Lane Legends

Lane Legends is a single player or co-op multiplayer (of any number of players) Mode of Play for Riftbound TCG.

This document was last updated 2026.04.24 and is compatible with up to v1.3.0 of the Core Rules – 2025.12.4.

Lane Legends was created under Riot Games’ “Legal Jibber Jabber” policy using assets owned by Riot Games. Riot Games does not endorse or sponsor this project.

Credits

Co-creator & author of this doc: Jim, Game Developer at www.d20cafe.co.uk
Co-creator: Mark

Summary

This section is a brief summary of how to play this Mode of Play in plain English. For a full ruleset written in the style of the Riftbound Core rules, see the Mode of Play section below.

Lane Legends is based loosely on the classic MOBA gameplay of creeps pushing up “lanes” on a map. Each player gets their own lane to worry about and everyone plays a turn at the same time, with players able to help each other out with Spells and Abilities firing across lanes, but units sticking to their own lane.

The enemy on their lane is controlled by an NPC opponent who has a different, automated style of play. Players move cards/tokens physically on behalf of the NPC, but its “logic” is what you’re playing against.

Players each bring 3 battlefields to the game, shuffle and then deal them in a horizontal line in front of them. Player Units enter the left-most battlefield of their lane, and move along the lane one Location at a time. Units can typically only be played into their lane’s left-most (the Nearfield) battlefield if it is controlled, not the middle (Midfield) or right (Farfield) battlefields. Player Units cannot move to, or be played on, other player’s battlefields. Units with ganking can use the Standard Move action to move to any already controlled battlefield.

A NPC’s Base is to the right of the lane and its Units enter the lane from the right most battlefield. Feel free to swap the directions if you’re used to RTL.

Draw 4 and Mulligan up to 2 as normal and all players Channel 3 runes on the first turn.

After the normal A.B.C.D Starting Phases per turn, a new Enthralled phase is introduced. This is when the NPC acts. A card is pulled from the bottom of your deck and becomes an Enthralled Card. Depending on the properties of the Enthralled Card different things happen:

• All cards create a Thrall unit token in the NPC’s Base with Might equal to the energy cost of the card (min of 1). Add any bonus might if the Enthralled Card is a Gear Equipment of the Thrall.
• Any Power symbols on the Enthralled Card (cost, rules and effect text) must be paid by exhausting (not recycling) a rune of the matching colour (if possible), or 2 non matching runes. If the NPC’s player cannot pay the cost, then another player must; else everyone exhausts all of their runes.
• An Enthralled Unit Card Performs a Thrall Move (if possible) on the NPC’s Mightiest Thrall token at Midfield, Fairfield and the NPC’s base, in order, and then creates a 2nd Thrall at the NPC’s left most controlled Battlefield (or Base).
• An Enthralled Gear Card equips a Strike to the Mightiest Thrall in the lane, then performs a Thrall Move on that Thrall.
• An Enthralled Spell Card merges all of the Thrall tokens (including the one just created) and the gear currently at the enemy base, then repeats these steps by drawing another Enthralled Card from the bottom of the deck. If the second card is also a Spell, perform a Thrall Move on all Thralls at the NPC’s Base instead of merging or repeating.
• None of these effects themselves go onto the chain or open windows of opportunity.

Thrall Move is a movement action that moves the Thrall from its current location to the next, such that it follows the order: NPC base -> Farfield -> Midfield -> Nearfield.

A Strike is a Gear Equipment that has an action ability that it will use when attacking that detaches itself, and then targets & kills a unit at the battlefield. The target is the mightiest unit as described below. A Thrall token with multiple Strikes will use them while it still has valid targets available. Detached Strikes are recalled to the controller’s (typically the NPC) base as usual. Each activation of Strike counts as a spell with a cost of (1) as well as an ability for reaction (e.g. to counter) purposes.

Combat happens much the same as normal. You can be much more lax with sequencing (passing priority), timing, etc as everyone is working together and the NPC does not play cards unexpectedly into combat (which is deterministic), although these rules still apply when resolving what can / should happen.

When the NPC assigns combat damage or is targeting a Strike, it will always try to kill the Mightiest unit it can first, taking into account things like Tank and units that must be assigned combat damage last. It targets Strikes as though it were assigning combat damage. If there is a tie, it targets the unit with the highest energy cost. If it’s still a tie, decide randomly.

