Build your first Riftbound deck /

← Learn · First published September 11, 2026

For your first 1v1 Constructed deck, choose a Legend, check its domains and count each section before making upgrades.

This guide covers 1v1 Constructed competition.

What belongs in the deck

Read the Chosen Champion as part of the main-deck count, not card number 41.

A single-domain card needs that domain in your Legend’s identity. A card with two domains needs both, unless a specific effect says otherwise. The usual limit is three copies of a named card, counting the Chosen Champion; in competition, the named-copy limit includes the sideboard. Your Main Deck can contain at most three Signature cards in total, all matching your Legend’s champion tag.

The prebuilt exception you can lose by upgrading

At Casual organized play level (low OPL), an exact preconstructed Riftbound deck may include banned cards. Change the list or add a sideboard and that exception no longer applies.

“Released” and “legal here” are different checks

Check the actual format, region and event addenda. Korean Standard follows the Korean release pool. Standard and Constructed 2v2 also have different bans: Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman is on the 2v2 list, not the Standard list.

Give every card a job

Write the deck’s scoring plan in one sentence. Sort its cards by their jobs: developing units, contesting a battlefield, protecting a hold, supplying resources or replacing spent cards.

Game Director Dave Guskin’s July 2025 primer suggests starting with nine or more small units, six or more interactive spells and a 6/6 rune split. These are deckbuilding starting points, not construction rules.

• Can the runes pay the cards’ power costs, or are you counting only energy?
• Which plays put you in a position to score, and which merely build a larger board?
• What happens if the key unit or combination is interrupted?
• What did you actually struggle to do in a game: develop units, pay costs, contest a battlefield or keep control?

Make one change you can explain

After a game, note what the deck struggled to do. Make one change to address that problem, then recheck domains, copy limits, Signature count and bans.

• Read the Zed prebuilt breakdown

• See an actual response window
• Read tournament results correctly
• Prepare for your first store event