Erratas y FAQ de Riftbound

Última actualización: 2026-08-14

Erratas y FAQ

Erratas y resoluciones oficiales de cartas, y las notas de cada actualización de las reglas.

Las reglas se muestran en el texto oficial en inglés publicado por Riot Games. No están traducidas.

Part 1. Card errata, FAQs and clarifications (newest first)

Riftbound: Vendetta Rules FAQ and Clarifications (newest FAQ found)

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/vendetta-rules-faq-and-clarifications

Date: 2026-08-14

Answers for some frequent questions regarding Vendetta’s core rules update.

Welcome to the FAQ for our first worldwide set release, the Vendetta FAQ! These are questions we’ve gathered from public discussion, from judges across the world, and from members of our own team. We appreciate everyone’s excitement and energy as they discussed the rules update for Vendetta; we hope this FAQ will clarify some points that may have been unclear, or provide answers to common questions you may run into.

One point we want to address directly: as we transition to worldwide release, our FAQs have a delicate timing. We want to gather as many real questions from players and judges as possible, while ensuring players aren’t left in the dark for too long on points that are confusing from the new set. If we release the FAQ too early, we might not catch the things that players are finding confusing; while if we release it too late, players can’t use it to prepare themselves and their decks for upcoming events. For future sets, we’re looking to try different models that might reduce some of the pain points players are feeling with this timing, but for now, we appreciate your patience.

The FAQ is a collection of official rulings. In places where the FAQ differs from the Core Rules Document, the FAQ takes precedence. When a new Core Rules Document is released, it will take precedence over any points that differ from this document.

Throughout this document, we use some specific shorthand to represent symbols in card text. Here’s a short guide:

[E] means “exhaust”
[M] means “Might”
[A] means “one power of any domain”
[C] means “one power of this card’s domain”
[C] in Accelerate costs takes on the domain of the Unit, or turns into [A] if the Unit has no domain or multiple domains.
[C] in other cases is treated as the corresponding power symbol in all respects, matching how the cards are actually printed—it’s just a design shorthand!

What happens when you play Abandon on a spell that was played for its Flow cost?

It will be banished when it attempts to leave the chain.

“[T]hen banish it” in flow’s text is short for “if it would leave the chain after becoming a finalized chain item, and leaving the chain wasn’t instructed by its own execution, banish it instead.” Abandon returns the countered card to hand after countering it, but for the purposes of flow’s “then banish it”, this is also leaving the chain. No matter how it happens, as long as the flow spell leaving the chain wasn’t instructed by the execution of the spell itself, it will be banished.

This also applies to effects like Kai’Sa, Evolutionary from Origins, or Fizz, Trickster from Spiritforged.

What is the difference between Iascylla and Azir, Sovereign’s uses of “this battlefield”?

Iascylla’s delayed trigger refers to the battlefield that she held. Azir, Sovereign’s attack trigger refers to the battlefield where he is located.

The difference between these two is that Iascylla has a delayed trigger that references implicit information from her trigger condition: the battlefield where she held. Azir, Sovereign’s attack trigger does not reference information from his trigger condition, which purely checks for the event of Azir gaining the attacker designation for the first time each combat. Without that information being checked from the trigger condition, the “this battlefield” in Azir, Sovereign’s attack trigger will be checked when the triggered ability resolves. If it resolves and he is not located at a battlefield, any instructions related to that battlefield will be ignored; otherwise, the battlefield he is currently located at will be used.

Comparatively, when a triggered ability refers to information from its trigger condition, that information is checked when the ability triggers and not on resolution. In the case of Iascylla, her delayed trigger is linked with her hold effect, so the information from the trigger condition of the hold effect can be shared with the delayed trigger.

In future sets, we’ve moved to use more precise templating and wording for abilities like Iascylla’s.

Relevant Rules: 359.3.f.1., 359.3.f.2., 359.3.f.3., 359.3.f.3.b.

What happens when I play Moonfall choosing an enemy unit while I control an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened?

The chosen unit will be given -3 [M]. All other enemy units at the chosen battlefield will be given -2 [M].

Mel, Newly Awakened’s empowered ability is a replacement effect. It replaces the event of a spell or ability you control giving a unit it chooses -[M]. The event it replaces that with is the spell or ability giving an additional -1 [M].

Although Moonfall gives -[M] to multiple units, only one of them is chosen, and thus the only event that is eligible to be replaced is the chosen unit being given -2 [M]. It will be replaced with that unit being given -3 [M]. The events of the other units being given -[M] will not be affected by this replacement effect.

Relevant Rules: 370.1., 370.1.b.

What about casting Stupefy while I have an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened?

The chosen unit will be given -2 [M], to a minimum of 1 [M]. If it was 2 [M], it will become 1 [M].

In the case of Stupefy, Mel, Newly Awakened replaces the event of Stupefy giving -1 [M] with it giving -2 [M] instead. However, a replacement effect that replaces an event modified by the game effect that generated that event will inherit any of those modifications. In this case, Stupefy modifies the “give -1 [M]” game action and thus event with “to a minimum of 1 [M].” The replaced event will inherit the same modification.

Relevant Rules: 375.

Speaking of Mel, can my opponent play Abandon on my spell while I control an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened? What happens?

They can play Abandon targeting your spell. On resolution, they will Predict, but nothing else will happen.

Mel, Newly Awakened says “your spells and abilities can’t be countered.” If the spell can’t be countered, Abandon will attempt to counter it and fail, and then it will replace the event of it being put in the Trash with it being returned to its owner’s hand. However, that event never occurred, so there is nothing for the replacement effect to replace. Thus, Abandon will resolve to no effect. The replacement effect only functions within the limit of the resolution of the ability (it’s not a delayed replacement effect that specifies a duration), so even if the spell resolves later, it will go to the Trash as normal.

How does it work if I cast Abandon while having an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened but they Rebuttal my spell?

In the case of Rebuttal, gaining control of a spell is not the same thing as countering that spell. Effects that prevent spells being countered don’t prevent their controller from changing. If Rebuttal is played choosing your spell, and they pay [A] during resolution of Rebuttal, they will gain control of it. However, them not paying [A] does not mean the spell will be countered.

What new choices can I make when I play Rebuttal and pay [A]?

You can choose any number of targets or modes to make new choices for. The rest remain the same.

If you are remaking choices in this way, any choices you choose not to remake must be legal choices. You can’t choose to have some but not all choices be legal choices. Of course, you can always choose not to make new choices. In that case, any of the current choices will remain in their current state, whether that state is illegal or not.

If a spell has some rules or requirements about the choices made for it, those apply regardless of who controls that spell. For example, if a player plays a spell from face down, they must target game objects located at the battlefield the spell was played from unless the instructions of that spell indicate that a target must be chosen from some other location. Gaining control of such a spell doesn’t change this requirement when making new choices for the spell.

We’ll look at shaping up this section in a future rules update.

What happens if I choose to copy an empowered unit when I equip an unempowered unit with Shady Spectacles?

Being empowered is a status and is not copyable, thus the equipped unit will remain unempowered.

Shady Spectacles applies a copy effect to the equipped unit. Copy effects copy the printed (or copied, if another copy effect has already been applied) traits of the unit being copied. empowered is a status, a temporary modification, and not part of the printed traits of the card, so it will not be copied by Shady Spectacles. Whatever temporary modifications are applied to the unit as the copy effect is executed on that unit will be unaffected by the copy effect. If the unit has Might increases or decreases, a buff, the empowered status, Temporary, attacker, defender, etc those will remain in place.

Relevant Rules: 477.1.b.1.b.

What happens when my opponent’s Akshan, Mischievous steals my equipped Shady Spectacles? What happens if they want to copy Aphelios?

If it was attached to a unit, the equipped unit loses its copy effect. Akshan will then become a copy of a friendly unit of his controller’s choice. If he becomes a copy of Aphelios, his ability will not trigger.

This question deserves a bit more depth. As of the Vendetta rules update, we have clarified how effects like Shady Spectacles and Svellsongur work; they are replacement effects that replace the event of the equipment being attached to a unit with that event plus whatever their effect specifies.

In the case of Svellsongur, the resulting series of events will be:

Attach → Copy the equipped unit’s text to Svellsongur’s effect text for as long as Svellsongur is attached

For Shady Spectacles, the resulting series of events will be:

Attach → Choose a friendly unit and make the equipped unit a copy of that unit for as long as Shady Spectacles is attached

These events are not simultaneous. The attach event executes first, and then whatever event is instructed by the replacement effect is executed. Thus, the answer in the Spiritforged FAQ is no longer true: if you attach Svellsongur to Aphelios, he will not trigger twice. Svellsongur doesn’t have the copied effect text when the attach event executes.

Similarly here, if Akshan nabs Shady Spectacles from an opponent, it will attach and then make him a copy. If his controller chooses to make him a copy of Aphelios, it’s too late by that point for his new triggered ability to see the attachment event; it’s already been completed.

Relevant Rules: 369.1., 370.1.b.1., 370.1.a.2.

My Sand Soldier has Shady Spectacles equipped and is a copy of Azir, Ascendent. What happens if I activate the copied Azir’s activatedability before detaching the Shady Spectacles and then attach them to the same Sand Soldier as a copy of the same Azir, Ascendent? Can I use the activated ability again?

You can.

Each instance of the copied ability is a different ability. The game object remains the same throughout this whole process, so any temporary modifications will remain on the Sand Soldier as it transforms, but the copied rules text is an entirely new instance of the ability. It is the same idea as Svellsongur’s copy of an ability being “refreshed” if Svellsongur is detached and then reattached to the same unit.

What happens during combat damage assignment if my 4 [M] unit has both Ki Barrier and Lotus Trap played on it this turn and my opponent has a 4 [M] defender?

You can order the replacement effects on your unit. If Ki Barrier is first, your unit will take no damage and you will have 3 damage prevention remaining on your unit. If Lotus Trap is first, your unit will take 1 damage and will have no damage prevention remaining on your unit.

With the Vendetta rules update, we’ve streamlined how replacement effects that apply to damage work in combat. Specifically, any replacement effect that would apply to combat damage being dealt will apply instead to combat damage assignment. This was already the case for prevention effects like Ki Barrier or Counterstrike, to prevent several strange edge cases. Now, damage increasing replacement effects will also apply during damage assignment.

Relevant Rules: 465.2.c.4.a., 465.2.c.5.

What happens when I discard a Patched Porobot with Hwei, Brooding Painter’s move trigger?

Two triggers will go on the chain, in the order of your choosing. One says “Give me +3 [M] this turn.” while the other says “Ready up to 2 runes.”

Hwei, Brooding Painter says “do the following based on the discarded card's type …” Unlike our previous reflexive triggers printed on cards that use a similar template (cf Twisted Fate, Gambler), Hwei doesn’t say “do one of the following …” As long as the card has the appropriate type, you will put the corresponding reflexive trigger on the chain. If somehow there existed a card that was a spell unit gear, you would put three reflexive triggers on the chain when you discard it to Hwei.

Relevant Rules: 387.1.b.

If my opponent plays two spells in succession, can I counter the first one with Crumbling Sands?

Yes.

Crumbling Sands uses the “finalize” meaning of play, because it checks whether cards have been “played” and isn’t a triggered ability. As long as an opponent (not even necessarily the one who played this spell) has chosen targets, paid costs, checked legality, and completed the process of finalizing another spell, even if that spell was countered, Crumbling Sands can counter a spell. That means it can counter the first spell played, as long as another spell was played by an opponent after that one.

Relevant Rules: 419.4.b.

When can I react to my opponent playing Fallen Feline to a battlefield? And how does naming a card work?

You can react to the play effect of Fallen Feline, before they’ve named a spell.

Fallen Feline’s play effect instructs its controller to name a spell. This occurs on resolution of the triggered ability. If Fallen Feline is played to a battlefield, as soon as the ability resolves, opponents cannot play spells with that name. Meaning spells by that name can not be put onto a chain. Any spells already on the chain when Fallen Feline’s ability resolves will be unaffected. However, by the time you know the chosen spell it’s too late to play that spell.

Naming a card or tag has new rules with the Vendetta rules update. When naming something in this way, the overarching rule that applies to all naming is that you can’t name something that doesn’t exist in Riftbound. You can’t name the “Locke” tag, the “totem” type, nor a card named “Lingering Tentacles,” because none of those has been printed on cards or tokens in Riftbound.

However, you can name a card using information that uniquely identifies it. That information could be its name, but it could just as well be something like “the [3] spell with Flow that makes tentacles” or “the red Kai’Sa” or “Illaoi.” As long as there is no ambiguity as to what card is being named, a player can use whatever method is clear to their opponents and teammates. You can’t name a card by saying just “Kai’Sa” if there are two or more cards that could be identified in that way—you won’t have named a card if that’s all you say.

