Riftbound Frequently Asked Questions

Ruling: Yes, you can activate a Hidden card from one battlefield while a showdown is happening on another battlefield. It works the same as playing a reaction card from hand, as long as it's legal to play in that instance. Nuances: - You cannot cross-target between battlefields. For example, you cannot use a Hidden Blade that's face-down at battlefield B to target a unit at battlefield A. - Hidden spells and play effects of hidden permanents must target options at the same battlefield where they were played from, unless the ability explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible (like Tideturner). - Hidden units must be played to the battlefield they were revealed from. - Non-targeting effects (like drawing cards) can still be used from hidden cards at one battlefield while action is happening at another.

Ruling: No, you cannot use gear abilities during a showdown unless they have the "action" or "reaction" keywords. Sequence: - Activated abilities on gears, units, and legends can only be used outside of a showdown during your turn by default - Abilities with the "action" keyword can be used during a showdown when there's no chain - Abilities with the "reaction" keyword can be used whenever a reaction spell can be used Nuances: - The same rules apply to spells as well as gear abilities

Ruling: You can activate a gear's ability that costs "Kill this:" on your turn when there isn't a chain, without needing an external prompt. Nuances: - Normally you cannot kill a gear by choice unless an effect specifically allows it - If the ability required an external factor to trigger it, it would be worded as "if/when killed, <then effect>" instead of "Kill this:"

Ruling: You can activate hidden Consult the Past on your opponent's turn at reaction speed, but you must be in a showdown or reacting to a spell or ability. The hidden card does not need to be at the same battlefield being attacked. Sequence: - You can activate the hidden card whenever you have priority - This includes when you have focus and priority during a showdown - Or in response to your opponent's spells/triggers Nuances: - You cannot activate it the same turn it was hidden - During the combat damage step, no one gets focus or priority, so you cannot reveal the hidden card at that point - You must reveal during the showdown when you have priority, not after damage calculation

Ruling: During combat showdown, you can reveal a hidden Zhonya's Hourglass after your unit dies because control of the battlefield doesn't change while contested. This allows you to choose not to save the unit and recall Zhonya to base instead. Nuances: - The new rule doesn't affect Hidden outside of combat - Outside of combat showdown (e.g., if Icathian Rain kills your unit at battlefield), if you lose control of your last unit before flipping Zhonya, the hidden Zhonya is lost - You must reveal Zhonya before the unit dies for it to automatically save that unit

Ruling: Yes, during a combat showdown, if your last unit is killed by a spell or ability, you can let it die and then flip Zhonya's when you next have priority, because you still control the battlefield until the combat showdown ends. Sequence: - Your last unit gets killed by a spell or ability during combat showdown - Let the unit die - Since it's a combat showdown, you still control the battlefield - Flip Zhonya's when you next have priority (before cleanup removes hidden cards) Nuances: - The defender maintains control of the battlefield during a combat showdown - You don't lose control of the battlefield until the combat showdown ends - If all your units are removed via spells or abilities before the showdown ends, you still pass focus back and forth, giving you a window to play the hidden Zhonya's at reaction speed - Other possibilities may exist involving deathknell/triggers, but these are unclear without official clarification

Ruling: Yes, you can activate a hidden card from a battlefield that is not currently in combat. However, hidden cards have the added text "here" for targets, so any targeting effects can only target things in the hidden card's own battlefield. Sequence: - You can play the hidden card during a showdown at the other battlefield - The card activates normally - Any targeting restrictions apply to the battlefield where the hidden card was placed Nuances: - Hidden units must be played to their own battlefield - Cards without targets (like draw effects) work fully from the non-combat battlefield - Cards with targets can still be played but can only target units/things in their own battlefield - Most hidden cards can include the unit that exists with the hidden as a legal target, so be careful not to accidentally penalize yourself since legal targets cannot be ignored

Ruling: Yes, you can activate a rune to generate energy before recycling it to pay for a seal's cost, and that energy remains available for the rest of the turn. Sequence: - Activate the red rune to generate energy - The energy is banked/available - Recycle that rune to pay for the red seal - After the seal resolves, you can spend the previously generated energy (e.g., to play a 4 energy unit) Nuances: - Floated energy lasts for the entire turn

