Alpha Clash’s Cosmic Block finale: the dated releases

By CardSpicy Founder · October 7, 2026

Quick answer

CardSpicy tracks the dates a publisher has actually put on paper, and Alpha Clash has closed out 2026 with a tight calendar. The eighth core set, Nexus of Power, released in the week of 21 September 2026 and ends the game’s Cosmic Block. Two Champion Decks follow in the week of 30 November to 4 December 2026, and the year finishes with the Alpha Clash Online World Championship, a 32-player single-elimination event whose rounds run from 30 November to 20 December 2026, with the champion crowned by 20 December.

This page leans on the publisher’s own news posts, because the set contents, the Champion Deck lists and the championship schedule are written down there and nowhere else.

What Alpha Clash is, in product terms

Alpha Clash is an independent trading card game published by Rising Empire Studios, and it is unusual among card games in that the cards and the comics are the same project rather than a licence attached to one another. The publisher describes it as a comic book trading card game, and the set releases are written as chapters of one continuous story.

Three pieces of vocabulary do most of the work. Your Contender is the character a deck is built around, and the Contender decides what the rest of the deck can do. A Clashground is a card type that sits in play and interacts with keyword abilities, which matters more than it sounds because one of the new keywords only functions if you control one. And sets are grouped into named blocks, so a single set is released as part of a larger arc rather than as a standalone product.

The other thing worth knowing before buying is that Alpha Clash sells two different kinds of product. A core set is the mainline release, sold in booster packs and boxes, and it carries the new card pool. A Champion Deck is a pre-built product built from a real tournament result, and it is designed as a way into the game rather than as a way to complete a set. If the set-and-starter distinction needs unpicking, our glossary sets out booster, starter product and sealed format.

The dated Alpha Clash line

Two entries in that table share a week, and that is deliberate rather than a coincidence. The publisher pulled the Champion Decks out of the Nexus of Power release month on purpose, holding them back so the 2026 tournament results could decide which decks to build. That decision is the reason the product exists at all, and it is worth reading before assuming a Champion Deck is simply a starter deck.

Nexus of Power: the eighth core set

Nexus of Power is the eighth core set in the Alpha Clash line and the third and final instalment of the Cosmic Block. The publisher states that it carries 209 unique cards, introduces five new Contenders, and closes the Cosmic Conquest story arc rather than opening a new one.

The publisher’s own breakdown of the five Contenders is more useful than a card list, because each one is built around a different mechanical idea.

Three new keywords come with the set, and the publisher’s definitions are short enough to reproduce directly.

The publisher also issued one errata with the set, which is the kind of change a buyer should read before trading for a copy. LINN, the Nanite Assassin has been rewritten. The publisher describes her as one of the more powerful blue cards in the game and as having been on a watchlist for some time, and states that the new text is a balance change rather than a clarification. If you already own the card, the printed text and the current text are no longer the same thing. That is worth remembering when a single card is being priced on its playability, which is where our is it worth grading page starts.

The two Champion Decks

Champion Decks are Alpha Clash’s pre-built product, and the two arriving in the week of 30 November 2026 have an unusual provenance: each is a real deck list from a real tournament, published under the name of the player who piloted it.

The publisher is explicit about why the product exists in this shape. It states that it held the decks back from the Nexus of Power release month to let the 2026 spring and summer event results come in, and that it chose two builds that earned their place through tournament play. It also states that the decks have become one of the best entry points the game has, with new players starting by picking one up and sitting straight down to play. That is the sentence to read if you are deciding between a Champion Deck and booster packs: the Champion Deck is a working deck, and a booster box is a pool you have to build with.

The Online World Championship

The year closes with a tournament rather than a product, and the publisher has published the whole structure.

Three rules in the publisher’s own description are worth reading closely. The first is that each round runs four full 24-hour days, which the publisher states is to give players across every time zone real room to find a time that works. The second is the forfeit rule: a player who cannot schedule or complete a match forfeits and the opponent advances, and if neither player can coordinate a time, both are eliminated. The third is the deck rule: a player may bring a different deck each round, but once a match begins that same deck must be used for both games within it. Matches are self-reported, with judges available in the game’s Discord for disputes.

The prize structure is weighted steeply towards the champion and pays every entrant something.

The event card deserves a note, because it is the part of the tournament that changes how the game plays rather than what it pays. The publisher states that a Relic card starts in play under each player’s control at the start of every game and has Safeguard for the duration of the event, which means the championship is played under a rule that does not exist in a normal match. If you are following the event as a player rather than an entrant, that is the difference to account for.

What this page does not claim

Four limits, stated plainly.

• Everything here comes from Rising Empire Studios. The Nexus of Power card count, the new Contenders, the keyword definitions, the errata, the Champion Deck provenance, the championship schedule, the format and the prize list are all taken from the publisher’s own news posts and its official product catalogue. Nothing here is a retail listing.
• The Nexus of Power release is given as a week, not a day. The publisher’s release-week post states that the set releases in the week of 21 September 2026. No exact street date is published on the pages used here, so none is stated.
• No card lists are reproduced. The publisher states card counts, Contender names and keyword definitions, not a card-by-card checklist. Nothing here should be read as a list of the cards inside a product.
• No valuation. CardSpicy quotes the publisher’s own product and event details and makes no valuation or investment recommendation about any card, deck or sealed product, including cards affected by the LINN errata.

