Preparing for the Vendetta Pre-Rift

Get ready to play Riftbound’s newest set at your local Pre-Rift.
Announcements

Hello Riftbounders!

This Friday, July 24, stores will begin running their Vendetta Pre-Rift events. This is your first chance to play cards from the latest set. 

While events begin on Friday, the Pre-Rift window lasts for the week, so check the schedule at your local store to find out when you can register to play. If you’re looking for a store or want to see when local game stores are running Pre-Rifts near you, check out our event locator.

Why Should You Go to Pre-Rift?

A Pre-Rift is your first chance to crack open Vendetta and play with the new set before it officially hits shelves. You don’t have to own or bring a deck. Here's a few reasons not to miss it:

  • Play Vendetta first. Be among the very first Riftbounders to open Vendetta packs, brew a Sealed deck, and try out the new mechanics.
  • Low pressure. These are casual, social events built around learning, exploring, and good vibes. Judges and other Riftbounders are happy to help.
  • Score exclusives. Every kit includes a Riven, Shattered promo with a special Pre-Rift stamp—only available at these events, while supplies last.
  • Celebrate the new set with your community. A new set’s release is a cause for celebration and there's no better way to meet your local scene than opening packs side by side at your local store.

So what is a Pre-Rift?

A Pre-Rift event is your first opportunity to get your hands on a new set’s cards and play with them before the set is officially released. They’re a sneak peek of what’s to come, where you get to crack packs with your local game store (LGS) community, build a deck, and play it immediately.

Pre-Rift events are fun, social, and casual! The focus is on learning and lighthearted fun, so don’t worry about bumping into any extreme competition. Instead, have fun with the people around you, chat about the deck you’re gonna try out, and don’t hesitate to ask your fellow Riftbounders or the event judge for help while you’re building your deck or in the middle of a game.

The other great thing about Pre-Rifts is that they are Sealed events. This means all the cards you need to play will be provided to you as part of the event, and you’ll just need to build your deck from that limited card pool.

What is Sealed?

In Sealed, you'll open Booster Packs; for this event, they'll be Vendetta Booster Packs. You can use any of the cards you open from those packs when building your deck, but you can’t add outside cards from your collection to your deck. 

Building a Sealed deck has similar rules to building a normal Constructed deck, but there are some key differences: 

  • Sealed decks have a minimum Main Deck size of 25, but you can play more than that if you want to.
  • You can use as many copies of a card as you open, including going above the normal limit of 3 copies of a card.
  • Sealed decks can use up to three domains of cards and Runes. If you use a Legend or Signature card, that covers two of your domains.
  • You are not limited to Runes or tokens that you open in your packs. The event organizer will provide additional Runes, and you can use anything handy to represent tokens! 
  • Your Chosen Champion and Signature cards must be within your three domains, but they don’t have to match the Champion on your Legend. For example, if you have Nasus, Ascended as your Chosen Champion with Lightning Rush in your deck, and Shen, Eye of Twilight as your Legend. Your three domains would be: Calm, Chaos, and Order.
  • You can use Battlefields that you open, or use a facedown card as a "blank" substitute Battlefield. These blank Battlefields have no abilities and are locations for players to conquer and hold. 
  • You can change the starting configuration of your deck in between games and rounds. Don’t be afraid to alter your build as you go!
  • For more details on Sealed deckbuilding, see the Tournament Rules.

Pre-Rift Kit Contents

For Vendetta Pre-Rift events, you’ll be provided with the following to open and use to build your deck. Remember, anything you open is yours to keep!

  • Five Vendetta Booster Packs
  • A pack themed around one of nine new Champions in Vendetta. These packs have a Legend, a Rare Champion, a Battlefield, and support cards all for that Champion. For the first time, you can get one of these packs at random featuring ANY of the new Legends in Vendetta.
  • Riven, Shattered promo card with a special Pre-Rift stamp. You can’t include Riven in your Sealed deck, but she is a special promo you can only get your hands on at these events (while supplies last).