Relevant Rules: 761., 761.1., 761.2., 762., 762.1., 762.2.

If I disempower a Kayle, Justified who has been empowered 3 times, does she lose all of her empowered statuses?

No. She will lose one of her empowered statuses.

For every Riftbound card other than Kayle, empowered is a binary status. They are either empowered or not. Kayle utilizes the golden rule “Card text supersedes rules text” to overcome this and be able to escape the normal bounds of what the empowered status means. On Kayle, empowered isn’t a binary status but a stacking status; she can have up to 3 empowered statuses. When Kayle is disempowered, the disempower action attempts to remove the empowered status. If she only has one empowered status, great, it’s gone. If she has more than one empowered status, the disempower action will remove one of the empowered statuses from Kayle.

But can I activate Kayle’s empower ability even if she’s already empowered?

Yes.

Kayle’s empower ability can be activated any number of times. If she has less than 3 empowered statuses, she will become empowered. If she has 3 empowered statuses, the ability can still be activated but nothing will happen when the ability resolves.

What happens if my opponent plays Flash on their Akali, Silent that’s currently in combat after I play Star-Crossed targeting her?

Akali will be unaffected by Star Crossed as it resolves.

Akali, Silent is what the rules refer to as “untargetable” for enemy spells and abilities when she isn’t in combat; meaning she is not a legal target for them. Enemy spells and abilities being played when she’s untargetable can’t choose her. If she becomes untargetable after she’s already been chosen by an effect and retains it as that effect begins to resolve, it will “mistarget” her. She will be unaffected by any of the spell or ability’s instructions. If an instruction chooses only her, that instruction will be ignored.

Relevant Rules: 757.1., 758., 758.1.

I have a Ravenbloom Student on the board and I haven’t played any spells this turn. What happens when I play Rebuttal targeting my opponent’s Stupefy and pay [A] on resolution? After everything resolves, how much will Battering Ram cost? Will my opponent’s Legion abilities be active?

Ravenbloom Student will trigger twice, Battering Ram will cost [4], and your opponent’s Legion abilities will be active.

Ravenbloom Student’s triggered ability checks whether a spell that you control resolves. You gained control of the Stupefy, and it resolved, so you will have triggered Ravenbloom Student’s ability. Battering Ram and Legion, on the other hand, check whether cards were finalized. Although you gained control of Stupefy, you did not finalize it; you got it after it was already finalized by your opponent. Thus, your opponent’s Legion abilities will be active, and Battering Ram will only receive a [1] Energy discount.

Relevant Rules: 419.4., 419.4.a., 419.4.b.

What happens when I conquer with Swain, Visionary, if I’ve only played a Patched Porobot and Stupefy this turn?

You will score 2 points total. 1 from conquering, 1 from Swain.

Swain only checks whether you’ve played a non-token unit, a non-token gear, and a spell. Checks like that do not care whether they were satisfied by multiple cards or a single card relevant to the trigger conditions.

What happens when my opponent plays Switcheroo on their 2 [M] unit and my empowered Gangplank, Naval?

Gangplank, Naval will replace his Might being lowered with him being given +3 [M] this turn.

Swap calculates the difference in Might and generates two effects: an increase, and a decrease. When a swap effect is applied to two units’ Mights, it gives those units +[M] and -[M] respective to who has the higher Might.

Under the hood, Gangplank’s replacement effect sees the event of him being given -[M] and replaces it with him being given +3 [M] this turn instead. The event of the other unit being given +[M] is unaffected by Gangplank’s replacement effect. By the time we apply the replacement effect, the difference between the two units has been calculated. In the example with the 2 [M] unit, the final Mights of the two units will be 2 [M] → 6 [M], and 6 [M] → 9 [M].

The way this works is not immediately obvious based on how the swap game action rules are written. We will clarify this in a future rules update.

Note that this logic also applies to Mel, Newly Awakened and Switcheroo.

What happens when my empowered Gangplank, Naval is moved by my opponent’s Blast Cone’s play effect and they exhaust Blast Cone to stun Gangplank? Will he be stunned? What happens if I then play Back Off choosing my Gangplank? Will he get +3 [M] this turn?

Blast Cone will stun Gangplank. If you play Back Off choosing your stunned Gangplank, he will not receive +3 [M] this turn.

Blast Cone’s triggered ability that stuns units doesn’t choose them, so Gangplank’s replacement effect can’t apply to that event. Back Off played on a stunned Gangplank does not actually perform the stun game action, because Gangplank is already stunned. It’s legal to play Back Off, but the instruction will be negated. In order for Gangplank’s replacement effect to replace an event of him being stunned, the stun game action must actually be performed. Similarly, if an effect that said “Friendly units can’t be stunned” were active with a friendly empowered Gangplank, Naval is on the board, a stun effect that is played choosing Gangplank wouldn’t generate an event that Gangplank could replace, because no stun game action is performed.

Relevant Rules: 423.1.a.1.

What happens if I play Stupefy on my 1 [M] empowered Gangplank, Naval? Will he get +3 [M] this turn?

He will not.

In order for his replacement effect to apply, the event of him being given -[M] must occur. In the case of Stupefy played on a 1 [M] unit, no -[M] is given; it is snapshot to -0 [M]. Thus, there is no suitable event for Gangplank’s replacement effect to replace.

Relevant Rules: 477.3.b.

What happens when my opponent plays Hidden Blade targeting my Akali, Deadly Weapon in reaction to her move trigger? Will it still deal damage to the chosen unit?

It will.

Akali is another case where her ability refers to information implicit to its own trigger condition, similar to Iascylla. Akali’s “battlefield I moved to or from” doesn’t require her to be on the board in order for us to be able to identify it, nor does it reference information about her current state. Even if she leaves the board, that information was checked when her ability triggered, and it is still available to us on resolution.

Relevant Rules: 359.3.f.3.

Can I activate an empowered Heimerdinger, Inventor to ready 2 gear if my Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow legend isn’t empowered? What about if my Heimerdinger isn’t empowered?

You can activate Heimerdinger’s ability if he is empowered, regardless of the empowered status of Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow.

There is a bit of a trick here, in that there are two important details to this question relating to dependent keywords:

First is that a dependent keyword (the kind of ability that [Level][>] or [Empowered][>] are when they appear with the arrow) includes the whole of the ability, including the dependent ability. They’re all one object, so to speak.
Second is that a dependent keyword’s dependent ability still exists and can be referenced while it is inactive—that is, if its condition isn’t met. In this case, the condition is that the source of the ability is empowered.

Heimerdinger gains all activated abilities that have the [E] symbol in their cost, and he gains the entire ability, restrictions, costs, dependent keywords and all. In effect, Defender of Tomorrow’s ability that Heimerdinger is gaining is the whole line that says:

[Empowered][>] [1], [E]: Ready 2 gear.

Heimerdinger can gain this ability even if Defender of Tomorrow isn’t empowered because of that second point we made previously.

The key rule for this case is 727.1.b.1., which reads:

The Dependent Ability is present on the card for the sake of reference or evaluation until the Condition is met.

This means that the ability isn’t active and its text isn’t being processed yet, but other effects can reference or evaluate its text before the condition is met. Heimerdinger, Inventor is exactly one such effect.

Relevant Rules: 727.1., 727.1.b., 727.1.b.1.

What card does Astral Heron’s triggered ability discount?

It discounts the next card played (added to the chain and queued for finalization) this turn after the ability resolves.

Astral Heron has received an erratum to update its wording: “When you play your first card each turn, if I'm at a battlefield, the next card you play this turn costs [2][A][A] less.”

What happens when I play Temporal Breach targeting my Elder Dragon in base and pay [A][A] for Dragon Roost while playing Elder Dragon? Will it be played to base or to Dragon Roost?

You can choose which of those two locations you want to play it to.

In general, there are not many cases where we have this kind of competing instruction: one effect that tells you to play a unit to one location, and one that tells you to play it to another. That being said, when they do arise with contradictory requirements, the precedent from other areas of the rules is that the player chooses one of those requirements and ignores all others.

Note that this only applies to mandatory positive requirements, ones that specify a location or method without also preventing the action from being performed to other locations or with other methods and that aren’t optional. For example, an effect like Perched Grimwyrm’s passive ability is a restriction on playing that unit to any location other than a battlefield you’ve conquered this turn. Rockfall Path’s passive ability is a restriction on playing units to Rockfall Path. If you’ve conquered only Rockfall Path this turn, you can’t play Perched Grimwyrm at all, because those two restrictions are contradictory.

In this case, the contradictory requirements don’t directly prohibit the playing of these units to other locations, so we can choose one of the contradictory requirements and ignore the rest.

What happens when I play Perched Grimwyrm while I haven’t conquered Dragon Roost this turn? Can I pay [A][A] and play it to Dragon Roost? What if I’ve conquered another battlefield this turn?

You cannot.

In Riftbound, “can’t” beats “can.” Perched Grimwyrm’s effect is a “can’t,” as in it can’t be played to any location but to a battlefield you’ve conquered this turn. Dragon Roost’s ability tries to give the Grimwyrm permission to be played to the Roost, but that can’t overcome Perched Grimwyrm’s own restriction. If you have no ability to play Perched Grimwyrm to Dragon Roost after paying for it, you will not be able to finalize Perched Grimwyrm at all. The actions taken as part of playing Perched Grimwyrm will be undone and it will be returned to the zone it was played from.

This is true even if you’ve conquered another battlefield this turn. If you have the ability, you can play Perched Grimwyrm to that battlefield without paying the additional cost of Dragon Roost, but you can’t play it to Dragon Roost itself unless you’ve conquered it.

Sharp eyed readers may remember that Baron Nashor doesn’t work this way. He enters at the Baron Pit regardless of effects preventing him from being played to battlefields. The reason for this is that Baron Nashor’s passive ability generates a delayed replacement effect, the one that reads “I enter there.” This replacement effect replaces the event of him entering to any other location with him entering to the Baron Pit. The replacement effect gets around effects like Mageseeker Warden which limit where you can play units. However, Dragon Roost is not written as a replacement effect. It tells you where to play the dragon you’ve paid the additional cost for, but it doesn’t specify how that dragon enters the board. Therefore it is a permission on play location, but not a replacement effect.

Relevant Rules: 054.2., 369.3.

Can I disempower my Ambessa, Matriarch of War with Profiteer to empower my Kayle? Do I control my own legend?

Yes, you can disempower Ambessa, Matriarch of War with Profiteer. And yes, you control your own legend.

We don’t typically consider the possibility that any player controls a legend, because control of legends cannot change, but you do indeed control your own legend.

What happens if I play Dragon Form on a unit that has -1 [M] from Stupefy applied to it? Will my Fiora, Grand Duelist trigger? Is there a moment where my unit becomes 5 [M] before the -1 [M] from Stupefy brings it down to 4 [M]?

She will not trigger.

Although Dragon Form sets the base Might of a unit to 5 [M], it does so via layers. Layers are evaluated when the effect is applied and their evaluation includes all existing applied layer alterations. We process layers in order, starting from the Trait-Altering layer (where this base Might setting effect is applied), proceeding to the Ability-Altering layer (not part of this example), and proceeding to the Arithmetic layer (where Stupefy’s -1 [M] is applied), but this process happens instantaneously; there is no window while evaluating layers for the unit to see itself become 5 [M] and then go down to 4 [M]. As soon as the effect of Dragon Form is applied, the unit is 4 [M].

As a side note, Might is one of the traits that is managed in the Trait-Altering layer, and it is one of the copyable traits that copy effects can replace or add to.

What happens when I play Hostile Takeover gaining control of my opponent’s ready unit, move it to base, and then play Temporal Breach choosing it? Where will the unit go?

The unit will remain in Banishment.

Units cannot be played to a base of a player other than their own controller under any circumstances. Because the owner of the unit is the one being instructed to play the unit, and the location they are being instructed to play it to is a base other than their own, it isn’t possible to play the unit. During the check legality step of finalization, the unit will be returned to banishment from the chain and all actions taken will be undone.

My 11 Might Renekton, Brute is disempowered by my own Profiteer. What happens when my opponent plays Stupefy choosing him? Will his ability trigger? What happens if instead I activated his ability?

Renekton’s ability will not trigger in either scenario.

In order to “become 10 or more,” his Might would have to have previously been less than 10. “10 or more” is a state, and Renekton’s triggered ability checks for the event of him achieving that state. If he maintains that state, regardless of how his Might changes, he will not “become” that state.