Ruling: You cannot activate abilities without Action or Reaction tags after moving a unit to a battlefield because a showdown begins immediately after the move is completed. Sett Brawler cannot use his ability to consume the buff from Showstopper. Sequence: - A move command is executed (e.g., Showstopper moves a unit to battlefield) - The move completes - Cleanup begins immediately - The battlefield is staged for combat during cleanup - Combat/showdown starts (if there is no chain) - Abilities without Action or Reaction tags cannot be used during showdown Nuances: - A showdown won't begin if a chain exists, even if the unit has been moved to a battlefield - Abilities with Action or Reaction tags (like Wallop or Call to Glory) can still be used to consume buffs because they have different timing restrictions - The same timing restriction applies to other cards like Vi after Ride the Wind and Arena Bar

Ruling: You do as much as you can when activating card effects. You can activate an effect even if you cannot fully complete all parts of it. Sequence: - Perform each part of the effect in order - If you cannot fully complete a part (like discarding 2 cards when you only have 1), you do as much as possible for that part - Then proceed to the next part of the effect (like drawing cards) Nuances: - The parts of an effect are independent unless explicitly linked with conditional language like "discard 2 to draw 2" - This applies even with an empty hand - you would discard nothing and then proceed to draw cards - If an effect uses "to" to link actions (e.g., "discard 2 to draw 2"), then you must fully complete the first action to perform the second

Ruling: You cannot play a spell or activate an ability without a legal target. Defy is not a "may" ability, so if you play it, you must counter a spell. Nuances: - You can perform actions on legal targets that result in nothing (redundant actions), such as using a buff effect on an already buffed unit or a ready effect on an already ready unit - There are scenarios where you might want to play spells not for their own effects but for "when you play..." type triggers (like Darius, Trifarian or Ravenbloom Student) - A spell cannot target itself (e.g., Defy cannot counter itself)

Ruling: You cannot activate reactions during Awaken/Beginning phase without a trigger creating a chain. A temporary dying is specifically a trigger in the beginning phase, so you can react to it. Sequence: - Temporary triggers to die at beginning phase - This creates a chain - You can activate reactions (like hidden) in response to this trigger Nuances: - Reactions require a trigger to open a chain; they cannot be activated freely during Awaken/Beginning phase

Ruling: Yes, you can activate runes to add any resources (including Energy) while resolving Bullet Time, as long as there is any cost to be paid during resolution. Nuances: - Rule 416.3 allows activated abilities with the Reaction tag that add resources to be activated during resolution of spells that require resources to be paid - The rule does not restrict you to only generating the specific type or number of resources needed - You can float resources even if you don't intend to use them immediately

Ruling: Gold tokens only provide power, not energy/resources. Nuances: - Gold tokens cannot be used to add resources to cards

Ruling: Yes, you can add reactions to a chain that is resolving. After each spell or ability resolves from the chain, both players get priority again to add more items to the chain before the next item resolves. Sequence: - Both players pass priority, so the last item on the chain resolves - After it resolves, the player who controls the next item on the chain gets priority first - That player can play cards/abilities or pass - Then the other player gets priority to play cards/abilities or pass - If both players pass, the next item on the chain resolves - This process repeats for each item until the entire chain has resolved Nuances: - The player who controls the most recent item on the chain retains priority to add more items before passing to their opponent - A player can add multiple items to the chain in a row before passing priority - You cannot respond to a spell the moment it's played - only after you receive priority - This is different from Yu-Gi-Oh where the entire chain resolves without being able to add to it

Ruling: You can play reaction spells in response to items on the chain before they resolve - you're adding to the current chain, not starting a new one. Spell cards go to the discard pile after they execute their instructions on resolution, and countered spells are discarded as part of being countered. Sequence: - Resolve the highest chain link - Send that spell to discard - A priority window opens, starting with the person who controls the next item on the chain (if there is a next item) - Either a new card is played or move to resolve the next chain link - Repeat until chain is empty Nuances: - If there is no next item on the chain, there is no priority window - You can target any eligible spell on the chain for counter spells like Defy - This interaction is particularly valuable for cards like Stupefy where you draw a card - you can play the drawn card before more items on the chain resolve

Ruling: You are allowed to allocate more damage than a unit has might. You do not have to redirect damage to other units (including your own). Nuances: - This applies even when you have multiple triggers that would kill the target unit before all damage is allocated

Ruling: Yes, two players can agree to register a match result as a draw. Nuances: - This is similar to Magic: The Gathering rules where it's legal as long as you don't look at standings and don't offer money or anything else in return

Ruling: By the rules as written, there is no explicit restriction preventing negative damage assignment during combat. The rules only specify that valid damage must be a positive integer when dealing damage, but assigning damage is not the same as dealing damage, creating a technical loophole. Nuances: - Units that cannot be dealt damage (like Kayn after moving twice) are ignored for purposes of assigning lethal damage, but can still be assigned damage - The rules state that valid damage is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, but this applies to dealing damage, not assigning damage - This is clearly unintended behavior and was recommended for rules feedback to clarify that damage assignments must be positive integers

Ruling: A unit cannot have multiple buffs unless specifically stated (like "any number of buffs"). You cannot replace an existing buff by buffing the unit again. Nuances: - You can still choose to target a buffed unit with another buff effect, but on resolution nothing happens and the unit is not considered to have been buffed again.

