After spending time playtesting the Spiritforged Legends, I can confidently say this is a strong batch overall. Some Legends clearly feel ready to compete right now, while others feel like foundations for archetypes that will get much better as Riftbound continues to expand. That leaves one big question: which Spiritforged Legends are actually the best?
For this list, I’m ranking the Spiritforged Legends from worst to best based on a mix of competitiveness and fun. A Legend can’t coast purely on power if it feels bland to play, and it also can’t rank too high if it’s fun but lacks the tools to realistically win. I’m looking for the Legends that best balance both sides. That said, “fun” is always a little subjective. I tend to enjoy off-meta, janky, and unique decks more than ultra-refined meta builds, even if those meta decks are usually the better choice when it comes to winning.
12. Renata Glasc - Chem-Baroness
Every new card game goes through growing pains when it starts exploring fresh archetypes. Some strategies click immediately, while others need a few sets before they really come together. Renata Glasc feels like the beginning of an idea rather than the finished product.
As Riftbound’s first real “Gold matters” Legend, Renata is trying to set up an industrialist-style greed deck, but right now the payoff just feels too delayed. She creates Gold tokens, and later in the game those Gold tokens can help pay for extra costs, which sounds solid on paper. The problem is that the deck never really feels like it ramps in a meaningful way. Since Gold tokens often enter exhausted unless you control Renata Glasc – Industrialist, the deck regularly stumbles when it should be accelerating.
There’s definitely room for this archetype to grow over time, but right now it doesn’t feel especially competitive, and for me it’s also one of the least exciting Legends in the set.
11. Ornn - Fire Below the Mountain
Ornn is about as straightforward as it gets. He cares about Equipment, he wants you to play Equipment, and he helps preserve your runes while doing it.
The biggest issue is speed. Because Ornn’s ability only triggers once per turn, the deck feels slower than it probably should for an Equipment-focused strategy. One of the coolest parts of his design is the introduction of Signature Equipment, with Ornn getting access to three different Signature Equipment cards that can only be included as one copy each per deck. It’s flavorful and unique, but I’m not fully convinced it provides the consistency you want from a deck trying to build around its gear package.
There’s cool design space here, but Ornn currently feels more neat than threatening.
10. Rumble - Mechanized Menace
I love tribal decks. In Magic, they’re one of the first things I gravitate toward, and Rumble definitely taps into that same appeal. The issue is that Riftbound is still early in its life, and tribal payoffs just aren’t deep enough yet for Rumble to really take off.
That doesn’t make him bad. In fact, for a Champion Deck Legend, Rumble is decent and thematically fun. He has a clear identity, and that alone gives him some appeal. I just don’t see him as a Legend a lot of players will prioritize building around right now, myself included.
Like a lot of the lower-ranked Spiritforged Legends, Rumble feels like he has future potential. He just isn’t there yet.
9. Lucian - Purifier
Lucian is another Legend tied to the set’s Equipment theme, but unlike Ornn, Lucian pushes that theme in a far more aggressive direction. Every Equipment you control gives the attached unit Assault 1, so the whole plan is built around attacking early and often.
The problem is that Fury/Body already gives you access to large, threatening units, and I’m not fully convinced that stacking Assault is the most powerful thing the domain can be doing. A Legend like Volibear arguably makes those big threats matter more. Lucian, however, does create a reason to go smaller and faster within that color combination, and that gives him a more distinct niche.
He’s not weak, but compared to the rest of the set, he doesn’t stand out enough to climb higher.
8. Jax - Grandmaster at Arms
Out of the slower Equipment Legends, Jax probably makes the best first impression. His ability helps you save runes when attaching Equipment, which is a very relevant effect for the strategy he wants you to play.
Still, the same issue keeps coming up: once-per-turn triggers just make these decks feel sluggish. Jax is better than some of the other Equipment-focused options because his cost reduction matters immediately, but he still feels a step behind where I’d want him to be. Maybe future sets will introduce more ways to ready Legends and let these abilities fire multiple times, but right now he’s just a little too slow for my taste.
7. Fiora - Grand Duelist
Of the two new Champion Deck Legends, Fiora is the one I like more right out of the box. She also seems like the one with the clearest path toward becoming a genuinely competitive build.
Fiora is a combat deck that cares about units becoming Mighty, which is a really fun design choice. It rewards combat tricks and Equipment rather than just asking you to play already oversized threats. That gives the deck multiple ways to be built, and I think that flexibility matters a lot in the current Riftbound card pool.
She does still have some speed issues since she exhausts when activating, but the payoff of channeling an extra rune is strong enough that the limitation makes sense. In an average player’s hands, Fiora probably feels solid but fair. In the hands of someone who really understands how to optimize her lines, she could be very strong.
