Setup And Decks
Champion Legend and Chosen Champion: What Is the Difference?
Your legend defines your deck and stays in its own zone. Your Chosen Champion is a matching champion unit you can play.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Your Champion LegendYour deck's legend card. Its domains set your deck's Domain Identity. It starts in the Legend Zone and stays there; it is separate from the champion unit you choose to play.View in Glossary and your Chosen ChampionThe champion unit selected during deckbuilding to start in your Champion Zone. Its champion tag must match your legend. During play, champion units with that same full name also count as your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary do different jobs. The legend determines your deck's domains and stays in the Legend Zone. Choose a matching champion unit and place one copy in the Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary during setup so you can play it from there. Any other copies start in your Main DeckThe deck of units, gear and spells, separate from your Rune Deck. Your deckbuilding list has at least 40 cards including your Chosen Champion; that chosen copy starts in the Champion Zone instead of the shuffled pile.View in Glossary normally.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Card reference
Vi, Destructive
Look for the champion tag, the character label on the cards. Your Chosen ChampionThe champion unit selected during deckbuilding to start in your Champion Zone. Its champion tag must match your legend. During play, champion units with that same full name also count as your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary must be a champion unit with the same champion tag as your legend. A matching tag alone is not enough: a SignatureSignature is a supertype linking a card to a champion through its champion tag. In ordinary constructed deckbuilding, include at most three Signature cards in total, all sharing your Champion Legend’s champion tag. They cannot be your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary unit is not a champion unit and cannot fill this slot.
Champion Unit
Vi
Destructive
[Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.) Recycle 1 from your trash: Give me +1 [Might] this turn.
During setup, place the legend in the Legend Zone and one selected copy of the chosen unit in the Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary . Do this before shuffling your Main DeckThe deck of units, gear and spells, separate from your Rune Deck. Your deckbuilding list has at least 40 cards including your Chosen Champion; that chosen copy starts in the Champion Zone instead of the shuffled pile.View in Glossary . Setting the unit aside does not remove it from your deckbuilding count or give you an extra copy beyond the normal limit.
The Champion Zone is not your BaseYour Base is your personal location where your units can be played and return to during the game.View in Glossary . That starting copy is waiting to be played; it has not entered the board just because setup put it there. You still follow the normal timing, costs and restrictions to play it from that zone.
Your Champion LegendYour deck's legend card. Its domains set your deck's Domain Identity. It starts in the Legend Zone and stays there; it is separate from the champion unit you choose to play.View in Glossary stays in its zone. It cannot be moved or removed from there. Its abilities can still matter during play; being separate from your units does not make it just a deckbuilding marker.
Card reference
Vi, Destructive
During the game, champion units with exactly the same full name as your selected Chosen ChampionThe champion unit selected during deckbuilding to start in your Champion Zone. Its champion tag must match your legend. During play, champion units with that same full name also count as your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary count as your Chosen Champion for rules and effects that refer to that status. This does not give them the starting copy's placement. Other copies are shuffled into your Main DeckThe deck of units, gear and spells, separate from your Rune Deck. Your deckbuilding list has at least 40 cards including your Chosen Champion; that chosen copy starts in the Champion Zone instead of the shuffled pile.View in Glossary , drawn and played normally. Counting as your Chosen Champion does not, by itself, move them into the Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary or let them use it. A different champion unit with the same character tag but a different full name does not count as that Chosen Champion.
Champion Unit
Vi
Destructive
[Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.) Recycle 1 from your trash: Give me +1 [Might] this turn.
After you play the unit, it does not normally return to the Champion Zone. An effect can specifically return it there only if that zone is empty.
An effect can add other legends alongside your starting Champion Legend. Those additional legends are not Champion Legends. Neeko uses the additional selection fixed during deckbuilding: the selected legends do not exist in game zones until an effect adds one. A given selected legend can exist only once at a time and disappears when its Neeko leaves the board. This does not change your starting legend or your deck’s original Domain Identity.
In practice
Example
Suppose you include three copies of one champion unit and select that name as your Chosen Champion. One copy starts in the Champion Zone; the other two are shuffled into the Main Deck to be drawn and played normally. All three count as your Chosen Champion for rules and effects that check that status, but only the selected starting copy gets the Champion Zone placement.