Riftbound Radiance errata and rules changes: Elnuk Herd, Neeko and tournament take-backs /

By Ron Cruz · Published October 9, 2026

Riot posted three Radiance rules updates on October 9: errata for four Radiance cards (official changes to their printed text), the Core Rules patch notes with official rulings, and a Tournament Rules changelog. The rules changes take effect October 16, the first day of Pre-Rift, Radiance’s prerelease events at local stores.

The big ones: Elnuk Herd can now give its +3 Might to itself, Neeko takes up to three Legends instead of exactly three, and at competitive events you can’t take back a play once your opponent has pointed out the mistake.

Elnuk Herd can now give +3 Might to itself

Elnuk Herd

Unit · Body · 6 energy · 5 Might · Uncommon · RAD 081/167

The Herd’s new text reads: “When you play me, give a friendly unit +3 Might this turn, then recycle me if I was played from face down.” The printed card says “another friendly unit,” so the Herd couldn’t choose itself. Cards play by their errata text.

The change matters when you play the Herd from face down. It has Hidden: you can pay 1 power of any domain to hide it face down at a battlefield you control, then play it on a later turn, ignoring its cost. Played that way, its ability has to target a unit at that battlefield. Under the old wording, if no other friendly unit was there, the ability had nothing to target, so none of it happened and the Herd never recycled (went to the bottom of your deck). It stayed on the board as a 5 Might unit. Now it can target itself, so with no other friendly unit there, it gives itself +3 Might and then recycles.

Neeko now takes up to three Legends, chosen when you build your deck

Neeko, Blending In

Champion Unit · Neutral · 6 energy and 1 power · 4 Might · Epic · RAD 167/167

Neeko’s printed text says to “choose 3 different legends in addition to your starting legend.” The errata changes it to “choose up to 3,” so you can take fewer. When you play her, you choose one of those Legends and add it to your Legend Zone for as long as she’s on the board.

Riot’s rulings for Neeko:

• You choose the Legends when you build your deck. At competitive events they go on your decklist and can’t be changed once it’s submitted.
• They can’t share a name with each other or with your starting Legend, the one you begin the game with.
• Every Neeko in your deck uses the same Legends. If you have two Neekos on the board, they can’t add the same Legend.
• The Legend enters ready, not exhausted.
• You don’t have to show your opponent your Legends until one is added.

Last Caress and Forbidden Technique get clearer wording

Last Caress now reads “The next unit you play this turn, even from face down, can be played to any battlefield.” On the printed card, “(even from face down)” is in italic parentheses, the format for reminder text, and under the Core Rules reminder text has no effect on the game. Now it’s part of the card’s rules text.

On Forbidden Technique, the last line changes from “Banish this.” to “Then banish this.”, so the banish reads as the next step after you play it from your trash.

Competitive events: no take-backs after your opponent points out a mistake

The Tournament Rules give you some room to change your most recent decision before anyone takes a new action. The new rule 509.6 says you can’t use that room to take back a play once your opponent has had to tell you something, like a change to their unit’s Might, that shows it was a mistake. Riot’s example: Player A moves a 3 Might unit to a battlefield and passes focus (lets the opponent act). Player B points out that their 2 Might unit there is now 4 Might from their Legend, Master Yi’s Wuju Bladesman. Player A can’t take the move back.

This applies at high Organized Play Level (OPL) events, the competitive ones with significant rewards such as invitations to higher-level play. Pre-Rift and other casual events are low OPL. There, Riot says letting your opponent take back a mistake like this isn’t required, but it’s encouraged for sportsmanship and learning.

If your decision was based on public information that was shown wrong, such as a unit’s Might, the head judge can still allow a rewind. Showing it wrong on purpose to get a rewind is cheating. And at every event level, the rules now spell out that when you take back a play, you get back the runes you paid for it.

Other Tournament Rules changes

• You’re allowed to bluff about your private information, such as the cards in your hand. The rules now say so directly.
• You have to acknowledge your own triggered abilities by the time they’d have an observable impact, or they’re forgotten. New examples of that impact: a trigger makes a player choose something (even with one option), gives XP or unspent power or energy, or moves a card to another zone, such as a unit dying to lethal damage.
• Radiance joins Standard on its October 23 release date.

Core Rules changes: Deploy, Disarm, Show Off and “pick”

The new Core Rules are on Riot’s Rules Hub. Riot says most of the changes are for Radiance’s new cards and mechanics.

• Deploy gear is played to a battlefield instead of your base. It can go to any battlefield, including one your opponent controls, and it’s killed when an opponent holds that battlefield.
• Disarm: when the unit attacks, an enemy unit there gets -1 Might this turn. Several Disarms on one unit add up into one trigger.
• Show Off: as you play the card, you can reveal a matching card from your hand or pick a matching friendly unit or object on the board, and the card uses its information.
• When a card says “choose,” it targets, apart from a few exceptions in the targeting rules. The new word “pick” means a choice that doesn’t target. More cards switch to “pick” when Legacy, the next set, releases in January.
• Units can’t be attached to anything.
• When a card like Mystic Reversal or Rebuttal lets you make new choices, you redo all of them, even if you make the same ones, and anything that triggers when it’s targeted triggers again.
• Other changes cover copy effects, 2v2 scoring and cards that can be Empowered more than once, such as Kayle, Justified.

For Legacy, Riot is rewriting the whole rules document to make it easier to read, without changing how the game works.

Riot’s official rulings for Radiance cards

Ekko’s Legend: “Kill me at end of turn” happens once

Ekko’s Legend, Boy Who Shattered Time, can make the next unit you play cost 2 energy and 1 power less and give it “Kill me at end of turn.” That means the end of this turn, so it triggers once.

If something like Unlicensed Armory replaces the death, the unit stays on the board and the text never triggers again. If the unit leaves the board before the end of the turn, the text is gone, even if it comes back.

Orianna’s Legend detaches Equipment it turns into a unit

Orianna’s Legend, Lady of Clockwork, turns a friendly gear into a unit. If that gear is an Equipment attached to a unit, it detaches, because under the new Core Rules units can’t be attached to anything.

If she turns a Deploy gear into a unit at a battlefield you don’t control, a showdown or combat follows there. When you choose a different gear, the old one stops being a unit, and any Equipment attached to it stays attached.

Show Off locks in the details of what you showed

The details of what you Show Off, like a unit’s Might, are locked in the moment you show it. Riot’s example is Primordial Roar, which deals damage equal to the shown unit’s Might.

Roar still deals the damage if the shown unit is returned to your hand or discarded before it resolves, and Might the unit gains or loses after you show it doesn’t count.

More rulings

• Transpositionist returns a friendly unit to hand and lets you play a unit with less Might than it had, ignoring its cost. If the return is replaced and the unit stays, it uses the unit’s current Might. Riot’s example: an Empowered Gangplank, Naval gets +3 Might instead, reaching 9 Might, and you can play Angler Wyrm (8 Might).
• Gutter Guardian can’t Show Off a face-down card.

Riot also ruled on the play order for Chronobreak and what counts as reducing Might for Ahri, Confident. Both rulings are on the cards’ pages.

Riot will post another FAQ after Radiance releases on October 23.