Riftbound Frequently Asked Questions

Ruling: Switcheroo resolves before Darius triggers. Your opponent gets Darius at his original 7 might, then Darius gets +2 might and readies under your opponent's control. Sequence: - Switcheroo is played and resolves, switching Darius to your opponent's side - After Switcheroo resolves, Darius's ability triggers, giving him +2 might and readying him - Your opponent ends up with a readied Darius at 9 might

Ruling: Yes, you can achieve a 9 Might Teemo by choosing the order of simultaneous triggers and using Convergent Mutation between their resolutions. Sequence: - Play Teemo from the facedown (Hidden) zone - this resolves immediately - Ember Monk's trigger and Teemo's "When you play me" trigger happen at the same time, so you choose the order - Put Teemo's trigger on the chain first, then Ember Monk's trigger on top - Monk's trigger resolves, giving Ember Monk +2 Might (now 6 Might) - You get priority back before Teemo's trigger resolves - Play Convergent Mutation targeting Teemo and Ember Monk - Convergent Mutation resolves, increasing Teemo's Might to 6 (matching Ember Monk) - Teemo's "When you play me" trigger resolves, giving Teemo +3 Might (now 9 Might total) Nuances: - When triggers happen at the same time, you can select the order they go on the chain - Playing a card from Hidden resolves immediately as a permanent before triggers go on the chain - You receive priority back as the owner of the next effect on the chain, allowing you to play Convergent Mutation between trigger resolutions

Ruling: You cannot hide a unit directly from your champion zone. You must first pay 1 energy to put the champion into your hand, then hide it from hand. Nuances: - The Hidden keyword does not specify "from hand," but the Hide action itself requires the unit to be in hand - Teemo's legend ability that lets you put your champion into hand exists specifically to enable this hiding strategy

Ruling: When you play cards from hidden, they cost 0 and you follow the text after "hidden" on the card's description instead of the original card's cost. You do not need to recycle the blue rune. Nuances: - The hidden cost completely replaces the original cost, including any additional costs like recycling runes

Ruling: Yes, you can pay the extra cost to have the unit enter ready. You only need to pay the power cost (not the memory cost). Nuances: - When using The Harrowing on an Accelerate unit, only the power cost needs to be paid for the Accelerate ability, not the memory cost.

Ruling: Thousand Tailed Watcher's ability does not require paying deflect costs because it does not target. It cannot be countered by "counter a spell" effects because it is a unit ability, not a spell card. You do not need to exhaust it when you play it since it is an "on play" ability (unless you haven't paid accelerate or units don't enter ready). Nuances: - Counter spell effects only work on spell cards, not unit abilities - There are currently no cards that can counter unit abilities in general (though a future card was mentioned that counters abilities that target units you control, which still wouldn't affect Thousand Tailed Watcher since it doesn't target)

Ruling: Tideturner can target units at other locations (including base) even when played as a hidden card at a battlefield, because its ability explicitly restricts targeting to "a unit you control at another location," which makes the normal hidden card targeting restriction impossible to follow. Nuances: - The general rule is that hidden cards at a battlefield must target options within that battlefield - However, when an ability explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible, the ability's targeting restriction takes precedence - Tideturner has errata that specifies "at another location" in its targeting text

Ruling: Yes, Tideturner can target units at any battlefield when played from hidden. This is an exception to how hidden cards normally work. Sequence: - Play Tideturner from hidden at a battlefield - Tideturner enters play at that battlefield - Its "when you play" triggered ability goes on the Chain - The ability can now target any friendly unit at any battlefield because the targeting happens after the unit is played, not during the playing of the unit Nuances: - This works differently than cards like Blastcone Fae or Teemo, which must target units at the same battlefield they were hidden at, even though the rules as written would suggest they should work the same way as Tideturner - The distinction is that Tideturner's targeting happens as part of a triggered ability after it's played, while other cards require choosing targets as a condition of playing them - The rules as written support Tideturner working this way, but other hidden cards are intended to work differently and will be clarified in future rules updates

Ruling: No, Tideturner cannot swap with Nocturne in this scenario. You must decide targets for a trigger when it goes on the chain, and since Nocturne isn't on the board at that time, it cannot be selected as a swap target. Sequence: - When Tideturner is played, both its swap ability and Gemcrafter Seer's vision trigger go on the chain - You can choose the order these triggers go on the chain (you control both) - Tideturner's swap ability must select its target when it goes on the chain - Even if vision resolves first and plays Nocturne, Tideturner has already locked in its target (or lack thereof) before Nocturne enters play

