Riftbound is closing out the year with Radiance, the card game’s fifth booster set and a collaboration with Riot Games Music. The set adds new mechanics, new Legends including Evelynn and the IGN-revealed Mordekaiser, and another two-player constructed starter product in the form of the Evelynn and Seraphine showdown decks.
Radiance adds Deploy, Show Off and Disarm
Radiance introduces three new keywords that change how players handle battlefields and timing. Deploy is a gear keyword that leans on battlefield control rather than activating abilities at base or attaching gear directly to units. The example given is Bushwhack Trap, which lets the owner or ally controlling the linked battlefield play another hidden card there, even though the normal limit is one hidden card per battlefield.
Show Off works differently. It lets players reveal a card from their hand or choose a friendly card on the field to activate some of its abilities at a limited level. The spell Rousing Display shows how that plays out: if a player reveals a card with energy cost 7 or more, they get the full effect, and the spell plays four token units instead of two.
Disarm is the cleanest of the three to understand. It is the opposite of Assault, lowering an enemy unit’s might on attack instead of boosting its own might. The keyword gives Radiance a built-in answer to aggressive pushes and makes combat math more important.
Along with the new keywords, Radiance adds new Legends and fan-favorite iterations of existing characters. Evelynn is part of the set, and Mordekaiser joins the card pool as well. The card game is also leaning harder into battlefield play, hidden cards and gear use than the previous set did.
Evelynn and Seraphine get showdown decks
Riot is also releasing another two-player constructed starter kit with Radiance. The Evelynn and Seraphine Showdown Decks are designed to give new players a fast entry point while also showing off the set’s new mechanics and Legends. Evelynn is in Body and Chaos, while Seraphine is in Mind and Order.
The Evelynn list appears to be the faster of the two. Its Agony’s Embrace Legend draws a card if a hidden or facedown card is revealed for the first time that turn. The deck also uses Bandle Scouts’ Academy, which gives a Gold gear token when a card is hidden there, and Evelynn In Control, a champion unit that scores an additional point if she holds a battlefield with a facedown card.
That setup lets the deck build resources while trying to take battlefields quickly. Hidden cards create value, and the deck’s pressure can snowball if opponents do not answer it immediately. The result is a list that can pull ahead without falling too far behind on runes.
Seraphine takes a different route. Her deck focuses on going wide and making use of exhausted units. Starry-Eyed Songstress can exhaust herself and three friendly units to reduce the cost of a spell by two mana or runes. Seraphine Not Alone plays a 1 might recruit when she is played or exhausted through movement or another ability, and she gains +1 might for every other exhausted unit the player controls. High Note also scales off exhausted units, giving a unit negative might for each exhausted unit the player controls when it is played.
The deck can hit hard if it keeps enough tokens alive, but it takes longer to assemble than Evelynn’s build. It also leans on Show Off cards, which means the hand can fill with high-cost cards that are not always easy to curve out with while also trying to swarm the board.
Riot Games Music takes center stage
Radiance is also a music-focused release. The set includes K/DA and HEARTSTEEL, along with instrument-themed runes and music-oriented special and overnumbered cards. Riot has also tied the release to K/DA’s new song FIRESTARTER and a Couture Collection collaboration.
The music angle fits with what Riot had already signaled. In an earlier IGN interview, Riftbound executive producer Chengran Chai said Riot “knew Riot as a whole would have a music moment towards the end of the year, so very early on, we said we would lean into that.” Radiance is the result of that plan, with the set designed to work for players, collectors and fans of Riot’s music projects.
The crossover also brings the card game closer to the wider League of Legends fanbase. K/DA in particular has been one of Riot’s most recognizable music groups, and the new set leans into that recognition instead of treating the music material as a side note.
Existing decks could still pick up new tools
Radiance does not only add new strategies; it also offers support cards for decks from the previous set. One example is Irelia Blade Dancer in Calm and Chaos. The deck already focuses on spell use and unit survivability, and Radiance adds cards such as Satchel Charge, Hush and Resplendent Rostrum as possible upgrades.
