Riftbound Frequently Asked Questions

Ruling: Pack of Wonders bounces cards that are currently face-down and hidden. The keyword formatting on the card is an error. Nuances: - The card text as written suggests it refers to the Hidden keyword, but this is not the intended function - Cards that remain face-up can already be bounced by the unit/gear tag, so the Hidden text must refer to face-down cards

Ruling: Pack of Wonders only returns friendly units (your own units) to hand, not opponent's units. Nuances: - The card text specifies "friendly" which limits the effect to your own units only

Ruling: Peak Guardian only buffs other allied units once when it is played directly to a battlefield. It does not provide an ongoing aura effect. Sequence: - Play Peak Guardian to a controlled battlefield - Peak Guardian buffs all other allied units at that battlefield once - The buff remains on those units but does not apply to units that arrive later Nuances: - Buff is a specific game object, not a generic stat increase like an aura effect - The card must be played directly to a battlefield for the effect to trigger

Ruling: Petricite Monument's effect is only active while the gear is on the board. When the gear goes to the trash, units lose the Deflect keyword. Nuances: - The effect does not persist for the rest of the game - The effect does not apply only to units that were on the field when it was played - The effect is an ongoing aura that applies to units while the gear remains in play

Ruling: No, Pirate Haven does not give +1/+1 to a unit that is already ready when it gains ready. The unit must go from exhausted to ready to trigger Pirate Haven's effect.

Ruling: Pirate's Haven applies to each unit, not just one unit. Nuances: - The wording may seem ambiguous (similar to Ahri's effect), but it applies to all applicable units, not just the first one

Ruling: Pirate's Haven gives +1 Might to units readied during the Awaken Phase and by card effects, but not to units that enter play already ready or units readied by Accelerate. Nuances: - Units readied during the Awaken Phase do receive the +1 Might bonus - Units readied by card effects receive the +1 Might bonus - Units that enter play ready do NOT receive the bonus (they were not readied, they entered ready) - Accelerate does NOT trigger the bonus

Ruling: Pirate's Haven does not trigger when a unit enters ready. It only triggers when a unit is readied, which refers to the game action of taking an exhausted unit and giving it ready status. Nuances: - Units that enter ready from effects like Confront or Accelerate do not trigger Pirate's Haven - A unit that enters exhausted and then has an ability that readies it (like Darius Trifarian) will trigger Pirate's Haven, because the ready ability goes on the chain after the unit has entered exhausted

Ruling: Yes, Pit Crew readies when you play a gold gear token. A token gear is a gear, and Pit Crew does not specify "non-token gear." Nuances: - Token units and token gears have their respective card types (unit/gear) and are treated as such for game effects unless a card specifically says "non-token" - This allows combos like playing Pit Crew, playing Cull the Meek, readying, attacking to conquer, getting a gold gear token, and readying again to return to base - Token cards don't display the type tag on the physical token card itself, but they still have that type according to the rules

Ruling: The "it" refers to the card you buff (the "another friendly unit"), not Pit Rookie itself. You only buff the targeted card, not Pit Rookie. Nuances: - Reminder text in brackets has no actual ruling implications and can sometimes be worded poorly - "It" always refers to other cards in Riftbound - Cards refer to themselves in first person (e.g., "I get +1")

Ruling: Promising Future does not trigger burnout when there are fewer than 5 cards in the deck. You do as much as you can (look at the available cards), but burnout only occurs when a player would look at, draw, or mill cards while their main deck is empty. Sequence: - Promising Future resolves - Player looks at as many cards as available (e.g., 4 cards if only 4 remain) - Cards remain in the main deck zone during resolution - No burnout occurs because the main deck is not empty - Cards are recycled back into the deck Nuances: - Burnout could only trigger if the player had 0 cards in deck before Promising Future resolves - This works the same way as Dazzle - it cannot cause burnout on its own - During the resolution of Promising Future, all cards being looked at still belong to the main deck zone

Ruling: Purple Draven does not win the combat if Guardian Angel saves him from dying, so his ability does not trigger and no point is gained. Sequence: - Combat damage step occurs - Guardian Angel saves Draven (he goes to base instead of dying) - Combat cleanup happens, removing attacker designation - Derived cleanups occur - "Winning a combat" is checked after all cleanups are complete - Since Draven is no longer an attacker at this point, he does not win the combat Nuances: - Draven must be on the battlefield as an attacker when "winning a combat" is evaluated for his ability to trigger - Conquer happens before the "winning a combat" check, but is a separate mechanic - The attacker designation removal in combat cleanup is what prevents Draven from winning the combat

Ruling: No, Purple Ezreal does not make Bullet Time cheaper. Bullet Time's Universal Power cost is paid on resolution, not as an additional cost when playing the card, so Ezreal's ability does not apply. Nuances: - Optional additional costs must be formatted with "you may ___ as an additional cost to you play [this]" or "as you play [this], you may pay ___" - both the "as you play" timing and "may" are key features - Ezreal's ability only reduces optional additional costs (like Accelerate or Repeat), not base costs or costs paid on resolution - Multiple Ezreals can stack to reduce the same optional additional cost - When calculating costs with both increases (like Vex) and reductions (like Ezreal), apply additional costs first, then cost increases, then cost reductions - Universal Power (:UniversalPower:) can be paid with any power type, and Ezreal's reduction can reduce any power type in an optional additional cost

Ruling: Yes, Purple Miss Fortune affects your partner's units in a 2v2.