Ruling: No, the +8 buff from White Flame Protector does not carry into the enemy turn. Sequence: - Dazzling Aurora triggers in the ending step - Special cleanup occurs - Expiration step happens where "this turn" effects end - The next player's turn begins Nuances: - The buff expires during the expiration step, which occurs before the next player's turn starts

Ruling: When a Reaction is added to the Chain, only targets and move destinations must be finalized before the next Reaction can be played. These decisions cannot be changed later. Nuances: - Certain decisions are NOT finalized when playing the Reaction, but rather when it resolves: which card to discard, how much to pay for cards with payment choices, whether to execute optional effects, choices made by multiple players, and some other rare exceptions - The only exception to decisions being unchangeable is Mystic Reversal

Ruling: When playing a card hidden, you only pay 1 power in a battlefield you control. You do not pay the card's normal rune cost or energy cost. When revealed later as a reaction, you play it without paying its cost. Sequence: - Pay 1 power to play the card hidden in a battlefield you control - On a later turn, reveal it as a reaction without paying its cost - When played from hidden, it can only target units in the battlefield Nuances: - All hidden cards must have the same hidden cost (1 power) so opponents cannot differentiate what is being hidden - The normal card cost (energy and power) is only paid if playing the card as a regular card, not hidden

Ruling: No, the card being played does not count itself for cost reductions based on the zone it is being played from. Sequence: - First, remove the card from the zone you are playing it from and put it onto the Chain - Then, determine the card's total cost and apply any cost reductions - Since the card has already left its original zone before cost is calculated, it cannot count itself for zone-based cost reductions Nuances: - The sequence of operations is crucial: the card's physical location changes before its cost is finalized - Any abilities that check the contents of the original zone for cost reduction will only see the cards remaining in that zone after the card being played has departed

Ruling: Yes, you should tell your opponent and explain what has been changed when you play a card that has had an errata.

Ruling: To play Miss Fortune Captain with Accelerate, you pay 6 energy and 2 body power. Energy and power are separate resources that you pay as costs. Sequence: - Exhaust 6 runes to generate 6 energy - Recycle 2 body runes to generate 2 body power - Pay the 6 energy and 2 body power to play the card with Accelerate Nuances: - "Pay" applies to any resource (energy, power, etc.), not just energy - Recycling runes is the most common way to generate power, but other effects can also generate power - Power uses rainbow symbols meaning you can pay with any domain of power - The same principle applies to Deflect costs

Ruling: When an effect lets you play a card without paying the cost (ignoring cost), you only ignore the printed base cost. You must still pay additional costs like Accelerate. Nuances: - Effects that "reduce" the cost (rather than ignore it) can reduce the Accelerate cost as well, since reductions apply after cost increases.

Ruling: When playing a card ignoring its cost, the base Energy cost and base Power cost (shown in the upper left corner) are set to zero, but you must still pay any additional costs. Additional costs are mandatory unless they have a "may" clause. Nuances: - If you cannot pay the additional cost (e.g., lacking the required color), you cannot use that additional effect - "Cost" specifically refers to the price in the upper left corner of the card, not additional costs

Ruling: When you play a card with Blind Fury, you ignore all costs and do not pay any power or rune costs. Nuances: - You do not recycle the card for being unable to pay costs - The costs are ignored entirely, not paid through an alternative method

Ruling: You must still pay the Accelerate additional cost (1 energy and the power requirement). Harrowing only ignores the card's base energy cost, not additional costs. Nuances: - Harrowing ignores the energy cost printed on the card - Accelerate is an additional cost that must still be paid separately - The power requirement from Accelerate must also be paid

Ruling: When you play a card with Hidden, you ignore both the energy cost and the power cost printed in the top left corner of the card. You only pay the 1 recycle cost to put it into Hidden. Sequence: - From hand to Hidden: Pay only 1 recycle cost - Activate from Hidden to battlefield: Pay nothing (activate for free) - From hand directly to play (not using Hidden): Pay the full printed cost (energy and power) Nuances: - Some Hidden cards like Block don't have a power cost printed, which can cause confusion about whether power costs are waived by Hidden, but the rule applies universally to all costs in the top left corner

Ruling: Additional costs are paid during the finalization step, which happens as part of the process of adding the spell to the chain, before it resolves. Sequence: - The spell is put onto the chain as pending - The spell is finalized (costs are determined and paid, including additional costs, and all choices are made) - After everyone passes on the chain, the spell resolves Nuances: - The additional cost is paid before resolution, which is why effects that trigger "when you play a spell" (meaning when it resolves) don't see the cost payment

