When a player attacks in Riftbound, can they wait to see if their opponent responds before playing their own combat trick, or must they play it immediately after moving?

Ruling: The attacker receives focus first after moving to a battlefield and should play any actions immediately if they intend to use them. Waiting to see if the opponent responds before playing your own action is considered angle shooting.

Sequence:

• Attacker moves their unit to the battlefield
• Attacker receives focus first
• Attacker should immediately play any actions/combat tricks they intend to use
• If attacker passes focus, defender can then respond
• Both players passing focus without actions ends the showdown

Nuances:

• At Nexus Nights with new players, judges would likely let ambiguous situations resolve and then educate players on proper focus passing
• Players should explicitly confirm focus passing by asking "do you pass focus?" to avoid ambiguity
• Focus passing should be more explicit than priority passing because it's more impactful (can end the showdown entirely)
• Unlike priority in Magic, focus determines who can start a chain in a showdown and passing it without action can end the showdown phase
• The attacker always gets first focus in a showdown