Tawan
If one champion was always going to make Deploy his own, it was Ziggs, Hexplosives Expert, Radiance’s resident bomb enthusiast.
Hexplosives Expert
Fury · Chaos
(It has Deploy. When it dies, deal 2 to an enemy there and kill your other Bombs there.)
RAD · 141/167 · EN · Art by Envar Studio
What his Legend does
Ziggs’s Legend is simple and relentless. You pay one Energy and one Power, exhaust him, and put a Bomb token onto a battlefield (Riot Games, n.d.-a). Bombs are Deploy gear, so they only ever sit on a battlefield, and they’re destroyed if an opponent holds it. When a Bomb dies, it deals 2 damage to an enemy there and sets off your other Bombs at the same battlefield (Riot Games, n.d.-a). If Deploy is new to you, my keyword guide covers it in full.
Riot’s own description of the token sums up the plan nicely, which is that the more bombs you play, the bigger the boom (Riot Games, 2026). A Legend that makes a Bomb every turn is how you get there.
His champion cards
Ziggs, Short-Fused drops a Bomb of his own when you play him, and on top of that, abilities of your friendly gear deal 1 bonus damage (Riot Games, n.d.-a).
Ziggs, Short-Fused
Piltover & Zaun
Abilities of friendly gear deal 1 Bonus Damage.
Why the pair matters
Bombs are gear, and a Bomb’s blast is an ability of that gear, so with Short-Fused on the board, the way I read it, every Bomb’s explosion should hit for 3 instead of 2. Stack a few Bombs on one battlefield and a single chain reaction gets scary very quickly. It’s a bit like a line of dominoes, where one tap is all it takes once everything is set up.
The weakness is the same as for all Deploy gear. If you lose the battlefield, the Bombs go with it, so Ziggs decks will need ways to hold the ground long enough for the fuse to burn down.
The Overnumbered version
Ziggs’s Overnumbered alternate art is by Kindlejack, while the standard card is by Envar Studio. Like every Radiance Legend, the Overnumbered version can also be found with an artist’s signature (Riot Games, 2026).
In League of Legends
Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert
Mage · Piltover & Zaun
With a love of big bombs and short fuses, the yordle Ziggs is an explosive force of nature. Bored of his predictable life as an inventor’s assistant in Piltover, he befriended a certain blue-haired bomber named Jinx, took her advice, and moved to Zaun, where he now chases his never-ending quest to blow things up (Riot Games, n.d.-b).
From the Rift to the table
Two names say it all. His Legend carries his League title, Hexplosives Expert, and his champion card, Short-Fused, borrows from his League passive, Short Fuse (Riot Games, n.d.-a; Riot Games, n.d.-b). Few champions translate this directly, as in League he covers the map in explosives and in Riftbound he covers the battlefields. His full story is on his official League of Legends champion page.
What we don’t know yet
The exact bonus-damage math is my reading of the cards, so it needs confirming against the final rules at release on October 23. The first real test comes at the Pre-Rift events from October 16, and my Pre-Rift guide covers how they work. In the meantime, see how Orianna can turn gear into units in our Orianna Spotlight, and every Spotlight so far is on the Cards page. Next up is Seraphine, who turns exhausting your units into a reward.
It are what it are.
References
Riot Games. (n.d.-a). Card gallery. Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from https://playriftbound.com/en-us/card-gallery/
Riot Games. (n.d.-b). Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert. League of Legends. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/champions/ziggs/
Riot Games. (2026, September 25). The Radiance overview. Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game. https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/announcements/the-radiance-overview/
Tawan was created under Riot Games’ “Legal Jibber Jabber” policy using assets owned by Riot Games. Riot Games does not endorse or sponsor this project.