How do a champion's Legend, units and signature cards fit together?

In Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, a champion with a Legend is never a single card. Each one comes as a small family: a Legend that leads the deck, champion units that fight on the battlefields, and signature cards that only a deck of that champion may play. The cards of one champion are made to share a plan, and the deckbuilding rules tie them to each other.

What links a champion's Legend, units and signature cards?

The champion's name links them. Every one of these cards carries the name as a tag on its type line, and the Core Rules call a tag used this way a champion tag (rule 133.8.b). The Legend of Jinx is called Loose Cannon, not Jinx, but it carries the tag Jinx. So do her two champion units from Origins, Jinx, Demolitionist and Jinx, Rebel, and her signature spell, Super Mega Death Rocket!.

Only the tag counts. The set, the art and the rarity of a card make no difference, so cards of one champion from different sets still work together. Champion units often carry a region as a second tag, such as Zaun on both Jinx units, but a region tag plays no part in deckbuilding.

What does each kind of card do for the deck?

Each kind has its own job and its own place in the deck.

• The Legend starts the game in the Legend Zone and stays there. Its two domains become the domains of the whole deck, and its ability works all game.
• One champion unit with the Legend's champion tag is set aside as the chosen champion. It starts the game in the Champion Zone, and you can play it from there as if it were in your hand (rules 103.3.a and 108.3.d). The champion's other units go in the Main Deck like any other card.
• The signature cards are the champion's own spells, gear or units. A deck may hold three of them at most, and every one must carry the champion tag of the deck's Legend (rule 103.3.d).

Riot's deckbuilding primer sums the three up the same way, and it calls the signature spell of each Origins Legend stronger than other cards of a similar cost. A deck of these cards also has to meet the general rules of Constructed: a Main Deck of at least 40 cards, up to three copies of each named card, and only cards that fit the Legend's domains (rules 103.2.b and 103.3).

How do the cards of one champion share a plan?

The cards of one champion are written to pull in the same direction. Every Origins card of Jinx has to do with emptying your hand.

• Loose Cannon draws you a card at the start of your Beginning Phase when you hold one card or none.
• Jinx, Demolitionist has Accelerate and Assault 2, and she makes you discard 2 cards when you play her.
• Jinx, Rebel readies and gets +1 Might for the turn whenever you discard.
• Super Mega Death Rocket! deals 5 to a unit, and when you conquer, you may discard a card to return it from your trash to your hand.

The discards ready Jinx, Rebel and bring Super Mega Death Rocket! back, and the empty hand they leave is what Loose Cannon refills.

Ziggs follows the same pattern. He comes with Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, and the four Ziggs cards revealed before the release all make or use Bomb gear tokens, which deal 2 to an enemy unit when they die. His Legend, Hexplosives Expert, can pay a small cost and exhaust to play a Bomb to a battlefield. Ziggs, Short-Fused plays a Bomb when you play him, and Ziggs, Explosive can pay 1 Energy and exhaust to play one. His signature spell, Hexplosive Minefield, kills any number of your Bombs and plays that many new ones at the end of the turn.

How does a new set bring a champion's cards?

Every Legend in Origins, Proving Grounds, Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta came out with its family in the same set. Next to the Legend, a Rare, the set holds two new champion units of that champion, one Rare and one Epic, each in one of the Legend's two domains, and at least one signature card, an Epic in both domains.

The number at the bottom of a card shows it. Jinx, Demolitionist is number 030 of Origins, among the Fury cards, and Jinx, Rebel is number 202, among the Chaos cards. Loose Cannon follows the six domains at 251, with Super Mega Death Rocket! right after it at 252.

Which champion unit should be your chosen champion?

Choose the one whose ability carries the plan you want, because it is the one card besides the Legend that you can count on every game. Riot's primer uses Lee Sin to show the choice. His Legend, Blind Monk, pays 1 Energy and exhausts to buff a friendly unit.

• Lee Sin, Centered gives other buffed friendly units at his battlefield +2 Might, so he suits a deck that spreads buffs over many units.
• Lee Sin, Ascetic can buff himself and have any number of buffs, so he suits a deck that pours every buff into one large unit.

The other unit can still go in the Main Deck. Only cards with exactly the same name count as your chosen champion during a game, so if you chose Lee Sin, Centered, a Lee Sin, Ascetic in your hand is not it (rule 103.3.a.3).

What happens when a champion gets new cards in a later set?

The new cards join the old ones, because the champion tag links them across sets.

• New units for an older Legend. Ahri, Confident from Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026, will give Nine-Tailed Fox, the Ahri Legend from Origins, one more champion unit to choose from.
• Older units for a new Legend. Draven, Showboat came out in Origins, before Draven had a Legend. Since Spiritforged brought Glorious Executioner, a Draven deck can choose him too.
• A second Legend. Master Yi is the only champion with two Legends so far, Wuju Bladesman from Proving Grounds and Wuju Master from Unleashed. Either one may choose any of his four champion units and play both of his signature spells, Highlander and Alpha Strike, three signature cards at most in all.

Two Legends can ask different things of one family. Wuju Bladesman gives a unit that defends alone +2 Might, while Wuju Master switches on at Level 6 and Level 11 and wants the cards that gather XP, such as Master Yi, Tempered and Alpha Strike.

Some champions, such as Vayne and Tryndamere, have champion units but no Legend so far. Their units fit any deck of their domain as ordinary units, but in Constructed they cannot be a chosen champion until a Legend carries their tag, as the article on champion units explains.

Are the cards linked the same way in Sealed and Draft?

No, the Tournament Rules loosen the links in Sealed and Draft, because players build from the cards they open or draft at the event. Any champion unit within the deck's domains can be its chosen champion (rules 602.4.a.3.a and 602.4.b.4.a), any signature spell whose domains fall within the deck's domains may be played even without its champion in the deck (rules 602.4.a.3.b and 602.4.b.4.b), and the limit of three signature cards does not apply (rules 602.4.a.6 and 602.4.b.7).

Each champion's page shows the family side by side, as the pages of Jinx and Master Yi do, and the champions page lists every champion with cards in Riftbound. The deck builder checks the chosen champion and the signature cards while you build.