A TCG-expert with a love for all issues technique, Matt can often be discovered downloading too many mods after which questioning why his video games don’t work.
Printed: October 12, 2026
Ever questioned how your favourite League of Legends character is transformed from an avatar powered by your twitch reflexes and ideal consciousness right into a enjoying piece for the budding TCG Riftbound?
On the face of it, lane-based MOBAs and technique card video games share little DNA, so it looks as if transporting the mechanics from one to the opposite, and nonetheless having the champions that so many followers have an attachment to really feel true, could be a frightening problem.
“There’s of us on my workforce who’re superb at this, and I admire them daily,” says Dave Guskin, Riftbound’s Recreation and Design Director. He says it is all about wanting on the ‘package’ of a League of Legends champion and determining what’s resonant, whether or not it is Zed along with his shadow stepping, or Miss Fortune and her bullets.
“In case you can take that and translate it to some facet of the best way that their ‘package’ performs in Riftbound, which is after all their entire deck, then I feel you can begin to get that correspondence.”
“It isn’t all the time going to be an actual translation,” Guskin provides. “In League of Legends, Ezreal has a bunch of teleporty, actually fast motion stuff. How will we signify that in Riftbound?
“Oh, fast motion between the battlefields… That is not precisely one to 1 with the best way mobility works within the MOBA, and so there’s quite a lot of testing that occurs the place we take mechanics we expect would possibly work, attempt to translate them into their card sport equivalents, play them, see in the event that they’re enjoyable.
“Generally it is like, no, this isn’t enjoyable to signify this faithfully, after which we’ll attempt a distinct facet of both their mechanical identification or generally their thematic identification.”
For instance of a design that had to return to the drafting board, he offers Darius. “We tried some issues with Darius along with his execute that simply felt very irritating from the opposite aspect of the desk, when Darius was executing you, and so we ended up placing that in his signature spell. You understand, when it is on a unit, it does not essentially really feel enjoyable.”
One problem is that in LoL there are “tons of tunable” levers – cooldowns, minor stat tweaks – that do not apply in Riftbound. A repeatable execute means on a Darius Champion unit would possibly really feel unhealthy. “Upon getting this, you could possibly use it time and again”.
As for a champion Guskin feels the workforce completely nailed, the designer lists Rengar. There’s not a particular mechanic we ported over, he says, however the best way that Rengar performs positively seems like he is searching you.
“It is kind of constructed round this ambush mechanic, proper? I can see that my opponent has their runes accessible. I am terrified that he’ll soar out of the bushes and slice me up. And that is actually what occurs. It is rewarding the identical factor that Rengar mains would do in League of Legends.”
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