Riot Games has released a hands-on preview of Vendetta, the fourth expansion for its League of Legends card game Riftbound, ahead of its launch later this month. IGN tested a new Zed vs. Shen two-player Showdown deck at Riot's headquarters alongside senior designer Jon Moormann, who explained the set's three new keywords and how they aim to give players fresh strategic options.

The new mechanics are Empower, which lets players pay a cost (such as runes or banishing a card) to grant a card an extra ability, effectively acting as an alternative way to develop the board when out of cards to play; Burn, which forces cards from the top of a deck into the trash and can be inflicted on opponents; and Flow, which allows a card to be played from the trash for a separate cost before being banished, working especially well alongside Burn or discard effects. Moormann noted that colours such as orange (Body) and Legends like Ambessa and Zed make heavy use of Empower, while the design team specifically playtested Zed's deck to ensure it strengthened Jinx cards without making them overpowered.