Recap of Our PAX Unplugged Panel

Today at PAX Unplugged Jimmy Wong sat down with Dave Guskin, Riftbound’s Game Director, to reveal and discuss some of what players can expect in the Spiritforged set. From more of Riot’s iconic champions, to Riftbound’s new Equipment mechanic, and even a look at 2026 for Riftbound. Let’s go!

Champion Legends

Twelve new Spiritforged Champions that were revealed at the PAX Unplugged panel:

Azir (Calm/Order)	Draven (Fury/Chaos)
Ezreal (Mind/Chaos)	Fiora (Body/Order)
Jax (Calm/Body)	Rumble (Mind/Fury)
Rek’Sai (Fury/Order)	Ornn (Calm/Mind)
Sivir (Body/Chaos)	Lucian (Fury/Body)
Renata Glasc (Calm/Order)	Irelia (Body/Chaos)

New Mechanics

Gold

Gold is a new mechanic arriving in Spiritforged thanks to cards like the new Renata Glasc. Gold are single-use token gear you can use to pay a Power cost instead of recycling a rune.

Repeat

Repeat is an added cost on cards that is paid as they play the cards. If it is paid, then you get to use the spell’s ability again (including choosing new targets if you want.)

Equipment

Equipment are a subtype of Gear which go on units and modify or enhance them in exciting and powerful ways.

Along with Equipment, we are introducing two additional new abilities: Quick-Draw & Weaponmaster!

Quick-Draw

Quick-Draw is a new ability which allows you to play equipment as a reaction and attach it to a unit they control. This can allow for flavorful moments as your units suddenly produce their gear in the heat of a showdown!

Weaponmaster

Some units have iconic gear and feel wrong when they aren’t carrying them. The design team created this ability to embody that element of our favorite armed units and champions. So, when you play a unit with this ability you are able to equip them for one less Power than it would normally cost.

That’s it for new mechanics, next Jimmy and Dave discussed collectability. They give us an overview of alternate arts for Spiritforged

Collectability

You have loved our alternate arts and overnumbered cards in Origins, and they’re back in Spiritforged. Spiritforged adds 30 Overnumbered cards, with 12 of them having Signature variants!

But that’s not all! Some Spiritforged packs will also contain new Overnumbered Champ units for cards originally released in Origins, such as this beautiful new Ahri:

Playing Spiritforged

Spiritforged launches next month, December 12, in China, and will arrive February 13 for English release.

At Your LGS

Our growing store play community has been overwhelming! We love seeing the pictures and posts from your LGS’ Nexus Nights and can’t wait to see how the community comes out for the Spiritforged Pre-Rift events.

Dave shared that sixteen Proving Ground rares and uncommons are being reprinted into Nexus Night Packs, as well giving us a look at the new Nexus Night Runes for Spiritforged.

Dave also hinted that the Spiritforged Summoner Skirmish events will heavily feature Equipment in the promos!

Nexus Night Promos

Since Riftbounds’ English launch, you all have exceeded our expectations for participation in Nexus Night events! So much so that we have already had LGS owners sharing that they are going to run out of their Nexus Night promo allotment before the Spiritforged promos arrive.

As soon as we received these reports, we initiated a reprint of Nexus Night promos through our partners at UVS games and expect them to be arriving in stores starting in January, depending on the store’s location! These are the same promos which have been made available with Origins’ launch and will not feature any of the new cards we revealed in the panel.

Thank you all for this amazing response to the launch of our game, we felt it important to share with you all that we are aware of this eventuality and have already begun taking steps to rectify it.

Competitive Tournaments in 2026

We can’t wait to see the community turn out for our upcoming Regional Qualifier in Houston, but we’ve heard you and know that you want to know what other events are coming after it. The team is still finalizing the full year’s schedule for Regional Qualifiers, but the panel did reveal the first RQs for 2026: Bologna & Las Vegas!

Bologna, Italy - February 20-22nd, 2026

Las Vegas, NV, USA - February 27-March 1st, 2026

We are planning for twelve RQs spread across North America, Europa, Southeast Asia, and Australia in 2026! Riftbound’s first Regional Championship event will be held at the end of the year. Look for more information about these events, their dates, and their venues early in 2026!

One more thing…

Dave and Jimmy weren’t done there, lastly they gave a look ahead at the 2026 release schedule! There are four amazing Riftbound sets coming next year, starting with the English launch of Spiritforged. After it we get the names for the next 3 sets! Spiritforged will be followed by Unleashed in May and we’ll end the year with Vendetta, and finally Radiance.

We are continuing to work towards unifying the global release date for Riftbound sets, and are currently targeting this convergence with Vendetta, the fourth set released for Riftbound, but the logistics are still being solved and plans may change.

Thanks to those of you who attended the panel at PAX Unplugged and to those of you who tuned in on Riftbound’s Twitch & YouTube channels. Keep a look out over the coming weeks for more reveals from Spiritforged!