Riftbound’s final set of the year, Radiance, is finally upon us, and I went hands-on with the cards at a very early Pre-Rift tournament. This marks the League of Legends TCG’s fifth set, and features musically-inspired designs and brand new mechanics poised to disrupt the meta.
I also had the chance to talk with Chengran Chai, the executive producer of Riftbound, to get some insight about the set straight from the source in a joint interview with Temple of Geek’s Myles Obenza.
First, a quick recap of the new mechanics being introduced in Radiance, with some of Chai’s commentary:
Disarm is the simplest of the new mechanics: When your unit with Disarm attacks, it reduces the might of an enemy unit at that battlefield, usually by one. It immediately made me think of Ahri’s original abilities, which is fitting, since the new green (Calm) Ahri, Confident, comes with Disarm. Her unit has a built-in buff when you reduce the Might of an enemy unit, gaining +1 Might herself. The promising new blue (Mind) Kai’sa, Rebel, has both Disarm and gives spells Reaction speed when in a showdown.
Show Off is a mechanic that might be familiar to you if you’ve played other popular TCGs. Cards with Show Off gain an additional effect if you “Show Off” a qualifying card to your opponent as you play it. We’ve only seen four cards in Radiance with Show Off so far–two units and two spells–and they each grant totally different effects. The 5-cost yellow (Order) Spell Rousing Display (clearly part of the Legend Seraphine’s kit) plays four 1-Might Recruit Tokens to your base instead of just one if you Show Off a card with Energy cost 7 or more.
Chai said that Show Off is a trade off–you’re giving away information in exchange for something, but TCGs are very much a game of information. “If I’m planning a spell heavy deck, whether you have Defy or not in your hand matters a great deal to me,” Chai explained. “Show Off basically opens up another dimension to the kind of like, 3D, 4D chess–that’s 5D.” Maybe you show your opponent something you have on purpose to throw them off, pushing them into a play you have the perfect counter-play for. Show Off has the possibility of granting great effects, but it opens the game up for more mind games, too.
Deploy is a keyword specifically for Gear, allowing you to deploy that Gear straight to a Battlefield. While there, it’ll provide an effect, but will be killed if your opponent holds the Battlefield it’s at.
“I think Deploy is probably the one that will disrupt [the meta], because historically, you don't think of just going straight to a battlefield,” Chai said. “And now you have, like, Jarvan IV’s E-Q, you have Ziggs just tossing bombs onto battlefields, and it's going to change the way people think about Defending quite a bit.”
Jarvan IV’s “E-Q” that Chai references is the move combo in League of Legends where he throws his flag and then pulls himself there–pretty 1-to-1 with Jarvan IV’s Legend ability in Riftbound, which lets you move a friendly unit to a Battlefield when you play a Gear with Deploy there (and pay 1 Power).
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/riftbound-radiance-hands-on-preview-and-interview-riftbound-embraces-complexity