Building Your Deck

When building your Sealed deck, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind. Remember, what you build has to have at least 25 cards and follow the domain rules listed above. With that in mind, here are a few tips for building your deck at the Pre-Rift:

  1. Including a reasonable amount of units in your deck is important, they are the primary way to score points. Most decks want to have at least 15 Units that can fight for you. You’ll want approximately five of them to cost 2 Energy, so you have plays to make in your first turns. The rest of your Units can be more expensive, with a diversity of costs so you have powerful plays at all points of the game.
  2. Use your non-Unit cards to help bolster the strategy of your deck. Gear or Spells that give Might are great options to improve your Units. It’s also always a good idea to have a few spells that will let you interact directly with your opponent’s units by removing them from play.
  3. Think about the different Power costs in your deck. Cards with Power costs tend to have stronger effects, and you will want to have some without going overboard on the Runes you'll have to recycle. When deciding what Runes to play in your Rune Deck, make sure to think about the specific Power costs you’re putting in your Main Deck.
  4. Vendetta has new mechanics called Flow, Burn, and Empower. Try playing around with multiple cards that have these keywords on them.
    1. Flow lets you play cards from your Trash instead of from your Hand. It was inspired by League Champions who use Energy, and captures the faster recovery and reuse of abilities that they display. 
    2. Burn sends cards from a Main Deck to the Trash. Some cards burn your own deck to fuel synergies, while others attack your opponent’s deck directly. Burn and Flow can have a lot of synergy.
    3. Cards with Empower on them have the potential to gain new abilities once they’re in play, often after paying a cost. This allows you to get a card on the board one turn, then amplify its Might or effect on another turn. 

When building the foundation of your deck, the cards from your Pre-Rift kit are a great place to start. Here's a quick rundown on the Champions in the Pre-Rift kits and their strategies. 

Pre-Rift Seeded Legends

Jayce

“Never look back.” 

Jayce is all about playing and manipulating Gear. In Standard, Jayce leans towards combo. For Pre-Rift, there's some Gear manipulation for making mechs or giving bonuses. Otherwise, it generally plays efficient cards that let you respond to the game's situation. 

Kennen

“I am the wind!” 

Kennen decks are Flow-focused, with a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and try to use cards from your Trash effectively. 

Akali

“Fear the assassin with no master.” 

Akali decks are aggressive and tricky, using the attack and retreat ability of the Legend to conquer Battlefields effectively. Don't be afraid to retreat Units back to base; your strength is in conquering, not necessarily holding. 

Ambessa

“A wolf has no mercy.” 

Ambessa decks are aggressive decks which benefit from using Empower, as Ambessa's Legend lets you ready Units once you have Empowered something else. 

Nasus

“Errant words may fell empires.” 

Nasus rewards you for playing expensive Units, Gear, or abilities by readying your Runes, giving you a "discount." This deck also benefits from Empower and tends to get stronger as the game goes longer. 

Zed

“The unseen blade is the deadliest." 

Zed's deck loves to stay on offense and conquer Battlefields to win. It uses Burn and discard to put cards into your Trash, to then use the Flow mechanic to play them again.

Shen

“From the shadows."

Shen loves to surprise his opponents using tricks, strong Units, and hidden cards to win defensive fights by holding Battlefields, especially with pairs of units.

Renekton

“They will feel pain they've never imagined!” 

Renekton lets you spend more Energy by recycling Runes, essentially allowing you to double-dip on the Runes. You exhaust them and then use Renekton to recycle them to add more Energy.

Mel

“Shatter their expectations.”

Mel runs a Spell-focused deck that wants to be more controlling. She loves to use Spells to shrink enemies so you can win fights or otherwise defeat them.

See You on the Rift!

Excited to find a nearby Pre-Rift? Check the event locator and find one near you!