What is the difference between signed cards and signature cards?

Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game uses the word signature for two things that have nothing to do with each other. A signature card is a kind of card, and it matters when you build a deck. A signed card is a printing of a card, and it matters to collectors.

The simplest way to keep them apart is to ask what the word describes. Signature describes what a card is and which decks may play it. Signed describes one printing of a card and the autograph on its artwork. A Jinx deck shows both: its signature spell is Super Mega Death Rocket!, and its Legend Loose Cannon has a signed printing, numbered 301*/298.

What is a signature card?

A signature card is a spell, gear or unit that belongs to one champion, and only a deck whose Legend carries that champion's name may play it. The word Signature stands on the type line before the card type, and the champion's name follows as a tag: Super Mega Death Rocket! reads Signature Spell, with the tag Jinx. The Core Rules call Signature a supertype (rule 133.7.b), the same kind of word as Champion on a champion unit.

The Signature supertype is a deckbuilding rule. A deck may hold a signature card only when the card's champion tag matches the tag of the deck's Legend, and it may hold no more than three signature cards in all, whatever their names (rule 103.3.d). Every signature card so far is printed at Epic, and most of them are spells. Super Mega Death Rocket! is the signature spell of Jinx, Alpha Strike is the signature spell of Master Yi, Spinning Axe is the signature gear of Draven and Tibbers is the signature unit of Annie.

Events in the Sealed and Draft formats work differently, because every player builds from the cards opened or picked at the event. There the Tournament Rules let a deck play any signature spell whose domains all fall within the domains of the deck, even without that champion, and the limit of three does not apply either (rules 602.4.a.3.b, 602.4.a.6, 602.4.b.4.b and 602.4.b.7).

What is a signed card?

A signed card is an overnumbered card printed a second time with the signature of its artist in foil on the artwork. The art and the name stay the same as on the overnumbered card. What sets the signed card apart is the autograph and a star after the collector number. The overnumbered Loose Cannon is 301/298, and the signed Loose Cannon is 301*/298, signed by Sean Yang, the artist who painted that art.

Like the overnumbered card it reprints, a signed card carries the hexagonal Showcase gem instead of the gem of its rarity. In its article on collectability in Origins, Riot put the overnumbered cards of Origins at about one per three displays of 24 packs, and said that roughly one overnumbered card in ten would be a Signature Overnumber. That makes a signed Origins card about one pack in 720. Riot has not given a rate for the later sets.

Not every overnumbered card is signed. In Origins, Unleashed and Vendetta the signed cards are the overnumbered Legends, such as Wuju Master at 231*/219 and Master of Shadows at 191*/166. In Spiritforged they are the 12 overnumbered champion units, such as Ahri, Inquisitive at 227*/221.

How do you tell the two apart on the card itself?

Four places on the card settle the question.

• The type line. A signature card has the word Signature before its type, as in Signature Spell. A signed card keeps the type line of the card it reprints, such as Legend on the signed Loose Cannon or Champion Unit on the signed Ahri, Inquisitive.
• The number. A signature card has an ordinary number inside its set, like 252/298. A signed card has a number above the size of its set with a star after it, like 301*/298.
• The gem. A signature card carries the gem of an Epic. A signed card carries the hexagonal Showcase gem.
• The artwork. A signed card has the artist's autograph in foil on the art. A signature card has no autograph at all.

The row below shows each of them on cards of Jinx. It starts with Super Mega Death Rocket!, the signature spell of Jinx, and goes on with her Legend in three printings: the standard Loose Cannon, the overnumbered Loose Cannon and the signed Loose Cannon. Only the first card is a signature card, and only the last one is signed.

Does a signed card play differently from the standard card?

No. A signed card has the same name and the same abilities as the standard card, and the Core Rules say that the illustration of a card conveys no gameplay information (rule 139.1). A signed Loose Cannon leads a Jinx deck exactly as the standard Loose Cannon does. A signed champion unit counts toward the limit of three copies of a card with its name (rule 103.3.b), and it can be a deck's chosen champion like any other copy.

A signed card does not become a signature card either. The signed Loose Cannon is still a Legend and the signed Ahri, Inquisitive is still a champion unit, so neither counts toward the three signature cards a deck may hold. So far the two groups have never overlapped: signed printings exist only for overnumbered cards, every signed card is a Legend or a champion unit, and no signature card has had an overnumbered printing.

Why does the word signature cause so much confusion?

Riot named the signed printing a Signature Overnumber when it introduced the collector cards of Origins, and it spoke of Signature variants again when it announced the 30 overnumbered cards of Spiritforged in its preview season announcement. TCGplayer follows that wording and lists the signed Legend as Jinx, Loose Cannon (Signature), while the signature spell Super Mega Death Rocket! appears under its name alone. When the word Signature follows the name of a Legend or a champion unit in a TCGplayer listing, it means the signed printing.

The difference matters when a card changes hands: a signature card is an Epic from an ordinary booster pack, while a signed card is one of the hardest cards of its set to find. Today the signature spell Super Mega Death Rocket! sells for $2.64 and the signed Loose Cannon sells for $1,355.35. Single cards come from local game stores and from online marketplaces: Cardmarket in Europe, TCGplayer in the United States and CardTrader on both sides of the Atlantic.

A card that an artist has signed by hand, at a convention for example, is a third thing again and not a signed printing. The Tournament Rules call an official card that has been modified in some way an alter. They allow an alter only when the name, Might and cost stay readable and the art stays recognizable (rule 419.4), and they leave the final word on any card to the head judge (rule 419.6).

Where can you see every signature card and every signed card?

The signature cards page lists every signature card with the champion it belongs to, and the signed cards page lists every signed printing by set. Each card's own page shows its other printings and its current price, and the rarity guide sets the signed printing beside the other showcase printings. Each champion's page, such as the page of Jinx, shows the Legend, the champion units and the signature cards of that champion together.