What happens when I play Icathian Rain choosing a Recruit at Heisho, Shell of the World once and Irelia, Fervent in base five times? How many times do I pay for deflect?

You will not pay for deflect.

While your spell or ability chooses a unit at Heisho, Shell of the World, you ignore deflect while paying for the spell. Ignore, in this context, means you treat deflect on the specified units as being inactive, like it’s turned off temporarily. In the case of Heisho, it doesn’t specify any units whose deflect to ignore, so you ignore all instances of deflect on units.

This only applies to the specified spell or ability. You can’t play a spell or ability choosing a unit at Heisho, and then play another one choosing a unit at another location and not at Heisho and still ignore deflect. Only while at least one target of the spell or ability is a unit located at Heisho do you ignore deflect while paying costs for that spell or ability.

Relevant Rules: 766., 767.

What happens when I play Hextech Ray on an Elder Dragon while Imperial Decree’s delayed trigger is active and I have an Immortal Phoenix in the Trash? Can I play Immortal Phoenix from the Trash?

You can.

Per the current rules, there is nothing that would stop Imperial Decree’s delayed trigger from triggering Immortal Phoenix. It is a triggered ability generated by a spell; it is attributed a kill action, and thus the spell that generated it will also be attributed the same kill action. The owner of Imperial Decree is the controller of the delayed triggered ability; the player responsible for the kill action is the one who controls the ability; and that same player is the owner of Immortal Phoenix in the Trash. Thus all three conditions for Immortal Phoenix triggering are complete, and it will trigger.

If I play Ride the Wind targeting my unit at Vilemaw’s Lair and attempt to move them to base, what happens?

They will be readied.

This is a rules quirk that players and judges identified as a result of a small additional rule added in the Vendetta rules update. We’re going to give some clarity to this that will resolve this issue, but if you don’t understand the conversation or why it is necessary, don’t worry. This isn’t an actual change to how we’ve been interpreting and ruling cards, but smoothing out a bug.

In short, the linked instructions rules are too expansive currently on what qualifies as an “ignored” instruction. To clarify this definition: an ignored instruction is one that wasn’t performed as part of the execution of a spell or ability’s instructions because it mistargeted (i.e. because the targeted object wasn’t a legal target on resolution). This is a case where, for example, you play Hidden Blade choosing an enemy unit and they play Star-Crossed in reaction, returning their unit to hand. When Hidden Blade resolves, the unit isn’t on the board, so we ignore the “Its controller draws 2.” instruction. Alternatively, if Hidden Blade is given the Repeat keyword by the Academy and both executions target the same unit, this is the reason why the unit’s controller doesn’t draw 4 cards.

An instruction is not ignored if an ability, effect, or circumstance of the game prevents it from occurring. This could take the form of a replacement effect that replaces the event of the instruction with something else, it could take the form of an ability like Vilemaw’s Lair that says “Units can’t move from here to base.” or it could take the form of a game action like Buff or Ready being performed on a unit that already has the appropriate state. It could even take the form of a unit, gear, or spell no longer being in an appropriate zone as long as the instruction doesn’t target those objects. The instruction in these cases isn’t ignored, but instead negated. A negated instruction has its effects skipped, replaced, or prevented. A negated instruction will not cause any linked instructions to be ignored unless those instructions refer specifically to the action being performed.

Some examples:

If a unit at a battlefield says “I can’t be killed.” and a player plays Hidden Blade choosing that unit, the unit’s controller will still draw 2 on resolution of Hidden Blade. (The instruction was negated and not ignored, so the linked instruction will still execute.)
If a unit at a battlefield is chosen by Hidden Blade and in reaction its controller plays Flash moving it to base, that unit’s controller will not draw 2 on resolution of Hidden Blade. (The instruction was ignored, so any linked instructions will be ignored.)
If a unit at a battlefield is chosen by Hidden Blade and in reaction its controller plays Zhonya’s Hourglass, that unit’s controller will draw 2 on resolution of Hidden Blade. (The unit is on the board and can have its information checked, and the instruction was negated and not ignored.)
If a unit at a battlefield has been affected by Smite previously this turn and it is chosen by Hidden Blade, that unit’s controller will not draw 2 on resolution of Hidden Blade. (Although the instruction is executed, the unit is not on the board to have its information checked. Additionally, the unit was moved to a non-board zone by an effect other than Hidden Blade and thus no longer has a controller that Hidden Blade can reference.)

Riftbound: Unleashed Rules FAQ and Clarifications

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/unleashed-rules-faq-and-clarifications

Date: see page (Unleashed set)

Sharing clarifications and answering some frequent questions regarding Unleashed’s core rules updates.

We are aware that Unleashed’s core rules updates caused consternation among some players and judges. This set’s updates had several mitigating factors which came together and impacted how we approached it, among them were changes to our internal processes which were necessary towards us improving our systems for generating and updating our rules documents. We are also improving how we present these changes and communicate them to players and judges. Today’s content will hopefully resolve many of the issues and sources of confusion for the community.

While the updates we released for Unleashed were substantive, it was a first step of a transitional period for Riftbound’s rules and templating, as they are dependent on future sets. Given this limitation, we are going to focus on clarifying points of confusion under the current structures. There will be things which will remain awkward in the meantime and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we forge ahead together.

We’ll start this FAQ out by clearing up a few points that were left confusing from the rules update—if you’re not deeply invested in the rules and just want to see answers to common questions, skip down to the Frequently Asked Questions section in the latter half of the document. For any points that differ between this document and the Core Rules Document, this document will take precedence. When the next rules update is published, this document will become obsolete. You can always visit the Rules Hub to find the current rules documents for Riftbound.

Throughout this document, we use some specific shorthand to represent symbols in card text. Here’s a short guide:

[E] means “exhaust”
[M] means “Might”
[A] means “one power of any domain”
[C] means “one power of this card’s domain”
[C] in Accelerate costs takes on the domain of the unit, or turns into [A] if the unit has no domain or multiple domains.
[C] in other cases is treated as the corresponding power symbol in all respects, matching how the cards are actually printed—it’s just a design shorthand!

Revised and Clarified Rulings

Triggered Abilities

We’ll start with the most significant and contextual rules change in this update. As of our third rules update, triggered abilities have been changed in their structure: rather than a one clause condition and a potentially multi-clause effect, there are now multiple pieces that need to be considered when putting a triggered ability on the chain and finalizing it. The easiest way to think about these is shifting where the effect and condition split into two components of the triggered ability: instead of at the first comma, it now depends on how the triggered ability is templated. Triggered abilities will have one or more of the following four items in sequence:

A trigger condition
A conditional statement next to the trigger condition
A “you may” that appears next to the conditional statement
A cost within instruction next to the “you may”

We can best see this in the example of Piltover Enforcer, the Vi Legend from Unleashed: “[When you conquer], [if you assigned 3 or more excess damage], [you may] [exhaust me to] ready a unit.” This ability contains all four elements in the sequence.

A trigger condition: “When you conquer”
Extra conditional: “If you assigned 3 or more excess damage,”
A “you may” that appears next to the conditional: “You may,” - this indicates the decision of whether or not to place the ability on the chain
A cost within instruction next to the “you may”: “Exhaust me to...” - is the cost within instructions that becomes the base cost of the triggered ability.

We can imagine splitting this ability into two sections: the part including this sequence and the part after it:

Before

After

“When you conquer, if you assigned 3 or more excess damage, you may exhaust me to”“ready a unit.”

The second section only becomes a finalized chain item when the first section is fulfilled by the process of finalization; that being the process by which players make choices, pay costs, and check legality for cards and abilities. When the trigger condition and extra conditional are fulfilled and the player decides to place it on the chain, it will become a pending chain item and be queued for finalization. If its controller chooses a legal target and pays the cost during the subsequent finalization, the second section will become a finalized chain item. All it says on the chain is “Ready a unit,” where the unit is the one chosen during finalization.

Triggered abilities, however, don’t need to contain all of the above elements in order for the sequence to follow these rules, as long as the elements that do appear are where they would be based on our understanding of the above sequence.

Let’s look at a few examples:

Sona, Harmonious reads “At the end of your turn, if I'm at a battlefield, ready up to 4 friendly runes.” “If I’m at a battlefield,” appears where we would expect it to based on the sequence described above, so it is part of the condition and not the effect. The ability can be split into “At the end of your turn, if I’m at a battlefield,” and “ready up to 4 runes.”

Disarming Rake reads “When you play me, you may kill a gear.” The “you may” appears here where we would expect it to based on the sequence above, so it is the choice of whether or not to place the ability on the chain, and not part of the effect itself. The ability can be split into “When you play me, you may” and “kill a gear.”

Ekko, Recurrent reads, “[Deathknell][>] Recycle me to ready your runes.” Deathknell is functionally short for “When I die, …” We can translate this to our sequence as “When I die, recycle me to ready your runes.” “Recycle me to” is a cost within instructions that appears where we would expect it to based on our sequence, so it becomes the base cost of the ability when it is placed on the chain and is not part of the effect. The ability can be split into “When I die, recycle me to” and “ready your runes.”

Any of these elements that appear later in the ability than where you would expect based on the sequence do not function in this way.

Loose Cannon, the Jinx Legend, reads “At the start of your Beginning Phase, draw 1 if you have one or fewer cards in your hand.” The conditional statement “if you have one or fewer cards in your hand,” does not appear where we would expect in the sequence described above, so it is considered part of the effect and not the condition. This ability can be split into “At the start of your Beginning Phase,” and “draw 1 if you have one of fewer cards in your hand.”

Ornn, Blacksmith reads “When you play me or when I hold, look at the top 4 cards of your Main Deck. You may reveal a gear from among them and draw it. Then recycle the rest.” The “you may” here doesn’t appear in the appropriate place to be part of the sequence, so it is not a decision made when the ability triggers and instead is made when ability resolves. This ability can be split into “When you play me or when I hold,” and “look at the top 4 cards of your Main Deck. You may reveal a gear from among them and draw it. Then recycle the rest.”

Insightful Investigator reads “When you play me, choose an opponent. They reveal their hand. You may pay 2 XP to choose a card from their hand. If you do, they discard that card and draw 1.” Here we see the final example, where the ability contains a cost within instructions that does not fall where we would expect it to be for the sequence. This cost within instructions is paid on resolution and not as the base cost of the triggered ability. The ability can be split into “When you play me,” and “Choose an opponent. They reveal their hand. You may pay 2 XP to choose a card from their hand. If you do, they discard that card and draw 1.” The second part of the ability is all one chain item—it resolves it one go, and cannot be reacted to partway through resolution.

One notable effect of this change is that we see a larger difference between two previously similar templates: costs within instructions (“[do X] to [do Y]”) and “if you do” templates. The two templates had some overlap, in that they asked players to perform an action in order to get an effect. The templates, however, were still functionally different before this rules update. Costs don’t care if the game action being performed is replaced, as long as an attempt was made to perform the action.

“If you do” templating is more particular, as seen in cards like Jayce, Man of Progress whose triggered ability begins with, “When you play me, you may kill a friendly gear. If you do, …” Killing the friendly gear in this case is not a cost for the ability, but a game action that a later instruction checks. If the game action is not performed or is replaced, the later instruction will not have its condition fulfilled - the player didn’t “do” it, so “if you do” is not true.

While this was always the case, now there is even more differentiation, as “if you do” templating isn’t a cost within instructions and therefore cannot be the base cost of the triggered ability. Even if resources are instructed to be spent, as in the case of Draven, Vanquisher (RIP), who reads “When I attack or defend, you may pay [C]. If you do, …” those resources are not a cost and are paid on resolution of the ability and not finalization.

Control of Battlefields and Showdowns

Two areas that were unclear in the rules update were control of battlefields and when Showdowns open. How battlefield control is managed is contradictory in two places: in the control rules under rule 187.4.c., and in the cleanup rules under rule 323.6. To clarify this: rule 323.6. should read, “Players lose control of any controlled battlefields without their Units occupying them if the turn is in an open state and there is no Showdown or Combat ongoing there.” This was our intent, as seen in the patch notes, and the wording of rule 323.6 lagged behind it.

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.

323.6.(OLD) 4. If the turn is in an Open State, Battlefields with no Units occupying them and no Showdown or Combat ongoing become Uncontrolled.

(NEW) 4. Players lose control of any controlled Battlefields without their Units occupying them if the turn is in an open state and there is no Showdown or Combat ongoing there.

