Riftbound Radiance: The Set That Closes Riftbound's First Year
23 October 2026. Almost exactly one year after Riftbound launched in English, Set 5 arrives to close out the game's first full year. Riot's own words for it: the capstone of our year.
Radiance is built around performance — playing at the absolute peak of your powers, under the brightest lights, with everything on the line. Own the Stage. The World is Watching. It headlines the Regional Championships from November and Convergence Fest in December, which makes it the most competitively visible set Riftbound has released.
It's also the last Riftbound set that will ever be printed under the original booster configuration. More on that below — because for anyone holding sealed product, it's the single most important detail in this article.
What Is Riftbound: Radiance?
Radiance is the fifth main set of Riftbound, releasing worldwide on 23 October 2026 — Australia included, on the same day as everywhere else. Preview season opens at RQ Los Angeles from 25–27 September and runs through 9 October, with Pre-Rift events the week of 16–22 October.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Set Name | Radiance |
| Set Number | Set 5 |
| Set Code | RAD |
| Release Date | 23 October 2026 (worldwide) |
| Total Cards | 180 |
| Showcase Cards | 66 |
| Champion Legends | 9 — five confirmed, four unrevealed |
| Packs Per Display | 24 |
| Cards Per Pack | 14 |
| Previews | 25 September – 9 October 2026 |
| Pre-Rift | 16–22 October 2026 |
| New Products | Showdown Decks: Seraphine vs. Evelynn, Vault Bundle |
| Ultimate Rare | Confirmed — not yet revealed |
One Year On From Origins
Riftbound launched in English on 31 October 2025 — Origins, released simultaneously across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Oceania. Australian collectors were in from day one.
Radiance lands 23 October 2026. Eight days short of that anniversary, and the fifth set in twelve months.
Riot isn't badging Radiance itself as an anniversary product — the dedicated celebration is the Gift of the Rift Bundle, arriving 4 December 2026 with boosters from all five sets, 36 foil runes, a 2,000-card storage box and an exclusive alt-art Akali promo. But look at how that bundle is weighted:
Gift of the Rift Bundle — 16 boosters
3× Origins · 3× Spiritforged · 3× Unleashed · 3× Vendetta · 4× Radiance
Every set from Riftbound's first year gets three packs. Radiance gets four. It's the only set weighted above the rest — the newest product in the anniversary box, and the one Riot chose to give collectors more of.
If you've watched what anniversary timing did to One Piece OP-17 or to Pokémon's 30th Celebration this year, the pattern is familiar. Sets that sit at the centre of a franchise milestone attract buyers who aren't ordinarily in the market — people buying one sealed box because of what it represents, not because they're chasing a card. That's demand arriving from outside the usual collector pool, and it doesn't get released back into supply.
The Champions — Who's in Radiance
Five Champion Legends are confirmed, with four more still to be revealed during preview season from 25 September.
- Seraphine — The Starry-Eyed Songstress. Fronts the Showdown Deck against Evelynn, and the natural face of a set built on performance. Her card was first teased at RQ Vancouver months ago.
- Evelynn — Agony's Embrace. Paired against Seraphine in the Showdown Deck. Both are K/DA members in League — a crossover that reaches well past the Riftbound player base.
- Ekko — The Boy Who Shattered Time. An Arcane centrepiece, and the champion most likely to pull in viewers who don't otherwise play the card game.
- Ziggs — The Hexplosives Expert. A Piltover/Zaun mainstay making his Riftbound Legend debut.
- Jarvan IV — The Exemplar of Demacia. Demacia's figurehead, and a strong signal of where Set 6 is heading.
- Four champions still unconfirmed — revealed across preview season, 25 September to 9 October.
The Ultimate Rare Nobody Has Seen
Riot has confirmed Radiance includes a new Ultimate Rare — and has deliberately declined to show it. It's the only detail about the set they've announced without revealing.
Ultimate Rares are Riftbound's apex chase card: the single hardest pull in the set, and historically the card that anchors sealed box value long after release. An unrevealed Ultimate Rare going into a preview season is a hype engine — every reveal beat between 25 September and 9 October is another chance it appears, and speculation builds in the gap.
For sealed collectors, that matters in a specific way. When the chase card of a set is still unknown at pre-order time, buyers hold boxes sealed rather than opening them, because the reason to open hasn't been defined yet. Sealed supply tightens before anyone has seen a single pull.
The Detail Most Collectors Have Missed: Radiance Is the Last of Its Kind
This is the part worth reading twice.
Starting with Set 6 — Legacy, arriving 29 January 2027 — Riot is changing what goes inside a Riftbound booster pack. A Common card slot is being replaced with a dedicated Legend-or-Battlefield slot at roughly 50/50 frequency. In plain terms: Legacy boosters and every set after them contain 6 Commons instead of 7.
Radiance is the final set printed under the original configuration. Every Riftbound booster from Origins through Radiance shares one pack structure; every booster from Legacy onward shares a different one. Radiance closes the first chapter.
Why a pack-structure change matters to sealed value
Format changes create natural collecting brackets. A sealed Radiance display isn't just the last box of Riftbound's first year — it's the last box of the original print configuration, full stop. That's the kind of distinction that gets written into set guides for years afterward, and it's exactly the sort of detail that separates a box people keep sealed from a box people open.
What's Actually Releasing
The Radiance product line at launch:
- Booster Packs & Displays — 14 cards per pack, 24 packs per display. Each premium pack carries 7 Commons, 3 Uncommons, 2 foil Rares or better, 1 foil of any rarity, and a token.
- Showdown Decks: Seraphine vs. Evelynn — two 56-card preconstructed decks, two boosters, two playmats and a rulebook. Around US$34.99. The entry point for new players and a strong gift-season product.
- Vault Bundle — the returning premium bundle format.
- Pre-Rift kits — for the 16–22 October events, the week before street date.
Why Sealed Is the Play — and Why Day One Protection Matters
Riftbound sealed product has moved in one direction since Origins landed in late 2025: limited print runs, no reprints, and a player and collector base that has grown every quarter. Radiance arrives with more working in its favour than any set so far — anniversary timing, Regional Championship visibility from November, Convergence Fest in December, an unrevealed Ultimate Rare, and the end of the original pack configuration.
All of which is worth precisely nothing if the box gets damaged sitting on a shelf.
A single tear in cellophane packaging can decrease a box's value by 40–60%.
Corner damage can reduce resale prices by 30%.
Seal damage can render a box unsellable to serious collectors entirely.
The collectors sitting on full value when demand catches up are the ones who protected their product from day one. The ones who didn't are the ones taking a discount because their box has shelf wear — on a box that can't be reprinted.
Our acrylic display cases are precision-fit for Riftbound booster boxes — crystal-clear 5mm acrylic, strong magnetic closure, UV resistant, and built to keep your sealed box protected while keeping it on full display. The same case that holds your Origins, Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta boxes is made for your Radiance display too. Shipped Australia-wide from Melbourne.
Shop Riftbound TCG Acrylic Display Cases Australia →
The Window Is Open Now
Preview season starts 25 September at RQ Los Angeles and runs through 9 October. That's when the four unrevealed champions land, when the Ultimate Rare could surface, and when community attention shifts from passing interest to pre-order urgency. Pre-Rift events follow 16–22 October, then street date on the 23rd.
Australian retailers will have Radiance displays from 23 October. If you're planning to keep yours sealed — and given the anniversary timing, the championship season and the pack change coming right behind it, that's a reasonable call — your case should be waiting when the box arrives, not ordered after it's already been handled.
One year of Riftbound closes with this set. Protect the box properly from the start.