Cover: InkSight editorial illustration. Riftbound Vendetta released globally on July 31, 2026.
Release date & distribution
Global street date: July 31, 2026. This is the first Riftbound set where Chinese and English releases share a launch day — Origins, Spiritforged, and Unleashed all had staggered regional releases. Riot has confirmed simultaneous distribution to keep the competitive metagame in sync across regions.
The Showdown Deck product (a Shen vs. Zed precon pair with boosters attached) launches in July as a companion to Vendetta.
Set contents
- 166 cards in the main set.
- 9 new Legends — including Akali, Mel, and Ambessa in the marketed key art.
- Over-numbered rival-pair cards — the set-wide gimmick. Cards go beyond the numbered main set with special print-run pieces whose art connects into full scenes when placed side-by-side.
The reveal season kicked off June 22, 2026 and has been rolling out one Legend and one rival-pair at a time.
The rivalry mechanic — what it actually is
Vendetta's mechanical hook is a set-wide focus on paired cards. Each rival-pair is two cards from opposing factions or lore rivals — think Jinx / Vi, Jayce / Viktor — printed with connecting alt-art. Mechanically, the pair cards have text that references each other: playing one, seeing the other in your opponent's field, or fighting when both are in play triggers additional effects.
The rivalry pair concept doesn't need both cards to be legal — you can build around one side of a rivalry without the other. But when both players run opposite halves of the same rivalry, the game gets extra text on both sides of the table. It's the most Riot-narrative mechanic Riftbound has shipped so far.
The 9 Vendetta Legends we know about
Riot's official reveals confirm Akali, Mel, and Ambessa as three of the nine new Legends in Vendetta. Additional Legends have been teased through the reveal season but haven't all been formally revealed as of July 20, 2026 — the reveal window ends the day before street date. Watch Riftbound news for the final six.
Where Vendetta sits vs. Origins, Spiritforged, and Unleashed
Riftbound's release cadence has been aggressive since Origins in October 2025:
- Origins — October 31, 2025. The launch set.
- Spiritforged — February 13, 2026. 221 cards, 12 legends including Azir, Irelia, Draven, and Lucian.
- Unleashed — May 8, 2026. Introduced Ambush, XP, and Hunt mechanics; Champion Legends included Master Yi, Diana, Vi, Pyke, and Kha'Zix; Baron Nashor is the set's Ultimate Rare.
- Vendetta — July 31, 2026. First simultaneous global release; 166 cards; rivalry mechanic.
Set 5 — Radiance — is confirmed for October 23, 2026, adding Ekko and Seraphine to the pool.
Buying into Vendetta now that it is out
- Decide which of the 9 new Legends you actually want to run before you buy singles. Our Deck Lab checks legality against every released set, Vendetta included.
- For pull-rate math on sealed boxes, check Riftbound pull rates — the base-rate expectations from Origins/Spiritforged/Unleashed are the closest reference until Vendetta has its own sample.
- Launch-week singles pricing is volatile in both directions as supply lands. Track the daily snapshot on the Riftbound market rather than acting on a single day's ask.
Vendetta launch pricing — the cards to watch
Vendetta released on July 31, 2026, so these are real post-release numbers rather than preorder asks: the seven highest-priced Vendetta cards in our catalogue, by TCGplayer Market Price, from our daily snapshot dated July 31, 2026. What we can honestly say and no more: at launch the set's ceiling sits in the $37 to $8 Market Price band for the top seven, with lowest asks running both above and below Market Price card by card. What we cannot yet say is which direction launch prices are heading — every Vendetta card has one day of history, so there is no trend to report and we will not invent one. Each tile links to its canonical InkSight card page, where the daily snapshot and the history window fill in from here.
Market Price is TCGplayer's recent-sales figure and is what we rank by; Ask is the current lowest listing, which can sit either side of it in a launch week. Both come from our daily snapshot of July 31, 2026 — not a live feed. Vendetta cards carry one day of history, so they are excluded from trend and index calculations until they clear the minimum-evidence gate described in our methodology. The over-numbered rival-pair count is still filling in as cards are catalogued.
Common questions
When does Riftbound Vendetta release?
July 31, 2026 — the first simultaneous global release in Riftbound's history. China and Western markets get it the same day.
How many cards are in Vendetta?
166 in the main set, plus over-numbered rival-pair cards printed outside the main numbering.
What is the rivalry mechanic?
Cards printed as opposing pairs (like Jinx/Vi or Jayce/Viktor) with art that connects into a scene when placed side-by-side, and text effects that reference the other half of the pair.
Which Legends are in Vendetta?
9 new Legends total. Akali, Mel, and Ambessa are confirmed in the marketed key art; the remaining six are being revealed across the reveal season.
What is the Showdown Deck?
A companion product — Shen vs. Zed precon decks bundled with boosters. Launches in July alongside Vendetta.