We've got an exclusive Riftbound TCG card from the game's third set, Unleashed, to reveal - featuring everyone's favorite nature-loving jungler, Ivern.
Ivern, Nurturer is the second champion card for this hero, which also has a legend card in this Riftbound set. In this reveal, we'll take a look at this champion and see how it synergizes with the previously revealed Ivern, Green Father legend. And we'll try to answer the all-important question, is this better or worse than your alternative: the yellow/order champion, Ivern, Friend to All?
At five energy and one power, Ivern, Nurturer seems pretty overcosted for a unit with only four might. But that's because he's got a kickass ability. When you play him or he holds a battlefield, you get to look at the top three cards of your deck, reveal a unit from among them, and draw it. Then if that unit was a poro, cat, dog, or bird, you can buff a friendly unit too. My gods, the value!
Whilst you don't get card draw on the turn you conquer a battlefield, this card is a brilliant, reliable engine, and I think it will be a crucial piece in the Ivern deck. As you might've guessed, this character has a 'tribal' strategy, very much focused around these animal unit types.
Ivern's legend card, Green Father, can replace battlefields with 'brush' tokens which give birds, dogs, poros, cats, and Ivern units one extra might. It seems like this deck is going to revolve around grabbing onto and then holding onto battlefields, with new cards like Crimson Pigeons designed to conquer, and Mutated Mouser built to hold.
If you can keep hold of a brush battlefield with Ivern, Nurturer in play, you're going to quickly drown your opponent in card advantage.
I could be a little biased, since it's our preview card, but Nurturer seems like a better card overall than the rarer yellow champion, Ivern, Friend to All. While being able to score extra points if you have all the creature tags could come in clutch in some situations, this requirement seems like it could be very easy for your opponents to disrupt.
I suppose the idea is that with Ivern, Friend to All you can hold onto just one battlefield and still outpace your opponent, which does fit the hold theme really nicely, but I still think Ivern, Nurturer is the card you're going to want more reliable access to.
Plus, the green Ivern is more flexible. I doubt you'll really want to be playing any units that aren't birds, poros, cats or dogs in this deck, but Ivern can fetch them all the same, you just won't get the additional buff. He can grab extra Iverns for you this way, too, which could be pretty handy!
There are two versions of Ivern, Nurturer in the Unleashed set. The regular kind is a rare, but there's also an even scarcer alt version featuring Ivern's spooky (and not very nurturing) Old God skin.
Riftbound Unleashed drops on April 10, 2026 in China and gets its worldwide release a month later, May 8, 2026. They're slowly closing that gap!
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