Last week, Daniel Zidenberg talked about how two battlefields were eating Riftbound. Just a few days later, Riot delivered the verdict: both banned, effective this week. I’d love to tell you the devs read the newsletter, but I don’t know that. We’ll settle for being on the record a few days early though. Read the piece that aged well.

A verdict this big deserves a full hearing, so we’re going to be trying something new this week. One feature, all in depth. Jon Rosum grades Riftbound’s second banlist ahead of the Vendetta RQ season: the cuts they got right and the card that got away.

One last thing: the TopDeck Championship 2026 points race came to a close this past weekend. If you spent the season grinding, keep an eye on your inbox for your invite this week. We’ll see you at Breach the Bay 2 where the event will take place.

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Jon Rosum breaks down Riftbound's second banlist ahead of the Vendetta RQ season: the right cuts, the card that should have joined them, and why we're "one disaster printing away" from a combo season.

By Jon Rosum

This past week we got the second banlist that Riftbound has seen along with an interesting game change, and I'm here this week to talk about the pros and cons from the announcement ahead of the Vendetta RQ Season. Let's talk about what the banlist got right:

Stealthy Pursuer: We already knew Stealthy Pursuer was getting axed thanks to one of Dave Guskin's early tweets about Vendetta as every piece of this combo existed before the new set, so the ban was expected from day one. The combination of Stealthy Pursuer, Eye of the Herald, and Renata Glasc, Industrialist alongside an empty battlefield lets you make infinite tokens at a battlefield and your base. Once that happens, it is virtually impossible for your opponent to win the game. Worse, the combo can be assembled as easily as turn 3. Riftbound removal isn't exactly equipped to deal with this game's version of "Splinter Twin" because of how interaction here operates at speeds that simply can't answer it, meaning many decks effectively have no recourse to stop you once you get the three cards online. With the inclusion of Kennen we also gained Lightning Rush, which means these Chaos / Order decks are also going to be INCREDIBLY consistent. While I do think infinite combos are generally healthy, they are not good for the game once you factor in how hard this one is to interact with and how consistently this specific color pairing finds it. Kennen is going to be quite strong regardless; we don't need a season to be absolutely ruined by this like it would've been if the combo was allowed to exist.

The Arena's Greatest: I would be shocked if this wasn't the most hated battlefield in the game, and for very good reason. The player on the play is already favored; a battlefield shouldn't shift the tempo so drastically in their direction that the game feels close to unplayable. The only "counter" you could present was Aspirant's Climb, which turned this back into a normal game, just one played a turn faster. I really hated what this battlefield did to the game, and I think it was the more egregious of the two battlefields banned. Riftbound is tempo-oriented at its core, and this battlefield plays extremely into the play-patterns that favor whoever is on the play while absolutely punishing any deck that is slightly slower to the board. While I do agree that aggressive decks should have aggressive-leaning battlefields, this tips the margin a bit too far. Aggressive decks are the bread and butter of Riftbound; there's no reason to print something that swings the tempo even further in their favor. I for one am quite glad to see it axed.

Aspirant's Climb: While I do think Aspirant's Climb falls under the same category of "a battlefield that impacts the game too much," the situation is a bit different than The Arena's Greatest. Where The Arena's Greatest plays into the tempo game Riftbound is already about, Aspirant's Climb slows the game down a full turn — which plays into the slower decks of the format, decks that are already not considered that great. What it did for the Aurora and Control decks was probably too much of a pendulum swing, but the game is stacked against those decks to begin with. You can never truly establish "full control" in Riftbound. Your opponent is drawing an actual card with text every turn, unlike in Magic where you can rely on them bricking for a draw step or two. That means these "Control" decks have to answer every card you present, because a Scuttle Crab and a Ruin Runner both score points all the same. I know it might seem like I have a bias here. I do. But while both battlefields fundamentally add or remove a turn, they are not equal in how offensive they are to the game. Was Aspirant's Climb a good ban? I absolutely think so, as a battlefield shouldn't have that much power — but of the two, this is certainly the less offensive.

Ekko Recurrent: This card's existence is quite scary for Riftbound because it will never be used as a fair card. Combo decks should exist, but with how Riftbound is currently designed I don't think the game is very equipped to deal with them. Luckily, we do have cards that are good against the Lux combo decks. If you want to beat Lux combo you definitely can, but only with specific cards that not every domain has access to. Effects like Hard Bargain, Abandon, Trinity Force, Green Ahri, Defy, Sabotage, and Forge of the Future are very strong against this deck, especially paired with aggressive elements. The problem with Lux combo is that it's very Dredge-like in how it operates: they are effectively playing solitaire until you either die or kill your opponent, which I'm sure is NOT what the developers wanted.