Ruling: Ignoring a card's cost only applies to its base (printed) cost, not additional costs. You are never forced to pay additional costs, but you can choose to pay them. Cost reduction effects can reduce additional costs to 0, allowing you to 'pay' them without expenditure. Sequence: - Ignore base cost where applicable - Apply additional costs - Apply cost increases - Apply discounts in any order Nuances: - 'Ignoring cost' and 'cost reduction' are different mechanics - ignoring only affects base cost, while reduction can affect additional costs - If an additional cost is reduced to 0 by any means, you can pay it with no expenditure from your rune pool - If an additional cost isn't paid, you won't get any effects dependent on it

Ruling: Viktor's ability triggers when the card fully resolves (completes the play process), not when it is initially revealed or placed. Sequence: - Hidden card is revealed (Pending state) - All choices are made and costs paid (Finalized state) - Card effect is implemented and removed from chain (Resolved state) - Viktor's "when you play a card" ability triggers after the card is fully resolved Nuances: - If the hidden card is countered (e.g., by Defy), it never fully resolves, so Viktor's ability would not trigger and no token would be created

Ruling: Equipment enters the battlefield ready by default (unless specified otherwise on the card). Nuances: - Equipping or using the equip ability does not require the equipment to be ready - You can use the equip ability while the equipment is tapped - Equipment does not need to be in the same location (base or battlefield) as the unit to be equipped or swapped

Ruling: Repeat is an all-in-one spell that deals all damage before cleanup occurs. The battlefield unit receives 4 total damage (2 from each instance) before any unit dies. Fight or Flight does not prevent the second part because "then" uses DAMAYC (Do As Much As You Can) logic, not cost logic. Sequence: - Piercing Light with Repeat deals 2 damage to the battlefield unit - Piercing Light deals 2 damage to the base unit - No cleanup occurs between instances - Piercing Light deals another 2 damage to the battlefield unit (total 4) - Piercing Light deals another 2 damage to the base unit (total 4) - Cleanup occurs and units die if applicable Nuances: - "Then" indicates DAMAYC (Do As Much As You Can), meaning effects still resolve even if the first part doesn't fully resolve - "To" indicates a cost that must be met for the effect to proceed - Fight or Flight removing the battlefield unit does not prevent the second instance from attempting to deal damage

Ruling: You must choose the target when the spell goes on the chain, before giving other players the opportunity to react. Nuances: - Any time you (and only you) have to choose an object on the board, it targets - Effects that automatically select objects are not targeting (example given: Ahri Legend) - Effects like 'stun a unit' are targeting because you choose the unit

Ruling: You draw the card when Stupefy resolves from the chain, not when you initially play it. Sequence: - Play Stupefy and add it to the pile/chain - Wait for opponent to react if they choose to - When Stupefy resolves, follow the card text and draw the card

Ruling: When you announce choices for a spell or ability that are normally made upon resolution, you can change those choices if your opponent reacts. However, you cannot announce choices solely to bait a reaction and then change them when your opponent doesn't react. Sequence: - Play the spell/ability and announce mandatory targeting choices - Optionally announce resolution choices (like where to move a unit) - If opponent reacts (plays something or moves units), you may change your announced resolution choices - If opponent doesn't react, you must adhere to your announced choices Nuances: - You cannot use announced choices as bait - if you announce moving something somewhere to see if opponent reacts, you cannot change that choice when they don't take the bait

Ruling: Both players pay the energy and power costs when they declare and play their cards (as they enter the chain), not when the cards resolve. If your spell is countered by Wind Wall, you still pay the costs for your spell because you already paid them when you played it. Sequence: - Declare the spell you want to play - Pay the energy and power costs for that spell as it enters the chain - Opponent reacts with Wind Wall - Opponent pays the energy and power costs for Wind Wall as it enters the chain - Chain closes and resolves - Both cards are trashed (your spell is countered, Wind Wall resolves) Nuances: - Some cards have additional costs stated in their card text (like Get Excited's discard or Bullet Time's power cost) that are paid at spell resolution, not when entering the chain - For cards with resolution-time costs, if the spell is countered, those additional costs don't need to be paid - A card is not considered 'played' until it has resolved, even though costs are paid when it enters the chain

