Roughly two months ago, Riftbound released Unleashed, a set that took place in the jungles of Runeterra and was centered around powering up your cards and doing quick attacks. Now Riot Games is getting ready to release yet another expansion for its TCG (Trading Card Game) called Vendetta. Like the last set, this one will also have a central story being told with the cards. As you may have expected from the name, it’s all about rivalries and taking out your opponent. Ahead of its full July 31 release, MonsterVine received a press package for the upcoming set.
Vendetta is a rather interesting set too, because out of all of the expansions to come out, it’s easily one of the smallest ones to date with only 166 cards. But that’s not to say it’s not worth checking out, because it definitely punches above its weight. In Vendetta, you can expect a few new keywords, a handful of new Legends, two new precon (Preconstructed) decks, and a lot of shiny cardboard.
The older I get, the less time I have to do things I want to do. This is a huge reason why I love precon decks; they’re ready to go right out of the box and can usually hold their own. On top of that, they can always be upgraded whenever you want. Both decks come packaged together in one box, which I have mixed feelings about because it forces you to buy two decks even if you only want one; they’re still a fairly good deal. Plus, it’s cool to see ninjas go toe-to-toe with one another.
The first is centered around Shen, who is a Calm (Green) and Order (Yellow)-based deck. This deck is all about having a strong presence on the battlefield. In a nutshell, it allows you to control where enemy cards go, buff cards you already have on the field, and force your opponents’ hands. The other deck is built around Zeo, and they couldn’t be more different, with a Chaos (Purple) and Fury (Red) archetype. A large focus of his deck is all about destroying as many cards as possible to buff others, and putting down as many cards on the field as quickly as you can.
While looking through both of your precon decks, you may notice three new keywords in the set. Those being: Burn, Flow, and Empower. Like all the other sets, Riot has kept the tradition of keeping these fairly easy to break down. The Burn keyword allows you to put X number of cards from the top of a player’s main deck into their trash (think Mill from Magic: The Gathering), while Flow allows you to play cards from your trash, then banish them from the game. If you noticed already, those two keywords go hand in hand and open up a lot of possible combos right off the bat.
The last keyword, Empower, is a two-for-one. This one works like paying X cost to Empower it, then you unlock a new feature with the card, and the card becomes Empowered. A good example of this can be seen with Mel Newly Awakened. To Empower her, you’ll have to pay 3, which makes her spells and abilities unable to be countered, and she can also weaken other cards. It’s also worth mentioning that you can only Empower a card once and can’t stack them.
Vendetta also introduces nine new legends for you to build a deck around. These nine cards include:
- Akali – Fury and Clam (Red and Green)
- Ambessa – Body and Order (Orange and Yellow)
- Jayce – Mind and Fury (Blue and Red)
- Kennen – Chaos and Order (Purple and Yellow)
- Mel – Mind and Chaos (Blue and Purple)
- Nasus – Calm and Mind (Green and Blue)
- Renekton – Fury and Body (Red and Orange)
- Shen – Calm and Order (Green and Yellow)
- Zed – Fury and Chaos (Red and Purple)
Personally, whenever I play card games, I usually like to go for flavor decks. Thanks to Arcane, I’m already plotting some flavor decks built around Mel Soul’s Reflection, Jayce Defender of Tomorrow, and Ambessa Matriarch of War. These three cards are some that I also want to highlight. For Jayce, he has an ability that allows you to Empower him for two, and once he is Empowered, Jayce can Ready 2 gear instead of one. This allows you to buff him up as quickly as possible. With a deck centered around a lot of gear.
Mel is a bit different; whenever you Empower something, she’ll Disempower it while at the same time weakening a unit by two. Her mother, Ambessa, is a bit different. Whenever you empower something else, she’ll also get stronger when she’s disempowered; it’ll ready a unit. Although it’s a no-brainer, I am in love with how accurate all of these cards are to their characters, and it makes me even more excited to build a deck out of them and try it against friends.
Like all TCG players, I am a big fan of shiny cardboard. This does come with a lot of great cards and even better alternate arts. A great example of this is the new connecting Champion Unit cards that form a picture of them fighting when put side by side. These include:
- Jayce and Victor
- Diana and Leona
- Ambessa and Mel
- Kayle and Morgana
- Rengar and Kha’zix
- Gangplank and Illaoi
- Vi and Jinx
- Swain and Irelia
- Renekton and Nasus
- Zed and Shen
Admittedly, I am sad that I didn’t pull any of these. I am excited to try and chase some down to make certain decks pop a bit more. I know I say this a lot in just about every Riftbound review I do, but Riot continues to prove that they have the sauce and know how to make absolutely gorgeous cards that make me want to spend more money than I’d like to admit.
Overall, Vendetta offers a lot of flavor Riftbound and expands it in a way that keeps me excited to see how the TCG will evolve in the future. The set balances a fine line of giving both fans of Arcane and League of Legends enough content to satisfy them both.
Final Word
In a lot of ways, Vendetta feels like it was made specially for me. It has almost all of my favorite characters from the League of Legends universe. With a set centered around rivals and fighting, every card reflects that perfectly. It doesn’t try to confuse you by throwing in unnecessary new mechanics and adds enough to keep the game fresh and fun while being great for newcomers alike. The only thing that would make this deck perfect is if Ekko was in it. But one can dream that my favorite time traveler will be making his appearance sooner rather than later.
