Neeko in Riftbound: the Radiance cards leaked at PAX West
The same weekend Riot confirmed Orianna from the PAX West stage, four photos Riot had not planned came out of the Seattle show: the Neeko card, the Seraphine and Evelynn Legends and a page with three new Radiance keywords. A day later Kai'Sa joined them. These are leaks, not official previews: the real reveals begin on September 25 at RQ Los Angeles. But almost every text is readable, and it is worth understanding what they say.
The factsFour photos from Seattle, then a fifth
On the evening of Sunday, September 6, a user on r/riftboundtcg posted four images taken at PAX West, and the thread quickly passed 500 upvotes. Two are photos of physical cards: the Seraphine and Evelynn Legends, complete with frame, artist credit and collector number, a sign that printed Radiance material was already being played at the show. The other two are a photo of a screen and of a printed page: the Neeko card and a box explaining three new mechanics. Overnight between the 6th and the 7th a fifth image arrived, another screen photo: Kai'Sa. The person who reposted it on Reddit says it came from X, where the original post was deleted shortly after.
Riot has not commented, and the official site has no trace of Neeko or Kai'Sa. What follows is a transcription of what can be read in the photos: the final texts may still change between now and October 23.
NeekoA Champion Unit that brings a second Legend
The card is called Neeko, Blending In and it is a Champion Unit. The first line is a reminder: «Neutral cards can go in decks of any Domain.» Then the text itself:
Neeko, Blending In — If Neeko is in your deck, choose 3 different legends in addition to your starting legend. (Different means none match names.) When you play me, choose one of those Legends and add it to your Legend Zone while I'm on the board.
In practice it is a Legend sideboard. Before the game you set three aside, and when Neeko enters play one of them sits next to your Legend for as long as Neeko stays on the board. A Legend effect doubles up at that point: a Lux deck that fetches Jhin, any deck that brings a Master Yi into its Legend Zone for a turn, and so on. The comparison going around the community is with the Hearthstone cards that swap your hero power, and it is not wrong.
Two things, though, are not visible in the photo, and they decide everything. The first is the cost: an effect like this on a neutral card, playable anywhere, only holds up if the energy required is high, and social media ranges from a guessed «5» to the wish for «at least 7 and two power». The second is how to read «one of those Legends»: the three extra picks only, or your starting Legend too, doubling its own effect? The natural reading is the first, but it is the kind of doubt Riot closes with one line of rules text, and until then it is better not to build around it.
The LegendsSeraphine and Evelynn, full texts
The two physical cards are the most readable of the lot, and also the most awaited: Seraphine and Evelynn headline the Radiance Showdown Decks Riot announced on August 3. Judging by the frame, Seraphine is blue and yellow, so Mind and Order; Evelynn orange and purple, Body and Chaos.
Seraphine, Starry-Eyed Songstress — As an additional cost to play a spell, you may exhaust me and three friendly units to reduce the cost of that spell by 2.
Seraphine wants a full board: four exhausted cards, herself included, for a two-energy discount. It makes sense next to her Champion Unit, already shown by Riot, which puts Recruit tokens into play and grows with exhausted units: a Legend built to play two-cost spells «for free» in a deck that makes tokens and has effects when its units are exhausted.
Evelynn, Agony's Embrace — Once each turn, when you play a card from face down, draw 1. Then, if it's not your turn, discard 1.
Evelynn rewards cards played face down, so the Hidden package: an extra card every turn in which you play one from face down, but if you do it on your opponent's turn you have to discard one. It is a Legend the community expected to be about charm and found to be about stealth instead, and first reactions are split between those who find her weak, «you draw a card and often discard it», and those who see her as the natural home of Hidden decks and their synergies. The collector number printed on the card, 153/167, also says something about the set: the base sequence stops at 167 cards, and the 180 announced by Riot most likely include out-of-sequence cards, as Vendetta's SP alt arts already did.
