My favorite League of Legends spin-off since Arcane just got even better – but the upgrade only amplifies my stock availability woes

The weekend is here, and among the Valentine’s Day celebrations I’ll be searching my local stores for one thing: Spiritforged, the latest set in the Riftbound trading card game (TCG) that features the cast and world of League of Legends and Arcane, the hit game and Netflix show.

With the addition of new Equipment gear – which your units can wield for powerful buffs – alongside Gold tokens, a new resource option for playing your most powerful cards, plus some excellent new Champions and Legends to build around, this set adds a lot of exciting game pieces for players to experiment with. I’m currently constructing an Azir deck after some lucky pulls in my box and because I love his card’s design.

But forget about all that for a minute because I want to celebrate the actual best addition to Riftbound that dropped with this new set: Pre-Rift, Riftbound’s Limited format.

Spiritforged cards in a collage — (Image credit: Riot)

I’m also a major Magic:The Gathering player and outside of Commander my favorite way to experience the game is through Limited – either Draft or Sealed environments. Essentially, rather than arriving with a premade deck, you show up, open packs, and build a deck. You then play a tournament within the venue alongside the other players.

Draft uses fewer packs, which you take one or two cards from at a time, before passing it onto the next player in your group. Sealed, meanwhile, has you open six packs that are exclusively yours – this was the format for Spiritforged’s Pre-Rift.

To make this format work, however, Riot’s designers had to make a few tweaks to Riftbound’s rules, and how the Sealed experience works. Having experienced it for myself last weekend, they did a cracking job.

Firstly, rather than Riftbound’s usual two Rune domain limit per deck, you can play up to three flavors in your deck. Secondly, while you’d usually need to play a Legend and Champion pair of the same character, for this format you can mix and match.

This not only makes it a little easier to build a deck with the random assortment of cards you open, it opens up the possibility for inventive strategies.

I played a rather basic (though admittedly hard to pilot) aggressive deck headed up by a Draven Legend and Rengar Champion, which as a duo rewarded me and helped me win combats. But others I played against were much more interesting – my round two opponent, for example, paired Irelia with Orin in an Equipment heavy deck to make their Champion a powerhouse that could decimate one battlefield before readying up and decimating the other.

This Mind, Calm, and Chaos build wouldn't be possible in a regular match, and I’m sure it’s precisely what Riot’s Riftbound team would want to see from decks made at the event.

A few other changes were the smaller deck size – which is common for Limited formats – as well as the option to choose not to play a Legend or Champion at all (you just get an extra card at the start of the game). You could also play blank Battlefields if your opened arena wouldn’t benefit you (or could actively hurt your strategy), and also have one of your six packs be seeded – that is, you get a Champion and Legend pair of the same character, as well as a selection of cards that would work well in a deck headed up by them.

I had such a fantastic time with the Pre-Rift it made me hungry to play something similar soon, but that’ll be hard because you can’t find any stock.

Vi punching through a ring — (Image credit: Riot)

At the same time, we’re seeing TCGs like Magic: The Gathering create more Limited-friendly products like its Draft Night boxes, which give players packs and a prize to run their own mini event with friends, and the continued Jump Start releases which see you open two packs that you mash together and start playing with – a super-accessible entry-point for new players.

Hopefully, Riot can crack Riftbound's availability woes this year, as I’m sure so many people like me have wanted to experience this gaming world since binging Arcane, but found League of Legends to not be their cup of tea.

Until then, I’ll just have to count down the days before Unleashed (the game’s next set) drops and the next Pre-Rift will fire.

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