Ruling: No, you cannot cast Consult the Past if a showdown never occurs on your opponent's turn. You need priority to play reactions, and on your opponent's turn you only get priority during showdowns or when there's a chain with an item on it. Sequence: - If the opponent never creates a chain with a spell or ability, or never starts a showdown, you never have priority - Playing a unit creates a chain but it immediately resolves and closes unless the unit has a WYPM ability - You need a spell or ability to create the chain (or a unit that triggers an ability when played) in order to play the reaction Nuances: - There is no passing of priority when trying to end your turn

Ruling: No, you cannot use Counterspell to boost Ravenbloom. A countered spell does not count as being played. Nuances: - While you can technically cast Counterspell on itself (since the spell is already on the chain when you choose targets), this interaction won't trigger Ravenbloom because countered spells are treated as not having been played - This targeting rule may be subject to future changes as it is considered unintuitive

Ruling: No, you cannot cast Defy with no valid targets. The spell fails the legality check before it can be added to the chain. Nuances: - You can Defy your own spell, but only the Defy itself would count as a played spell (the defied spell doesn't count as being played) - If you Defy your own spell to buff something like Ravenbloom Student, you only get +1 from Defy resolving, not from the countered spell - Attempting to cast Defy on an untargetable spell (like Falling Star) would fail the legality check and you'd reveal your card for nothing

Ruling: You can cast Flash targeting units already in base since it says "up to 2 friendly units," but the units won't move since they're already at the destination. Nuances: - Abilities that trigger on movement (like Travelling Merchant) will not activate if the unit is already at base, since no actual movement occurs

Ruling: Yes, you can cast Gust before they score. Moving into an open battlefield still causes a showdown to happen, even though there will be no combat afterwards. Sequence: - Opponent moves unit into open battlefield - Showdown occurs (non-combat showdown) - During the showdown, all players can play actions/reactions - Gust can be cast at this time to move the unit before scoring

Ruling: No, you cannot cast Icathian Rain with Kai'Sa when you score your 7th point in 1v1. Kai'Sa requires your point total to be "less than" the card's printed cost, and if 7 is less than your point total in 1v1, you have already won the game. Nuances: - Cost reductions apply during the process of playing cards, not while evaluating whether you're allowed to start playing a card. Effects like Kai'Sa always look at printed cost. - You can play Icathian Rain with Kai'Sa in 2v2, where the victory score is 11 instead of 7.

Ruling: You cannot cast Not So Fast in response to the initial Rain or Fallen Star spell being played, but you can cast it in response to one of their reflexive trigger abilities. Nuances: - Reflexive triggers are considered Triggered Abilities, which Not So Fast can target - The initial spell itself cannot be responded to with Not So Fast

Ruling: No, you cannot gain 2 memory this way. When the first Retreat resolves, "its owner" cannot be defined for the second Retreat, so you won't get a second memory. Nuances: - You can legally cast the second Retreat in reaction to the first (for example, to ready a Darius if you only had one unit to bounce), but you will only gain memory from the first Retreat that resolves.

Ruling: Permanents (units and gear) do not linger on the chain and resolve immediately with no opportunity to play Reactions, unless the unit has a When You Play Me ability which creates a chain. You can only play Reactions when you have priority during a chain or showdown. Sequence: - Opponent plays Darius as their first card of the turn: it resolves immediately with no opportunity to respond - Opponent plays Darius as the second card of their turn: the unit enters play and leaves behind a Legion trigger on the chain (to ready him), then you can play Shakedown as a Reaction to that trigger with Darius as a legal target Nuances: - Reactions can only be played when you have priority during a chain or showdown - You only get priority during opponent's turn when there's a chain or during showdowns where you're a relevant player - Abilities with the 'Add' tag (like tapping gear with Add, or Runes) cannot be reacted to - Gear abilities without the Add tag create chains that can be reacted to

Ruling: No, you cannot cast Void Seeker without a valid target. The spell requires all targets to be present when cast, and Void Seeker does not have an "up to" clause that would allow targeting 0 units. Nuances: - If you cast Void Seeker with a valid target, but that target is removed (e.g., retreated to hand) before the spell resolves, you will still draw the card.