6. Azir - Emperor of the Sands
As someone who already enjoys token strategies in Riftbound, Azir was one of the Legends I was naturally most excited to try. I’ve spent a lot of time playing and upgrading Viktor – Herald of the Arcane, so another token-focused Legend immediately caught my attention.
Azir brings a strong angle to that strategy by creating 2-Might Sand Soldiers instead of smaller 1-Might recruits, and giving them Weaponmaster makes the deck even more threatening. Technically, you do need to have played an Equipment that turn to use his ability, but that condition barely feels like a drawback when your tokens are already built to take advantage of Equipment.
If you build around swarming the board and using attack-triggered Equipment, Azir can get overwhelming quickly. He’s strong, he’s fun, and he supports a playstyle I already enjoy a lot. The only reason he isn’t higher is because some of the Legends above him feel even more explosive or flexible.
5. Ezreal - Prodigal Explorer
Ezreal feels like one of the more skill-testing Legends in the set. He offers a little bit of card advantage, but getting the most out of him requires tight sequencing and careful resource management.
That’s what makes him both appealing and intimidating. In the right hands, Ezreal can be a fast, pressure-heavy engine that picks apart slower decks before they have time to stabilize. In the wrong hands, though, it feels very easy for that engine to sputter out when your sequencing falls apart or your hand runs dry.
I’ll be honest: I’m not the ideal Ezreal player. But I’ve played against enough of them to know the deck has real competitive teeth. If you like fast-paced, highly technical decks, Ezreal has a lot to offer.
4. Irelia - Blade Dancer
Irelia shares a color domain with Yasuo, and there are definitely similarities in how they approach gameplay, but Irelia feels like a much stronger realization of that space.
Rather than moving Legends herself, Irelia readies units and gives you the freedom to decide how to use them. That flexibility makes her more aggressive, more dangerous, and generally more rewarding to play. She also has a built-in way to ready herself, which means her ability can spiral very quickly once the game goes long.
Because she doesn’t limit movement to or from Base, she opens up some especially threatening lines with Ganking units as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of Yasuo’s gameplay, but Irelia feels like the upgrade I was hoping for. She’s dynamic, dangerous, and one of the Legends in Spiritforged I’d least want to sit across from.
3. Sivir - Battle Misstress
Now this is how you make a ramp Legend stand out.
Sivir replaces your recycled runes with Gold, which immediately gives her a strong identity, but what really pushes her up the rankings is that she also has a built-in way to ready herself. That extra layer of efficiency gives her much more momentum than some of the set’s other resource-focused Legends.
I haven’t put as much time into building Sivir as some of the others, but she’s one of the Legends I’m most interested in seeing develop. It feels like there’s real combo potential here, especially with Gold generation and units that can capitalize on that resource advantage.
She’s one of the most exciting build-around Legends in the set, and I think players are going to keep finding clever ways to push her further.
2. Rek’Sai - Void Burrower
Rek’Sai has been one of my most anticipated Spiritforged Legends since the moment she was revealed. I already love Voidborn Legends, but beyond that, Rek’Sai just has one of the most unique abilities in the set.
Her playstyle revolves around deck manipulation, card flow, and in some cases playing cards directly from your deck, which gives her a speed and angle of attack that feels very different from most of the current Riftbound pool. That alone makes her exciting. On top of that, she has one of the widest ranges in terms of deckbuilding. You can build her as a wild, almost all-Voidborn casual deck and still have fun, or you can lean into a more streamlined aggressive shell and make her genuinely threatening in competitive settings.
That flexibility matters a lot to me. Rek’Sai feels like the kind of Legend that can appeal to both people who want something stylish and weird and people who just want to win quickly.
Honestly, she might be the most fun Legend in the set.
1. Draven - Glorious Executioner
And then there’s Draven.
Draven is the competitive Spiritforged Legend. The moment he became legal, he started showing up in top-level gameplay, and it’s not hard to see why. He has excellent card draw, he rewards you for doing exactly what aggressive decks want to do anyway, and as long as you keep winning combats, he keeps your hand full and your pressure high.
That kind of speed and consistency is hard to ignore. You still need to manage your runes properly, but Draven gives you the tools to keep pushing forward without running out of gas. He’s fast, aggressive, and already proven in actual high-level play.
Even if Rek’Sai sounds more fun to me personally, Draven is the clear number one when you balance fun with raw competitive power.
Final Thoughts
Spiritforged introduced a really interesting mix of Legends, and more importantly, it feels like a set that is planting seeds for Riftbound’s future rather than just filling out the current meta. Some of these Legends already look ready to define decks right now, while others feel like they are waiting for just one or two more cards to really come alive. Draven looks like the current standout if you want the most immediate competitive power, but Rek’Sai, Sivir, and Irelia are the ones that feel the most exciting to keep exploring. Overall, this is a strong group of Legends, and I think Spiritforged did a great job widening the kinds of decks Riftbound players can build.
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