Riftbound Vendetta Legends Guide — All 9 Champions Explained

Riftbound Vendetta released July 31, 2026 with the most rivalry-driven Legend roster in the game’s history: nine Champion Legends, four headline rivalries, and the first Legends in Riftbound whose two domains are enemies.

This guide covers every Vendetta Legend: their lore, their domains, what their Legend card actually does, and who each one is built for. Radiance, the fifth set, arrived October 23, and it adds nine more Legends, covered at the end. For the full card list see our Riftbound Vendetta Card List. For banned cards see our Riftbound Banned Cards guide. For the full set breakdown see our Riftbound Vendetta Set Guide.

Last updated: October 25, 2026.

The Rivalry Structure — How Vendetta Is Built

Every design decision in Vendetta runs through one question: who is this champion’s rival? The headline pairings each come from a different corner of Runeterra:

• Zed vs Shen — Ionia · Fury/Chaos vs Calm/Order
• Nasus vs Renekton — Shurima · Calm/Mind vs Fury/Body
• Ambessa vs Mel — Noxus · Order/Body vs Chaos/Mind
• Jayce vs Kennen — Piltover vs Ionia · Mind/Body vs Chaos/Order
• Akali — Ionia · Fury/Calm, the set’s poster Legend and Kennen’s rival

Viktor appears as an Overnumbered showcase card alongside Jayce. He’s narratively central to the Piltover rivalry but not a Champion Legend himself.

Zed — The Master of Shadows

Region: Ionia
Domains: Fury/Chaos (Red/Purple)
Rival: Shen
Showdown Deck: Yes — Zed vs Shen

Zed is the ninja who left the Kinkou Order to found his own Shadow Order, becoming everything Shen stands against. In Riftbound he’s built around the new Empower mechanic. His Legend card becomes Empowered whenever you banish a card you own, and while Empowered it lets you discard a card and then draw one. His printings are From the Shadows, Without a Sound, and Master of Shadows.

If you want a Vendetta deck that plays fast, hits hard, and keeps your opponent off balance, Zed is your champion. The Zed vs Shen Showdown Deck was Riftbound’s first preconstructed two-player product: two complete 56-card decks, two booster packs, and two playmats in one box.

Shen — Eye of Twilight

Region: Ionia
Domains: Calm/Order (Green/Yellow)
Rival: Zed
Showdown Deck: Yes — Zed vs Shen

Where Zed is aggression, Shen is discipline. He’s the Eye of Twilight, protector of Ionia and keeper of balance, who grew up alongside Zed before their paths split. Shen uses the direct opposites of Zed’s domains. His Legend card taps to give a friendly unit Tank for the turn, so you decide which of your units takes combat damage first and which one survives. His printings are Scourge of Shadows, Leader of the Kinkou, and Eye of Twilight.

Shen is built for players who want to outlast their opponent rather than outrace them. Hand the other Showdown Deck to a friend and find out whose blade is deadliest.

Nasus — The Curator of the Sands

Region: Shurima
Domains: Calm/Mind (Green/Blue)
Rival: Renekton

Nasus is an Ascended from Shurima’s golden age, now a scholar-warrior wandering the desert. His rivalry with Renekton is a millennia-long tragedy of two brothers. His Legend card rewards big plays. When you play a unit, gear, or activated ability with Energy cost 7 or more, you may exhaust him to ready up to two of your runes, so expensive turns don’t leave you defenseless. His printings are Ascended, Guardian of Knowledge, and Curator of the Sands.

If you enjoy grinding opponents down and winning with overwhelming late-game power, Nasus is your champion.

Renekton — The Butcher of the Sands

Region: Shurima
Domains: Fury/Body (Red/Orange)
Rival: Nasus

Renekton is Nasus’s opposite in every way: a once-noble Ascended driven mad by centuries of imprisonment. His Legend card is pure tempo. He taps and spends two runes to add two Energy, which can only pay for units and unit abilities, so the card tells you exactly what your deck should be doing: fighting. His printings are Rage Fueled, Brute, and Butcher of the Sands.

Shurima fans waited a long time for these two on the tabletop, and Vendetta delivers both at once, with the sharpest contrast in game plan of any rivalry pair in the set.

Akali — The Rogue Assassin

Region: Ionia
Domains: Fury/Calm (Red/Green)
Rival: Kennen

Akali is the poster Legend of Vendetta and the first Fury/Calm Legend in Riftbound. The domains come straight from her lore: Shen was her mentor, so she picks up Calm, and she also trained under Zed’s shadow tactics, so she picks up Fury. Her Legend card lets you pay to Empower her. Her tap ability, on your turn, moves a friendly unit out of a showdown and back to your base, and if she’s Empowered it readies that unit too. Fights get awkward for opponents when your units can slip out and return for round two. Her printings are Deadly Weapon, Silent, and Rogue Assassin.

Her Signature and Overnumbered variants are among the most sought-after cards in the set.

