Preparing for the Radiance Pre-Rift

Hello Riftbounders!

This Friday, October 16, stores will begin running their Radiance Pre-Rift events.

Events begin on Friday, but the Pre-Rift window lasts for the week, so check the schedule at your local store to find out when you can register to play. If you want to see when local game stores are running Pre-Rifts near you, check out our event locator.

So, what’s a Pre-Rift event?

A Pre-Rift event is your first chance to get your hands on a new set’s cards and play with them before the set is officially released. When you attend a Pre-Rift, you get to crack packs with your local game store (LGS) community, build a deck, and play it immediately.

Pre-Rift events are fun, social, and casual! The focus is on learning and lighthearted fun, so don’t worry about bumping into any extreme competition. Instead, have fun with the people around you, chat about the deck you’re gonna try out, and don’t hesitate to ask your fellow Riftbounders or the event judge for help while you’re building your deck or in the middle of a game.

The other great thing about Pre-Rifts is that they are Sealed events. This means all the cards you need to play will be provided to you as part of the event, and you’ll just need to build your deck from that limited card pool.

What’s a Sealed format?

In Sealed formats, you open Booster Packs and play with the cards you get; for this event, they'll be Radiance Booster Packs. You can use any of the cards you open from those packs when building your deck, but you can’t add outside cards from your collection to your deck.

If this is your first Sealed event, here are the deckbuilding rules to keep in mind:

• Sealed decks have a minimum Main Deck size of 25 cards, but you can play more than that if you want to.
• Sealed decks can use up to three domains of cards and Runes.
  • You can use any Signature spell in your deck, as long as both of that Signature spell’s domains are represented in your Main Deck’s three domains.
• You can choose to play without a Legend, or without a Champion Unit. If you do, you draw an additional card on your first turn.
  • If you choose to play with a Legend, you must have both of the Legend’s domains represented in your Main Deck’s three domains.
• You can use any Champion Unit as your Chosen Champion, regardless of your Legend.
• You can use as many copies of a card as you open.
  • This means you can go above the normal limit of 3 copies per card.
• You are not limited to using Runes or tokens that you open in your packs.
  • The event organizer will provide additional Runes, and you can use anything handy to represent tokens!
• You can use Battlefields that you open, or use a facedown card as a "blank" substitute Battlefield. These blank Battlefields have no abilities and are just locations for players to conquer and hold.
• You can change the cards of your deck in between games and rounds, as long as you’re still following the other rules above. Don’t be afraid to alter your build as you go!
• For more details on Sealed deckbuilding, see the Tournament Rules.

Pre-Rift Kit Contents

For Radiance Pre-Rift events, you’ll be provided with the following to open and use to build your deck. Remember, anything you open is yours to keep!

• Five Radiance Booster Packs.
• A champion pack themed around one of nine new Legends in Radiance. These packs have a Legend, a Rare Champion, a Battlefield, and support cards all for that Champion.
• A Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor promo card. You can’t include the Heimerdinger Promo in your Sealed deck. If you pull the non-promo version in your packs, you can play that one!

Building Your Deck

Remember, your Main Deck has to have at least 25 cards and follow the Domain rules listed above. With that in mind, here are a few tips for building your Sealed deck at a Pre-Rift:

1. Include a reasonable amount of Units in your deck, because they’re your main way to score points.
   1. Most decks want to have at least 15 Units that can fight for you.
   2. You’ll want about five of your Units to cost 2 Energy, so you have plays to make in your first turns.
   3. The rest of your Units can be more expensive, with a diversity of costs so you have powerful plays at all points of the game.
2. Use your non-Unit cards to help bolster the strategy of your deck.
   1. Gear or Spells that give Might are great options to improve your Units.
   2. It’s also always a good idea to have a few spells that will let you interact directly with your opponent’s Units by removing them from play.
3. Think about the different Power costs in your deck.
   1. Cards with Power costs tend to have stronger effects, and you will want to have some without going overboard on the Runes you'll have to recycle.
   2. When deciding what Runes to play in your Rune Deck, make sure to think about the specific Power costs in your Main Deck.
4. Radiance has new mechanics called Disarm, Deploy, and Show Off.
   1. Try playing around with the new keywords to learn how they work.

When building the foundation of your deck, the cards from your Pre-Rift kit are a great place to start. Here's a quick rundown on the Champions in the Pre-Rift kits and their strategies.

Pre-Rift Seeded Legends

Ekko

Ekko is all about planning ahead, and manipulating time. Use his Legend to cheat out powerful units with impactful effects ahead of the curve.

Evelynn

Evelynn is all about luring you into her embrace and springing her trap. She uses hidden cards to outwit her enemies.

Jarvan IV

Jarvan IV leverages the new keyword Deploy. With his Legend, you can send Units to battlefields with Deployed Gear and surprise your opponent, getting Units directly into the fight even if your base is empty. You can’t count Jarvan out of the fight.

K’Sante

K’Sante is all about protecting his allies and Battlefields. His unique flavor is that he can transform his defenses to be used on offense. Surprise your opponents by turning your beefy Hold cards into Conquering monsters.

Modekaiser

Mordekaiser rules over the realm of death. His game plan centers around banishing his own Gear and Units, to play out more Units and Gear for cheaper.

Orianna

Orianna’s Legend puts a new spin on Riftbound. She can transform powerful Gear into powerful Units, and even surprise opponents by transforming Deployed Gear into a Unit at unexpected times. Use your robot army to conquer Battlefields from underneath the opponent’s nose.

Riven

Riven is an exiled swordfighter who focuses on movement, and her Legend leans into this game plan. Allowing Units that are played to the Battlefield to come in ready synergises with cards that can Gank or have exhaust abilities, creating a surprising amount of early game pressure.

Seraphine

Seraphine draws powers from her followers, and can exhaust them to help her cast expensive, game-changing spells. Her game plan is to assemble a large army of low cost Units and overwhelm her opponent with both spells and sheer numbers.

Ziggs

Ziggs is a chaotic yordle who wants to blow everything up—and he really wants to blow up the board. His game plan leans fully into controlling the board and deterring the enemy from even setting foot on a Battlefield.

Pre-Rift Rules FAQ

If you haven't, check out our recently released patch notes. We’ll be releasing an extended FAQ once Radiance has been out for a bit to cover any odd interactions, but we wanted to call out a few things early to make Pre-Rift as smooth as possible.

Q: If I use K’Sante Legend on a Unit like Staunch Survivor that has both Shield 2 and Assault 2, does the card now have Assault 4?

A: Yes! This is worded this way to communicate that K’Sante’s Legend is a passive effect for that turn. This way you can use combat tricks to give that Unit additional Shield, and increase their Assault that turn!

Q: If I pull Neeko and have fewer than 3 Legends, can I still play Neeko?

A: Yes, you can! Neeko is receiving an errata to read “...choose up to 3 different Legends...” so you can still legally play Neeko in Pre-Rift even if you don’t pull 3 Legends.

Q: Can I choose the same option twice when playing Encore? A: No, you cannot. You must choose 2 different options from the 4.

Q: When an Equipment becomes a unit, does it inherit its equipped text? A: No. Its “Equipment” text is only active when it is equipped to a unit. If you are running Orianna Legend with a Blade of Exile in your deck and turn it into a Unit, it will be a 3 might Unit without Ganking.

See You On the Rift!

Excited to find a nearby Pre-Rift? Check the event locator and find one near you—and don’t forget to post your hits! Tag us at @PlayRiftbound with the hashtag #RBRadiance.