Kai'SaSpells at reaction speed
The fifth photo shows Kai'Sa, Rebel, a Champion Unit with The Void tag. The text, blurry as it is, can be reconstructed in full:
Kai'Sa, Rebel — Disarm (When I attack, give an enemy unit here -1 Might this turn). While I'm in a showdown, your spells have Reaction. (Play them any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)
The person who posted the photo quotes cost 5, one power and 5 Might, but the numbers cannot be read in the image and we report them as such. The text, on the other hand, is clear and is the most competitive of the group: while Kai'Sa is in a showdown, every spell you own becomes a reaction. That means removal played on your opponent's turn, before their cards resolve, from a unit that also lowers the Might of a defender when she attacks. The first reaction in the thread was one and the same: «a heavy removal at reaction speed is nasty to face».
MechanicsThree new keywords
The fourth image in the thread is a printed page that opens with «There are many new mechanics in the Radiance set!» and explains three of them. Deploy had already appeared on Sunday's panel slides, together with Orianna; the other two are new.
| Keyword | Text as printed | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy | Play this gear only to a battlefield and it will grant benefits while there. When an opponent holds that battlefield, kill this gear. | Gear you can only play to a battlefield, granting bonuses while it stays there. If the opponent takes that battlefield, the gear is destroyed. |
| Showoff | As you play this, you may reveal a card from hand or choose a friendly card that meets the listed criteria. The card's effect will change based on what is shown off. | As you play the card you may reveal a card from hand or point to a friendly card that meets a requirement: the effect changes depending on what you show. The set's «performance» theme turned into a rule. |
| Disarm | When this unit attacks, decrease the Might of an enemy unit here. | When the unit attacks, it lowers the Might of an enemy unit on the same battlefield. On Kai'Sa's card the reduction is 1 for the turn. |
The pictureWhat is confirmed and what is not
Putting official and unofficial together, this is how Radiance looks in mid-September. From Riot, on August 3: 180 cards, 66 Showcase, nine Legends of which five announced, Seraphine, Ziggs, Jarvan IV, Ekko and Evelynn, plus «four more friends» still to reveal. From the September 6 panel: Orianna. From this week's photos: the texts of the Seraphine and Evelynn Legends, two Champion Units, Neeko and Kai'Sa, which do not count among the nine Legends because they are units, and three keywords.
Riot has confirmed none of this last block, and will not before September 25. The photos, though, are consistent with each other and with what was already known: the Seraphine Champion Unit shown in August works with exhausted units, exactly what her Legend asks for. Our Radiance hub keeps listing official cards only; this article will be updated when the previews confirm, or contradict, the texts.
September 25 to October 9
Official reveals begin at RQ Los Angeles, the last Regional Qualifier of 2026, and run for two weeks.
October 23, 2026
Radiance launches in English, Chinese and French on the same day. Pre-Rift in stores from October 16 to 22.
CalendarDates to mark
| When | What |
|---|---|
| September 25-27 | RQ Los Angeles: Radiance previews begin |
| October 8 | Rules update for Radiance |
| October 16-22 | Pre-Rift: prerelease events in stores |
| October 23 | Radiance launches in English, Chinese and French |
| October 28 - November 1 | Lucca Comics & Games, with Riftbound on site |
| November 6-8 | European Regional Championship in Stuttgart |
Why it matters to us. Radiance is the set of the first European Regional Championship, from November 6 to 8 in Stuttgart, and it lands five days before Lucca Comics & Games. A card like Kai'Sa changes how showdowns are played, and Neeko, if her cost allows it, changes how decks are built: anyone aiming to qualify does well to think about it now, keeping in mind that until the official previews these are photographed texts, not rules.
In short
- Over the PAX West weekend, photos leaked of Neeko (a neutral Champion Unit that adds a sideboard Legend to your Legend Zone), Kai'Sa (a Champion Unit with Disarm that gives your spells Reaction in showdowns) and of the Seraphine and Evelynn Legends.
- Three new keywords: Deploy, Showoff and Disarm. The base set is numbered up to 167.
- Nothing is official: Neeko's cost and stats cannot be read, Kai'Sa's are quoted by the person who posted the photo. The real previews start September 25, Radiance releases October 23.
Sources: r/riftboundtcg, September 6 thread, r/riftboundtcg, Kai'Sa on September 7, Riftbound Report, PlayRiftbound — Looking at Riftbound's 2027 Releases. Card photos: r/riftboundtcg. Artwork: Riot Games.
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