Riftbound Bans Nov 2026: Riven, Baited Hook +8

Riot announced Riftbound's fourth and largest ban wave on 13 November 2026: eight cards and two battlefields, all effective Monday 23 November 2026, all added to both the Standard and Constructed 2v2 ban lists. The headline is Riven, Broken Blade, a Radiance rare that is barely six weeks old, but the wave reaches back to Origins for some of the most expensive Gear in the game, Baited Hook and Dazzling Aurora included. The complete list of every banned card, old and new, is in our ban list guide. This piece covers the new wave on its own: what was banned, what Riot said about each card, what the cards cost on the eve of the news, and what changes about bans from 2027.

Every card banned from 23 November

Cards (8):

• Riven, Broken BladeUS$0.05 — Calm Unit, Radiance (rare, plus a Showcase printing)
• Zhonya's HourglassUS$0.99 — Calm Gear, Origins
• Stellacorn HerderUS$0.50 — Calm Unit, Spiritforged
• Nocturne, HorrifyingUS$0.55 — Chaos Unit, Origins
• Rhasa the SundererUS$0.78 — Chaos Unit, Origins
• Brynhir ThundersongUS$0.49 — Fury Unit, Origins
• Dazzling AuroraUS$7.01 — Body Gear, Origins (epic)
• Baited HookUS$7.48 — Order Gear, Origins (epic)

Battlefields (2):

• Emperor's DaisUS$0.11 — Spiritforged
• Star SpringUS$0.10 — Unleashed

That takes the Standard ban list from 12 cards to 22, and the Constructed 2v2 list from 13 to 23 (2v2 also bans Master Yi, Wuju BladesmanUS$1,581.58). A ban covers every printing of a card, so Riven's Showcase version and Stellacorn Herder's promo are banned along with the base cards.

When it takes effect, and where

The bans apply from Monday 23 November 2026. Until then all of them are legal, which matters for anyone playing this weekend: Riot's announcement says it avoids changing the list within two weeks of a premier event, and it lists the events around this wave. The CCS 50K in Houston (13 to 15 November) and the Ningbo Minor and Gen.G Showdown in Los Angeles (20 to 22 November) are played before the bans apply. The Qingdao Minor (5 to 6 December), the North America Regional Championship in Las Vegas (11 to 13 December) and the China Regional Championship in Guangzhou (2 to 3 January) are played after.

Two details are easy to miss:

• Store play counts. Riot's announcement says banned cards cannot be played at official events, and it names Nexus Nights as included. Casual games at a kitchen table are your own business; an official store event is not.
• Korea and Traditional Chinese regions are different. The announcement ends the single global ban list. Ban lists now follow each regional circuit, and these ten bans do not apply to competitive events in Korea or the Traditional Chinese regions until Radiance releases there. Riot also says some cards may be unbanned in those regions until Spiritforged, Vendetta and Radiance arrive, with dates that can differ. If you play in one of those regions, check your local organiser rather than this list.

Why Riot banned each card

Riot's game director Dave Guskin signed the announcement and repeated the three questions the team asks before any ban: is the card overrepresented in an unhealthy way, will the problem get better or worse over time, and does the card promote unhealthy play patterns. Here is what the announcement says about each card, in our words, with Riot's own numbers where it gave them.

Riven, Broken Blade, Star Spring and Emperor's Dais

This is the part of the wave driven by tournament results. Riot says Riven decks were 43% of registered decks at the European Regional Championship, took three of the top four places, and won about 60% or more of their games against the rest of the field once mirror matches are left out. Riot describes the 4-cost Riven, Broken Blade as "an incredible guaranteed turn two play", and banned it rather than a Riven legend.

The two battlefields go with her. Riot's reasoning is that Star Spring and Emperor's Dais "negate the risk of conquering", and it compares them directly to Reaver's RowUS$0.02, a battlefield banned in the first wave on 31 March. Battlefields have now been banned in three of the four waves, after The Arena's GreatestUS$0.14 and Aspirant's ClimbUS$0.10 in July.

Zhonya's Hourglass and Stellacorn Herder

Both are Calm cards, like Riven. Riot says Zhonya's Hourglass "seems somewhat innocuous" on its face but is strong alongside Astral HeronUS$32.00 and is hard to answer because it gets around Gear removal. Stellacorn Herder is described as a very strong reward for movement effects with no limit on how many times it pays out in a turn, and Riot's summary is that it "shores up the weaknesses of the Calm domain too well". Taken with Riven, three of the eight banned cards are Calm.