Ruling: Purple Yasuo's movement count does not reset after Possession. Possession is not movement, and as long as the unit hasn't moved to a non-board zone, it is treated as the same object with the same movement count. Nuances: - The unit remains the same object despite having a different controller - Movement count only resets if the unit moves to a non-board zone

Ruling: Yes, Qiyana dies when Stupefy resolves. After Stupefy resolves, she becomes a 4 Might unit with 4 damage marked on her, and she dies during the cleanup that occurs after each card is played. Sequence: - Stupefy resolves, reducing Qiyana to 4 Might - Cleanup occurs after the card is played - The game checks for dead units during cleanup - Qiyana has 4 damage marked and 4 Might, so she dies Nuances: - Damage heals at the end of combat, but this is irrelevant to this interaction since the cleanup happens immediately after Stupefy resolves

Ruling: No, Qiyana does not get a conquer effect if she is recalled by Sett before the battlefield is conquered. Sequence: - Damage step occurs and Sett recalls Qiyana - Conquer happens after the damage step - Qiyana is in base when the battlefield is actually conquered - Since she is not present at the battlefield when it is conquered, she does not get the conquer effect

Ruling: Qiyana needs to stay alive at the conquer for her ability to trigger. If she dies during the same game action as the conquer (such as during combat damage allocation), her trigger does not apply. Nuances: - A game object cannot evaluate its trigger condition if it leaves the zone that its trigger is active from at the same time that its trigger is satisfied. - This applies when units die during the same game action that would satisfy their trigger condition.

Ruling: Quick-Draw creates only one trigger that you can respond to. When you play a Quick-Draw equipment, it enters as a permanent (no response window), then its "When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control" triggered ability goes on the chain, which can be responded to. The attach itself is not a separate trigger. Sequence: - Player plays the Quick-Draw equipment at reaction speed - The equipment enters as a permanent and is removed from the chain (no response window) - The "When you play this" triggered ability goes on the chain and targets a unit - Players can respond to this triggered ability - When it resolves, the equipment attaches to the targeted unit Nuances: - Quick-Draw is functionally short for "[Reaction]" and "When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control" - The triggered ability targets when it's put on the chain, not on resolution - Attach itself is not inherently a targeted action, but the Quick-Draw trigger does target - If the unit being attached to has a "When you target me" ability, that would create an additional trigger

Ruling: No, Darius does not get the bonus if played as the third or later card. He must be played as the second card of the turn (meaning he "sees" himself as the second card played) to trigger his ability. Nuances: - Darius must "see" the second card being played, which includes himself being that second card - Playing him as any card after the second (third, fourth, tenth, etc.) will not trigger the ability

Ruling: No, bonus damage does not add a damage component to spells that don't already deal damage. Bonus damage increases each instance of damage something deals by X, so it only affects spells that already have damage. Nuances: - Rabadon uses "bonus damage" (not "additional damage"), which is the correct templating - If bonus damage added a damage component to all spells, cards like Discipline would kill your own units, which is not intended - Ravenborn Tome uses the same "bonus damage" templating and works the same way

Ruling: Raging Soul's ability is a passive ability that applies whenever the unit is on the board. If you discard a card during a turn, Raging Soul gains Assault and Ganking until that turn ends (including through the end of turn phase). Sequence: - Discard a card during your turn - Raging Soul gains Assault and Ganking - The ability remains active until the turn ends (through the end of turn phase) - The ability turns off when the next turn starts - Must discard again on a future turn to reactivate the ability Nuances: - The ability stays active through the end of turn phase, where most "this turn" effects fall off - The ability must be retriggered each turn by discarding a card

Ruling: The effect lasts only for the current turn. Nuances: - This is a passive effect that constantly checks if you have discarded on the current turn

Ruling: Rally the Troops buffs all friendly units played this turn. Each time a friendly unit is played, a delayed trigger goes on the chain to buff it. Nuances: - If the effect only applied to the next unit, the card would explicitly say so (similar to how Ravenborn Tome is worded) - The wording creates a condition for the entire turn that triggers whenever a friendly unit is played