Deflect is changed so that when the unit is targeted, the player can choose to pay 1 power to counter the spell and place a Deflected counter on the unit. Deflected counters give the unit -1 Deflect and remain even if the unit loses the effect giving them Deflect. As such, Deflect 2 could stop 2 Strikes at a cost of 2 power & 2 Deflected counters, but then that unit would need an equipment or effect that gives them another level of Deflect to counter the -2 Deflect from the counters to stop a third Strike in such a way.

Holding the right most battlefield per lane is the only way for the team to score a point. Points from holding other battlefields, conquering any battlefield, points from winning combats, activating point giving abilities etc are negated and do not score the team points. Battlefields with conquered triggers can still be used once per turn if they were not controlled at the beginning of the turn.

Each Thrall holding a Nearfield causes the team to lose 1 Victory Point (which can go into negatives).

The team wins if they collectively meet the required Victory Score which is (number of players x3) +2. The team loses if any player Burns Out (required to draw a card from an empty Main Deck).

Return to Hand effects on Thrall tokens instead recall the Thrall to the NPC’s base.

The NPC cannot be made to draw extra cards.
The NPC has no runes or way to generate Energy or Power.
The NPC does not use Battlefield abilities.

Deck Construction

Normal constructed rules apply, with 1 exception: each player’s main deck must contain the same number of cards. The tournament standard of 40 is recommended.

Optimal decks for this game mode will be significantly different from PvP decks. We look forward to seeing what you build.

In this Mode of Play your own deck works against you; more powerful cards risk being used to create high Might value Units and drawing too many cards races you to the lose condition. The rules aren’t fully balanced against cheesy strategies as it is a non-competitive mode meant for fun; it’s likely you can do well with a deck that doesn’t have any spells / gear, or all low cost cards to avoid making Mighty enemies. If that’s fun for you or your group then go ahead (but check with the group first of playing with others). There are currently no known cards that need banning, and we’d rather the community make their own house rules for too powerful cards. We make recommendations in this doc on how to deal with such cards.

Tokens & Counters

You’ll need some way to track a potentially large number of Thrall unit tokens with a wide range of Might in small areas (depending on your table size). We highly recommend dice, coins, numbered counters (like Pokémon damage counters) or poker chips for Thralls, and then something else visually distinct as Strike / Deflected tokens. We’ve found having a distinct stack per Thrall with coins representing Might and anything that can be stacked on top for Strike tokens plays best. Thrall tokens do not need to distinguish between Ready / Exhausted.

Also you’ll need something to track points in larger games beyond your normal methods for 8/11 point limits.

Difficulty Modifiers

As mentioned above, your deck composition itself might lend to easier / more difficult games, but to increase the difficulty without changing the deck you can:

1. Faster Units: Move more than 1 Thrall from each location whenever you draw an Enthralled Unit Card.
2. Reaction Spells: if the 1st Enthralled Spell Card has the Reaction (or Action to make it even more difficult) keyword, draw the 2nd card and create the Unit for it, then do the merge of the 1st card before the other actions (Advance, Attach Strike + Move, Rush) of the 2nd.
3. Mighty Strikes: Give Strikes a +2[M] (or higher) Bonus Might value.
4. Pre-populate the field: Add a 5[M] Thrall at the Farfield and 3[M] Thrall at the Midfield (or more).
5. Recycle rather than exhaust runes to pay for the Enthrall Cost.

To decrease the difficulty you can:

1. Channel more runes at the start.
2. Begin with Champions exhausted in Base.
3. Only pay Enthrall Costs from the card cost (not rules / effect text).
4. Draw Enthralled Cards from your shuffled sideboard first.
5. Allow Gold gear tokens to pay for the Enthrall Cost.

Mode of Play

N (1 or more) Players

Co-Op: One team of N players vs One team of N “non-player controlled” (NPC) opponents

1 NPC opponent each

N – 1 teammates

Victory Score: (N x 3) + 2

Battlefield Count: N x 3

Setup:

Player seating is not important.

Each player shuffles then randomly places all three Battlefields horizontally face up in front of them above where their Units will be played.

The left-most Battlefield is their Nearfield.
The middle Battlefield is their Midfield.
The right-most Battlefield is their Farfield.
The 3 Battlefields and both Player and NPC Bases are their Lane.

Each player has their own NPC opponent, which they will act for when necessary. The NPC doesn’t physically exist, so the player will need to move cards and tokens around on their behalf, however the logic the NPC follows is not player controlled.

The NPC and player share the same Main Deck.

The NPC’s base is to the right of the Farfield.

The Enthralled Pile is to the right of the NPC’s base.

For players used to Right to Left languages, feel free to switch the Near and Far fields and put the NPC’s base & Enthralled Pile on the left.

