The State of Trading Card Games Right Now
Trading card games are in a strange but exciting spot. More people than ever are buying and playing them, yet they are fighting for attention against modern board games, miniatures wargames, roleplaying games, and of course digital card games.
Magic: The Gathering is still the giant of the genre. Its crossover sets and constant releases keep it at the top, even if some players are not thrilled about every new collaboration. Long time competitors like the Pokémon card game and Yu Gi Oh are still around, but they do not really threaten Magic’s position. Pokémon especially leans more toward younger fans and collectors, not always dedicated weekly players.
This is important because what really keeps a trading card game alive is not just sales or hype. It is people who show up regularly to play at local stores, attend events, and build communities over years. History is full of promising card games from the 1990s onward that simply vanished because they could not build that kind of long term loyalty.
So on paper, launching a brand new physical card game in that environment looks risky. But Riot Games decided to do it anyway with Riftbound, the League of Legends trading card game. And the early signs suggest that the hunger might actually be there.
Riftbound’s first print run sold out quickly, even with some production errors, and boxes started getting heavily scalped online. The League of Legends name clearly has enough pull to cut through the noise and get attention in the TCG space. The big question is whether Riftbound can grow beyond League fans and turn into a serious, long term game that dedicated card players commit to.
How Riftbound Plays and Why It Stands Out
Riftbound looks like a game that has been built to appeal to how people already like to play card games today. It takes a very game first approach that draws on popular trends without feeling like a clone.
Each player uses a 40 card deck centered around a single League of Legends Champion. That Champion acts as the star of your strategy and comes with unique cards that represent their abilities. Every Champion pulls from two of the six Domains in the game, which define the color, theme, and rune resources of your deck. You cannot just jam in whatever you want. Your deck has to match your core Champion.
Resources work differently from many older card games. Instead of mixing resource cards into your main deck and hoping you do not get stuck, Riftbound separates them into a dedicated 12 card rune deck. You gain access to two rune cards every turn, which you then exhaust or recycle as you play your cards. It means you ramp up to the fun stuff faster and more consistently.
If you play Magic’s Commander format, some of this will sound familiar:
- Your deck is built around a single character with a strong identity.
- Resources are more reliable, so you get to play your cards instead of being stuck with nothing to do.
- The structure encourages social play in multiplayer groups.
Commander is hugely popular, but it clashes with Magic’s traditional competitive formats because it uses 100 card decks and very different rules. Some players even feel Commander has pulled attention away from competitive play and made Magic feel split against itself.
Riftbound sidesteps that entire problem. The one deck style is baked into the whole game. The same decks and rules are meant to work for:
- Standard two player duels
- Two versus two team play
- Four player free for all matches
This means the deck you enjoy casually with friends is already built on the same foundations as more competitive formats. The game also seems flexible enough to support draft or sealed events using those same basic rules. That is a big plus for players who like limited formats and the thrill of cracking packs without wanting to maintain a massive collection.
On the table, Riftbound focuses on fighting over battlefields that each player brings with their deck. Taking control of battlefields earns points, and points win the game. Only two players at a time can actively contest a battlefield, so fights are contained and easier to follow, but other players can still interfere or jump into the chaos when the timing is right.
Reaction windows are more limited than in games like Magic, which means you spend less time worrying about obscure timing rules and more time actually playing. After a dozen games, you might run into some edge cases that send you back to the rulebook, but the core systems stay surprisingly clean even when choices get complicated. It feels intentionally designed to be both approachable and deep.
Can Riftbound Actually Last?
Putting design aside, Riot and its partners have a few big advantages. Riot already proved it can make a solid tabletop game with Mechs vs Minions back in 2016. That game was well loved and is now hard to find, selling for way more than its original price.
Riftbound’s primary publisher, UVS, also has experience keeping card games alive in a very crowded market. That kind of behind the scenes stability matters a lot when you are asking players to invest time and money.
Even if Riftbound never reaches Magic level status, it feels good enough to earn a lasting niche. Other games that technically “failed” still have loyal followings, like Android Netrunner or Heroscape, both of which were strong enough to be revived in some form after their cancellations.
If Riot can keep delivering interesting card sets, support events, and actually keep products in stock, Riftbound will have a real shot at building a serious community. The final test will be whether it can attract dedicated card game players who do not care about League of Legends lore at all. If those players show up and stay, Riftbound will be more than just a spin off. It will be a real contender on the tabletop.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/board-games/the-league-of-legends-trading-card-game-is-surprisingly-good-because-it-embraces-the-best-trends-in-card-games/