If you are buying into this line, the open-it-or-keep-it-sealed page goes through the trade-off on sealed product, the card storage boxes and binders, boxes and frames pages cover storage as a collection grows, and the card market report for October 2026 covers the wider market. The guide to protecting cards with sleeves and card sleeve sizes pages cover the two decisions that come first, and the card accessories page covers what belongs on the table.

Frequently asked questions

When did Alpha Clash Nexus of Power release?

Rising Empire Studios states that Nexus of Power, the eighth core set, released in the week of 21 September 2026, following a spoiler season that ran from 22 July to 16 September 2026. It is the third and final instalment of the Cosmic Block.

How many cards are in Nexus of Power?

The publisher lists 209 unique cards and five new Contenders: the Whisper Ledger Syndicate, Percival, Lead Broker, the Harmonisworn and Amalgamight pair, Guardian Angel, Ancient Protector, and Doomcaster, Champion of Old.

What are the new Alpha Clash keywords?

Nexus of Power adds three. Accumulate lets you choose an object in play and create an additional Counter of each type already on it. Conquer reads as conditional: if the card or its controller also controls a Clashground in play, the following happens. Resonance gives other Synthoria cards you control this card’s other keyword abilities.

When does the Alpha Clash Online World Championship take place?

It runs from 30 November to 20 December 2026, with 32 players drawn from the Top 8 finishers of Online League Seasons 1 through 4. It is a single-elimination bracket with every match played best-of-three, played on TCG Arena by default, free to enter for qualified players, with each round running four full 24-hour days. The champion is crowned by 20 December 2026.

When do the new Alpha Clash Champion Decks release?

The publisher states that both decks release in the week of 30 November to 4 December 2026, and that they are available for pre-order through Team Covenant in the United States, with Champion Stores and international distributors also able to order. The two decks are War, Legion Commander, from Ryan Acosta, and Genesis, Emissary of Chaos, from Karlo Bonillo.

Sources

Sources and scope

1. Rising Empire Studios’ official news post “Nexus of Power – Release Week”, used for the release in the week of 21 September 2026, the set’s position as the eighth core set and the third instalment of the Cosmic Block, the 209 unique cards, the five new Contenders and their descriptions, the definitions of the Accumulate, Conquer and Resonance keywords, and the errata to LINN, the Nanite Assassin.
2. Rising Empire Studios’ official news post “Nexus of Power – Official Spoiler Season Lineup”, used for the spoiler season running from 22 July to 16 September 2026 and the set being described as the final set of the Cosmic Block.
3. Rising Empire Studios’ official news post “New Champions Enter”, used for the two Champion Decks, their release in the week of 30 November to 4 December 2026, the decision to hold them back from the Nexus of Power release month, the provenance of the War, Legion Commander deck from Ryan Acosta and his Top 8 finish at the 2026 USA National Championship at the Progenitor’s Gambit in Des Moines, the provenance of the Genesis, Emissary of Chaos deck from Karlo Bonillo as 2026 Philippines National Champion and his Clashground: Makati Top 8 and Genesis Bounty, the pre-order route through Team Covenant in the United States, and the publisher’s statement that Champion Decks are one of its best entry points for new players.
4. Rising Empire Studios’ official news post “Alpha Clash Online World Championship – December 2026”, used for the 32-player field drawn from the Top 8 of Online League Seasons 1 through 4, the single-elimination best-of-three bracket across five rounds, the round-by-round schedule from 30 November to 20 December 2026, the 3:00 PM PST and 6:00 PM EST start times, TCG Arena as the default venue, the free entry, the four-full-days-per-round rule, the forfeit and double-elimination rule, the self-reported match results and Discord judge availability, the rule that a player may change decks between rounds but not within a match, the event Relic card with Safeguard, and the full prize list including the eight, four, two and one booster boxes, the World Championship Belt, the promo cards and the XP amounts.
5. Rising Empire Studios’ official product catalogue, used for the publisher’s identity as the home of the Alpha Clash universe, the game’s independent status, the Contender, Clashground and Affiliation structure, and the release history of The Awakening, Clashgrounds, Draft Box 01: Year of the Dragon, Unrivaled, Genesis Returns, Equilibrium and Siege of the Forgotten and Spoils of the Forgotten.
6. Our own pages on card accessories, card protection, card sleeve sizes, storage boxes, binders and frames, penny sleeves and toploaders, protecting cards with sleeves, opening a box or keeping it sealed, is it worth grading, the card market report for October 2026 and the collecting glossary, used for the internal links.
7. Scope note: only details published by Rising Empire Studios are stated as confirmed. The Nexus of Power release is given as the week stated by the publisher rather than an exact day, because no exact street date is published on the pages used. Card lists are not reproduced. CardSpicy makes no valuation or investment recommendation.

Release dates, product contents and event schedules are set by the publisher and can change. Check Rising Empire Studios’ own news pages and the listing for your own region before ordering.

Related reading

• Is it worth grading a card
• Open a booster box or keep it sealed
• The card protection guide
• Card sleeve sizes, explained
• Card storage boxes, explained
• Binders, boxes and frames compared
• Penny sleeve versus toploader
• How to protect your trading cards with sleeves
• Card accessories
• The card market report, October 2026
• The card collecting glossary
• The Collector’s Library

Where to go next

• The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
• The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).