The second of these areas is how Showdowns are opened. Here, the cleanup rules are correct and take precedence over the other rules. Rule 316.5.b. should read, “A Showdown is marked as staged at a battlefield in the cleanup after the Contested status is applied to that battlefield.” Rule 344.2. should read, “If Control of a battlefield is Contested and there aren’t units controlled by different players there, a Showdown is opened during the Cleanup at the end of the action that caused the battlefield to become Contested.”

For example, if a player moves a unit to a battlefield they don’t control, they will apply the Contested status to that battlefield immediately upon becoming located there, regardless of whether there are units controlled by another player there or not. The battlefield having the Contested status causes a Showdown to be staged there in the following cleanup per rule 323.8. The previous wording of 316.5.b. implied that a Showdown will only be staged at a battlefield if that battlefield is uncontrolled, but the change to how Showdowns become Combats means Showdowns need to be able to be staged when the battlefield is still controlled.

323.8.6. Mark a Showdown as Staged at each Battlefield that Contested was applied to.

316.5.b.(OLD) A Showdown is marked as Staged at a Battlefield when the Contested status is applied to a Battlefield with no current controller.

(NEW) A Showdown is marked as staged at a Battlefield in the cleanup after the Contested status is applied to that Battlefield.

344.2.(OLD) If Control of a Battlefield is Contested and the Battlefield in question is uncontrolled when it becomes Contested, a Showdown is opened during the Cleanup at the end of the action that caused the Battlefield to become Contested.

(NEW) If Control of a Battlefield is Contested and there aren’t units controlled by different players there, a Showdown is opened during the Cleanup at the end of the action that caused the Battlefield to become Contested.

Mandatory Actions and Private Information

Rift Herald is an interesting card. Usually, we don’t print effects like Rift Herald’s Deathknell that don’t say “may.” However, even without the “may,” an important principle that we want to hold for Riftbound is that game effects cannot force a player to perform a game action on an object with specific characteristics whose information status is private.

Imagine if we lived in such a world. When Rift Herald’s Deathknell resolves, your opponent claims to not have a unit in their hand. But what if they do have a unit and they want to try to save it for a more opportune moment? What if playing it would be actively detrimental to them? Suddenly, every time your opponent says they don’t have a card to play that matches the appropriate characteristics it makes you wonder if they’re lying to you. How do you hold them accountable? Do you go over and look at their hand? Do you call a friend to check their hand? If you’re at a tournament, do you call a judge? This is an unsustainable level of paranoia to subject players to. We don’t want that and neither do you.

The following rule will be added in the next rules update and will go into effect now:

A player cannot be compelled to perform an action on cards whose privacy is secret or private if that action specifies a type or quality of card. If an effect would compel a player to perform an action on cards whose privacy is secret or private, and if that effect specifies a type or quality of card, the player in question may ignore it instead.

Lethal Damage Modification

Elder Dragon’s passive ability reads, “Any amount of your damage is enough to kill enemy units.” This functions to change the definition of lethal damage for those units that have damage marked by you on them. In order to break that down in a technical way, we’ll have to define a few terms.

Lethal damage is an amount of damage such that a unit with it marked will die in a cleanup. This value is defined as being a non-zero amount greater than or equal to a unit’s Might by default. However, some effects may alter it. Any reference to lethal damage, including in the cleanup tasks in rule 323.5. and when assigning Combat damage in rule 460.2.c.3., will be altered in this way. Damage is marked on a unit by a player when a deal action that player is responsible for damages that unit. Damage marked by players is “their damage.”

The combination of these two concepts codifies how Elder Dragon functions. This means Elder Dragon can check damage marked on units by its controller before it enters the board, and that players need only assign one damage to units during the Combat Damage step while they control Elder Dragon.

323.5.3b. All Units that have non-zero Damage marked on them equalling or exceeding their Might are killed and placed in their owners' Trash.

460.2.c.3.Units must have lethal damage assigned to them in full before damage is assigned to a different Unit.

Control of Battlefield Abilities

Our first battlefield with a triggered ability anyone can trigger that targets game objects was printed in Unleashed and it has unearthed some strangeness in the battlefield control rules. That battlefield is Abandoned Hall.

Normally, control of a battlefield ability is awarded to the battlefield’s controller, or the turn player if it is uncontrolled, but there are cases where that might not be the case. The intent of the current rules is that a player making choices for a triggered ability of a battlefield means that player controls that ability. This is reflected in a small but easily neglected part of the battlefield ability control rules in “unless otherwise specified.” That should be treated as the following: If an Ability of a Battlefield indicates that a specific player makes a choice, that player takes responsibility for adding it to the chain if applicable and makes all choices required by the ability. They and only they control the ability.

Note that if a battlefield ability requires more than one player to make a choice, that ability will still be controlled by the controller of the battlefield.

Legion

Legion’s change in this rules update is a byproduct of the transition that Riftbound finds itself in. To pull back the curtain, our hope in the future is to reduce the confusion around “play” meaning different things in templating. Unfortunately, this rules update has pulled us in three directions and made things temporarily more confusing. We will communicate these rules in a more comprehensible way in the next rules update. That being said, we recognize that these three technical meanings of play are quite frustrating for players and we’re in the process of paring them down.

For this rules update, we’ll address three functional meanings of “play”, though two of them are aligned in a way that should make them feel like they are functionally similar.

The first meaning is, “resolve an item on the chain.” This is the play that appears in trigger conditions, in cards like Darius, Trifarian and Ravenbloom Student.

The second meaning is, “finalize an item on the chain.” This is the play that appears in other conditional statements and effects that check if cards have been played, in cards like Battering Ram, Crescent Guardian, and the Legion dependent keyword.

The final meaning of play is, “place an item on the chain and queue it for finalization.” This is the version of play that we see in all other contexts in which play is used as a verb, in cards like Here to Help, Raging Firebrand, and Void Drone.

Having three technical usages of the same word is not ideal, to say the least. This can be seen in the most egregious case with Brynhir Thundersong’s play effect, which reads, “When you play me, opponents can’t play cards this turn.” Using play to mean resolve and also “perform the play game action” in the same card effect has been an abiding source of confusion among players since Origins.

That being said, the usages of “play as game action” and “play as finalize” are functionally aligned---finalizing a card and putting a card on the chain to be queued for finalization are similar actions. Even if we wanted an effect to check for the game action, it would ultimately have to check for finalization because the process of play could be undone during finalization. These timings are similar enough that we hope it will be relatively easy for players to develop an intuition for them. “Play as resolution” is an outlier and it will remain so for this transition period.

Results of Combat

A final point of clarification, the Determine Combat Result task is currently missing a minor but very important part. Rule 461.3.d. should read: There is “No Result” if units were recalled during the Combat Cleanup, if both Players have units present during this task, or if neither player has units present during this task.

For example, if a tie occurred after the Combat Damage step—as in, there were Attackers and Defenders still remaining at the battlefield in the Combat Cleanup and the Attackers were recalled—under the previous wording of rule 461.3.d., the defending player will win the Combat because there are only units controlled by one player located at the battlefield as the task occurs.

461.3.d.(OLD) There is “No Result” if either both Players have units present during this step, or neither player has units present during this step

(NEW) There is “No Result” if units were recalled during the Combat Cleanup, if both Players have units present during this task, or if neither player has units present during this task.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when you conquer Aspirant’s Climb with Green Father and Brush the battlefield when both players are at 8 points?

If this is the first battlefield that player has scored, they'll draw 1 and the game will continue with both players at 8 points.

If you replace Aspirant’s Climb with Brush via Green Father’s conquer or hold effect, the Victory Score will change immediately as the passive ability of Aspirant’s Climb is no longer in effect, bringing both players to the Victory Score simultaneously. Rules 323.1. and 467. define winning the game as happening during a cleanup when one player has points greater than or equal to the Victory Score and greater than any opponent. If both players are at 8 points, they have not fulfilled both requirements for winning the game. They will need to score additional points in order to win. When they do so, 466.1.b. says “when a player tries to gain a point through a Score, and their current point total is one point from the Victory Score for their Mode of Play or higher, do the following: …” If the point is from Conquering, they will draw 1 instead of gaining the point unless they have scored each battlefield that turn. In effect, every point at or above the Victory Score becomes the final point.

323.1.1. If a player has points greater than or equal to the Victory Score, and more points than any opponent, that player wins.

467.When a cleanup occurs and a player has accrued Points greater than or equal to the Victory Score for their Mode of Play, and if they have more points than any opponent, they Win the Game.

What happens if you Brush a Brush? Can you swap back the original battlefield you Brushed?

The Brush token will cease to exist. When swapping back, a player can choose to swap back to any object that was replaced, including the original battlefield.

This is because a replacing game object inherits all of the statuses and conditions of the game object it replaced, per 438.1. A game object can be instructed to “swap back”; the token stops existing and the original card is returned to the space that the token occupied, inheriting all its current effects and statuses per rule 438.7.b. “All of the effects and statuses” includes not only temporary effects applied to the battlefield, but also the relationship between replaced and replacing battlefields.

438.1.Replacing is the act of Creating a token in the place of another card or token without playing it while inheriting all effects or statuses of the game object it replaced.

438.7.b.To Swap Back, the token stops existing and the original card is returned to the space that the token just occupied, inheriting all current effects and statuses.

If I play Turn to Dust on an attached Equipment, will the Equipment die in the Beginning Phase?

Yes. The granted Temporary keyword will be active. It will trigger and kill the equipment in its controller’s next Beginning Phase.

Attached Equipment only have their printed rules text made inactive per rules 718.2. and 135.4. This means that any granted rules text will still be active; granted Temporary will trigger and kill attached Equipment and granted Deflect will add [A] to the cost of enemy spells and abilities that target them. Prior to this rules update, all rules text of attached Equipment was inactive.

135.4.A card’s printed Rules Text is Inactive while that card is Attached to another card.

718.2.While in this state, the card’s printed Rules Text is Inactive.

If Temporary is granted to an attached Spinning Axe, will it die at the start of my Beginning Phase?

Yes. The Spinning Axe will have two instances of the Temporary keyword - one that is active and one that is inactive. The inactive keyword will not trigger, but the active one will. Alas, Spinning Axe will die.

Multiple instances of the Temporary keyword are redundant per rule 816.2., but that rule refers to the fact that multiple instances that could trigger will only trigger once, as clarified by rule 816.2.a. In the case of granted Temporary on an attached Spinning Axe, that rule isn’t of any concern - there is only one instance of Temporary that could trigger, so it will.

It can help to visualize the attached permanent as it is undergoing these changes, as if it were being digitally simulated. Imagine all of its printed rules text as going gray while it is attached, as it is inactive. Then the granted Temporary keyword, because it is active, is the normal text color for Spinning Axe. There are two colors of Temporary on Spinning Axe, but the grey Temporary doesn’t have any function. We can treat it as if it didn’t exist for the purposes of rule 816.2.a.

816.2.Multiple instances of Temporary are redundant.

816.2.a.Regardless of how many instances there are, the ability will only trigger once.

You mentioned rule 187.4.c. earlier and it says “open state”, I don’t remember that in the old rules. What gives?

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.

Can a cleanup happen while I’m finalizing a card or ability?

No. A cleanup cannot occur during the process of finalizing a card or ability.

Finalizing is part of the FEPR process—Finalize, Execute, Pass, Resolve—which is the process that handles items on the chain. Finalizing is the step where you make choices, pay costs, and check legality. Cleanups will occur after adding an item to the chain, after finalizing that item, and after that item resolves. At each point that a cleanup occurs, it will pause the FEPR process until it is complete. However, cleanups will only happen between these steps and never during a step itself.

If I conquer a battlefield with Zilean, Time Mage, can I copy him with my Deceiver legend? Will I make infinite Zileans?

Yes, you can copy Zilean, but you will not make an infinite number. The Deceiver reflexive trigger effect for turning the tokens into copies of Zilean takes place after they are already resolved.

Let’s walk through this step by step. Remember, we are first going to add to the chain and then we will work in reverse order to resolve these things.

You trigger Deceiver when you score the battlefield, discarding a card and exhausting her as the cost to finalize the trigger.
When the effect resolves, you play a 0 [M] Reflection token to the chain.
Zilean’s replacement effect sees you playing a token and it replaces that event with you playing the token and a copy of that token. Now there are two 0 [M] Reflection tokens waiting on the chain.
The Deceiver trigger puts the reflexive trigger on the chain that copies a unit (chosen on finalization) and gives the tokens Temporary.

Remember, you finalize all of these items in the order that they were added to the chain, starting with the two tokens that are placed on the chain in the order of their controller’s choosing.

