What is the chosen champion?

Every Constructed deck in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game holds one card that never has to be drawn. That card is the chosen champion, a champion unit of the deck's own champion that you pick while you build the deck. It waits face up beside the Legend from the start of the game, so the champion your deck is built around is ready to be played in every game.

Which units can be your chosen champion?

Your chosen champion has to be a champion unit whose champion tag matches the tag of your Legend. The champion tag is the champion's name, printed on the type line of both cards. Glorious Executioner, the Legend of Draven from Spiritforged, has the tag Draven, so a Draven deck can choose Draven, Showboat from Origins or Draven, Audacious from Spiritforged.

The chosen champion is also one of the cards of the Main Deck, so three more conditions apply.

• It has to be a champion unit. A signature unit with the right tag does not qualify. Tibbers carries the tag Annie, but its type line reads Signature Unit, so it can never be the chosen champion of an Annie deck.
• It has to fit the Legend's domains. So far, every champion unit that shares its champion's name with a Legend has one of that Legend's two domains, so in practice the name decides.
• It cannot be banned. A banned card cannot be in a Constructed deck at all. Draven, Vanquisher is on the banned list Riot updated on 18 September 2026, so a Draven deck chooses one of the other two.

Where does the chosen champion start the game?

The chosen champion starts the game face up in your Champion Zone, next to your Legend. During setup, right after the Legends go down, each player takes their chosen champion out of the Main Deck and puts it there. It still counts as one of the cards of the Main Deck, so a deck of exactly 40 cards shuffles the other 39.

The Champion Zone is public, like the Legend Zone, so both players know each other's champion before the first card is drawn.

How do you play the chosen champion?

You play the chosen champion straight from the Champion Zone, exactly as you would play a unit from your hand. You play it at the same moments and pay the same costs, and it goes onto the board like any other unit.

Keywords that work from your hand work from the Champion Zone too. Kai'Sa, Survivor can be played with Accelerate to enter ready. Both Teemo units, Teemo, Scout and Teemo, Strategist, have Hidden, so a Teemo deck can hide its chosen champion at a battlefield it controls without drawing it first. Swift Scout, the Legend of Teemo, reaches into the zone as well: for 1 Energy and by exhausting the Legend, it puts a Teemo unit you own into your hand from the Champion Zone or from the board.

What happens when the chosen champion dies?

When your chosen champion dies, it goes to your trash like any other unit. The Core Rules say it cannot return to the Champion Zone by normal means, so once you have played it, the zone stays empty unless a card brings it back, and a card can do so only while the zone is empty.

The Origins battlefield Hallowed Tomb is such a card: when you hold it, you may return your chosen champion from your trash to your Champion Zone if the zone is empty. A champion that comes back this way has lost any buff it had, and you can play it again as before.

Do the other copies count as your chosen champion?

Yes, every copy with exactly the same name counts. The chosen champion is one of the three copies a deck may hold of its name, and the other two count as your chosen champion wherever they are: in the deck, in your hand, in your trash or on the board. Hallowed Tomb can therefore return a copy you drew from the deck, as long as it is in your trash and your Champion Zone is empty.

A champion unit with a different subtitle is a different card and does not count. Daughter of the Void, the Legend of Kai'Sa, can choose Kai'Sa, Survivor, Kai'Sa, Evolutionary or Kai'Sa, Rebel from Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026. If you choose Kai'Sa, Survivor, a Kai'Sa, Evolutionary in your hand is a Kai'Sa unit you may play, but it is not your chosen champion.

Which champion unit should you choose?

Choose the champion unit your deck most wants to see in every game, because that is what the chosen champion guarantees. A cheap champion puts pressure on from the first turns, while an expensive one is a threat you know you will have when the game goes long. Kai'Sa shows the difference: Kai'Sa, Survivor costs 4 Energy and draws a card when she conquers, while Kai'Sa, Evolutionary costs 6 and, when she conquers, can play a spell from your trash that costs less Energy than your points without paying its Energy cost.

The ready-made decks show the choice as well. Each of the four decks in Proving Grounds holds two copies of each of its champion's two champion units, and the How to Play booklet recommends one of them as the chosen champion: Annie, Fiery, Lux, Crownguard, Garen, Commander and Master Yi, Meditative.

Can you change your chosen champion at a tournament?

Yes, between the games of a match at an event that allows a sideboard. When an event asks for a decklist, it records your chosen champion with the rest of the deck. When you sideboard between games, you may switch to another champion unit from your Main Deck or sideboard that matches your Legend, while the Legend, the runes and the battlefields stay as registered.

Forgetting to set out the chosen champion earns a warning under the Tournament Rules. At a Professional event, when the mistake is found after the first turn has begun, the game goes on with that player's Champion Zone empty, and leaving the zone empty on purpose counts as cheating.

Sealed and Draft are looser. There, any champion unit within the deck's domains can be its chosen champion, whatever its name. A deck may also go without one, and its player then draws a card at the start of their first Beginning Phase in each game.

Every champion unit is on the units page, and the champions page shows each champion with their Legend, champion units and signature cards together. The deck builder asks for a chosen champion and checks that it matches the Legend. Signature cards never serve as the chosen champion, and a deck may hold only 3 of them in total, a limit explained in how many signature cards a deck can hold.