Nocturne, Horrifying and Rhasa the Sunderer

These two are the Chaos cards the September wave went around. In September Riot banned Stacked DeckUS$0.20, the cheap card that helped Kennen decks find Nocturne and fill the trash for Rhasa, and said at the time it wanted to bring Kennen back in line rather than remove the deck. This wave bans the payoffs themselves. Riot calls Nocturne a "zero energy play" that does not cost a card when the deck finds it, and says Kennen's best draws with it are "a pretty unhealthy pattern". Rhasa is called a very strong payoff for filling the trash that costs 0 Energy when it lands, so there is little cost to building around it.

Kennen himself is not banned. Riot notes that a Kennen deck still won the European event, with about 15% of registered players on the legend.

Brynhir Thundersong

A Fury Unit from Origins. Riot says Brynhir can stop an opponent from playing cards on their own turn, and that with blink effects it turns into "an extremely powerful removal tool". The concern here is the play pattern, a locked-out opponent, more than a win rate.

Dazzling Aurora

One of the two epics in the wave. Riot says Dazzling Aurora has been a long-running problem for decks that ramp Energy, and that it "homogenizes all energy-ramping decks into one form": if you ramp, you play Aurora, and every ramp deck ends up looking the same. The announcement also says the team has held back from banning some epic staples since launch out of respect for what players paid for them, which makes this ban, and the next one, a change of approach.

Baited Hook

The other epic, and the most expensive card in the wave. Baited Hook checks a Unit's Might, not its Energy cost, so in Riot's words it "cheats out free units of high cost". The reason for banning it now is forward-looking: Riot says it expects cards in upcoming sets, Legacy included, to combine badly with it, and it wanted the card gone before the World Showcase in January rather than after.

What the banned cards cost on the eve of the ban

These are the cheapest in-stock listings RiftCompare tracked across all stores and markets on 13 November 2026, converted to US dollars. That snapshot was taken before Riot's announcement, so it is the last full day of prices from a format where all of them were legal.

Two things stand out. The money in this wave is in three cards: Baited Hook, Dazzling Aurora and Zhonya's Hourglass together cost about $55 a copy on 13 November, and the other seven cards together cost under $7. And the card that dominated the European Regional Championship, the base Riven, Broken Blade, was a 13-cent rare, because Radiance is still being opened in volume.

We are not going to tell you where these prices go next. A ban usually removes tournament demand, and tournament demand is most of the reason a $30 Gear costs $30, but collectors, casual players and the regions where the card stays legal all still buy. The live prices are in the card gallery above and on each card's own page, where the price history chart shows what has happened since the announcement. If you are selling, compare stores first: the gap between the cheapest and the dearest listing of a just-banned card is usually wide in the first week, while stores reprice at different speeds.

What changes from 2027: ban windows

The announcement also changes how bans are scheduled. From 2027, Riot says it will use ban windows: an announcement on the Friday two weeks before each Continental event, and another on the Friday two weeks after it. The aim is that players know in advance which Fridays can bring a ban, instead of a wave arriving whenever a problem gets bad enough.

Two more signals for next year:

• Riot says its tolerance for unhealthy cards will be "a bit stricter" than it has been. Ten bans in one wave, after two in September, is already a step in that direction.
• For 2v2, Riot notes Yasuo is strong but makes no 2v2-only changes now, and says it will share 2v2 changes early next year.

For how bans sit next to set rotation, which Riftbound still does not have, see does Riftbound rotate?.

If you own these cards

• Playing an event before 23 November? The cards are legal. Nothing changes for this weekend or next.
• Playing after 23 November? Take all ten out of Standard and 2v2 lists. The deck builder prices your replacement cards at the cheapest store in your market as you edit the list.
• Riven players lose the 4-cost Unit and both battlefields, not the legend. Check the full ban list before you pick new battlefields. Five are banned in total: Reaver's Row, The Arena's Greatest, Aspirant's Climb, Emperor's Dais and Star Spring.
• Holding Baited Hook or Dazzling Aurora? Both are still real cards for casual play and for regions where the ban does not apply yet. Check the live price before you decide anything, and set a price alert if you would rather buy them cheaply than sell them.

The four waves so far

The earlier waves are covered in July's ban update and September's ban reaction, and the weekly price movers show which cards are rising and falling as lists get rebuilt.

Ban facts (cards, effective date, tournament figures and Riot's stated reasoning) are from Riot Games' 13 November 2026 announcement, summarised in our own words with short quotations. Prices are RiftCompare's own daily record of the cheapest in-stock listing for each card on 13 November 2026.