Cruel Patron

Control of battlefields cannot be lost while there are items on the chain, per rule 187.4.c. in the Unleashed rules update. This means that spells and abilities that banish and play units, or that kill units as a cost or effect in order to play another unit, will be able to kill or banish units at battlefields and then play the resulting unit to that same battlefield.

187.4.c.If a player has no Units at a Battlefield and the turn is in an Open state, they lose Control of that Battlefield in the following cleanup, unless there is a Combat or Showdown ongoing there.

Let’s look at some examples:

I play Cruel Patron, and I have a 1 [M] Recruit alone at a battlefield I control. I choose to kill my Recruit to pay the additional cost of Cruel Patron. Although this causes a cleanup, because there is an item on the chain (Cruel Patron) I don’t lose control of the battlefield. I can choose to play Cruel Patron to that same battlefield with no issue.

I activate Baited Hook targeting a 4 [M] unit that is alone at a battlefield I control. When Baited Hook resolves, I kill that unit and look at the top 5 cards of my Main Deck. I choose to play a unit from among them, which goes pending on the chain. When Baited Hook’s activated ability resolves, the outstanding cleanup initiates, but I can’t lose control of the battlefield because the played unit is on the chain pending. Once the cleanup finishes, I will finalize the unit and I can choose the battlefield where I killed my 4 [M] unit to play it to.

I play Arcane Shift targeting my Thousand-Tailed Watcher who is alone at a battlefield I control. As it resolves, Watcher is banished and played to the chain. When Arcane Shift has finished resolving, a cleanup is outstanding and because Watcher is still pending on the chain, control of the battlefield can’t be lost. When finalizing Watcher, the battlefield I banished it from is a valid location to play it to because I still control it.

There is one final example worth discussing, though the interaction worked similarly prior to this rules update: in the previous rules update, if my Glasc Mixologist died alone in Combat at a battlefield I control, the active Combat at the battlefield prevented me from losing control of the battlefield. Thus I could play the unit from Mixologist’s Deathknell to the same Battlefield it died at. Previously this was only possible in Combat, but as of this rules update the same process will occur whenever Glasc Mixologist dies alone at a battlefield with the same controller, regardless of if there is a Combat there or not.

Fonte: Riftbound: Unleashed Rules FAQ and Clarifications

This section features a full breakdown of the rules for what constitutes a target. As we said above, most things that are affected by a spell or ability are targets.

An object or player mentioned in a spell or ability is a target if all of the following are true:

- something publicly visible to all players;

- that you and you alone choose;

- that isn’t part of a targeting restriction, cost, trigger condition, replacement effect, or an action that “must” be taken.

Breaking that down a bit:

1) “Something publicly visible to all players” means a player, or a game object that’s in a zone whose information level is Public.

- For example, a unit on the board, a spell on the chain, a card in the trash, or a player can all be targets.

- A card in your hand cannot be a target, because it’s not in a Public zone. If you’re required to choose a card in your hand, you’ll do it as the spell or ability resolves.

- A facedown card at a battlefield can be a target, because while the card’s face is Private information, its presence as a facedown card in that zone is Public.

- “You may play a unit from your hand, ignoring its costs” doesn’t have a target; “You may play a unit from your trash, ignoring its costs” targets a unit in your trash.

2) “That you and you alone choose” means two things:

- First, it excludes choices that are made in whole or in part by other players, like the units killed by Cull the Weak. Cull the Weak doesn’t have any targets, because you’re instructed to kill a unit as part of an instruction for all players to choose and kill a unit.

- Second, it excludes anything that is not a choice. Some examples: something that affects “all” objects that meet some set of criteria (no choice to be made because all of them are affected); a reference to “[something’s] controller” (no choice to be made because it only has one controller); or a reference to “your legend” (because you can only have one legend).

- This exception does not apply to things that are currently the only legal option for what would otherwise be a choice; for example, a spell that says “Kill an enemy unit” always targets that enemy unit, even if it’s currently the only enemy unit on the board.

3) “that isn’t part of a targeting restriction, cost, trigger condition, replacement effect, or an action that ‘must’ be taken” means that an object isn’t a target just because it’s mentioned in text, it has to be acted upon directly or instructed to act by the spell or ability’s instructions.

- “Targeting restriction” excludes objects that are mentioned in order to identify other targets. A spell that refers to a “unit at a battlefield” targets the unit, but not the battlefield.

- “Cost” excludes anything that’s listed before the colon in an activated ability or as part of an additional cost. Cruel Patron’s additional cost and Malzahar’s activated ability don’t have any targets. They are chosen as the card or ability is placed on the chain, but that’s because they’re costs, not because they’re targets.

- “Trigger condition” excludes anything that’s identified as part of a triggered ability’s conditions; “When an enemy unit attacks, give it -1 Might this turn.” doesn’t have any targets.

- “Replacement effect” excludes anything that is part of the condition or the effect of a replacement effect. A hypothetical card that said “The next time a friendly unit would die, you may kill another friendly unit instead” wouldn’t target anything; it would apply the next time any friendly unit died, and you could choose to kill any other friendly unit without it being a target either. If it instead said “Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die…”, then it would target a specific unit, and would look for the next time that unit died.

- Actions that “must” be taken are a new category to handle cards like Sigil of the Storm. It excludes only units that use this wording, and its purpose is to make sure that we can make cards that require something to happen and make sure it actually does.

Fonte: Riftbound Origins FAQ