Jarvan IV, Exemplar of Demacia: the Legend that teleports your units
Jarvan IV, Exemplar of Demacia is one of the nine Legends in Radiance, and it is official: Riot has it in the card gallery as RAD 155/167, Rare, domains Body and Order. Its ability is a single line — every time you play a gear with Deploy, you may move one of your units to that battlefield for one rune of any colour. There is also a Showcase print, 176/167, full-art, illustrated by Herman Ng. Radiance releases on October 23 and will be legal at the European Regional Championship in Stuttgart on November 6-8.
The cardWhat it actually says
The printed text reads: «When you play a gear with [Deploy], you may exhaust me and pay [rune] to move a friendly unit to that battlefield». One sentence, five pieces of game vocabulary — and the vocabulary is where you find out whether the card is any good.
| Legend | The card sitting face up in front of you from turn one. You never play it and it never dies: it sets your deck's colours and lends you an ability you can use every turn. |
|---|---|
| Gear | An object: it stays on the table and keeps doing its job while it is there. |
| Deploy | A gear with Deploy can only be played onto a battlefield, and it dies as soon as an opponent holds that spot. In exchange it is cheap and it buffs whoever fights there. |
| Exhaust | You turn the card sideways. It means «already used this turn». |
| Rune | The resource you pay with. Here any rune works, so the cost never forces a colour on you. |
In practiceOne cheap teleport per turn
Moving units around in Riftbound is usually slow: you send them somewhere and they tend to stay there. Jarvan IV breaks that habit. On any turn where you play a gear with Deploy, one of your units can appear exactly where that gear just landed, for one rune and the Legend's exhaust — which is almost nothing.
Two practical consequences. First, you can leave your units parked safely in your base and commit them to the contested battlefield at the last moment, once you already know what your opponent did. Second, Deploy gear in Radiance is cheap — Banner of Conquest and Concert Poster cost 1 energy, Blossoming Dreamroot 2 — so the ability switches on nearly every turn without bending the deck around it.
PartnersThe cards it wants next to it
The purpose-built gear is Demacian Standard (RAD 156/167, Epic, 2 energy, Body and Order). It has Deploy, it gives one of your attacking units +2 Might there, and — the important bit — when you hold that battlefield you may return it to your hand. Back in hand means replayed next turn, and replayed means Jarvan IV triggers again. It is a little engine that reloads itself.
The other half is Jarvan IV, Martial Paragon (RAD 091/167, 4 energy, 4 Might, 1 Power, Body), the champion unit we covered last week: it gives your Deploy gear the Action keyword, meaning you can play them during a showdown — the moment when a battlefield is actually decided. Put the two together and you can drop a gear mid-fight and teleport an extra defender in at the same instant. That is the trick that makes the deck annoying to play against.
RAD 155/167
Rare Legend, Body and Order, art by Grafit Studio. Live in Riot's card gallery.
RAD 176/167
Same card, full-art treatment by Herman Ng. The collector's print.
Where it came fromLeaked first, confirmed now
Jarvan IV first showed up in late September as a photo on r/riftboundtcg, alongside Riven's Legend; we wrote about it then and flagged that Riot had confirmed nothing. The confirmation has now arrived: the card is in the official gallery with its final number, rarity and text, matching the photo exactly.
One more Jarvan IV card is still outside the gallery — a champion unit numbered RAD 133/167, photographed on October 7 from a Simplified Chinese print. Its English subtitle is unknown and Riot has not published it. You will find it in our spoiler grid, marked as unconfirmed, along with every other Radiance card revealed so far on the set page.
Why it matters for us. Radiance will be legal at the European Regional Championship in Stuttgart on November 6-8, the biggest autumn tournament for Italian players and the first event where this set really counts. Jarvan IV is a cheap Legend to build around: it asks for 1- and 2-energy gear, not expensive rares, and it rewards players who move well across battlefields rather than players who open more packs. If you are already thinking about Stuttgart, this is the kind of deck you can start preparing with what we know today.
The short version
- Jarvan IV, Exemplar of Demacia is official: RAD 155/167, Rare Legend, Body and Order, plus a 176/167 Showcase.
- Ability: when you play a gear with Deploy, you may exhaust Jarvan IV and pay any rune to move a friendly unit to that battlefield.
- It pairs with Demacian Standard (RAD 156/167), which returns to hand and re-arms the ability, and with Jarvan IV, Martial Paragon (RAD 091/167), which lets you play gear during showdowns.
- Radiance releases October 23 and will be legal at the European Regional Championship in Stuttgart, November 6-8.
Source: official Riftbound card gallery. Images: Riot Games.
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