Setup And Decks
How Do You Set Up a Game?
Put the legend and chosen unit in their zones, shuffle the two decks separately, set turn order, draw four and mulligan.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Agree on the mode, place your Champion LegendYour deck's legend card. Its domains set your deck's Domain Identity. It starts in the Legend Zone and stays there; it is separate from the champion unit you choose to play.View in Glossary and Chosen ChampionThe champion unit selected during deckbuilding to start in your Champion Zone. Its champion tag must match your legend. During play, champion units with that same full name also count as your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary in their separate zones, and shuffle your Main DeckThe deck of units, gear and spells, separate from your Rune Deck. Your deckbuilding list has at least 40 cards including your Chosen Champion; that chosen copy starts in the Champion Zone instead of the shuffled pile.View in Glossary and Rune DeckYour separate deck of exactly 12 runes. Shuffle it separately from your Main Deck. Channeling takes runes from this deck and puts them on the board.View in Glossary separately.
Determine turn order and finish that mode's battlefield selection. Draw four cards each, then take your MulliganYour chance during setup to replace up to two of your four opening cards. Set them aside, draw the same number of replacements, then recycle the set-aside cards.View in Glossary in turn order. The first player begins once everyone has finished.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
1. Agree on the mode. Place each Champion Legend in its Legend Zone and one Chosen Champion copy in its Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary , not in the BaseYour Base is your personal location where your units can be played and return to during the game.View in Glossary .
2. Shuffle the Main Deck and Rune Deck separately and keep them facedown. A 40-card Main Deck list leaves 39 cards to shuffle after setting aside the chosen unit.
3. Use an agreed fair random method to choose the first player before finishing battlefield selection. Turns normally proceed clockwise; 2v2 alternates teams instead.
4. For a single-game Duel, each player randomly selects one of their three differently named battlefields. Reveal and place both together; the others are not used.
5. Draw four cards each. In turn order, each player may replace up to two through their Mulligan. Finish one player's mulligan before the next, then begin the first turn.
In a Duel or two-player Match, both players draw normally on their first turns. The second player channels three runes instead of two on their first turn only. This happens during the Channel Phase, not during setup.
For a two-player Match, choose battlefields instead of selecting randomly, then reveal them together. After a game with a winner, use different battlefields for the next game; a game with no winner does not use up its battlefields. In an optional best-of-five Match, games four and five allow reuse after all three have been presented, with no battlefield presented more than twice.
For three-player Skirmish, each player randomly supplies one battlefield. For four-player War or 2v2, the first player supplies none and each other player randomly supplies one. Reveal and place the three selected battlefields together.
In 2v2, turn order is first player → opponent → teammate → other opponent. Teammates must bring different Champion Legends and cannot bring the same battlefields as each other.
In Skirmish, War and 2v2, the first player skips their first Draw Phase card draw and the last player channels one extra rune on their first turn. Everyone still gets the four-card opening hand and mulligan. These adjustments do not repeat.
In practice
Example
In a Duel, you and your opponent each randomly select one of your three battlefields. You finish setup and each keep a four-card hand after mulligans. If you go second, you draw normally and channel three runes on your first turn. On your next turn, the extra-rune adjustment is over.