After the brooding power of Unleashed, Riftbound shows no signs of slowing down with its fourth set now upon us. Vendetta sees Runeterra’s biggest rivalries brought to the game, and they’re out for blood! From Jinx vs. Vi, Zed vs. Shen and even Mel vs. her very own mother – Ambessa, just name a few of the feuds and rivalries out in full force in the set. While it’s a smaller set with just 9 legends, there’s a real energy to Vendetta that feels like a spark of things to come.
With set 4 now upon us, Riftbound is showing no sign of slowing down and I couldn’t be happier. Vendetta not only brings some exciting new legends and mechanics to the TCG, but it also continues to be as accessible as possible for players.
Also, not to further reinforce that I’m less of a League player than you might think but I did love seeing Arcane represented in this set quite strongly. Along with Jace, Mel, and Ambessa all making their debut in Riftbound, we also scored some new Jinx, Vi, and Viktor cards thanks to the rivalries between them. All around, if you’re a fan of Arcane, there are already a lot of reasons to jump into this set if you’re newer to the world of LOL.
Vendetta also marks Riftbound’s first set to feature fewer Legend cards. The tighter lineup for the set feels a little more curated around those rivalries and feuds.
The Art of Riftbound Vendetta
Leading the set are the iconic Crystal Rose Alt Arts of six champion units featuring the iconic skin like from Wild Rift. While this set doesn’t feature a special headliner-style card, these are quite the collection, especially with the inclusion of Ahri, Sett and Ezreal all showcasing their original splash art from the skin line.
Of course, Overnumbered cards also make a return this set with some absolutely stunning cards. From Mel, depicted with the Blackrose, to a forlorn Jace torn between progress and humanity, each carries that prestige with ease. Shen and Nasus also turned heads thanks to the degree of fan service in those prints. Big fan.
But what if that wasn’t all the overnumbered cards? Vendetta also features 22 rival overnumber champion cards that showcase the set’s biggest rivalries from across League of Legends. These cards pair up, creating 11 duel frame art pieces. I really love these cards because of how they pull in more of that story from Runeterra and will undoubtedly feel familiar to Arcane fans.
You’ll also find the duel frame artworks on Vedetta’s collection of card sleeves and play mats.
The Mechanics of Riftbound Vendetta
Burn
Sometimes the best show of strength to intimidate your opponent is to discard some cards right from your deck. Burn sees you moving cards from your deck, or even your opponent’s deck, into the trash. For me, this one feels hasty and risky, but it works in tandem with the flow mechanic; ideally, you won’t be without those cards for long.
Flow
Where there’s burn, there’s flow or whatever they say. Flow gives you the ability to play cards from trash, though it’s a fleeting mechanic. Cards played from your trash aren’t around for long before you must banish them, but it’s a good way to either replay an ability or still get value from a card you burned. I’ll admit I’m usually wary of discard strategies, but once you move past that, it’s actually impressive how some other cards further enable this mechanic. Stargazer, for instance, lets you make spells with Flow cheaper to cast, while Kennen Storm of Shuriken lets you give a spell in your trash Flow so you can cast it.
Empower
I’d liken Empower to a final-form-style ability, a little as we saw in Unleashed. For a cost, players can activate a new ability that gives you a bit more utility after a unit has been cast. In play, Ambessa Respected And Feared gains two abilities, allowing her to become a 7 power unit that can also kill an enemy unit lower than her power. This was awesome for taking charge on a battlefield and really showed Ambessa’s character. Mel Defiant Soul doesn’t have the same force, but her banish ability gives her some unique utility. Kayle Justified, however, lets you empower her multiple times! She gains +2 power for each empower up to a max of three, where she then gains Defect 3 and Ganking.
Unit Gear
These are a really interesting addition to Riftbound thanks to the dual classification. This means cards that refer to gear or units can be used with this card, so there is already the potential for synergies, as a lower-cost card is great. So far we only have one card that’s a Unit Gear but I’m hopeful Radiance will follow up with some more.
Decree
We’ve all been in a matchup with someone that’s got that opposite domain colour, and it can be pretty rough! Decree’s let a designed with this in mind, though they are still highly situational as they only target one other domain colour.
Zed vs Shen Preconstructed Decks
At first, I had my doubts about a duel pack of preconstructed decks, with it being a two-pack vs. individual decks you can pick out but I have to say this kit is a great continuation of what preconstructed decks are all about. Not only does it contain 2 distinctive decks that feel unique, it also captures that unique rivalry angle between the pair that feels like a clever wink. I really see this pack as being a good, easy way to get someone else rolling into Riftbound without access to the Proving Ground.
Of the decks, Zed is the more aggressive, with his focus on summoning shadow clones that can burn cards to gain power for a turn. Overall, it’s a very agile experience that will have you trashing a lot of cards BUT then feeding your heavy hits on battlefields.
Shen on the other hand, is much more defensive and careful. He excels at waiting and building up a battlefield so opponents have to come to you. Shen uses flow as well with his signature spell, Shadow Dash, allowing you to ambush units by pulling them across to battlefields you control.
Overall, it’s a satisfying set of decks that shows off their unique play styles. Personally, Shen is my pick of these two, but if you can handle the aggressive discarding of Zed you just might come out on top.
Other Goodies
Following Vendetta’s lead, the set’s playmats and sleeves all feature those iconic rivalries and clashes. I love these and thankfully got my hands on the Jayce and Viktor playmat. I really like that they are giving players extra ways to rep those cards and legends they love.
Interestingly, the sleeves are now split into packs of 50 of each style vs 100 of the same style, as decks go this feels much more inline with how riftbound plays. When I sleeve a Riftbound deck, I love when I can tell the part of the deck from the sleeve. It makes the set-up process so much quicker. Having my rune deck in a single colour sleeve, my battlefields in another colour, and my main deck in the fun character sleeves gives that instant differentiation. Extra points if you also have a different colour sleeve for your Legend and Chosen Champion.
Final thoughts Riftbound Vendetta:
With Riftbound reaching its fourth set, Vendetta feels like a bit of a refresh to the TCG in my opinion. With a tighter line-up of Legends, the set actually is able to concentrate on rivalries both through lore and mechanics. Burn and Flow go hand in hand quite nicely, but they require you to trust in the strategy.
Still, for me it’s always going to be the art that keeps me coming back to Riftbound and with this set also including some love for Arcane, alongside some artwork from incredible Wildrift art also getting an outing, it’s another big swing. The rivalry duel frames are also a clever play on the Vendetta theme that I’m glad get love in the set’s sleeves and playmat range.
Vendetta feels like a strong example of how we’ll see Riftbound move into the future, with themes providing an exciting new twist on characters and playstyles.
Riftbound: Vendetta is available now!
NextPlay received Riftbound Vendetta products for the purposes of this review.
