# Riftbound Showoff Explained: The Leaked Radiance Mechanic

_2026-09-08 · RiftCompare_

What Riftbound's leaked Showoff keyword reportedly does, how the reveal-based effect is meant to work, and why it isn't Riot-confirmed yet — everything currently known.

## The short version

- **Showoff is a leaked, modal reveal effect from Riftbound: Radiance** — reveal a card from hand, or point at a qualifying friendly card, and the payoff scales with what you showed.
- **It's different from [Vision](/keywords/vision)**, Riftbound's existing reveal mechanic: Vision looks at the top of your own deck, while Showoff reportedly checks your hand or board instead.
- **The exact printed criteria are unknown.** No confirmed Showoff card exists yet, so its real power level can't be judged from the leak alone.
- **Not officially confirmed.** This is sourced to a photo of Riot's own PAX West demo material, not a Riot announcement — see the **[full leak roundup](/blog/riftbound-radiance-leaked-mechanics)** for the source.

**Showoff is one of three new mechanics reportedly leaked from Riftbound: Radiance** ahead of the set's **[23 October 2026 release](/blog/riftbound-radiance-what-we-know)** — photographed on a physical rules-reference card at Riot's own PAX West demo table and shared publicly by Riftbound content creator AskJoshy. It has **not** been confirmed by Riot. Here's exactly what leaked, how the mechanic reportedly works, and what's still missing before it can be judged properly.

> "As you play this, you may reveal a card from hand or choose a friendly card that meets the listed criteria. The card's effect will change based on what is shown off."

## How Showoff reportedly works

1. **Play the card.** Showoff triggers as part of playing it, not later.
2. **Choose one of two options**: reveal a card from your hand, or point at a friendly card already in play — either way, the chosen card has to meet whatever criteria is printed on the Showoff card itself.
3. **The effect changes based on what you showed.** This is a modal, scaling bonus rather than one fixed outcome — the leak's own wording ("the card's effect will change") rules out a flat, single-mode effect.

## Showoff vs Vision: two different kinds of "look and get value"

**[Vision](/keywords/vision)** resolves by triggering a Predict — looking at the top card of your own Main Deck and choosing whether to keep it or recycle it. That's a card-selection tool: it helps you dodge a card you don't want to draw next. Showoff, as leaked, reads differently — you're pointing at a card you *already have*, in hand or in play, not drawing information from the top of your deck. Where Vision smooths your next draw, Showoff seems to reward what you've already assembled. It's also worth noting the two aren't mutually exclusive on the same card: nothing about the leaked wording rules out a future card that uses both a Predict and a Showoff-style reveal, since they're checking entirely different zones for entirely different reasons.

## What "meets the listed criteria" probably means

Since no confirmed Showoff card exists yet, the exact printed criteria are unknown. The most likely candidates, based on how modal reveal effects work in other card games, are a card type, a domain, a rarity, or a stat threshold like Might. This matters more than it might sound: a card that wants you to reveal an Epic-rarity Unit is a completely different build-around than one checking for the biggest Might on your board, and until an actual Showoff card is shown, its real power level simply can't be judged. It's also possible different Showoff cards check for different criteria entirely — the leaked wording describes a template ("meets the listed criteria"), not a single fixed condition every Showoff card shares, the same way Riftbound's existing keywords with bracketed numbers (Assault [X], Empower [Cost]) vary their exact value from card to card while keeping the same underlying mechanic.

## Two paths through the same effect: revealing vs. pointing

The leaked wording gives you a genuine choice, not just one method of triggering Showoff: reveal a card from your hand, or point at a friendly card already on the board that meets the criteria. Those are meaningfully different resources to draw from. Revealing from hand works even on an otherwise empty board, but costs you information — your opponent now knows a card you're holding. Pointing at a card already in play costs nothing extra in information (it's already visible), but only works if you actually have a qualifying card out already. A deck that curves out unit after unit will likely lean on the board option more often; a deck holding up reactive cards in hand will likely lean on the reveal option instead — assuming, again, that this wording survives to an actual printed card.

## Building around Showoff, if the leak holds up

Modal reveal effects generally reward a deck that can reliably meet the checked criteria on demand — a mono-domain-heavy build, a curve stacked toward one card type, or a board that reliably has a big Might stat to point at. Which of those actually applies to Showoff depends entirely on the criteria Riot ends up printing, so treat any specific deckbuilding advice here as provisional until a real card lands. What's less speculative is the general shape of the incentive: any Showoff card rewards consistency in whatever it's checking for, the same way every existing criteria-based effect in this genre does, so a deck built around a narrower, more focused gameplan will generally get more mileage from a Showoff card than a deck spread thin across many card types and domains.