Format: Best of 1, the player team wins if they achieve the Victory Score.

Teams win and lose together.

If one player Concedes, then the entire player team loses.
If one player Burns Out, then the entire player team loses.

First Turn Process: All players channel an extra rune from their Rune Deck during their first Channel Phase of the game.

Unique Rules:

Mightiest Unit refers to the Unit with the highest Might. If there is a tie, then it is the one with also the highest Energy Cost. If it is still a tie, decide randomly.

Mightiest Thrall is the Mightiest Unit (see above) that is a Thrall Token. If there is a tie in Might, then it is the one with the most Strikes attached. If it is still a tie then it is the one closest to the Midfield within any Location restriction, otherwise it doesn’t matter which one is used.

Friendly for a Choice or when Targeting describes Game Objects controlled by the player or any consenting teammate. Examples: “When I am played, ready a friendly unit”, or “Buff a friendly unit” could target a player’s own Units or their teammates’ Units (if they allow it).

Enemy for a Choice or when Targeting describes Game Objects controlled by any NPC. Examples: “When I am played, Deal 1 to an enemy unit”, or “Stun an enemy unit” could target any NPCs’ Units.

Friendly and Enemy when not a Choice describes only the Game Objects under the control of the player / NPC (respectively) of the Lane/Base that the card is played into.

Friendly Examples: “Friendly units enter ready this turn”, and “When a friendly unit is played this turn, buff it” only apply to one player’s Units at a time.

Enemy Examples: “Deal 2 to all enemy units in combat” is units in 1 combat even if other players are resolving combats at the same time, and “When one or more enemies die, ready me” only apply to one NPC’s Units at a time.

Players cannot play Permanents into other player’s bases.

All players play their turns simultaneously: each phase does not progress into the next until all players have completed that phase.

A.B.C.D can be completed asynchronously to speed up the game.

For speed of play, during the players’ Action Phase you may skip worrying about exact timing and windows of opportunities, and you may have multiple showdowns playing out across different lanes simultaneously. These still happen in terms of the rules, but you can be more lax in how & when cards / abilities are played since NPCs do not have cards for Actions / Reactions; as such combat is deterministic and any help from other players can be given without locking the whole game down. Players can individually still only resolve one combat at a time.

When helping another player during the Action Phase, play the card / ability (paying any costs, discarding etc) and let them resolve the combat as though that card was played at the correct time.

A new turn for all players begins when all players have passed.

NPCs do not have their own turn.

They only act during the Enthralled Phase (see below).

NPCs do not have their own hand.

They cannot draw cards.

NPCs are not other players.

NPCs can control Battlefields as usual.

They do not trigger or utilise Battlefield abilities.

All players have a new Enthralled Phase added after their Draw Phase and before the Action Phase.

Each NPC that controls a Nearfield at the start of this phase reduces the player team’s Victory Point by 1 (which can go negative).

Each player draws a card from the bottom of their Main Deck and deals it face up to the Enthralled Pile, this is the NPC’s current Enthralled Card. Whenever a new Enthralled Card is dealt, do the following:

1. Pay the Enthrall Cost.

For any Power icon on the card (including its cost, rules text and effect text) exhaust a matching coloured rune. If you cannot, exhaust two runes of another colour. If you cannot fulfill either, another player must do so on your behalf (exhaust 1 matching or 2 non-matching coloured runes). If no other player can then all players exhaust all of their runes.

This includes icons in the text that would normally be an Add effect, optional cost, reducing the Power cost of other cards, as part of a Repeat / Accelerate or any other keyword etc. It does not include icons in reminder text (italic text in brackets, like this).

When there is a choice for the colour of the power (e.g. it is the rainbow any-colour rune icon, or a 2-coloured icon for a signature card), then the player that will pay chooses which colour.

2. Create a Thrall Unit Token in the NPC’s Base equal to the Energy Cost of the Enthralled Card (0 energy cost cards are treated as 1 for this purpose).

3. Depending on the Type of the Enthralled Card:

If it is a Unit card, perform an Advance (see below), then create a 2nd Thrall with Might equal to card’s Might in the left most Battlefield the NPC controls, or its Base if none.

If it is a Gear card, attach a Strike gear equipment token (see below) to the Mightiest Thrall in the lane, then Perform a Thrall Move on that Thrall.

If it is a Gear Equipment card, also add (if any) the Might Bonus of the card to the created Thrall before attaching.

If it is the first Spell card dealt this turn, perform a Merge, then deal another Enthralled Card. If it is the second Spell card dealt this turn, perform a Rush.