Satchel Charge moves a friendly unit and can also place a bomb token on a battlefield, adding another threat for an opponent trying to hold. Hush can shut down expensive cards when a player needs to stop a big swing. Resplendent Rostrum gives a unit +3 might and also refreshes a hand and rune count, which could help a deck stay on pace through longer games.
Azir Emperor of the Sands in Calm and Order is another deck that could carry over into the new set. It relies on equipment and Sand Soldier tokens, and the Radiance cards that fit best are spells rather than more gear. Battle Preparations gives +2 might to a unit, and if the player Show Offs a gear card, they ready two runes and effectively cast it for free. Command: Attack looks at the top five cards of the deck and reveals a gear to add to hand. Raucous Anthem readies the player’s units and gives them +3 might for the turn.
Those additions do not overhaul the deck, but they give it new ways to push through damage and make use of the equipment it already wants to see.
Ziggs and bomb tokens could shake up battlefields
Among the new Legends, Ziggs Hexplosives Expert stands out as the most aggressive-looking option in the preview. Ziggs can play a bomb token to any battlefield, which means players can spread pressure across both battlefields instead of concentrating on one lane. That can force opponents to choose between contesting a battlefield and losing units to the bombs or leaving it alone and giving up scoring opportunities.
Explosimian adds to that plan by placing three bomb tokens on a battlefield whenever it holds. Paired with Ziggs Short-Fused, each bomb token does an extra point of damage. In the right situation, that can create nine damage when an opponent decides to take the risk of occupying a battlefield.
Deflect units are the obvious answer because they make players pay an extra mana to target with bombs, but the preview still treats Ziggs as a threat worth testing. His Fury and Chaos colors also call to mind Draven, which suggests there may be some easier card overlap between the two archetypes.
Radiance is a set with a lot going on at once: a fifth booster wave, new keywords that affect battlefield control, starter decks that showcase hidden cards and exhausted units, and a Riot music crossover that brings K/DA and HEARTSTEEL into the game. It also leaves room for older decks to update around cards like Satchel Charge, Hush and Battle Preparations. K/DA’s wider return this year and Riot’s continued use of music projects make the set feel connected to the rest of the League of Legends universe rather than a standalone card-game drop.
Had a game last night where one hidden unit on a lane basically decided the whole score swing, so this Deploy stuff sounds nasty in the best way. battlefield control has been missing from a lot of card games lately.
music tie-ins are the real sell here. the mechanics sound cute, but K/DA and HEARTSTEEL are gonna move more boxes than Disarm ever will.
same here, the set is very Riot
maybe for collectors, yes. but if the new keywords are actually good, players will care more than shiny bands on the box.
Rousing Display needing a 7-cost reveal for the full effect is pretty spicy. that kind of conditional blowout always makes hands feel way more greedy.
Greedy, yeah, but that is also how you keep combo decks from being braindead. if the ceiling is that high, the setup should be awkward.
so you want every payoff to be miserable to use? nice balance theory there
fair lol
the Ziggs bomb token line is the only thing that jumped out to me. placing bombs on any battlefield sounds like a real tempo headache.
Do you mean the pressure across both battlefields, or just the direct damage from the bomb tokens? I can see why that looks scary, but the preview also mentions Deflect units as a clean answer, so it may not be free value every turn. It feels like one of those cards that punishes sloppy positioning more than it wins on raw numbers.
sounds annoying tbh
lost a lane to bombs already
exactly the nightmare
show off looks like the swingy mechanic that will make this set miserable to play against. every card game thinks ‘limited level’ means fair, then the blowout turns happen anyway.
I think it depends on how often you can actually line it up. from the examples, it sounds like a setup tool, not a free win button every game.
we’ll see if the setup is really that hard
Starry-Eyed Songstress exhausting three friendly units to cut spell cost is kinda wild. i can already see weird turn math where you dump tokens just to cast one huge spell.
wait, three units for one spell?
That line is strong, but I do not think it is as simple as ‘dump tokens and win.’ If you exhaust three units, you are also exposing yourself to getting blown out before the spell resolves, and the deck still needs board presence to function. The preview even says Seraphine takes longer to assemble than Evelynn, which makes that cost reduction look more like a payoff than a starting plan. So the ceiling is high, but the floor looks pretty clunky.