## A hypothetical Showoff turn, to make the choice concrete

Picture a simplified sequence, purely to illustrate the mechanic rather than to describe any real card: you play a Showoff card with a Unit-type criterion. You have no qualifying Unit in play yet, but you're holding one in hand — so you reveal it from hand instead, triggering the effect at the cost of showing your opponent a card you haven't committed to the board. The next game, the same card comes up with a qualifying Unit already in play, so you point at that instead, keeping your hand a mystery. Same card, same criterion, two different resources spent to trigger it — that flexibility is the actual value Showoff's "reveal or choose" wording is reportedly offering, independent of whatever the specific payoff turns out to be.

## Why a modal trigger is different from a fixed one

Riftbound already has plenty of triggered abilities that fire the same way every time — Assault always gives +X Might, for example. Showoff's leaked wording is structurally different: it offers a choice of *how* to trigger before the effect even resolves. That's a smaller design space to get wrong than it might look — a badly-tuned fixed effect is either too strong or too weak for the whole card pool, while a modal one lets Riot balance around "the average of two paths" rather than a single number. It also means a Showoff card's real-world power level could vary more by matchup and by deck than a typical Riftbound keyword does, since which path is actually available to you changes turn to turn — a hand full of qualifying cards makes Showoff close to free value, while an empty hand and an empty board turns it into a card that simply doesn't do anything extra that turn.

## Showoff and the risk of doing nothing

The leaked wording says "you *may* reveal" — meaning Showoff, as leaked, is optional rather than mandatory. That's a meaningful design detail on its own: a card that forced a reveal every time would punish a bad hand or an empty board outright, while an optional trigger just declines to do the extra thing and moves on. If that reading holds, the actual downside case for Showoff isn't "this backfires," it's simply "this does nothing extra this turn" — a much softer failure state than most conditional effects in this genre carry, and one that makes Showoff a safer include even in a deck that can't always meet its own criteria.

## How Showoff compares to Deploy and Disarm

Showoff is one of three mechanics in the same leak. **[Deploy](/guides/riftbound-deploy-explained)** is a Gear keyword tied to holding a battlefield; **[Disarm](/guides/riftbound-disarm-explained)** weakens an enemy unit's Might when the Disarm unit attacks. Of the three, Showoff is the only one that triggers purely off what you already have rather than off board position or combat, which is part of why the three don't appear designed to combo directly with each other the way Vendetta's Empower, Flow and Burn were — see the **[full leak roundup](/blog/riftbound-radiance-leaked-mechanics)** for the source photo and all three side by side.

## What would actually confirm Showoff

The same three things that would confirm any of these leaked mechanics apply here: an official Riot channel — a dev blog, a verified social post, or a proper spoiler-season reveal — showing the keyword; a real card image with Showoff printed on it in final form; or wording checked against an updated Core Rules PDF, the bar **[Empower](/keywords/empower)**, **[Flow](/keywords/flow)** and **[Burn](/keywords/burn)** eventually cleared for Vendetta. A second demo-table sighting alone would not clear that bar — it would still be the same category of unofficial photo this page is already treating carefully.

## Is Showoff officially confirmed?

No. This is reported from a fan photo of Riot's own physical demo reference material at PAX West, not a Riot announcement. We'll only add Showoff to our verified keyword glossary — the way **[Empower](/keywords/empower)**, **[Flow](/keywords/flow)** and **[Burn](/keywords/burn)** were added for Vendetta — once its wording can be checked against Riot's own Core Rules PDF or an official card image. Until then, treat everything on this page as **reported, not settled**. There's also nothing to buy yet: no confirmed Showoff card exists, so the only thing genuinely trackable today is **[Radiance's sealed pre-order pricing](/radiance-preorders)**, updated independently of whatever any individual card in the set turns out to do.

## FAQ

**What is Showoff in Riftbound?**

As leaked from a Riot demo at PAX West: "As you play this, you may reveal a card from hand or choose a friendly card that meets the listed criteria. The card's effect will change based on what is shown off." It's reportedly a modal reveal effect, not yet confirmed by Riot.

**How does the Showoff mechanic work?**

As leaked: when you play a Showoff card, you may either reveal a card from your hand or point at a friendly card already in play that meets whatever criteria is printed on the Showoff card. The effect then changes depending on what you showed.

**What does 'meets the listed criteria' mean for Showoff?**

It isn't specified in the leak — likely a card type, domain, rarity or stat threshold printed on each individual Showoff card, similar to modal reveal effects in other card games. No confirmed Showoff card exists yet to check.

**How is Showoff different from Vision?**

Vision triggers a Predict, looking at the top card of your own Main Deck. Showoff, as leaked, instead looks at a card you already have — in hand or already in play — rather than the top of your deck.

**Is Showoff confirmed by Riot?**

No. This is reported from a fan photo of Riot's own physical demo reference material at PAX West 2026, not an official Riot announcement or Core Rules update.

**How is Showoff different from Deploy and Disarm?**

Showoff is a modal reveal effect triggered on play; Deploy is a Gear keyword tied to holding a battlefield; Disarm weakens an enemy unit's Might on attack. All three reportedly leaked together but don't appear designed to combo directly.

Source: https://riftcompare.com/guides/riftbound-showoff-explained