Ruling: You cannot cast a spell without valid targets. Spells in Riftbound never fizzle - they must have valid targets when finalized to the chain, or they cannot be cast and must be undone. Sequence: - Step 1: When finalizing a spell to the chain, you must choose valid targets - Step 2: At step 5 of finalization, legality is checked - Step 3: If targets are invalid at this point (before finalization completes), the spell is undone and all choices/costs are reversed - Step 4: If the spell successfully finalizes to the chain but targets become invalid afterward, the spell still resolves (doing as much as it can, ignoring actions involving the invalid target) Nuances: - Spells that resolve with invalid targets (that became invalid after finalization) still trigger "when you resolve a spell" effects like Ravenbloom Student - If a target becomes invalid during the finalization process itself (like using a reaction speed ability to kill the target while paying costs), the spell cannot be finalized and must be undone - In Riftbound, items on the chain will either resolve, be countered, or be undone - they never go to trash without resolving or being countered - The controller retains priority after an undone spell and can choose to cast it again with different targets or take other actions

Ruling: You cannot cast an Action spell while a chain is open. If you cast a Reaction spell in response to an attack, you have opened a chain, which prevents casting Action spells until that chain resolves. Sequence: - Player B attacks and passes priority/focus to Player A - Player A casts a Reaction spell, which opens a chain - While the chain is open, Player A cannot cast Action spells - After the chain resolves, the opponent gets focus - If the opponent passes or the next chain resolves, Player A gets focus again and can then play an Action spell Nuances: - You can cast an Action spell during open showdown only if there is no chain currently open - Simply being in showdown is not enough; the presence or absence of an open chain determines whether Action spells can be cast

Ruling: Yes, you can cast spells after other spells resolve but before the chain ends. This is different from Yu-Gi-Oh and more similar to Magic: The Gathering's stack. Sequence: - When one part of the chain resolves, you can add back onto the chain - There's a priority check from each player after each item is added/removed to the chain - The spell being added must have reaction speed Nuances: - The ability to add to the chain after resolution requires the effect to have reaction speed

Ruling: Spells that require a target must have a valid target available in order to be played. Nuances: - Not all spells require targets, only those that specifically require targeting must have valid targets available - Targeting rules can be complex/unclear in some situations

Ruling: If a spell needs a target, you must have a valid target to put it on the chain. However, spells that don't target anything (like Acceptable Losses) can be played without valid targets. Nuances: - Acceptable Losses doesn't target anything, so it can be played even without any gear in play - Whether a spell requires a target depends on the specific card text

Ruling: No, hiding a card does not open a chain and it instantly resolves. Nuances: - Hiding a card always happens instantly - The hidden status means no one knows it's a permanent, so permanent-related rules don't apply in the typical way

Ruling: No, you cannot chain to The Boss's replacement effect. It is a replacement effect (not a triggered ability), which does not use the chain. Sequence: - The replacement effect intercedes during the execution of the kill effect - It alters the execution directly without going on the chain - No priority window opens for reactions Nuances: - The Boss received errata changing the ability from "When" to "If" with "instead" language, making it clearly a replacement effect - The old version with "When" wording caused confusion because earlier rules stated replacement abilities could be triggered abilities - Current rules removed that language, so replacement effects are only passive abilities and never use the chain - Any ability type that uses the chain has an explicit rule stating so (e.g., "Activated Abilities use the chain")

Ruling: You cannot choose the same unit for both the cost and the equip target, and you need at least 2 units to attempt to equip Blade of the Ruined King. Targets are chosen before costs are paid, but there is a final legality check before finalization that causes the action to rewind if the target becomes illegal. Sequence: - Targets are chosen first - Costs are paid (killing a unit) - Final legality check occurs - If the chosen target was killed during cost payment, the action fails and rewinds because the target is now illegal Nuances: - If you have Zhonya's Hourglass or Guardian Angel on the unit, you can kill the unit you target for the cost (which gets replaced by the gear ability), and then proceed with equipping as planned - The ability wasn't put on the chain yet when the target becomes invalid during the process, so it doesn't whiff - it simply fails to be put on the chain

Ruling: You cannot overkill a unit if there are still more units to assign damage to. Once you have distributed enough damage for lethal on one unit, you must move on to the next unit. Nuances: - You can only over-assign damage to the last unit in the damage assignment order - This ruling was confirmed via red text and is consistently applied by judges

