What does recycle mean in Riftbound?

Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game has one word for sending a card back into a deck: recycle. A recycled card goes underneath its deck rather than into the trash, so it can turn up again later in the game. You recycle the cards you send back in a mulligan, every rune you spend for Power, and the cards that many effects take from your trash, your hand, the board or the top of your deck.

Where does a recycled card go?

A recycled card goes on the bottom of the deck it belongs to. Rule 417 of the Core Rules sends a rune to the bottom of your Rune Deck and every other card, whether a unit, a gear or a spell, to the bottom of your Main Deck. The rest of the deck is not shuffled, so the cards above it keep their order.

Each player recycles cards into their own decks, whoever gave the instruction. When Sabotage has you pick a non-unit card from an opponent's hand and recycle it, that card goes to the bottom of the opponent's Main Deck, not yours.

Recycling is not the same as dying. The rules count a unit or gear as killed only when it goes from the board to the trash, so a unit recycled from the board does not die and its Deathknell does not trigger. A recycled token stops existing as soon as it reaches the deck.

How does recycling a rune pay for Power?

Every basic rune has two abilities: you exhaust it to add 1 Energy, or you recycle it to add 1 Power of its own domain. Recycling is the only way a basic rune makes Power. You may recycle a rune you have already exhausted, so one rune can pay 1 Energy and 1 Power in the same turn.

Vi, Destructive costs 2 Energy and one Fury Power. To play her, you exhaust two runes and then recycle a Fury Rune, which may be one of the two you exhausted. That rune goes to the bottom of your Rune Deck and comes back when you channel it again, once the runes above it are gone. A rune you exhaust for Energy readies again at the start of your next turn, but a recycled rune does not, which is why each Power costs you more than each Energy.

In what order do recycled cards go to the bottom?

When two or more cards are recycled to a Main Deck at the same time, they go to the bottom in a random order. Stacked Deck lets you look at the top three cards of your Main Deck, put one into your hand and recycle the other two, and those two are mixed before they go under the deck. The cards you send back in a mulligan are recycled the same way.

Runes are the exception. When two or more runes are recycled at the same time, their owner chooses the order. This happens with Divine Judgment, which has each player keep two units, two gear, two runes and two cards in hand, and recycles all their other units, gear, runes and cards in hand.

At an event, the Tournament Rules require players to put a recycled card under its deck at once (rule 504.4). Keeping recycled runes face down on the board to track Energy is not allowed.

When can you recycle a card?

You recycle only when a card, an ability or a rule tells you to. The Core Rules call recycling a Limited Action, so you never put a card under your deck just because you want to. For a rune, its own ability is the instruction, and you may use it whenever you pay a cost.

When recycling is part of a cost, you must be able to recycle every card it asks for. Vi, Destructive can recycle 1 card from your trash to get +1 Might for the turn, so with an empty trash you cannot use that ability. Garbage Grabber draws a card for three cards from your trash, 1 Energy and an exhaust, so it needs at least three cards there.

When recycling is part of an effect, you recycle as many cards as you can, and you choose which ones. Dr. Mundo, Expert recycles three cards from your trash at the start of each of your Beginning Phases, and with only one card there you recycle that one. His Might grows with the number of cards in your trash, so the effect also makes him smaller.

Which cards recycle from the top of your deck?

Many cards look at the top of your Main Deck, keep what you need and recycle the rest. Ornn, Blacksmith looks at the top four cards when you play him or when he holds, lets you draw a gear from among them and recycles the others, where you are unlikely to see them again soon. The spell Stacked Deck does it with the top three cards and lets you put any one of them into your hand.

Vision and Predict work on the top of your deck too. The keyword Vision, on cards such as Mystic Poro, lets you look at the top card of your Main Deck when the card is played and recycle it if you want. Predict is the game action behind it and works for one or more cards: Clairvoyance has you look at the top five, recycle any of them and put the rest back on top in any order, and then you draw 2.

Which cards recycle from your trash or the board?

Dr. Mundo, Expert, Vi, Destructive and Garbage Grabber are not the only cards that recycle from your trash. Ekko, Recurrent has a Deathknell that recycles him from your trash to ready your runes. Fizz, Trickster lets you play a spell with an Energy cost of 3 or less from your trash when you play him, and that spell is recycled afterwards instead of going back to the trash. On the board, Divine Judgment recycles every unit, gear and rune beyond the two of each that a player keeps, and the Origins battlefield Sigil of the Storm makes the player who conquers it recycle one of their runes.

Is recycling good or bad for you?

That depends on what is recycled. A recycled rune is the price of Power, while recycling cards off the top of your deck usually helps, since it clears away cards you do not need now. Recycling from your trash refills your Main Deck, which keeps you further from burning out, but it also empties your trash, which hurts cards that count the trash or play cards from it.

Some cards reward recycling. Karma, Channeler buffs a friendly unit when you recycle one or more cards to your Main Deck. Her text adds that runes are not cards, so recycling a rune does not count. Riot added the words "to your Main Deck" in an errata of 28 October 2025. Battle Mistress, the Legend of Sivir, works with runes instead: when you recycle a rune, you may exhaust the Legend to play a Gold gear token exhausted.

The runes page shows the runes of every domain, and the spells and units pages hold most of the cards that recycle. Most cards you play are paid for with exhausted and recycled runes, so paying for cards is where recycling comes up most often. The full rule is rule 417 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub.