What are Showdown Decks?

Showdown Decks are a product of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game that puts two complete decks in one box. Each box is built around two rival champions, one deck for each, and the two decks are made to be played against each other. Two people can open the box, take a deck each and play a game by the full rules straight away.

The product came with Vendetta, the fourth set, in place of the Champion Decks that the first three main sets had. There are two Showdown boxes so far: Zed against Shen from Vendetta, and Seraphine against Evelynn from Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026. The name has nothing to do with the showdown in the rules, the moment when players take turns to act at a battlefield, or with the Showdown Series, a run of large open tournaments.

What comes in a Showdown Decks box?

A Showdown box holds two decks and the things two new players need to play them. Riot's store pages for the Vendetta box and the Radiance box list the same contents.

Each deck is complete by the tournament rules: one Legend, a Main Deck of 40 cards with the champion units among them, 12 runes split six and six between the Legend's two domains, and three battlefields with different names. The booster packs are there to customize the decks with. The Vendetta decks also come with the tokens they make, double-faced with an Empowered side: four Shadow Clone tokens for Zed and five Recruit tokens for Shen. Both boxes have a launch price of $34.99.

How is a Showdown box different from a Champion Deck?

A Showdown box holds what two Champion Decks hold, with one booklet instead of two. UVS Games, the company that makes Riftbound under license from Riot, describes the Showdown Decks in its dates and details for Radiance as very similar to its Champion Decks, combined into one product. A Champion Deck has a launch price of $19.99, so two of them come to $39.98, and the Showdown box gives two decks for $4.99 less.

The bigger difference is the pairing. Champion Decks are sold one at a time, while the two decks of a Showdown box are chosen as a pair. Riot presents the box as an easy way to jump in with a friend, and UVS Games as a way to learn the game with one.

Vendetta and Radiance have no Champion Decks. Riot's announcement of the products of 2027, made on 3 August 2026, named four Champion Decks for Legacy, the sixth set, with its release on 29 January 2027, and two for The Reckoning, the seventh set, with its release on 30 April 2027. It named no new Showdown box.

Which decks are in the Vendetta Showdown Decks?

The Vendetta Showdown Decks set Zed against Shen and came out on 31 July 2026, together with the rest of Vendetta. In League of Legends, Zed was a student of the Kinkou Order who turned to forbidden shadow magic and split the order in two. Shen, his former friend, now leads it.

• The Zed deck is Fury and Chaos, led by Master of Shadows. It holds two Zed, Without a Sound, one Zed, From the Shadows and the signature spell Death Mark.
• The Shen deck is Calm and Order, led by Eye of Twilight. It holds four Shen units under three names, among them Shen, Leader of the Kinkou Order, and the signature spell Shadow Dash.

The Zed deck uses its trash as a second hand. Death Mark and the battlefield Shadow Temple put cards from the top of the deck into the trash. Spells with Flow can then be played from there, Shadow Clone tokens banish a unit from the trash when they attack to gain Assault 4, and every card banished this way Empowers Master of Shadows.

The Shen deck wants exactly two of its units at a battlefield. When Shen, Leader of the Kinkou Order holds a battlefield with exactly one other friendly unit there, you score an extra point, and Disciple of Shen has Shield 3 while it stands with exactly one other friendly unit. Eye of Twilight gives a unit Tank for the turn, so the enemy has to assign its combat damage to that unit first.

Neither deck has cards of its own. Every card in the two decks is a regular card of Vendetta, Origins or Unleashed, and each deck holds two Epics: its champion's signature spell and one of its champion units.

Which decks are in the Radiance Showdown Decks?

The Radiance Showdown Decks set Seraphine against Evelynn, with their release on 23 October 2026, the release day of Radiance. In its overview of Radiance, Riot describes the pair as Seraphine's bright stage show clashing with Evelynn's darker sound.

• The Seraphine deck is Mind and Order, led by Starry-Eyed Songstress. When you play a spell, you may exhaust the Legend and three of your units as an additional cost, which makes that spell cost 2 Energy less.
• The Evelynn deck is Body and Chaos, led by Agony's Embrace. Once each turn, when you play a card from face down, the way Hidden cards are played, you draw a card, and on your opponent's turn you then discard one.

The same overview names the two Legends and says that Riot will publish the full decklists, with the champion units, battlefields and runes of both decks, on 16 October 2026.

Can you play a Showdown deck at a store event?

Yes. Each Vendetta deck has a Main Deck of exactly 40 cards, 12 runes and three battlefields with different names, and Riot describes the decks of Radiance as full 56-card decks too. That is what a Constructed event asks for (Tournament Rules 601.1.b, Core Rules 103.4.a, 103.5.c and 487.4.a). Vendetta belongs to Standard, and Radiance joins it with its release on 23 October 2026 (Tournament Rules 601.3.c), so a Showdown deck can go to a store event as it comes out of the box.

At casual events such as Nexus Night, a deck that matches the exact contents of a ready-made Riftbound product may even keep cards that are on the banned list (Tournament Rules 601.2.d.2). Once a single card changes, the banned list applies in full, and the deck has to meet every rule of a legal Riftbound deck.

Who should get a Showdown box?

A Showdown box suits two people who want to learn Riftbound together with full decks from the first game, or a player who wants a second deck to teach a friend with. Both Radiance Legends ask a player to plan a turn ahead, so for two players who have never played a card game, the Vendetta box is the easier choice and Shen is the easier side. A Showdown box and the single cards to change its decks with come from a local game store or from Cardmarket in Europe, TCGplayer in the United States and CardTrader on both sides of the Atlantic. The Vendetta Showdown box sells for $15.14 today.

Proving Grounds is the other way to start as a group, with four decks for two to four players and a booklet that teaches the rules step by step. A single player whose friends already have decks is better served by one Champion Deck, and which starter deck a new player should pick turns on how many people will learn together.

The decks page shows both Vendetta decks card for card, and the Create copy button opens one in the deck builder to change it. Each Vendetta deck holds one copy of its signature spell, Death Mark in the Zed deck and Shadow Dash in the Shen deck, and a deck may hold three signature cards (Core Rules 103.3.d), so two more copies are the first change that upgrading a ready-made deck suggests. Today Death Mark sells for $0.65 as a single card and Shadow Dash for $0.33.