Riftbound: Radiance Hands-On Preview and Interview - Riftbound Embraces Complexity
I played Riftbound fifth set, Radiance, in Pre-Rift and sealed formats and spoke with executive producer Chengran Chai, who spoke on how Deploy is primed to disrupt the meta and more.
The Riftbound TCG released its fifth expansion set, Radiance, featuring new mechanics and musically inspired designs. In a hands-on preview and interview with executive producer Chengran Chai, we learned about the three new keywords: Disarm, Show Off, and Deploy. Disarm reduces an enemy unit's Might by one when attacking, while Show Off grants additional effects when a card is "shown off" to an opponent.
Deploy allows Gear to be placed directly on the Battlefield, providing an effect but being destroyed if an opponent controls the Battlefield. Token Gear like Bomb, a Deployable Gear, explodes upon destruction, dealing damage to opponents and triggering effects on other Bombs on the Battlefield. The set also includes a new Token Gear, Bomb, which can create chain reactions when destroyed.
Chai believes Deploy will significantly disrupt the meta compared to previous mechanics, as it allows for unique strategies like Jarvan IV's ability to move friendly units to battlefields. Both Show Off and Deploy add complexity to Riftbound, with Chai particularly excited about Orianna's Legend ability and The Ball card, which can move between battlefields each turn.
Pre-Rift tournaments, where players build decks on the fly using seeded decks and booster packs, were also introduced for Radiance, allowing for more diverse and experimental gameplay.
Written by urgent.news from IGN's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