So now we work through the above ordering in reverse:

As soon as either token is finalized, it resolves immediately.
Both tokens enter ready when they resolve this way, because the copy that is generated by Zilean’s replacement effect inherits any modifications (rule 375).
Next you finalize the reflexive trigger, choosing a unit to copy. You target Zilean.
When it resolves, it will cause the two Reflection tokens to become a copy of Zilean, as well as granting them Temporary—both Reflections receive this modification for the same reason that they are both ready, because of rule 375.

By this point, even if the two tokens become copies of Zilean, there is no subsequent play game action involving tokens to apply their replacement effects to, so they will not be able to cause any further tokens to be produced.

375.If an event that a Replacement Effect applies to would be modified by a Game Effect, or the results of that event would be modified by a Game Action, the Replacement Effect will inherit those modifications.

If I play Counter Strike in response to my opponent’s Elder Dragon’s play effect, will the chosen unit still die?

No, the unit protected by Counter Strike will not die.

Elder Dragon’s passive ability changes the definition for what is considered lethal damage for a unit, as long as that unit has damage marked by Elder Dragon’s controller on it. However, this doesn’t change the actual amount of damage being dealt. Elder Dragon deals 1 damage to up to one unit at each location—if one of those units has a prevent effect applied to it, that prevent effect will replace as much of that damage as it can. In the case of Counter Strike, it will replace all of the damage. If the damage is entirely prevented, it is never dealt per rule 437.2.a., and thus there is no opportunity for the passive ability of Elder Dragon to apply to that unit.

437.2.a.The damage being dealt as a result of Preventing can never be less than 0, but can be 0. This is equivalent to not dealing damage.

My opponent plays Elder Dragon and targets my two units at the two battlefields, as well as one of my units in base. If I play Flash in reaction, moving the two units at battlefields to base, will they be dealt damage?

They will not.

Elder Dragon’s play effect has a number of targeting restrictions equal to the number of locations on the board. Its controller chooses up to one enemy unit at each of those locations to target with the ability and each of those units must follow their respective targeting restriction. It is the equivalent to saying “Deal 1 to up to one enemy unit at battlefield A. Deal 1 to up to one enemy unit at battlefield B. Deal 1 to up to one enemy unit in your base. Deal 1 to up to one enemy unit in Opponent A’s Base. …” Each of those targeting restrictions is fulfilled separately for each unit targeted.

If you play Flash in reaction to the play effect of Elder Dragon, any units that are moved to a location other than the one where they were targeted will no longer fulfill the targeting restriction of the Elder Dragon play effect and will be unaffected by the ability as it resolves.

If I play Singularity and my opponent counters it, can I still play Jhin, Meticulous Killer for [C] this turn?

You can. Jhin checks the energy spent to play a spell, not whether that spell resolved. If the energy was spent and the spell became a Finalized Chain Item (and was not undone, for example as part of step 5 of the process of play) then it doesn’t matter if the spell is later countered. The energy wasn’t unspent, even if the spell was countered.

I play Alpha Strike targeting my Master Yi, Unstoppable and splitting 12 damage among three of the four enemy units at battlefields. If my opponent plays Flash in reaction to my Alpha Strike, moving two of the targeted units to base, can they then play Repulse and counter my Alpha Strike?

No, they cannot play Repulse targeting your Alpha Strike. (Except if both of the other chosen units have changed to a non-board zone, such as via the effect of something like Grim Apothecary’s play effect, Heedless Resurrection’s additional cost, or the instructions of Thrill of the Hunt.)

A spell that targets a game object creates a targeting relationship between it and the targeted game object. As long as that targeted game object remains on the board, that relationship is maintained even if the target no longer fulfills the targeting restrictions of the spell. Even if the units in this example aren’t at a battlefield anymore, they are still being chosen by Alpha Strike. We know this is true because the spell remembers that it is targeting those units if they happen to fulfill its targeting restrictions again per rule 359.3.e.3. The only exception to this principle is if the units change to a non-board zone—in such a case, they are no longer the same game object and any relationship between them and the spell that targets them is severed. Even if they returned to the same battlefield, they won’t be legal targets and the spell won’t be choosing them.

359.3.e.3.If a target ceases to meet the targeting requirements while the spell is on the chain, then meets them again, it's a legal target.

It can help to visualize Alpha Strike’s targets with a colored arrow pointing from Alpha Strike to those units. Even if the units move to base and are no longer legal targets, they are still being chosen by Alpha Strike; we can imagine that the arrow is greyed out, but still present. Meanwhile, if they moved to a non-board zone the arrow would disappear entirely, since the game object it is connected to no longer exists. Repulse cares about the number of those arrows that point to friendly units, not the color of the arrows.

If I hold Reckoner’s Arena with Yone, Blademaster, will I place his triggered ability on the chain when the hold effect of Reckoner’s Arena resolves?

No, you will not. The main thing you need to know is that activating a conquer effect such as the Reckoner’s Arena effect is the equivalent of checking the condition of all of the specified conquer effects, as if a conquer had occurred at Reckoner’s Arena. Any triggered abilities of units at Reckoner’s Arena that trigger on conquering will see a conquer event occurring, but they will still need to check their other conditions in order to go on the chain.

In this case, the rest of Yone’s conquer effect condition is “...that was previously uncontrolled,” and since the battlefield wasn’t previously uncontrolled, Yone’s ability will not trigger.

Note that no actual conquer occurs—we’re simply treating the game as if a conquer had occurred at that battlefield for the purposes of the specified abilities. In Reckoner’s Arena’s case it specifies units, so only units with conquer effects at Reckoner’s Arena will see this conquer event and potentially trigger.

(We recognize the rules for “activate” in the way discussed above are underdefined. Expect further revisions in the next rules update.)

What happens if I play Atakhan from my deck with Rek’Sai, Breacher on the board? Can I pay the Accelerate cost and kill Rek’Sai for the Atakhan additional cost? Will it enter ready?

Yes, as long as you pay the Accelerate cost, Atakhan will enter ready, even if he kills Rek’Sai for his additional cost. This is because Accelerate creates a delayed replacement effect that causes Atakhan to enter ready. Although he lacks the Accelerate keyword when he resolves, he still has the delayed replacement effect that Accelerate generates.

How does HOT FEPR actually work?

HOT FEPR stands for Handle Outstanding Tasks; then Finalize, Execute, Pass, Resolve. Outstanding Tasks include the various procedures of the turn: things like readying all of your game objects on the board in the Awakening Phase, scoring battlefields in the Beginning Phase, drawing 1 in the Draw Phase, the steps of a cleanup, and the substeps of the Combat Phase, among other procedures. Each of these tasks is made outstanding when a player is expected to perform them, and a player must handle any outstanding tasks before proceeding to the next substep, step, phase, or turn.

FEPR is the process by which items on the chain are processed. Finalizing an item on the chain involves making choices, paying costs, and checking legality. Executing items to the chain means a player adding an item to the chain when they have priority, or passing priority. When all players Pass priority in a row, the topmost finalized item on the chain Resolves. While there are tasks outstanding, the FEPR process will be paused in place until all tasks are handled.

An initial question many players are going to have is why add this system at all? Wasn’t FEPR good enough on its own? The reason we implemented the HOT part of HOT FEPR is that prior to this system, the game only had one rule to address how and when items on the chain interact with the procedures of the game: what is now rule 305. It says “when there are no items on the chain and the turn player cannot or chooses not to perform any discretionary actions, the current phase or step of the turn ends and the next phase, step, or turn begins.”

FEPR was a great starting point, but there were several places that were unclear about how it functioned. Primarily, for our purposes, how we approached the sub-rules of a given step. Do we pause to FEPR items between each sub-rule and procedure? Or between several procedures? We realized that it needed more clarity.

HOT FEPR as a system tells us precisely when the FEPR process can occur during the turn and when it is precluded from occurring. While tasks are outstanding, pause FEPR and handle those tasks. Once all outstanding tasks are handled, any items on the chain undergo the FEPR process. Then when there are no more items on the chain and no outstanding tasks, we can move to the next procedure of the turn, per rule 335.3.

335.3.If there are no outstanding tasks, no pending Chain Items, and it is the Main Phase, the turn player receives priority. If there are no outstanding tasks, no pending items, and it is any other phase of the turn, proceed to the next substep, step, phase, or turn.

An important point that is easy to miss in the HOT FEPR system is that it is recursive, that is the procedures which designate tasks as outstanding are themselves steps or substeps. Anytime the Core Rules Document says “the following task(s) become outstanding,” that step itself waits until any outstanding tasks and any items on the chain are completed. This will hopefully help make sense of the various procedures where HOT FEPR orders the turn.

Let’s look at two examples to illustrate this:

The Resolution Step of Combat can be broken down into four subsections:

The Combat Cleanup
Determine Combat Result
Establish Control
Combat Ends

As we move between each of these subsections, there will be a window to perform the FEPR process on chain items, and only after the chain is empty and there are no outstanding tasks, would we proceed to the next subsection.

The second example is that cleanups work in the inverse, where several tasks are queued at once and all must be completed before the FEPR process will initiate.

305.When there are no items on the Chain and the Turn Player cannot or chooses not to perform any Discretionary Actions, the current phase or step of the turn ends and the next phase, step, or turn begins.

[NEW TEXT]

When you conquer or hold, you may discard 1 and exhaust me to play a ready Reflection unit token there. Then do this: It becomes a copy of another unit there. Give it [Temporary].

▲

[OLD TEXT]

When you conquer or hold, you may discard 1 and exhaust me to play a ready Reflection unit token there. It becomes a copy of another unit there. Give it [Temporary].

Mirror Image

[NEW TEXT]

Choose a unit. Play a ready Reflection unit token to your base. Then do this: It becomes a copy of that unit. Give it [Temporary]. (Kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

▲

[OLD TEXT]

Choose a unit. Play a ready Reflection unit token to your base. It becomes a copy of that unit. Give it [Temporary]. (Kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

Keeper of Masks

[NEW TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

[Temporary] (Kill me at the start of my controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

When you play me, play two Reflection unit tokens here. Then do this: They become copies of me.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

[Temporary] (Kill me at the start of my controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

When you play me, play two Reflection unit tokens here. They become copies of me.

Rengar, Trophy Hunter

[NEW TEXT]

[Ambush] (You may play me as a [Reaction] to a battlefield where you have units.)

I can [Ambush] to a battlefield where there are enemy units, even if you don't have units there.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Ambush] (You may play me as a [Reaction] to a battlefield where you have units.)

I can be played to a battlefield where there are enemy units (even if you don't have units there).

Riftbound Spiritforged FAQ

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-spiritforged-faq

Date: see page

Everything you need to know about Origins and Spiritforged rules clarifications and errata

Hi all! We’ve heard your questions about Spiritforged, and we’d like to address some of them. We also need to issue some clarifications of intent where the current version of the Core Rules is ambiguous or misleading. These clarifications will be incorporated into the next iteration of the Core Rules.

As part of these revised and clarified rulings, we have also updated some card wordings (this is called errata). We previously announced plans to issue errata via a database called Watcher. These plans are still in the works, and we’ll update you when we can!

This document has three sections:

Outstanding Issues from the Origins FAQ, including some errata to Origins and Spiritforged cards
Functional Errata for a small number of other cards in Spiritforged
Rules Clarifications about cards whose intended function may not be obvious in the current rules

The errata are also available as a separate document.

This FAQ includes far fewer errata and rules revisions than the Origins FAQ, but it still includes more than we’d like. The reason for this lies in part with the long lead times for physical games. Spiritforged card text was already finalized when many of the rules and templating decisions in the Origins FAQ and errata were made, so some of this is just catching up. We expect the need for “day 0” errata to (continue to) decrease as our rules stabilize and our production catches up to the real world.

We’re well aware that the formatting and cadence of our rules guidance have room for improvement, and we’re committed to making those improvements in the coming months. For now, though, we wanted to get clarifications and errata into players’ hands in time for Chinese tournaments with Spiritforged cards. These clarifications take effect immediately.

One other note about errata, as always: Errata may impact the effective power level of cards, but we have no plans to issue errata strictly for power level reasons—only to make cards work within the rules and as intended.

Throughout this document, we use some specific shorthand to represent symbols in card text. Here’s a short guide:

[E] means “exhaust”
[M] means “Might”
[A] means “one power of any domain”
[C] means “one power of this card’s domain”
[C] in Accelerate costs takes on the domain of the unit, or turns into [A] if the unit has no domain or multiple domains.
[C] in other cases is treated as the corresponding power symbol in all respects, matching how the cards are actually printed—it’s just a design shorthand!

Origins FAQ Outstanding Issues and Errata

Some categories of errata that we made in the Origins FAQ also apply to Spiritforged cards, but weren’t made in time to be included in their printed versions. We’ve also got a few loose ends in Origins to tie up.

