Riot Games' Riftbound trading card game exploded onto the scene last Halloween, but the competitive scene has been anything but smooth sailing. With Chaos decks choking tournament metagames and Miracle strategies creating unfun gameplay experiences, players have been demanding answers. At PAX East in Boston, IGN sat down with Riftbound set design lead Jon Moormann to get the inside story on how the team decides what gets banned, what's coming next, and why this TCG is harder to balance than anyone expected.
The elephant in the room was impossible to ignore: Chaos strategies had become suffocating. Moormann didn't dance around the issue. "We don't necessarily want to ban things, it's painful to players when we have to. But it's also our only way of dealing with a metagame that doesn't feel right in the moment," he said.
The team's approach to bans goes far deeper than Reddit complaints. Moormann explained that while they monitor tournament results and community chatter, internal metrics and play experience data drive the real decisions. Being overpowered is one thing, but a deck can poison the format in other ways. "Sometimes games just take too long with a particular strategy or it's not fun to play against a deck," Moormann noted, directly referencing the Miracle package that had begun to dominate events.
Testing vs. Reality: Where Prediction Fails
Interestingly, Moormann revealed that the Miracle deck wasn't supposed to be this good. During internal testing, the team had a version running at about 80 percent of what was showing up in tournaments. The difference matters enormously. "If you're 20% off on something with a tight synergistic package like Miracle, being slightly off means a big difference in player experience," Moormann explained. A straightforward beatdown deck might play nearly the same at 80 percent power, but intricate combo decks are far more sensitive to small adjustments.
The team extensively tests powerful card combinations before they hit the market, including scenarios with future sets mixed in. Moormann confirmed that interactions like Dazzling Aurora with Unleashed cards such as Baron Nashor and Elder Dragon undergo rigorous evaluation, both with and without sideboards, since not all players compete in best-of-three formats.
Despite being only two sets deep into the card pool, the design team is already six sets ahead in development. Moormann emphasized that this lengthy process, from theme conception to champion selection to final card implementation, requires substantial time and testing. "We don't want to rush the artists," he said, noting the team is attempting to include more original Riftbound artwork alongside existing League of Legends lore assets.
The most surprising revelation emerged around Battlefield cards. "The design space around Battlefields can be super complicated and one of the things we learned most about over the course of the game," Moormann said. These permanents exist in a unique design space: they enter at the start of the game, are nearly impossible for opponents to interact with, and provide free value. That asymmetry has proven trickier to balance than anticipated, eventually leading to multiple Battlefield bans in competitive play.
When asked about the barrier to entry new players face, Moormann acknowledged the team had aimed to thread a careful needle. "We want it to be accessible enough to where you can teach your friends, but we also want to make sure it has depth enough that it's a lasting and durable game," he said. The complexity is intentional, even if higher than ideal, because the ceiling for long-term strategic depth matters more than initial accessibility.
Champion selection for each set follows thematic guidelines. Origins focused on iconic League characters paired with classic TCG archetypes like Viktor's token strategy. The upcoming Unleashed set takes a different approach, emphasizing Jungle champions and mechanics that reflect their playstyle. Rengar's new Ambush mechanic lets units enter at reaction speed, mirroring his platstyle of hiding and striking. Master Yi's new Legend card generates XP through the Hunt keyword, reflecting his farming playstyle in the actual game.
Moormann also teased future possibilities, confirming that many champions could eventually appear in additional Domains beyond their standard two. "Yes, many Champions fit into more than just two Domains, and it will be interesting to see how we approach that in the future," he said, hinting at potential Legend cards with three Domains.
On the organized play front, demand has far outpaced supply. Spectator passes at major events sell out in minutes, and players want more tournaments at larger scales. Moormann acknowledged the team is "very aware" and investigating solutions but declined to share specifics. However, he did confirm plans for an eternal, non-rotating format launching in 2028 when Standard rotation begins with the game's 10th set.
Unleashed releases April 10 in China and May 8 in English, bringing fresh mechanics and new champion variants to a game still finding its footing in the competitive landscape.
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