Ekko, Ingenious: a New Radiance Ekko, Unconfirmed by Riot
An image of Ekko, Ingenious surfaced on r/riftboundtcg on September 20: a champion unit for 3 energy with 4 might, stamped RAD 061/167. It shows up two days after Ekko, Recurrent was banned on September 18. Riot has not confirmed it: the card is nowhere on the official site, and the Card Gallery still holds no Radiance cards at all. Per Riot’s own schedule, Radiance previews only begin on September 25 at the Los Angeles Regional Qualifier.
The cardThree energy, four might and a price paid up front
The image shows a champion unit carrying the Ekko and Zaun tags. The rules text is short and expensive: «As an additional cost to play me, return a friendly unit to its owner’s hand» — to cast it you have to pick up one of your own units already on the table. On top of that it has Ganking, the familiar keyword that lets a unit move from battlefield to battlefield. The flavour line reads «We’ll do it the hard way!», and the art is credited to Luscinia Studio.
That additional cost is the unusual part. Among cards already in print, the only effect built the same way sits on Legion Quartermaster, which asks for a gear back in hand rather than a unit. The thread reads the card as blue: «This ekko unit is blue, so it can be run in any blue deck», writes u/camno124, and nobody in the comments disagrees on that point.
RAD 061/167
The collector number places the card in the fifth set, Radiance, which the community has counted at 167 cards ever since Neeko showed up as 167/167.
Off the calendar
Previews were slated for the LCS and LEC broadcasts on September 18, then nothing until the 25th. September 20 appears nowhere in Riot’s published schedule.
The contextOne Ekko leaves the list, another turns up
On September 18, Ekko, Recurrent joined the Standard and 2v2 Constructed ban list alongside Stacked Deck. In its announcement Riot said it had been watching the Lux combo deck since Unleashed and stepped in because that kind of infinite «promotes an unhealthy play pattern», leaving the opponent too few windows to interact. A champion coming straight back in a new set, with a completely different effect, is the first thing the comments picked up on.
Opinion on how strong it is splits down the middle. For u/Lunarbliss2 the extra cost bites hardest if Ekko is your chosen champion, since that ties you to the blue-red deck built around the Legend. For u/PandaBeat2 the combinations are already there: they point to Fizz, Trickster and Scuttle Crab, plus any temporary token worth rescuing before it disappears. Another player, u/AKthe47th, brings up Eager Drakehound. Pushing the other way, u/Exorrt and u/BiggestBlackestLotus argue that replaying a discounted Kai’Sa, Evolutionary burns more resources than simply hard-casting her.
Why it matters for us. Radiance is the set that will land on Italian tables with the European Regional Championship just around the corner, and the Ekko, Recurrent ban has already forced Mind players to rebuild their lists. Knowing a different Ekko may be on the way changes how you look at the next few weeks of buying and selling: before clearing out your blue cards, it is worth waiting for the official previews on September 25. Until Riot publishes the card, though, this stays a community image and not something to build a deck around.
| Cost | 3 energy |
|---|---|
| Might | 4 |
| Type | Champion Unit |
| Tags | Ekko, Zaun |
| Keyword | Ganking |
| Set code | RAD 061/167 |
The short version
- An image of Ekko, Ingenious is circulating on Reddit: 3 energy, 4 might, Ganking, and an additional cost that bounces one of your own units.
- The RAD 061/167 code places it in Radiance, but Riot has published nothing and the official Card Gallery still carries no cards from the set.
- Official Radiance previews start on September 25 at the Los Angeles Regional Qualifier; until then, every card doing the rounds stays unconfirmed.
Sources: r/riftboundtcg and Riftbound — September Ban List Updates. Images: Riot Games.
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