Falling Star, Icathian Rain, and Deflect

The Origins FAQ impacted these two Origins cards in ways that ultimately went beyond our original intentions for them, and we haven’t been happy with the result. We’ll turn over the mic to Riftbound Game Director Dave Guskin to talk about two prominent Origins cards that are receiving errata:

Hey all, Dave here! As we developed more and more designs that needed to perform effects after an initial effect resolved, we added in a new type of trigger called a reflexive trigger. These triggers are the way that a spell or ability can use information from a first effect, and still allow other players to respond now knowing that information before the second effect resolves.

We used a straightforward template (or formal wording) to identify reflexive triggers, the "then do this:" template. And because Icathian Rain and Falling Star were already using a similar template, I ended up pushing forward with changing those cards to reflexive triggers even though they didn't have a first effect -> information -> second effect kind of flow.

This was a mistake, and we shouldn't have done this—it has a lot of weird unintuitive consequences for gameplay that make these two cards play different than one might expect, and also worse.

For those reasons, we're changing these two cards to work the way other spells work and the way we think players want them to work—that is, you pick all the targets up front, the other player can react before any of it resolves, and then each of the units affected take the damage on resolution. You can still choose the same unit or different units for each choice.

Falling Star (revised text)

Deal 3 to a unit.

(You can choose different units.)

Icathian Rain (revised text)

Deal 2 to a unit.

(You can choose different units.)

In addition to these card changes, we have a small rules change to make. We’ve realized that our design team and rules team weren’t in agreement about how Deflect was supposed to work. In the rules, a target’s Deflect cost was paid once for each spell or ability. In the design team’s playtesting, it was paid once for each time that target was chosen. That misalignment didn’t actually matter—Icathian Rain and Falling Star had reflexive triggers, so they worked as intended, and there were no other cards (that we could find) that can choose the same unit multiple times. Now that difference does matter, both because of the above errata and the existence of the Repeat ability, and we want the cards to play as the design team intended. To that end, we’re taking the unusual step of issuing errata for the rules themselves:

Rule 735.1.c (revised text)

It is functionally short for "Spells and abilities an opponent controls that choose me cost an amount of Power equal to [Deflect Value] more to play as an additional cost for each time they choose me."

Cards that Tell You to Play Other Cards from Your Deck

Q: Origins cards that instruct players to play cards from their deck, like Promising Future and Blind Fury, received errata to banish those cards before playing them. Will Spiritforged cards with similar abilities receive similar errata?

Yes! This is mostly a bookkeeping thing—banishing the card ensures that the game has a place to put the card until it’s actually played, and a place to send the card back to if it can’t be played for whatever reason. 99% of the time, these cards work the same with or without this errata, but we need to cover those weird corner cases. This impacts 3 Spiritforged cards, plus 1 Origins card that got past us last time.

Rek’Sai, Swarm Queen (revised text)

When I attack, you may reveal the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish one, then play it. If it is a unit, you may play it here. Recycle the rest.

Void Burrower (revised text)

When you conquer, you may exhaust me to reveal the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish one, then play it. Recycle the rest.

Void Rush (revised text)

Reveal the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish one, then play it, reducing its cost by [2]. Draw any you didn't banish.

Reinforce (revised text)

Look at the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish a unit from among them, then play it, reducing its cost by [5]. Recycle the remaining cards.

Reflexive Triggers on Spiritforged Cards

Q: Should the reflexive trigger system introduced in the Origins FAQ apply to any cards in Spiritforged?

Yes! This is another one where if you don’t know the finer points of the rules, you’re probably already playing these cards correctly, but the machinery of the rules requires a slightly different wording than we thought. Reflexive triggers, identified by “do this:” language, create new chain items to handle things that need to offer players a chance to react, or just need to happen later than the rest of a spell or ability. This impacts 2 cards in Spiritforged, both of which let you play something and then try to do something to that thing.

Arise! (revised text)

Play a 2 [M] Sand Soldier unit token for each Equipment you control. Then do this: Ready up to two of them.

Rell, Magnetic (revised text)

Tank (I must be assigned combat damage first.)

When I attack, you may play an Equipment with Energy cost no more than [2], ignoring its cost. If you do, then do this: Attach it to me.

Spiritforged Functional Errata

A handful of cards in Spiritforged were printed with text that either doesn’t quite work, or technically works but goes against design intent and (we think) common sense. We’re issuing errata to maintain these cards’ intended function.

Blood Rush

Q: Should Blood Rush say “this turn” on it?

It should! Like Convergent Mutation in Origins, the phrase “this turn” was accidentally omitted.

Blood Rush (revised text)

[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.)

[Repeat][1] (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.)

Give a unit [Assault 2] this turn. (+2 [M] while it's an attacker.)

Deathgrip

Q: Is the first friendly unit on Deathgrip a cost or a target? When do I kill it, and what happens if I don’t?

Deathgrip uses a nonstandard wording that we normally avoid, precisely because of these ambiguities. We’re issuing errata to bring it more in line with how other cards and abilities work. This errata establishes that 1) the friendly unit is a target, not a cost; 2) it is chosen along with the other friendly unit and killed as the spell resolves; 3) if you don’t actually kill it for any reason, either because it’s no longer a legal target or because you replaced its death with an effect like Zhonya’s Hourglass, you do not give the second friendly unit any Might. (You do still draw 1; we’ve introduced a paragraph break to make that clear.)

Deathgrip (revised text)

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)

Kill a friendly unit. If you do, give +[M] equal to its Might to another friendly unit this turn.

Draw 1.

Edge of Night

Q: Does Edge of Night’s auto-attach ability work?

Because unattended gear at battlefields are recalled, Edge of Night does a strange little dance on its way to becoming attached, returning to your base while its ability is on the chain. And because of that dance, it’s no longer “here” when the attachment is supposed to happen. We need to change its wording so it can still find the unit you chose.

But we don’t want any confusion here—the card works exactly the same as it did before. The Hidden rules still require that you choose a unit at the battlefield where you played it from face down. For that reason, we’ve included reminder text in the errata.

Edge of Night (revised text)

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

When you play this from face down, attach it to a unit you control (here).

[Equip] [C] ([C]: Attach this to a unit you control.)

Janna, Savior

Q: Can Janna’s play effect be used to heal my units without an enemy unit present?

Triggered abilities in Riftbound can’t be placed on the chain unless all required targets can be chosen. They can resolve and perform part of their text without all targets still being available, but all targets must be available to put them on the chain to begin with. This is weird, and we generally try not to force players to know it. We think 99% of players probably expect that Janna can heal their units without enemies present, so we’re meeting that expectation with a simple “up to,” similar to some “up to” errata for triggered abilities in Origins.

Janna, Savior (revised text)

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve, including to a battlefield you control.)

When you play me, heal your units here, then move up to one enemy unit from here to its base.

Jax, Unmatched

Q: How does Jax, Unmatched work?

Jax, Unmatched grants Quick-Draw to Equipment in your hand, which works as far as letting you play them as Reactions… but doesn’t work so well when the Equipment hits the board and the other part of Quick-Draw tries to take effect. We’re fixing that.

Jax, Unmatched (revised text)

[Deflect] (Opponents must pay [A] to choose me with a spell or ability.)

Your Equipment everywhere have [Quick-Draw]. (Each gains [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.)

Kato the Arm

Q: Can Kato the Arm give himself his own Might and keywords?

“Friendly unit” does properly include Kato himself, but that wasn’t the intent behind this card—Kato can’t throw himself, after all. It was a simple goof that Kato made it out the door without the word “another,” and the gameplay is so divergent from the design intent that we’re changing it to fix this error.

Kato the Arm (revised text)

[Deflect] (Opponents must pay [A] to choose me with a spell or ability.)

When I move to a battlefield, give another friendly unit my keywords and +[M] equal to my Might this turn.

Q: Does Kato give keywords he’s gained during play? What about Might bonuses from various sources like Equipment?

Yes. Kato gives his current keywords and additional Might equal to his current Might to the unit you choose. Later changes to Kato don’t matter; what the unit gets is locked in as the ability resolves.

Tianna Crownguard

Q: Can I still conquer and hold battlefields while my opponent has Tianna? Do I get conquer and hold triggers? What about drawing a card instead of getting the 8th point from conquering?

Riftbound rules and card text use the word “score” in a couple different ways. You can score battlefields; you can also score points, as on cards like Tryndamere, Barbarian. The difference between these two is usually clear… but Tianna muddles them more than we anticipated. Tianna is solely concerned with points and doesn’t interfere with the process of conquering or holding battlefields. You can still conquer and hold battlefields and get your conquer and hold triggers. You can even draw a card if you conquer a battlefield and can’t score because it’s the final point and you haven’t scored every battlefield yet. It’s not until you reach for your scorepad, app, or tracking die that Tianna says “No.”

The “gain points” meaning of score is underdeveloped in the current rules, so in the future we are likely to revisit the rules and/or card wordings for scoring points without scoring battlefields. For now, we’re issuing errata to make Tianna’s function clearer and leaving the rest unchanged.

Tianna Crownguard (revised text)

[Deflect] (Opponents must pay [A] to choose me with a spell or ability.)

While I'm at a battlefield, opponents can't gain points.

Q: Does Forgotten Monument work the same as Tianna? Will it receive similar errata?

Forgotten Monument works differently from Tianna, and we agree that’s confusing. That’s part of why we decided to issue errata for Tianna (and not for Forgotten Monument).

Forgotten Monument completely prevents the process of scoring there. That means no conquer triggers, no hold triggers, and no points from doing those things. “Extra” points such as those from Renata Glasc, Mastermind are unaffected. You can still gain control of the battlefield following a showdown—you just can’t conquer it.

Yone, Blademaster

Q: When and how does Yone trigger? If you conquer a battlefield, is it still open?

Yone’s current text is a little, well, open to interpretation. A strict reading suggests that he can never trigger at all—once you’ve conquered a battlefield, it’s no longer open—but obviously that’s not the intent. We’re tweaking his text to cue off the control status of the battlefield immediately before conquering it. This means that he works as intended, triggering at the end of a noncombat showdown in which he conquers. It also means that he now triggers in “surprise defense” scenarios, caused when units move around during showdowns and you wind up defending a battlefield you don’t control.

Yone, Blademaster (revised text)

[Weaponmaster] (When you play me, you may [Equip] one of your Equipment to me for [A] less, even if it's already attached.)

When I conquer a battlefield that was uncontrolled, deal damage equal to my Might to an enemy unit in a base.

Rules Clarifications

There are a few cards in Spiritforged whose function isn’t entirely clear, not because of anything wrong with their text, but because the rules don’t support them as well as they should. A future rules update will fix these oversights, but in the meantime, we’d like to offer guidance on how these cards should be played.

Draven, Audacious

Q: What does it mean to win or lose a combat?

Winning and losing combats is a system that was inadvertently left out of the most recent rules update. Here are the conditions under which you win, lose, or tie a combat.

After combat damage has been dealt:

If neither player has units remaining at the battlefield or both players have units remaining, combat is a tie. If both players do, attackers are recalled.
If only one player has units remaining at the battlefield, that player wins the combat and the other player loses. Draven triggers if he’s among the units that survive.

It doesn’t matter whether combat damage was actually dealt, only that there was a combat showdown and only your units were left after combat damage. If you killed or removed all the opposing units with spells and abilities before Draven had to throw any punches, he still wins. (Think of it as winning by default.)

You can win a combat on either offense or defense.

Q: If I win on the attack and conquer, does this happen before or after I score? Before or after conquer effects?

Draven’s ability will trigger and resolve before you gain your regular point for scoring the battlefield and before any conquer effects are triggered. This means that you can’t win from 6 points by conquering a battlefield with Draven without having scored all other battlefields—you’ll gain your point from Draven, then the game will see that you’re at 7 points and give you a card draw instead of a point for conquering.

Pickpocket

Q: Can Pickpocket kill a Gold token?

Yes, but we see why you’d ask. The rules use a “NULL” system for values that aren’t available, such as the Might of a unit that’s been removed from the board. The unit is gone and the information is missing, so you can’t do any calculations or comparisons with it (not even “is it no more than 1?”).

That system could reasonably be applied to the costs of tokens, but we feel that results in unintuitive situations, like not being able to kill a Gold token with Pickpocket. After all, the token’s not missing; it just doesn’t have a cost because it doesn’t need one. We’ll be updating the rules to clarify that the cost of a token can be treated as 0 for all purposes.