Ruling: Yes, Rally the Troops applies to tokens created by cards. The card would need to explicitly state "non-token unit" to exclude tokens from the effect. Nuances: - Cards only exclude tokens when they specifically use the "non-token" qualifier in their text

Ruling: No, when a spell is Defied (countered), it counts as if it was never played at all, except for the cost paid. The Raven Bloomstudent does not get +1. Nuances: - This also applies to Legion effects - countered cards do not count for Legion because a card is only considered "played" once it resolves - The cost to play the spell is still paid even when countered

Ruling: Yes, Ravenbloom Student gains +1 Might until end of turn after each spell you cast, so casting 12 one-cost spells would result in +12 Might total. Sequence: - Cast a spell - Ravenbloom Student gains +1 Might until end of turn - Repeat for each spell cast - All Might bonuses stack and last until end of turn

Ruling: Yes, Ravenbloom Student gets +1 when you play a spell from hidden. Playing a card from hidden still counts as playing it. Nuances: - Hiding a spell is a separate action from playing it and does not count as playing the spell - Hiding does not open a chain or pass priority - Playing a card from hidden works like playing from other zones (CC zone, Hand, or Banishment during aurora) - Revealing a unit from hidden does not trigger Ravenbloom Student since it is not a spell

Ruling: No, Ravenbloom Student does not get +2 from repeated spells. A repeated spell is still only one spell, just with additional text added to it. Nuances: - Repeat modifies the spell's text but does not create multiple instances of the spell for counting purposes

Ruling: No, Ravenbloom Student does not get the buff when a spell is countered. A spell is only considered "played" when it resolves, not when it enters the chain. Sequence: - A spell enters the chain - If the spell is countered (e.g., by Defy), it does not resolve - Since it did not resolve, it is not considered "played" - Ravenbloom Student's trigger does not activate because no spell was "played" Nuances: - "Played" in Riftbound means the spell resolved, which differs from other card games like MTG where "played" can refer to casting

Ruling: Ravenbloom Student triggers when a spell resolves (is played successfully), not when it is placed on the chain. Sequence: - Spell resolves - Ravenbloom triggers and is put on the chain - Trigger resolves Nuances: - Placing a spell on the chain has no effect on Ravenbloom - A card is not considered "played" until it resolves and is removed from the chain

Ruling: In Riftbound, a card is not considered "played" until it resolves. If a spell is countered or otherwise prevented from resolving, it was not played and does not trigger abilities that trigger on playing cards. Nuances: - This rule may be counterintuitive to players familiar with other card games where "playing" and "resolving" are separate events - The relevant rule text was added in version 1.1 of the rules, so players using older versions may not find this clarification

Ruling: No, Ravenbloom Student's ability does not trigger if your spell is countered. A spell is considered played when it resolves, so you only trigger Ravenbloom Student's ability if your spell resolves. Nuances: - Countering a spell prevents it from being considered "played" for the purposes of triggered abilities

Ruling: Yes, the Ravenbloom Tome effect is consumed even if used on a spell that doesn't deal damage. The effect applies to "the next spell" you play, regardless of whether that spell can deal damage. Nuances: - Non-damaging spells cannot deal bonus damage, but they still consume the Tome's effect - You should pair the Tome with damaging spells to get value from the effect - Multiple Tomes stack (two Tomes = two extra damage on the next spell)

Ruling: Ravenbloom does not get +1 when you reveal a hidden spell. It gets +1 when you play the spell, which occurs after the spell resolves when you flip it up on a later turn. Sequence: - Hiding a spell is not considered playing it - When you flip the hidden spell up on a later turn, you are playing it - The playing occurs after the spell resolves - Ravenbloom gets +1 at that point Nuances: - The act of hiding a spell does not trigger Ravenbloom - Only the actual playing (after flipping and resolving) triggers the +1

Ruling: The trigger goes on the chain and can be reacted to before it resolves. Nuances: - Only Reaction spells can be used to respond to the trigger, not Action spells - There may not be 3 damage Reaction spells currently available in the game

Ruling: Yes, Reaver's Row always targets the friendly unit when you put it on the chain, regardless of whether you ultimately choose to return the unit to hand or not. Sequence: - When the defender trigger occurs and the initial chain is formed, you declare the friendly unit as a target - Priority passes to the opponent - When priority returns to you, you then decide whether to actually return the unit to hand or not Nuances: - The targeting happens at the moment you put the ability on the chain, not when it resolves - You can choose not to return the unit but the targeting still occurred

Ruling: No, Darius does not trigger when a card is countered. A countered spell is not considered "played" for game effects like Darius's ability. Sequence: - First card is played (counts as played) - Second card is played but gets countered by Defy - The countered card does not count as "played" for Darius - When a third card is played, it counts as the second card played that turn - Darius triggers (ready and +2 might) on this third card Nuances: - Countered cards do not count toward the number of cards played for triggering effects like Legion and Darius