Ruling: Yes, units played from hidden come into play exhausted. Playing from hidden doesn't change the normal rules for when a unit comes into play, only how you play it. Nuances: - Hidden units can still be useful for contributing might as a surprise or setting up traps, even though they enter exhausted

Ruling: When playing a unit via Baited Hook, you can pay optional additional costs like Accelerate, and you must pay mandatory additional costs. Baited Hook only sets the base cost to zero. Sequence: - Baited Hook allows you to play the unit with base cost set to zero - You then have the opportunity to pay additional costs (like Accelerate's 1 energy and 1 power) - If additional costs are mandatory (like Cruel Patron's requirement to kill a unit), you must still pay them Nuances: - Only the base cost is set to zero by Baited Hook; all additional costs function normally - Optional additional costs (like Accelerate) remain optional - Mandatory additional costs must still be paid

Ruling: You must decide whether to play the unit with Accelerate or not before using Volibear's ability. Once you finish resolving playing the unit and move on to Volibear's effect, you cannot go back to change the Accelerate decision. Sequence: - Decide whether to play the unit with Accelerate or not - Pay the appropriate cost and play the unit - After the unit is played, you have the option to use Volibear's ability Nuances: - Accelerate and Volibear's effect do not happen simultaneously - You cannot use Volibear's ramp effect first and then decide to pay for Accelerate

Ruling: When Baited Hook ignores the cost of a unit, it only ignores the base cost. You can still pay the Accelerate cost to have the unit enter readied, but you must actually pay the energy and power cost for Accelerate. Nuances: - "Ignoring the cost" only applies to the base cost, not additional costs like Accelerate

Ruling: No, you do not pay the power cost. When an effect allows you to play a card for free, you do not pay its power cost.

Ruling: When a card effect references "Cost", it only refers to the printed energy and power cost. You still must pay all additional costs and may pay optional additional costs like Accelerate if you want to use them. Sequence: - Portal Rescue allows you to play the unit without paying its printed cost - If you want to Accelerate the unit, you must still pay the Accelerate cost (1 energy and 1 power) Nuances: - This principle applies to all additional costs (mandatory ones like Cruel Patron, and optional ones like Accelerate)

Ruling: Yes, the unit enters exhausted. All units enter exhausted unless otherwise specified. Nuances: - Some units like Warwick have text that specifies they enter ready instead of exhausted

Ruling: No, opponents cannot react to units being played. Units are removed from the chain immediately when finalized and do not linger on the chain for players to gain priority and respond. Sequence: - When you play a unit, the chain is created with the unit as pending - When you finalize the unit, it is removed from the chain immediately - If the unit was the only thing on the chain, the chain closes - At no point does a player gain priority during this process Nuances: - If a unit has abilities that go on the chain, opponents can react to those abilities (just not the unit itself) - Abilities that play units (like Vanguard Captain creating 2 recruits) can be responded to, but the unit tokens themselves cannot be responded to once they are played - Units and gear resolve immediately when finalized and do not progress to the Execute step

Ruling: No, you only pay the cost to play the card. Quickdraw allows you to attach the equipment as a triggered ability after playing it, without paying the equip cost. Sequence: - Pay the cost to play the Equipment card - The Equipment enters play - Quickdraw triggers as a triggered ability - When the triggered ability resolves, the equipment attaches for free Nuances: - Equip is a separate ability that requires paying a cost to attach equipment, but quickdraw bypasses this

Ruling: The Dreaming Tree triggers as soon as you choose your unit as the target. You can use the drawn card before the original targeting spell resolves. Sequence: - Cast the action card (e.g., Discipline) choosing your unit - The Dreaming Tree triggers and goes on the chain - Pass priority (assuming opponent passes) - The Dreaming Tree resolves and you draw a card - You can now react with the drawn card (if applicable and legal timing) - The original action card still needs to resolve

Ruling: If there is a legal target, you must choose it and attach the Quick-Draw equipment to a unit you control when you play it. You cannot choose not to perform the attach action. Nuances: - You cannot intentionally avoid equipping Quick-Draw gear for strategic reasons (such as saving it for an accelerate unit next turn or using it to trigger legion before attaching to a legion card) - This is because the Quick-Draw ability does not include "may" in its text

Ruling: You cannot directly react to a replacement effect, but you will virtually always have a chance to exhaust a rune and float energy before anything happens that kills one of your units. You can react to the spell or ability that's going to kill your unit, or exhaust a rune in combat before combat damage is dealt. Nuances: - The rules can be updated to be broader and include replacement effects, which would let you pay for abilities like Nocturne or Sett and float energy while doing so - If you float power for Sett's ability, your opponent could still react to prevent the unit from dying, leaving you with floated power you can't use