Rumble, Hotheaded

Q: Can Rumble, Hotheaded choose a Mech token to recycle? If he does, where does it go?

Yes, he can. This is a minor gap in the rules. Main Deck cards are recycled to the Main Deck and runes are recycled to the Rune deck, but tokens aren’t actually either of those things. We’ll be clarifying in a future rules updates that tokens “inherit” the recycle destination of their type(s), so a token that’s a unit or gear is recycled to your Main Deck just like any other gear. It then vanishes, as tokens do any time they leave the board, but it still counts as “the unit you recycled” and Rumble can check its Might.

Svellsongur

Q: Does Svellsongur copy text that the unit has gained from other sources, such as the Assault granted by Cleave? What about text it’s gained from other Equipment?

No, Svellsongur only copies the text that’s actually printed on the unit. This is an ambiguity in the current rules, which refer to “appending” and “removing” rules text without reference to whether that text is original to the unit or not.

The key word here is actually copy, a system that will be fleshed out in a future rules update. For now, we’ll just tell you that copies of objects or text take on their original traits, without regard to any subsequent alterations.

Svellsongur doesn’t grant the unit additional “copies” of the abilities of other Equipment. So putting 3 Svellsongur on the same unit will give that unit four total instances of its abilities, not eight. (Four should be plenty.)

Q: Aphelios, Exalted has an ability that triggers when I attach an Equipment to him and tells me to “choose one that hasn’t been chosen this turn.” If I attach Svellsongur to him, does he have the second copy of his ability in time for both to trigger? And do I have to choose different options?

He does have the second copy of his ability in time, and it will trigger. The “one that hasn’t been chosen this turn” restriction applies separately to each instance of his ability. So you could choose the same option for both, but you’ll have to track which options you’ve used for each copy of his ability.

Cards that Reduce Might

Q: I heard that cards that reduce Might will no longer say “to a minimum of 1” on them. Does that mean Origins cards like Stupefy will receive errata?

No. This is a change to our design philosophy beginning with Spiritforged, but Origins cards will maintain their functionality.

Q: Does this mean that units’ Might can go to 0 or below now?

Units’ Might could always go to 0 or below; it was just really hard to actually make it happen. For example: If a Recruit was at Trifarian War Camp, it would have 2 Might (its 1 base Might, +1 from War Camp). If it got hit with Stupefy, Stupefy would “snapshot” at -1 Might, reducing the Recruit’s Might to 1. If the Recruit then moved away from Trifarian War Camp, it would lose the +1 Might bonus and end up at 0 Might. It’s much easier to make it happen with Spiritforged cards, though, so it’s worth reviewing the rules for units with 0 or less Might.

Q: Does a unit with 0 or less Might automatically die?

No, units can stick around on the board with 0 (or less!) Might. They will die if they take any damage, but “0” is not a valid amount of damage, so it takes 1 damage to kill a unit with 0 or less Might. We realize that this is a little weird, but it’s important to us that cards like Frigid Touch can’t be used to actually kill units, only weaken them.

Q: Does a unit with negative Might contribute negative damage to my Might total in combat?

No. Negative Might is treated as 0 Might for the purposes of dealing damage, but as its true value for raising it back above 0. So a unit with -3 Might would contribute 0 damage in combat, would die if it was dealt 1 or more damage, and would require +4 Might to get it back up to 1 Might.

Ezreal, Prodigy

Q: What costs does Ezreal, Prodigy reduce? Does he reduce Repeat costs? Accelerate costs? Equip costs?

Ezreal, Prodigy reduces additional costs that are optional to pay. These will generally use both the words “additional cost” and the word “may.” Repeat and Accelerate are the two main sources of optional additional costs, but Ezreal can also offer a discount for one-off oddballs like Blast Corps Cadet.

Ezreal can’t reduce Equip costs. That’s an activation cost for an ability, so it’s neither optional nor additional. There aren’t currently any optional additional costs that apply to activating abilities.

Q: What about Deflect costs? Aren’t those optional now?

No, Ezreal won’t help with Deflect costs, and Deflect is not optional. Deflect is a mandatory additional cost, meaning you must pay it if you want to finalize a spell or ability that chooses something with Deflect. It’s true that you can choose not to pay Deflect costs for triggered abilities by choosing not to finalize them, but that doesn’t make it an optional cost.

Hostile Takeover

Q: If I use Hostile Takeover to take control of my opponent’s only unit at a battlefield, will there be a showdown? Will it be a combat?

You’ll start a noncombat showdown. (Hostile Takeover’s reminder text is a little misleading in this regard—you have to have some kind of showdown before you can conquer.) This ruling applies any time you have a unit at a battlefield when your opponent still controls that battlefield, but doesn’t have any units there. (Yes, that can happen. Hostile Takeover and Stormbringer are the easiest ways to do it.)

There’s a gap in the current rules that leaves this situation without an obvious outcome. We plan to address that gap in the next regular rules update. The issue is surprisingly complex, and we’re not 100% sure what the answer will be when we’re done.

In the meantime, though, we believe starting a noncombat showdown is the least disruptive way to handle this scenario. If you need really precise timing: assume that your opponent loses control of the battlefield in the same cleanup that begins the showdown, even though ordinarily control is “frozen” once the battlefield becomes contested.

Temporal Portal

Q: What parts of a spell does the Repeat ability cause to be repeated? Is it the entire effect? If I use Temporal Portal to give Find Your Center Repeat and pay the cost while its cost reduction applies, does the cost reduction happen once or twice, and does the final spell cost 2 or 4?

Repeat causes you to repeat execution of a spell’s “instructions,” which are the things the spell tells you to do as it resolves. (We’ll give a better definition of “instructions” and how to define them in an upcoming rules update.) And the Repeat cost of Find Your Center isn’t reduced, even when its base cost is, because anything that asks for a card’s cost finds its printed cost as the answer.

This means that Find Your Center’s cost reduction applies only once and the final spell costs 4—its base cost of 3, plus its Repeat cost of 3, minus its cost reduction of 2.

Cards with Weaponmaster

Q: The reminder text of Weaponmaster says “You may”, but the Core Rules reads like it is mandatory. Which is it?

Oh, sharp catch. Weaponmaster as a keyword is always meant to be optional. While the rules utilize a language structure that imply a mandatory target, the reminder text is more accurate here. It is always a choice on whether or not to use this play ability. We will clean up that language in the future.

Riftbound Spiritforged Errata

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-spiritforged-errata

Date: see page

A quick summary of the latest Origins and Spiritforged Errata

[Download Card Errata]

Hey Riftbounders!

We’ve got some fresh card errata for you today, covering cards from both Origins and Spiritforged. If you’re just starting Riftbound, or new to TCGs, card errata refers to any updates to card text after a card was printed. We do this to make cards more easily understood and to clarify how they work within the rules of the game.

Play a 2 [M] Sand Soldier unit token for each Equipment you control. Then ready two of them.

Blood Rush

[NEW TEXT]

[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.)

[Repeat] [1] (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.)

Give a unit [Assault 2] this turn. (+2 [M] while it's an attacker.)

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.)

[Repeat] [1] (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.)

Give a unit [Assault 2]. (+2 [M] while it's an attacker.)

Deathgrip

[NEW TEXT]

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)

Kill a friendly unit. If you do, give +[M] equal to its Might to another friendly unit this turn.

Draw 1.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)

Kill a friendly unit to give +[M] equal to its Might to another friendly unit this turn. Draw 1.

Edge of Night

[NEW TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

When you play this from face down, attach it to a unit you control (here).

[Equip] [C] ([C]: Attach this to a unit you control.)

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[OLD TEXT]

[Deflect] (Opponents must pay [A] to choose me with a spell or ability.)

When I move to a battlefield, give a friendly unit my keywords and +[M] equal to my Might this turn.

Rek’Sai, Swarm Queen

[NEW TEXT]

When I attack, you may reveal the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish one, then play it. If it is a unit, you may play it here. Recycle the rest.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

When I attack, you may reveal the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. You may play one. Then recycle the rest. If the played card is a unit, you may play it here.

Rell, Magnetic

[NEW TEXT]

[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)

When I attack, you may play an Equipment with Energy cost no more than [2], ignoring its cost. If you do, then do this: Attach it to me.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)

When I attack, you may play an Equipment with Energy cost no more than [2], ignoring its cost, and attach it to me.

Tianna Crownguard

[NEW TEXT]

[Deflect] (Opponents must pay [A] to choose me with a spell or ability.)

While I'm at a battlefield, opponents can't gain points.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Weaponmaster] (When you play me, you may [Equip] one of your Equipment to me for [A] less, even if it's already attached.)

When I conquer an open battlefield, deal damage equal to my Might to an enemy unit in a base.

Riftbound Origins FAQ

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-origins-faq

Date: 2025 (Origins); retired-note on page

Frequently Asked Questions about the rules and interactions you'll commonly encounter.

“The below document may no longer reflect Riftbound’s rules. Visit the Rules Hub to find the most up-to-date rules references.”

Hi everyone! Itʼs been a little bit since we released the Core Rules and in that time, we have received really valuable feedback and helpful questions that led to some refinements and updates to the Riftbound rules. We have a full rules update coming soon, but we want you to know how to play your cards—so weʼre releasing this FAQ earlier than the rules update!

This document has two sections:

Frequently Asked Questions about the rules and interactions youʼll commonly encounter
Revised and Clarified Rulings about more complicated interactions and cards weʼve reviewed since the original Core Rules were released

As part of these revised and clarified rulings, we have also updated some card wordings (this is called errata) and weʼll put those updated wordings into our database of official card wordings, Watcher. (Youʼll soon be able to access Watcher and its official wordings through our website and also the Riftbound API.)

Whatʼs in this document is our current best representation of the upcoming errata, but the final wordings may vary slightly from those described here. The upcoming full rules update will be accompanied by definitive Watcher errata text.

One other note about errata: Errata may impact the effective power level of cards, but we have no plans to issue errata strictly for power level reasons—only to make cards work within the rules and as intended.

Throughout this document, we use some specific shorthand to represent symbols in card text. Hereʼs a short guide:

[E] means “exhaustˮ (previously, you may have seen this as [T])
[M] means “Mightˮ (previously, you may have seen this as [S])
[A] means “one power of any domain/colorˮ
[C] means “one power of this cardʼs domain/colorˮ

Ok, letʼs get into it!

SECTION 1 — Frequently Asked Questions

Scoring

Q: How do I score? How are conquer and hold different?

Q: How does the last point work?

Movement

Q: Whatʼs the standard move?

Q: Do I have to exhaust a unit when I move it with a spell or ability?

Q: Can I move multiple units together to a battlefield?

Q: Does Ganking allow a unit to move an extra time? When can I use the Ganking ability?

Q: Can I move more units in before a combat starts using a spell or ability?

Combat

Q: What happens when both sides in combat have the same total Might?

Q: What happens if units from both sides in combat survive, either because of Kayn or a stun?

Q: Do units heal from combat damage? When?

Resources

Q: How do runes work? What are energy and power? Can I recycle an exhausted rune?

Q: Is there a limit to how many runes I can have?

Q: Do Seals add energy? Do Seals enter exhausted like units do?

Q: How much do I pay for an Accelerate cost?

Keywords

Q: What does Mighty mean?

Q: Do I get my Legion effect when I play a token or use an ability?

Hidden

Q: How do I hide a card with Hidden?

Q: When I hide a card, does that count for Legion?

Q: If I hide a card, and then my opponent uses a spell to move a unit to that battlefield that same turn, can I play the card I hid?

Q: If I hid a card last turn, can I play that card even if Iʼm not reacting to another spell or ability?

Q: Do I have to play a unit I hid to that battlefield? Or can I play it to my base?

Q: If I play a spell with targets that I hid, do I have to choose those targets from the battlefield I hid it at?

Q: If I play a card I hid, and that cardʼs effects include playing additional units (for example, tokens), can I play them anywhere?

Timing

Q: Can I use the exhaust ability of a unit in combat?

Q: When can I use Viʼs ability to recycle cards from my trash to increase her Might?

Q: Can I use my Legend ability on my opponentʼs turn?

Q: I have a Reaction spell. Can I play it at the end of my opponentʼs turn?

Q: In a free-for-all, can I play Actions and Reactions in a showdown that I donʼt have units at?

Miscellaneous

Q: Is there a maximum hand size?

Q: Is there a maximum number of units I can have in my base? On a battlefield?

Q: What happens when I run out of cards in my Main Deck?

Q: What happens when I run out of cards in my Rune Deck?

Q: Do I put my Chosen Champion back in the Champion Zone when it leaves the board?