Ruling: No, Remorseful Yasuo does not have first strike. He enters combat first, then deals his ability's 6 damage as part of the initial resolution chain, before Attack Focus Actions. Sequence: - Yasuo moves into an occupied battlefield, starting combat with a showdown - Combat Showdown begins with the initial chain of "When I attack" and "When I defend" abilities - Yasuo's ability can be reacted to at this point - If no reactions, Yasuo deals 6 damage to a chosen unit (full damage regardless of might) - If enemy units remain, combat proceeds to Attack Focus Actions - Yasuo then deals his combat damage of 6 (can be split if excess damage) Nuances: - The first 6 damage is dealt as a chunk to one target, ignoring might - The second 6 damage is combat damage that can be reassigned if it exceeds a target's might - Yasuo effectively deals up to 12 total damage in the combat

Ruling: Yes, you may choose different targets for the Repeat. Nuances: - Unlike some cards (e.g., Falling Star) that explicitly state "you can choose different units" on the card text, Repeat cards do not include this reminder text, but the ruling still allows different target selection.

Ruling: No, Repeat does not cause Ravenbloom Student to trigger twice because it is still only one spell being cast. Nuances: - Repeat modifies how a spell resolves, but does not change the fact that only one spell is being cast

Ruling: Yes, Retreat requires valid targets to be played. All cards need valid targets for their effect to enter the chain.

Ruling: Retreat triggers Dreaming Tree because it targets. Cull the Weak does not trigger Dreaming Tree because it does not target. Nuances: - The word "choose" on cards is not always a reliable indicator of targeting; Dreaming Tree uses the rules-technical "choose" which is targeting, but not all cards that use "choose" involve targeting - Cull the Weak has each player kill units, with the unit selected at resolution, and no targeting is involved

Ruling: Yes, you should score 2 points total (one point for conquering each battlefield), assuming you haven't scored on them previously. Nuances: - You must not have scored on those battlefields earlier in the game - The chain must fully resolve (all responses must pass) before scoring occurs

Ruling: Ride the Wind gives Irelia Fervent +2 attack total if Irelia is exhausted when Ride the Wind is played. Sequence: - When Ride the Wind is put on the chain, Irelia triggers for the first +1 (from being targeted) - When Ride the Wind resolves, Irelia triggers a second time for +1 (from being readied) Nuances: - Irelia must be exhausted beforehand to get +2; you cannot ready an already ready unit

Ruling: Ride the Wind does target the unit being moved. Moving a unit to Dreaming Tree with Ride the Wind does not trigger Dreaming Tree, but moving a unit away from Dreaming Tree with Ride the Wind does trigger it. Sequence: - Ride the Wind targets the unit being moved - If the unit moves away from Dreaming Tree, the trigger occurs - If the unit moves to Dreaming Tree, no trigger occurs

Ruling: Riftbound does not have Last Known Information rules. Abilities can only access information that was present when the ability started resolving. Sequence: - Check the information when the ability starts resolving - The ability resolves using only that information - Information from before or after that point is not accessible Nuances: - A unit not on the board has no location - Deathknell mechanics need clarification in the Comprehensive Rules and currently work based on Rules As Intended rather than explicit Rules As Written

Ruling: Riftbound does not have a concept of last known information. When a triggered ability resolves, "here" refers to the current location of the source unit at resolution time, not where it was when the ability triggered. If the source unit has left the battlefield, the ability cannot evaluate properly and deals no damage. Sequence: - Yasuo attacks and his trigger goes on the stack - Yasuo is killed before the trigger resolves - On resolution, "here" checks where Yasuo currently is - Since Yasuo is no longer on the battlefield, the ability cannot evaluate and deals 0 damage Nuances: - This works differently from MTG's last known information rules - For abilities that don't reference the source's stats (like dealing a fixed amount), if the source moves to a different battlefield before resolution, the ability still functions at the source's new location - "Here" is treated as a natural language pointer to the current location of the source game object at resolution time - For spells played from hidden, "here" refers to where the spell was played from (this is explicitly codified in the rules)

Ruling: Riftbound does not have an "intervening if" rule. Dune Drake triggers on attack no matter what, functioning like a conditional ASSAULT 2. Nuances: - Even if Riftbound had Magic's "intervening if" rule, Dune Drake's ability wouldn't qualify as one because the condition is not intervening between the trigger condition and the effect.

Ruling: Reflexive triggers are not mentioned in the current Comprehensive Rules for Riftbound. They do not currently exist in the game. Nuances: - Future updated Comprehensive Rules could potentially include reflexive triggers - Currently, the requirements for what needs to be done on cast versus on resolution may seem inconsistent or unclear from card wording alone