Mel Medarda — The Diplomat

Region: Noxus/Piltover
Domains: Chaos/Mind (Purple/Blue)
Rival: Ambessa Medarda
Arcane: Season 2 central character

If Ambessa is a battering ram, Mel is a scalpel. Her Legend card becomes Empowered whenever you empower something else, and while Empowered she can tap to give a unit at a battlefield -2 Might for the turn, which discourages aggressors from starting fights at her battlefield. Her printings are Newly Awakened, Defiant Soul, and Soul’s Reflection. It’s a tidy, easy-to-use ability on a proven domain combination.

The mother-daughter dynamic between Mel and Ambessa is Vendetta’s richest narrative thread, and a strong draw for players who came to Riftbound through Arcane.

Ambessa Medarda — The Noxian General

Region: Noxus
Domains: Order/Body (Yellow/Orange)
Rival: Mel Medarda
Arcane: Season 2 central character

Ambessa is the Noxian general and matriarch of House Medarda, who believes strength is the only truth that matters. Her Legend card also becomes Empowered when you empower something else, and while Empowered she can pay one Power and tap to ready a unit. That makes quick turns possible: play a unit and send it straight into a fight. Her printings are The Wolf, Respected and Feared, and Matriarch of War.

Jayce — Brilliant Inventor

Region: Piltover
Domains: Mind/Body (Blue/Orange)
Rival: Kennen

Jayce is one of the three Vendetta Legends who pair enemy domains: Mind and Body, the inventor and the hammer-wielding fighter in one card. His Legend card builds around gear. You can pay to Empower him, he can ready a gear, and once Empowered he can ready two gear in a turn, so one or two powerful gears on board can pay off twice. Because he can Empower himself, he doesn’t need other Empower cards in the deck. His printings are Brilliant Inventor, Hammer in Hand, and Defender of Tomorrow.

His lore rivalry with Viktor appears on the Overnumbered Jayce/Viktor diptych, and in Vendetta’s rivalry structure his Legend-level rival is Kennen.

Kennen — Heart of the Tempest

Region: Ionia
Domains: Chaos/Order (Purple/Yellow)
Rival: Jayce

Kennen is a Yordle storm-mage and one of the longest-serving members of the Kinkou Order. His domains come from the same Ionian family tree: he draws from Shen’s Order and Zed’s Chaos. His Legend card becomes Empowered when you play a card from anywhere other than your hand, and while Empowered he can give a unit Assault 2 for the turn. Kennen’s printings are Storm of Shuriken and Keeper of Balance.

Kennen introduced the Chaos/Order pairing to Riftbound, and he got a lot of attention in competitive play. On September 18, Riot banned Stacked Deck in Standard and 2v2, saying Kennen’s play and win rates warranted a targeted ban that slows his engine without ending the strategy. If you play Kennen, any list from before that date needs rebuilding. See the Riftbound Banned Cards guide for details.

The Rivalry Showcase Overnumbers

Beyond the nine Legends, Vendetta has a Showcase series of rival pairs with connected artwork:

• Vi and Jinx (167, 168) — the sisters of Arcane, facing off across connected art
• Jayce and Viktor (175, 176) — the ideological war of Piltover as a diptych
• Rengar and Kha’Zix (179, 180) — the eternal hunt
• Diana and Leona (183, 184) — Lunari vs Solari

These are the most collectible cards in Vendetta outside the Legends themselves, and the Vi/Jinx and Jayce/Viktor pairs draw extra interest from Arcane fans.

New Domain Combinations in Vendetta

Riftbound has six domains: Fury (red), Calm (green), Mind (blue), Body (orange), Chaos (purple), and Order (yellow). Each domain has an enemy, and Riot deliberately left enemy pairings out of the first three sets. Vendetta introduced exactly three, one Legend each:

• Fury/Calm (red and green) — Akali
• Mind/Body (blue and orange) — Jayce
• Chaos/Order (purple and yellow) — Kennen

The other six Vendetta Legends use more conventional pairings: Zed (Fury/Chaos), Shen (Calm/Order), Nasus (Calm/Mind), Renekton (Fury/Body), Mel (Chaos/Mind), and Ambessa (Order/Body).

What Came After — The Nine Radiance Legends

Radiance launched worldwide on October 23, 2026, adding nine new Legends: Ekko (Fury/Mind), Ziggs (Fury/Chaos), Mordekaiser (Fury/Order), Orianna (Calm/Mind), K’Sante (Calm/Body), Riven (Calm/Chaos), Seraphine (Mind/Order), Evelynn (Body/Chaos), and Jarvan IV (Body/Order). Vendetta stays legal alongside it. Seraphine and Evelynn headline the Radiance Showdown Decks, mirroring the Zed vs Shen format. See our Riftbound Vendetta Set Guide for the Radiance keywords and products.

Play Riftbound at Skillshotz Gaming

Skillshotz Gaming in Deerfield Beach is a South Florida home for Riftbound players. Ask our team what’s on the shelf, or browse singles and sealed product through our TCGPlayer store.

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Sources: Riot’s Vendetta launch announcement and September ban list update, and Top Shelf Collection’s Vendetta Legend Overview.