Disarm: Radiance’s third keyword debuts on Kai’Sa
In the Radiance overview published late on Friday, Riot introduced the set’s third keyword: Disarm, which strips Might from an enemy unit the moment you attack. The card chosen to show it off is Kai’Sa, Rebel, a Champion Unit numbered 063/167 at 5 Energy and 5 Might. The reminder text printed on the card is blunt: when she attacks, she gives an enemy unit in that location −1 Might for the turn. Riot adds that every instance of Disarm makes the reduction stronger.
The keywordWhat Disarm does, line by line
Kai’Sa’s card carries a single line of Disarm text, and it is worth reading in full: «When I attack, give an enemy unit here −1 Might this turn». Three limits are packed into that sentence. First: Disarm only fires when the unit attacks, never when it defends. Second: the target is an enemy unit here — present in the location where the fight is happening, not any unit on the board. Third: the reduction lasts the turn, after which Might snaps back to the printed value.
In the new-mechanics section Riot writes that Disarm resembles Assault, and that each instance of it makes the Might reduction stronger. That is the hint that the word may turn up numbered, the way Assault already does, or stack when several sources hand it to the same unit. For now, though, the only card shown is Kai’Sa, where Disarm appears without a number and is worth one.
One flaw in the source is worth flagging. The introductory line on the official site comes out truncated — «Disarm reduces the Might of an enemy Unit by as you attack!» — with the value missing between «by» and «as». Right now the number comes only from the card text itself.
The comparisonWhy Riot lines it up against Assault
Assault is a keyword already in circulation: it gives the unit +1 Might while it is attacking, and in its numbered versions — Assault 2, Assault 3 — the bonus grows accordingly. Riot’s comparison is therefore about the arithmetic, not the way the two work: both are measured in points of Might, and both scale.
The difference is where the point lands. Assault adds it to the attacking unit; Disarm takes it away from an enemy unit chosen in the location of the clash. The maths on a single showdown can look similar, but the target does not: in the first case what changes is your unit, in the second your opponent’s — and there has to be one standing where you attack.
Disarm
Triggers when the unit attacks. Gives an enemy unit in that location −1 Might until end of turn. Riot says instances make the reduction stronger.
Assault
Gives the unit +1 Might while it is attacking, +2 or +3 in the numbered versions. A bonus a unit hands itself, with no target to pick.
The cardKai’Sa, Rebel: five and five, plus Reaction
Kai’Sa, Rebel is a Mind-domain Champion Unit with the Kai’Sa and The Void tags, illustrated by Calf Art Studio and numbered 063/167. She costs 5 Energy and has 5 Might. She is not the game’s first blue Kai’Sa: Origins already had Kai’Sa, Evolutionary, same domain and same tags.
The heavier line, however, is not Disarm. The second ability says that while Kai’Sa is in a showdown, your spells have Reaction: you may play them at any time, even before spells and abilities resolve. Reaction is nothing new in Radiance — it is a keyword printed on plenty of cards from earlier sets. What is new is that here it is not granted to one single spell, but to every spell in your hand, for as long as the Champion stays in the clash.
Put side by side, the two lines describe a card that wants to go on the offensive: Disarm needs an attack to light up, and Reaction only switches on inside a showdown. The rest — how strong the combination really is, and alongside which Legends — will become clear once the list is complete: preview season closes on October 9.
Why it matters for us. Disarm is the third Radiance mechanic after Show Off and Deploy, and the only one that fires on the attack: anyone heading to a Pre-Rift at their local store between October 16 and 22 will meet it in the packs before they ever meet it at a tournament. It is worth getting used to now, because the set ships in English, French and Chinese — there is no Italian — so at the table that line is read in the original, and here means in the location where the fight is happening, not across the whole board. It is the word people will argue about most on October 23.
In short
- Disarm is Radiance’s third keyword: when the unit attacks, it gives an enemy unit in that location −1 Might until end of turn.
- It debuts on Kai’Sa, Rebel: Champion Unit 063/167, Mind domain, 5 Energy and 5 Might, art by Calf Art Studio.
- The card’s second ability gives Reaction to all your spells while Kai’Sa is in a showdown.
- Riot says instances of Disarm stack, but the overview line is printed without the value: only the card gives the number.
Source: playriftbound.com — The Radiance Overview. Images: Riot Games.
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