An Ekko nobody has seen shows up in the Radiance trailer: RAD 177/167
Riot dropped the Radiance trailer tonight, “A Festival of Brilliance Begins in Radiance!”, a video on the official Riftbound YouTube channel showing off cards from the set that releases on October 23. The still that ships with the announcement says more than the video does: front and centre sits Ekko, Revolutionary with the code RAD 177/167, a printing that until tonight appeared neither in the official gallery nor anywhere else. It is the third version of the same card, and the only one wearing True Damage colours.
The videoWhat Riot actually posted
The announcement went up in the Announcements section of playriftbound.com at 20:00 UTC and points to a video on Riftbound’s official YouTube channel. Riot’s own blurb is short: “Take a look at some of the cards lighting up Radiance in Riftbound, dropping October 23”, followed by a nudge to find a local store for the Pre-Rifts, which start on October 16.
The trailer lands on the final day of preview season: the official key dates run it from September 25 to October 9. This is Riot wrapping up three weeks of cards trickling out one at a time.
The cardEkko, Revolutionary, number 177 in a 167-card set
The card reads perfectly clearly. It is an Ekko Champion Unit (the unit that puts the champion on the board) in the Fury domain, Zaun: 5 Energy for 4 Might. The rules text is the one we already know: it enters ready, it has Assault, and an Action ability that for one discarded card, 1 Energy and a Fury rune banishes it and immediately replays it to your base ignoring its cost. At the bottom, where the flavour line usually goes, two lines that read like song lyrics: “I keep on shattering time / I might just leave you behind”. Art is credited to Grafit Studio.
Assault
It means +1 Might while this unit is the one attacking. That is all it does: a bonus that only applies on offence.
Overnumber
A card numbered past the set total. Radiance has 167 cards, so anything from 168 up is an “extra” printing, usually full-art and harder to pull.
Three printsSame card, three different pieces of art
Ekko, Revolutionary was already in the preview grid twice, and neither of those looks anything like this one.
| Code | Art | Bottom line |
|---|---|---|
| RAD 021/167 | Masked Ekko, by Yeon Art Studio | “I finish what I start.” |
| RAD 021a/167 (Showcase) | Pulsefire Ekko, by Dark Glow | A line of lore about the Pulsefire suit |
| RAD 177/167 (new) | Ekko with dreadlocks, headphones round his neck and a blue bomber, by Grafit Studio | Two rhyming lines, like a hook |
There is one more clue, and it does not come from the picture: the hashtags Riot put under the video include #KDA and #TrueDamage. The K/DA cards are already known — they are the five SP-coded Showcase cards we covered in late September, and they are fanned out on the right-hand side of the very same image, Kai’Sa, Rebel SP4/005 among them. True Damage, on the other hand, had never turned up on a Radiance card. That this Ekko is the True Damage one is our reading, put together from the hashtag and from what he is wearing: Riot does not say so anywhere, and the card is still called Revolutionary.
CalendarWhat happens next
With previews closed, three dates remain on the official site. On October 16 Riot updates the Radiance page with the full decklists for the Seraphine and Evelynn Showdown Decks and with the Nexus Night promos. From October 16 to 22 stores run the Pre-Rifts, and signing up gets you the Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor promo while supplies last. On October 23 the set releases in English, French and Chinese.
Why this matters to us. The October 16-22 Pre-Rifts run in Italian stores too, and they are the first way to get Radiance in hand without waiting for the 23rd. Italian is not one of the release languages, so as always we will be playing in English. And if you collect, write the code down: Overnumbers like this 177/167 are what sets the price of a set in its first months, far more than the regular printings.
The short version
- Riot published the Radiance trailer on October 9 at 20:00 UTC, the last day of preview season.
- The announcement image contains Ekko, Revolutionary RAD 177/167, the card’s third printing and its first appearance anywhere.
- Stats and text are the familiar ones: 5 Energy, 4 Might, Fury, Assault and the Action that replays it to your base.
- The video’s official hashtags name K/DA and True Damage; the True Damage link is our reading, not a Riot confirmation.
- Pre-Rifts October 16-22, release on the 23rd in English, French and Chinese.
Source: playriftbound.com and the official video on YouTube. Images: Riot Games.
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