Riftbound bans Ekko, Recurrent and Stacked Deck: effective 18 September

by Riccardo Emanuele Eustor·Riftbound Zone

Third round of bans in Riftbound's history, and this time there are two names: Ekko, Recurrent and Stacked Deck, both from Origins. They apply to Standard and 2v2 Constructed and take effect on Friday 18 September 2026.

The firstEkko, Recurrent: the infinite nobody watches

Riot is explicit: the problem is not the results, it is the kind of game it produces. The card enables infinite loops and, paired with Lux, builds a turn the opponent simply watches, with very limited interaction windows. It is a ban made despite low tournament usage: what counts is the experience at the table, not the win rate.

The secondStacked Deck: too much consistency, too little cost

The reasoning here is the opposite and it is about consistency: a card that finds the key pieces at a very low opportunity cost, to the point of becoming, in their words, an auto-include in most Chaos strategies. With the Kennen Legend and Lightning Rush, the deck found what it needed far too often.

The stated goal is to keep a format without a definitively best deck: taking Stacked Deck out weakens Kennen without erasing it.

The second ban split the community: some would have preferred a restricted list instead of an outright ban, and we lined up the arguments on both sides.

What changesFor players in Italy and beyond

• If you run Ekko/Lux or a Kennen list with Stacked Deck, you need to change them from Friday: these are full bans, not restrictions to one copy.
• The bans also apply to 2v2 Constructed, which inherits the whole Standard list.
• Our Deck Builder will flag both cards as banned from 18 September, so until Thursday you can still save older lists without false warnings.
• The full ban list is already updated with both cards and the date.

Full ban list, always up to date →

Source: official Riot Games announcement · discussion on r/RiftboundTCG.