Riot Games has announced Riftbound’s first-ever set of card bans, just five months after the game’s international release. The purpose of these bans is to address perceived problematic play patterns that the balance team has observed, especially in the context of Chaos (Purple) decks and Draven, who is extremely dominant in the current meta.
Red Draven, Purple Spells And Battlefields Have All Been Banned
The full list of banned cards is as follows:
Champion Units:
Gears:
Spells:
- Fight or Flight
- Called Shot
Battlefields:
- The Dreaming Tree
- Obelisk of Power
- Reaver’s Row
The banning announcement was originally made by the Chinese Riftbound account, before Riot Games posted an article addressing the bans on its website.
The post outlines Riot’s philosophy on card bans
It’s clear Riot is trying to address the prevalence of easy card draw in the current meta, targeting Called Shot, the engine of most miracle decks, and The Dreaming Tree. The removal of Scrapheap also impacts discard-heavy decks like the Detonate Draven archetype we’ve seen emerge over the past month or so.
The strength of all Draven decks, a legend who draws every time the player wins combat, has also been targeted. The removal of Reaver’s Row and Fight or Flight deprive Draven of some easy combat wins, something that more aggressive variants of the deck were using for early card draw.
We will continue to update this article when Riot provides additional information.
- Original Release Date
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2025
- Designer(s)
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Dave Guskin (Game Director)