All of these steps themselves do not open chains / windows to react etc, they happen, you can’t stop them.

Such created Thrall Unit Tokens and Strike equipment are under the control of the NPC.

The Enthralled Pile is a non-board public zone, once cards are dealt there, they are essentially removed from the game and cannot be targeted / removed from the pile via any means.

Thrall Move is a form of Movement made by the NPC to move Thralls.

It does not exhaust the Thrall.
Multiple Thrall Moves to the same destination are performed similar to moving multiple units with a Standard Move.
The destination depends on the Thrall’s current Location.

Thrall is at NPC’s Base -> Farfield.
Thrall is at Farfield -> Midfield.
Thrall is at Midfield -> Nearfield.

Advance moves multiple Thralls up the lane.

It happens when an Enthralled Unit Card is dealt.
In order:

1. Perform a Thrall Move on the Mightiest Thrall (if any) at Midfield.
2. Perform a Thrall Move on the Mightiest Thrall (if any) at Farfield.
3. Perform a Thrall Move on the Mightiest Thrall (if any) at the NPC’s Base.

Strike is a Gear Equipment token.

It is created and immediately attached a Thrall when an Enthralled Gear Card is dealt.
Detached Strikes are attached to the merged Thrall when an Enthralled Spell Card causes a Merge.
Strike has a cost of (1).
Strike has a +0[M] Bonus.
Strike has the following rule text: “[Quick Draw] [Equip [A]]”.
Strike has the following effect text: “[Action] (1) detach this from me then do this: Kill an enemy defender unit here, this ability also counts as a played spell that cost (1).”.
Strike has the colour identify of the Enthralled Gear card that created it (this doesn’t need tracking).
The costs of the card, equip, or action is not actually paid, but is the cost of the card/ability/spell interacting with other cards that require one.
See Damage Assignment below for target choice when performing the action.

The NPC will always try to use Strike as many times as possible if it has multiple attached.
It will/can not waste Strikes on invalid targets.

A detached Strike is recalled to its controller’s (usually the NPC) Base as normal.

Merge joins Units and Gear at the NPC’s Base together.

It happens when an Enthralled Spell Card is first dealt per turn.
Detach all Strikes from any Thralls at the NPC’s Base.
Sum the Might of all Thralls at the NPC’s Base together, including the Thrall just created.
Create a new separate Thrall with Might equal to this sum at the NPC’s Base.
Attach all Strikes at the NPC’s Base to the new Thrall.
Remove the other Thralls at the NPC’s Base – this does not cause any triggers to fire.

Rush moves all enemy units from the NPC’s Base to Farfield.

It happens when a second Enthralled Spell Card is dealt per turn.
Perform a Thrall Move on all Thralls at the NPC’s Base.

For speed, you can resolve most of the Enthralled Phase for every player asynchronously, then resolve combats caused by Thrall Moves in any order (players’ choice).

All combats must be resolved before the Action Phase begins.

Combat during the Enthralled Phase uses the strict state, window & timing rules as normal (these are just lax in the Action Phase to speed the game up).

Damage Assignment & Targeting is deterministic. 

The NPC will assign its combat damage and target Strikes such that it will assign / target the Mightiest valid Unit it can kill after taking into account restrictions like Tank. Abilities like Tank and “I must be assigned damage last in combat” also apply to targeting Strikes, except if that Unit is otherwise an invalid choice.
A NPC’s use of a Strike counts as the Unit being chosen / targeted.
If it cannot kill any Units from Combat Damage, it will assign as much as possible to the Mightiest valid Unit.
It does not have forward planning.

Example: A NPC has a 4[M] Thrall with a Strike in Combat against a 2[M] Unit that gives +1[M] to other friendly Units and two 2[M] Units. The NPC would target one of the 2+1[M] Units with the Strike and then kill the other 2+1[M] Unit with Combat Damage. It would not Strike the +1 might giving Unit, even though that sequence would allow it to kill all 3 Units (the other 2 would be 2[M] by the time Combat Damage is applied).

It does not have awareness of the game state outside its own current Might and the available targets’ current Might and damage.

Example: If a Spell is cast that says “When any unit takes damage this turn, kill it”, a NPC with a 3[M] Thrall would not know to assign damage to a 7[M] Unit over a 3[M] Unit. 

It does not know if effects are temporary.

Example: A NPC with a 7[M] Thrall would target a 2[M] Unit with an effect granting “+5[M] until end of turn” over a printed 6[M] Unit.

If the other Unit had printed 7[M], it would probably have a higher energy cost than the 2+5[M], so it would be chosen in that scenario.