Ruling: You can choose which cards to recycle from your trash. Nuances: - Your trash is unordered, so there is no "top card" to be concerned with

Ruling: Yes, you can conquer Sigil of the Storm even if you have no runes. The effect triggers and resolves but does nothing since you have no runes to recycle. Sequence: - You conquer the location and score the point - The "must recycle one of your runes" trigger enters the chain - The effect resolves but has no effect if you have no runes Nuances: - The effect does not target runes (due to errata changing it to "must" language) - Because it doesn't target, you choose which rune during resolution rather than when the effect triggers - If you somehow manage to reaction Channel a rune after conquering but before the effect resolves, you would have to recycle that rune

Ruling: No, you cannot conquer the same battlefield multiple times per turn. You can only conquer a battlefield that you have not yet scored this turn. Nuances: - Conquering is defined as gaining control of a battlefield you did not yet score this turn - You can only score once per turn, which limits conquering to once per battlefield per turn - Even if you return your unit to base and move another ready unit to the same battlefield, it does not count as conquering again

Ruling: Conquering can occur on any turn, not just your own, and happens both as a result of combat resolution and when your units move to an empty battlefield. Sequence: - Conquering is defined as gaining control of a battlefield you did not yet score this turn - This can trigger from combat resolution - This can also trigger when your units go to an empty battlefield Nuances: - Effects like purple MF and phoenix can enable conquering on your opponent's turn - The conquer trigger and its consequences apply regardless of whose turn it is

Ruling: You cannot conquer a battlefield on the same turn you held it. You can only score a point from each battlefield once per turn, either from holding or conquering. Nuances: - Even if you don't score the point (because you already scored from that battlefield), you still need to score to trigger 'when you conquer' effects - You still score if you draw from conquer instead of gaining your last point

Ruling: No, you cannot conquer a battlefield you already scored on in the same turn. You can only score each battlefield once per turn, and conquering only happens when you score a battlefield. Sequence: - Score the battlefield first - Then conquer effects trigger/resolve Nuances: - Holding a battlefield will be scored on your turn - When you are at 7 points and going to draw, you draw before you trigger/resolve conquer effects

Ruling: No, Super Mega Death Rocket must already be in the trash when you conquer in order to trigger its ability. If it's discarded as part of the battlefield's conquer trigger, it's too late to trigger. Sequence: - You conquer - All conquer triggers go on the chain (including the battlefield's trigger) - You resolve the chain Nuances: - SMDR is still in your hand when the conquer triggers go on the chain, so it cannot send its trigger to the chain at that point - After the chain resolves and SMDR is discarded, it's too late for its trigger to activate

Ruling: Yes, you can conquer and score a battlefield on your opponent's turn if you lost control of it during that turn, as long as you haven't already scored it that turn. You must lose control before you can conquer again. Sequence: - You control a battlefield at the start of opponent's turn - You lose control of that battlefield during opponent's turn - You regain control of that battlefield during opponent's turn (via effects like Ride the Wind) - You conquer and score the battlefield Nuances: - You cannot score a battlefield you've already scored that turn - Successfully defending a battlefield (opponent contests but fails) does not count as conquering - you must actually lose and regain control to score again - This is different from 2v2 rules regarding teammate-controlled units

Ruling: You cannot conquer a battlefield twice in a turn. You can take control of the same battlefield multiple times, but "conquer" only happens when you score a point from taking control, and you can only score once per battlefield per turn. Nuances: - Taking control of a battlefield multiple times in one turn is possible, but only the first time (when you score) counts as conquering - "When you conquer" triggered abilities only trigger if you also score by taking control - You can score points from multiple different battlefields in the same turn to win

Ruling: You can only score one point per battlefield per turn. If a battlefield is conquered or held, it cannot be re-conquered or re-held on the same turn. Nuances: - You can move units back and forth to/from a battlefield you hold, but it will not result in additional points or trigger conquering effects again

Ruling: You can only score a battlefield once per turn, regardless of whether it's through Hold or Conquer. You can conquer on anybody's turn (including your opponent's turn and as a defender), as long as you haven't already scored that location that turn. Sequence: - If you conquer a battlefield and trigger abilities (like Qiyana's draw), you have scored that battlefield for the turn - If you then move another unit to that same battlefield (e.g., via Charm), you cannot score/conquer it again that turn even if you win combat - Your opponent could score that battlefield on your turn if they win the combat, since they haven't scored it yet Nuances: - You can score as a defender when moved into a battlefield on an opponent's turn - You can end the game with a double conquer during your opponent's turn - Conquering requires gaining control of a battlefield you did not previously control