Ruling: Yes, Sett's legend ability can save the unit. The unit survives and returns to base exhausted at 0 might with no damage. Sequence: - Iron Ballista resolves: Unit has 2 marked damage - Smoke Screen resolves: Unit's might drops to 1 (5 might reduced by 4, minimum 1) - Cleanup would defeat the unit (1 might with 2 damage), but Sett's legend ability replaces this with its entire effect - Sett's ability resolves as one complete replacement effect: the buff is removed, damage is cleared, and the unit moves to base exhausted - Final state: 0 might unit (4 base -4 from Smoke Screen -1 from removed buff) with no damage at base Nuances: - Damage and might are separate mechanics; damage doesn't reduce might - Units with 0 or negative might do not die unless they have positive damage marked on them - Sett's ability is a replacement effect, not a trigger, so no cleanup interrupts it while resolving - Smoke Screen's "minimum 1 might" restriction only applies during its resolution; subsequent buff removal can reduce might below 1 - Outside of combat, only cleanups kill units with lethal damage

Ruling: You retain priority and can play any number of reactions you wish before passing priority back to your opponent. Sequence: - You play a reaction - You retain priority and can play additional reactions - You pass priority when you choose to - Opponent can then respond Nuances: - Even if the opponent has Defy, they must wait for you to pass priority before using it - Defy can target anything on the chain that it can legally target, not just the most recent spell

Ruling: Yes, you can keep the energy. You tap the rune first to add its energy to your pool, then recycle the rune to pay the conquest cost. The energy remains in your pool until end of turn. Sequence: - Tap the active rune to add energy to your pool (this is a reaction that cannot be responded to) - Recycle that rune to pay the conquest cost - Use the floated energy before your turn ends (it disappears at end of turn) Nuances: - Energy produced from a rune is not attached to the rune that produced it - You can tap runes at any time for any reason to float energy - Floated energy disappears when your turn ends, so you cannot save it for the opponent's turn - Tapping a rune is a reaction ability that cannot be reacted to (like all abilities that "add")

Ruling: Yes, when 2 or more cards are recycled simultaneously (whether during mulligan or from card effects), they must be placed at the bottom of the deck in a random order, which requires shuffling them. Nuances: - While shuffling only 2 cards can be easily manipulated, your opponent has the opportunity to shuffle again - You won't gain much information from knowing the order of cards on the bottom of your deck

Ruling: When recycling runes, you can choose the order. When recycling main deck cards, the order must be random. Nuances: - In competitive events, you typically must offer your opponent the option to shuffle the recycled main deck cards - In casual settings between friends, you can just mix them up a few times since you're unlikely to see those cards again in the game

Ruling: When 2 or more cards are recycled to the main deck simultaneously, they must be placed on the bottom of the deck in a random order. Players typically present the cards face-down to their opponent who indicates which should go on top/bottom, or the opponent cuts them, to ensure randomness. Sequence: - Choose which cards are being recycled - Place them face-down - Opponent indicates order (e.g., pointing to which goes on top/bottom) or cuts them - Cards go to bottom of main deck in the resulting random order Nuances: - Runes are NOT recycled in random order - they are recycled in order of your choosing - The player recycling chooses WHICH cards are recycled, but not the ORDER when multiple cards are recycled simultaneously - This is similar to the mulligan process where opponents help randomize card order

Ruling: When remedying missed draws, 'when you draw' triggers do activate. For missed points from battlefields, they can be remedied if no more than a full round cycle has passed, but points from acknowledged triggers that weren't marked cannot be remedied later. Sequence: - If missed draws are caught within a full round cycle, the player draws the missing cards - Any 'when you draw' triggers activate when the missed draws are remedied - If missed battlefield scoring is caught within a full round cycle, increment the score - After a full round cycle passes, missed points are forfeit Nuances: - This only applies to scoring from battlefields - If a trigger that gives a point is acknowledged but the score isn't updated, you are not entitled to that point later - A full round cycle means each player has had their turn once

Ruling: If the opponent has a non-unit card in their hand, you must choose one. The effect is not optional once resolving. Nuances: - You cannot decline to choose a card just to gain information about their hand if a valid target exists

Ruling: The unit is chosen on resolution. The opponent does not get to know what unit will be played before deciding whether to react to Here to Help. Nuances: - The opponent does not get a reaction window after learning what the unit is but before it is played