Playing a Unit is adjusted

Controlled Battlefields other than the Nearfield are typically not valid choices for where a Unit is played.
Card effects that specify a condition still apply.

Example: A Unit with “[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve, including to a battlefield you control.)” can be played to any Battlefield controlled by the player.

Other player’s Battlefield are never a valid choice for playing a Unit.

Example: A player playing a Unit with “You may play me to an occupied enemy battlefield.” can only be played to an occupied Battlefield in their Lane.

Combat Special Cleanup is adjusted

Attacking Thralls return to their move origin location if an attack fails (there are still defenders remaining at the end of combat), rather than being recalled to their Base.

Failed attacking player Units recall to their Base as normal.

Standard Move is adjusted.

Valid move destinations are based on the Unit’s move origin:

Units in Base can move to Nearfield.
Units in Nearfield can move to Base or Midfield.
Units in Midfield can move to Nearfield or Farfiend.
Units in Farfield can move to Midfield.

Movement is adjusted.

Units can never move to another owner’s Battlefields.

Ganking is adjusted.

Ganking Units can also move to any controlled battlefield from any Location when using their Standard Move.
They can still only return to Base from Nearfield.

Deflect is adjusted.

When a Unit with Deflect is targeted by a Strike, the player may pay [A] to counter the Strike and place a Deflected Counter on the Unit.
A Deflected Counter gives the Unit: Deflect -1 (to a minimum of 0) and remains on the card even the effect granting Deflect is removed.

Scoring is adjusted.

Each held Farfield scores 1 point to the team. It is the only way to score points, points gained from any other source (including Hold triggers originating at the Farfield) are negated. You may use the conquer trigger ability of a Battlefield the first time you conquer it per turn if it wasn’t already in your control at the beginning of the turn.

Token Core Rule #180.1 is adjusted.

Thrall Tokens returned to controller’s hand are instead recalled to the NPC’s base.

Hands are still Private Information. 

Players are not restricted in what they say to their Teammate, however.
Feel free to openly communicate, honestly or cryptically.
Revealing Cards is still a game action and cannot be done unless instructed.

FAQ

Q: I drew my last card during my Draw Phase, what does the NPC do during the Enthrall Phase when the Main Deck is empty?

A: The NPC does not act, although this is your last chance to win as next turn you will Burn Out (unless you can recycle a card from your trash).

Q: Strikes keep killing my best units, what can I do about it?

A: Strikes are gear, so any gear removal before they’re used is your best bet. They can only target a defender, meaning you can attack & kill the Thrall and send the Strike back to base. Sometimes giving ground so you’re not attacked by a Thrall (especially moving back to Midfield from Farfield to avoid attacks from the NPC’s Base) is a wise play. If you can’t preemptively negate the Strikes, the NPC uses one as an Action whenever it has focus and a valid target, the action itself detaches the equipment and places a reflexive ability on the chain that counts as both an ability and a spell with a cost of (1) that chooses and targets a single unit at the battlefield. You can reactively counter the ability / spell or move the target out of the battlefield.

In rare circumstances changing your units’ might so that a different unit is targeted could be a valid tactic. However, due to rule changes in Unleased, you’d have to do it before the Strike was put onto the chain (since now, that is when the target is locked in).

Q: Why can’t one player concede and the rest continue?

A: This ruling is only intended to stop a player from burning through all of their cards to help the other players establish board dominance and then concede before they trigger the lose condition of running out of cards. If everyone is happy too, feel free to continue playing if that isn’t the case .

Combat Example

A NPC with a 8[M] Thrall with 3 Strikes moves from its Base into the Farfield which is currently controlled by player’s Unit A with 3[M] and Tank, Unit B with 7[M] and Unit C with 4[M] and Deflect.

1. It uses the first Strike targeting A due to Tank. The team doesn’t want to try to save A and play no Reactions – A dies.
2. It uses the second Strike targeting B. Another player plays a reaction that counters the Strike, then the defending player plays an action that gives C +5[M].
3. It uses the third Strike to target the now Mightiest Unit C (C‘s 9 Vs B‘s 7). The player pays a power to counter the Strike due to the Deflect.
4. All 3 Strikes are now detached and will be recalled during clean up. The NPC has no more actions to play and will pass all priority / focus; players’ have the opportunity to perform more actions / reactions before the combat damage step, but they have nothing left to help.
5. Unit A died to a Strike, C temporarily has more Might than the NPC can cause damage; it assigns 7 damage to B (enough to kill it) and 1 to C.