other Legends. Every one of them holds exactly 40 cards in its Main Deck.

Eight of the 36 decks played no gear. Many of the extra spells are cheap Reactions that answer the opponent at the right moment. Defy, which costs 1 Energy and counters a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and one Power, and Discipline each turned up in more than a third of these decks.

How does the Legend change the right mix?

The Legend decides more about the mix than any rule of thumb. Three decks from the same Top 8 in Los Angeles show how far apart good decks can be.

• Rengar, with 30 units, 10 spells and no gear. The winning deck was led by Pridestalker, which gives a unit +1 Might for the turn whenever you play a unit. Units with Ambush, such as Inferna and Rengar, Trophy Hunter, can be played as a Reaction to a battlefield where you have units, so they join a fight at the last moment.
• Ornn, with 16 units, 5 spells and 19 gear. Fire Below the Mountain, the Legend of Ornn, adds one Power of any domain that can only be spent to play gear or to use the abilities of gear. The deck pairs its gear with units that reward it, such as Pit Crew, which readies whenever you play a gear.
• Azir, with 1 unit, 22 spells and 17 gear. The only unit card in this deck is its chosen champion, Azir, Sovereign. Arise! plays a 2 Might Sand Soldier unit token for each Equipment you control, and Emperor of the Sands, the Legend of Azir, can play one more Sand Soldier for 1 Energy in any turn in which you have played an Equipment.

The Azir deck shows why the count of unit cards alone can mislead: it plays almost no unit cards, yet it puts plenty of units on the battlefields.

How should you split the cards of your first deck?

For a first deck, start from the shape of Riot's own decks: about 22 to 26 units, 10 to 14 spells and a few gear, with more gear only when your Legend rewards it. That is advice rather than a rule, but it gives a deck enough units to contest the battlefields every turn and enough spells to win the fights that decide them.

• Units. Keep enough cheap units to have something to play in your first turns, since a battlefield without any of your units on it is easy for your opponent to take.
• Spells. Prefer cheap spells that win a fight or deal with an enemy unit, such as Discipline, over expensive spells that do something slow.
• Gear. Every gear takes the place of a unit or a spell, so pick gear that works every turn or that your Legend asks for.

Then play some games and adjust. If you often have no unit to play early on, add units, and check the Energy curve of the deck, the spread of its Energy costs, which shows whether the deck can do something in its first turns. If you keep losing close fights, swap a unit for a Reaction spell.

Where can you see how other decks split their cards?

The page of every deck on the site counts its units, gear and spells. The shared decks include the decks that come in a box as well as decks built by players, and the deck builder lets you try a split of your own. A deck also needs a Legend, 12 runes and three battlefields besides its 40 cards, so the split of units, spells and gear is only one step, and building your first Riftbound deck takes the steps in order.