# Riftbound's July 2026 Ban List: Stealthy Pursuer, Two Battlefields Banned — Plus a New 2v2 Ban List

_2026-07-17 · RiftCompare_

Riot just announced Riftbound's second ban wave: Stealthy Pursuer (over an infinite Recruit combo), The Arena's Greatest and Aspirant's Climb, effective 24 July — and a brand-new Constructed 2v2 ban list starting with Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman.

Riot dropped a surprise mid-cycle ban announcement today, ahead of Vendetta's own 31 July release — three new Standard bans, and the first-ever ban list built specifically for **Constructed 2v2**. Here's exactly what changed and why.

## The headline: an infinite combo got caught

**Stealthy Pursuer** is the standout ban, and the reason is a real, documented combo — not a vague power-level complaint. Paired with **Eye of the Herald** and **Renata Glasc, Industrialist**, it enables an infinite Unit loop that generates infinite Recruits as early as turn 3. Riot flagged its intent to ban it back during Vendetta's own preview season, once the community had already found the interaction. Their reasoning: internal testing showed the combo stays consistent even though it's technically disruptable, making it "a harsh check on the metagame" — the kind of turn-three "do you have the answer?" moment that isn't fun for either player.

## Two Battlefields go with it

**The Arena's Greatest** and **Aspirant's Climb** — both Origins Battlefields — are banned too. Riot's own framing is more about structural health than raw power: both cards were "very popular, but not necessarily to the extent that we would feel the need to act," yet Riot judged they'd bent the shape of competitive play in an unhealthy direction.

## A first: the Constructed 2v2 ban list

This is the more structurally significant change. Riftbound has run one shared banlist since launch; as of today, **2v2 Constructed gets its own list** — starting as the full Standard banlist plus one extra card:

- **Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman** (Legend) — banned in 2v2 only. Still fully legal in 1v1 Standard.

Riot says any future ban that's meant to apply to both formats will say so explicitly, so don't assume a Standard-only announcement automatically carries over to 2v2 (or vice versa) going forward.

## When it takes effect

All of the above is **effective 24 July 2026** — a week's notice before it actually kicks in, and just before Vendetta itself releases on 31 July.

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## What this means if you own these cards

Same as any ban: these cards stay perfectly playable outside sanctioned events (casual tables, most local game store nights), and whether the price moves depends on how much of each card's demand was competitive versus casual/collector. Check the live price and history on each card page above rather than guessing.

For the complete, always-current picture — including March's original 7 bans — see our **[full Riftbound banlist guide](/guides/riftbound-banlist-explained)**, which we update the moment anything changes.

*Ban reasoning and effective dates are Riot Games' own words from their 17 July 2026 announcement.*

Source: https://riftcompare.com/blog/riftbound-july-2026-ban-list-update