The problem with Ekko Recurrent specifically is that you are asking people to break this effect. If you're able to kill it cheaply, you are effectively using it to play as many cards as possible, and in the Lux infinite, you are using it to generate infinite power and infinite energy under the right conditions. Did you notice that the answer cards I mentioned only live in four domains? If your secondary color is Mind / Fury you are quite literally hosed unless you're playing a really aggressive strategy, and while the Aspirant's Climb ban does hurt this deck, aggressive decks losing The Arena's Greatest hurts quite a bit as well. The combo deck isn't very popular, but that doesn't excuse that it is trying to do something too strong for the game to handle. Otterpus already inched us closer; we are one disaster printing away from a season of dealing with this on repeat.

Fizz Trickster: Fizz Trickster does continue to get better set after set, and that is very true, but we can't be talking about banning a card that gets stronger when the actual issue lies in the interaction with Star-Crossed specifically. I know it was a common sight on social media to see people asking for this ban, but it's really blown out of proportion. Snapcaster Mage / Torrential Gearhulk effects are good for slower decks' existence. While you can argue the interaction with Star-Crossed is a little too much, it doesn't do that much if you're behind on board and unable to threaten with the advantage. If Fizz had too much might or didn't cost a power, there would be an actual discussion to be had. But since he doesn't really win combat too often, and there is a legitimate cost to putting him in play, I don't understand why the calls for this ban are happening, even if he is a core card in one of the best decks of Set 3 in Diana. Every TCG is going to have a best color/deck; it happens that in this one it's Purple/Diana. But we can't just ban a card for being great.

Star-Crossed: Star-Crossed is quite a bit pushed, but I think it keeps a lot of toxic decks in check, specifically Dazzling Aurora and Leblanc Deceiver. Of the two, I think Star-Crossed is more of an offender than Fizz Trickster; making it reaction speed was certainly a choice. But this effect's existence kinda just keeps the game from being in a Dazzling Aurora season. Cheating in Elder Dragon is incredibly toxic, but there is a legitimate cost in deckbuilding. That deck has basically proven to be Tier 2 at best throughout Unleashed Season, and I think a lot of that has to do with the existence of Star-Crossed. Let's talk about Leblanc Deceiver for a second. Leblanc has a notoriously bad Purple tempo matchup, which is good considering that Diana and Irelia are quite popular and have proven to be Tier 1 strategies. Leblanc Deceiver would certainly be much more of a threat without Star-Crossed existing. It's good to have cards that check the meta from devolving into a pretty toxic state, which I think would happen without it, so I'm glad it's there currently.

Dazzling Aurora: If you're a fan of me, you will have already seen my previous take on Dazzling Aurora from the Unleashed preview season. If not:

→ Read Rosum's Unleashed-era Dazzling Aurora take

I do think ramp is a good archetype for a TCG to have, but the way Dazzling Aurora currently operates is not a very fun nor engaging deck, and it often leads to more non-games than not. If anything, Unleashed showed that this strategy is certainly not the best or even close to it, and is more of a deck that requires a decent amount of high rolling to be good. I do think the card Dazzling Aurora is kinda an abomination, but without other cards that facilitate a healthy ramp strategy, I see no reason this card needs to be axed currently, especially with how lackluster it has been performing. Ramp is good to exist. Dazzling Aurora sucks to play against. But the tools to attack it exist and are abundant, so we don't really need to axe this one quite yet. I do think something will eventually come out that leads to its banning, Elder Dragon just wasn't quite it.

I thought the second Riftbound banlist was quite good, even though I wish there was one more addition to the list. The other announcement deserves its own moment: sideboards are growing from 8 to 10 cards. As more sets release, the pool of answers gets wider every season, and those two extra slots provide just enough customizability to actually cover your bases. I was very glad to see it. The light bannings are exactly what the format needed. Unleashed gave us the most "competitive" season Riftbound has seen, even if some elements weren't very healthy for the long term. Some of those were addressed in the battlefields, but we still must be careful about Ekko Recurrent and Dazzling Aurora. For now we should be safe, and I see no reason for the Vendetta competitive season to be any less broad. I'm excited to see what's in store for Barcelona as the new legends enter the mix and the Origins / Proving Grounds leaders rotate out of best-of eligibility, meaning those older leaders can no longer front a deck at premier events.

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The season-long points race ended this weekend, and invites are going out this week. The Invitational runs August 22 alongside Breach the Bay 2 in San Mateo, CA. Qualified? Confirm your seat as soon as your invite lands. Didn't make the cut? Breach the Bay 2 $25k registration is live now.

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