SECTION 2 — Revised and Clarified Rulings

Cards that Tell You Play Other Cards

Q: What happens when a card like The Harrowing instructs me to play another card during its resolution? Do I play it while the other spell or ability is still resolving? What if I can’t play it?

Q: So what exactly happens when someone plays Promising Future?

Q: What about Nocturne? Doesn’t he also let you play a card from the top of a deck?

Nocturne, Horrifying

Q: OK, so what about Nocturne? How does his ability work? Is it a triggered ability? Can I use it if I “reveal” him, or only if I “look at” him?

Q: So how exactly does this ability work?

Q: If I reveal multiple Nocturnes, can I play more than one? What if all 3 of the cards I look at for Stacked Deck are Nocturnes and I play all of them?

Q: So if Promising Future resolves and one or more players choose to banish Nocturne from the cards they looked at, what happens?

Q: What about Dazzling Aurora? If I reveal Nocturne, do I get to play him and keep going?

Baited Hook

Q: What happens if I use an effect like Unlicensed Armory to prevent the death of the friendly unit I chose to kill with Baited Hook?

Printing Errors

Convergent Mutation

Q: The English version of this card is missing “this turn,” but the Chinese version includes it. Which is correct?

Dune Drake

Q: What about Dune Drake? It’s missing “this turn” in both English and Chinese.

Ravenborn Tome

Q: Is Ravenborn Tome supposed to be able to grant bonus damage to spells I play on later turns?

Making Choices for Spells and Abilities (Targeting)

Q: Some spells and abilities require choosing units, gear, or other things for them to affect. The rules say some of these choices are made when I put the spell or ability on the chain, but it seems like some of them can’t be or shouldn’t be. How do I know the difference?

Charm

Q: So as I play Charm, I have to say not only what unit I’m moving it, but where I’m moving it to?

Q: What about when I use a unit’s standard move? Does that target?

Spells with Multiple Targets

Q: If a spell has multiple targets, like Back to Back, do I need to choose targets for all of them to put the spell on the chain?

Abilities with Multiple Targets

Q: What about triggered abilities with multiple targets, like Sona, Harmonious?

Sigil of the Storm

Q: Does Sigil of the Storm target? If it does, can I react to the trigger by recycling the chosen rune for Power? That seems weird.

Fox-Fire

Q: Are the units I choose for Fox-Fire targets? What happens if some of them gain Might as a reaction?

Q: Does that mean if the units I originally chose die, move, or lose Might as a Reaction, I can pick additional units at that battlefield to kill?

Dragon’s Rage

Q: Dragon’s Rage also seems a little confusing under these targeting rules. What do I have to choose as I play it?

Disintegrate

Q: How does Disintegrate work? Doesn’t the damage kill the unit after the spell has resolved?

Falling Star & Icathian Rain

Q: That “do this” wording is a lot like the one on Falling Star and Icathian Rain. Are those reflexive triggers too?

Twisted Fate

Q: Twisted Fate too?

2v2 and Friendly Units

Q: In 2v2, can my ally and I bring the same legend? What about the same battlefields?

Q: When a card refers to a friendly unit, what does that mean?

Q: What about “your units?” Is that shared between teammates too?

Q: Can I move my ally’s unit to my own base with Unforgiven, the Yasuo legend? Does that mean it’s mine now?

Cards with Hidden

Q: When you play a card from hidden, it gains several additional restrictions. The rules were somewhat unclear on this.

Tideturner

Q: What do the Hidden changes mean for Tideturner? It seems like I’m supposed to be able to choose a unit at another location.

Zhonya’s Hourglass & Stand United

Q: What about Zhonya’s Hourglass and Stand United? When they’re played from hidden, are their effects restricted to the battlefield where they were played?

Ava Achiever

Q: Does Ava’s ability let me hide cards?

Q: What restrictions does Ava place on the card I play? What does “here” mean?

Pack of Wonders

Q: What can Pack of Wonders return to my hand?

Q: Does this mean it can return a card from my deck to my hand? Those are face down…

Cards that Replace Units Dying

Q: When I replace a unit’s death with a card like Unlicensed Armory, does damage on the unit stay? If the unit died to lethal damage, doesn’t it just die again?

Q: Can I use these cards to save a unit that’s already in its base? What about one that’s already exhausted? If I can’t recall it, do I still exhaust it?

Q: If I play Cruel Patron and kill one of my units for its additional cost, but one of these cards replaces that unit’s death, does the cost still count as paid?

Q: If a unit would be killed by Hidden Blade, but one of these cards replaces that unit’s death, does the unit’s controller still draw 2?

Timing of Healing Damage at End of Combat

Q: I have Garen, Commander at a battlefield along with a Recruit token. Thanks to Garen, the Recruit has 2 Might. My opponent’s total Might during the combat damage step is 6, so they deal 5 damage to Garen and 1 to the Recruit. Does the Recruit die?

Q: Does the damage from Kog’Maw’s Deathknell ability happen before or after combat damage is healed?

Dealing Damage with Spells and Abilities

Unyielding Spirit

Q: What counts as “spell and ability damage?” What does this card do?

Q: So… What does this card do?

Immortal Phoenix

Q: What does it mean to “kill a unit with a spell?” It seems like Hidden Blade counts, but what about a spell that deals damage? A spell that causes a unit to deal damage? A spell that causes a unit to die in some other way, like Stupefy on a unit that has 1 more Might than it has damage currently marked on it?

Q: Can Immortal Phoenix return if it is the unit that was killed? Or if it and other units were killed at the same time? For example, can I Hidden Blade on my own Phoenix and immediately replay it?

Void Gate

Q: If a spell deals damage to one or more units at Void Gate and one or more units somewhere else, which parts of that deal Bonus Damage?

Other Cards

Darius, Trifarian

Q: If I play Darius, Trifarian as my second card in a turn, does he ready and gain 2 Might?

Q: If I play Darius as my third card, does he ready and gain 2 Might? What if I play another card after him?

Hallowed Tomb

Q: Can this card only return the specific card I picked as my Chosen Champion? What about another copy of the same card?

Q: What about a different card with the same Champion tag? If Jinx, Rebel is my Chosen Champion, can I get back a Jinx, Demolitionist, because Jinx is my Chosen Champion?

Karma, Channeler

Q: Does Karma trigger off of recycling runes?

Q: Does Karma trigger off of recycling cards into other players’ Main Deck due to a card like Sabotage?

Sun Disc

Q: Can I use Sun Disc’s ability the turn I play it, counting itself for its Legion ability?

Symbol of the Solari

Q: What does it mean for combat to be a “tie?”

Q: Does Symbol of the Solari recall all units everywhere?

Q: So what does Symbol of the Solari do?

Teemo, Strategist

Q: What does this card do, and when can it do it? If I play him from Hidden during combat, does his ability trigger twice?

Q: How many enemy units do I target with Teemo, and when do I choose them?

Q: Which cards count for Teemo? Does Ember Monk count? What about Noxus Saboteur?

Wraith of Echoes

Q: Does Wraith of Echoes trigger on its own death?

Q: What about other units that die at the same time as Wraith of Echoes, such as to a mass damage spell like Unchecked Power?

Q: What happens if the first time a unit dies in a turn is actually two or more units dying simultaneously? Does it trigger twice?

Appendix: Targeting

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.

Riftbound: Origins Card Errata

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-origins-card-errata

Date: 2025-10-28

The first batch of Riftbound cards errata for Origins.

[Download Card Errata]

Hey Riftbounders! We’re sharing a recap of all the card errata for Riftbound: Origins. If you’re new to TCGs or Riftbound is your first TCG, card errata is any updates to card text usually for clarity and sometimes a goof like a typo. If you’re a seasoned TCG player, you might be already diving into the PDF above.

With Origins being our first set, it has more than its fair share of errata, most of it focused on rules clarity and consistency. We expect to issue very little “day zero” errata for future sets. Most of these card errata updates have already been shared through updates in our Core Rules FAQ, so there shouldn’t be too many surprises in there. A few cards that were in the FAQ have received slightly different wordings than previously announced, and there are three cards in this file that weren’t in the FAQ.

This is also a good time to reiterate our philosophy behind card errata. Changes from printed wordings add friction to your gameplay experience, and we don’t issue them lightly. And unlike a digital game, we don’t issue “patches” for game balance reasons. Where printed card wordings created unintended gameplay, were ambiguous about their function, or didn’t quite work in our updated rules, that’s where we’ve chosen to issue errata. The majority of the errata here doesn’t change how these cards work in regular gameplay situations; rather, it clarifies their function and shores it up against edge cases and rules oddities.

We’re heads down on the Riftbound: Origins English Launch (soonTM) and designing many sets to come, so give us some time as we work to update the Card Gallery or add another database resource to note the official language of the cards. Currently, card errata is not planned to be included on any future restocks of Riftbound: Origins or potential localizations of the cards. We’ll keep you all posted if that changes though!

With the recent update to Core Rules along with our Core Rules Patch Notes plus the final piece of the Trinity Force with the Card Errata, the Core Rules FAQ is now obsolete and will be retired on November 4, 2025.

[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.)

Each opponent reveals the top card of their Main Deck. Choose one and play it, ignoring its cost. Then recycle the rest.

Clockwork Keeper

[NEW TEXT]

You may pay [C] as an additional cost to play me.

When you play me, if you paid the additional cost, draw 1.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

As you play me, you may pay [C] as an additional cost. If you do, draw 1.

Convergent Mutation

[NEW TEXT]

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)

Choose a friendly unit. This turn, increase its Might to the Might of another friendly unit.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

▲

[OLD TEXT]

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.)

Choose a friendly unit. The next time it dies this turn, recall it exhausted instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

Karma, Channeler

[NEW TEXT]

[Vision] (When you play me, look at the top card of your Main Deck. You may recycle it.)

When you recycle one or more cards to your Main Deck, buff a friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 [M] buff. Runes aren't cards.)

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Vision] (When you play me, look at the top card of your Main Deck. You may recycle it.)

When you recycle one or more cards, buff a friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 [M] buff. Runes aren't cards.)

Kinkou Monk

[NEW TEXT]

When you play me, buff up to two other friendly units. (Each one that doesn't have a buff gets a +1 [M] buff.)

▲

[OLD TEXT]

When you play me, buff two other friendly units. (Each one that doesn't have a buff gets a +1 [M] buff.)

Nocturne, Horrifying

[NEW TEXT]

[Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

As you look at or reveal me from the top of your deck, you may banish me. If you do, you may play me for [A].

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

When you look at cards from the top of your deck (and don't draw them) and see me, you may play me for [A].

Pack of Wonders

[NEW TEXT]

[E]: Return another friendly gear, unit, or facedown card to its owner's hand.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[E]: Return another friendly gear, unit, or [Hidden] card to its owner's hand.

Portal Rescue

[NEW TEXT]

[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.)

Banish a friendly unit, then its owner plays it to their base, ignoring its cost.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

You may kill up to one gear. Draw 1.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

When I defend or I'm played from [Hidden], reveal the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. Deal 1 to an enemy unit here for each card with [Hidden], then recycle them.

The Boss

[NEW TEXT]

If a buffed unit you control would die, you may pay [C], exhaust me, and spend its buff to heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

When you conquer, ready me.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

When a buffed unit you control would die, you may pay [C] and exhaust me to spend its buff and recall it exhausted instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

When you conquer, ready me.

The Dreaming Tree

[NEW TEXT]

When a player chooses a friendly unit here with a spell for the first time each turn, they draw 1.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

The first time you choose a friendly unit with a spell here each turn, draw 1.

The Syren

[NEW TEXT]

[1], [E]: Move a friendly unit at a battlefield to its base.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[1], [E]: Move a friendly unit at a battlefield to your base.

Note: Text only differs for English version of the card

Tideturner

[NEW TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

When you play me, you may choose a unit you control at another location. Move me to its location and it to my original location.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

When you play me, you may choose a friendly unit. Move me to its location and it to my original location.

Unforgiven

[NEW TEXT]

[2], [E]: Move a friendly unit to or from its base.

▲

[OLD TEXT]

▲

[OLD TEXT]

[Hidden] (Hide now for [A] to react with later for [0].)

The next time a friendly unit would die, kill this instead. Recall that unit exhausted. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

Part 2. Core Rules patch notes (rule-level changes; newest first)

Core Rules: Vendetta Patch Notes (effective 2026-07-24)

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/announcements/core-rules-vendetta-patch-notes

Date: 2026-07-17

Here are the updates to Riftbound’s Core Rules with Vendetta

Welcome to the patch notes for Riftbound: Vendetta. Included in today’s update are the new rules required to play with the mechanics included in the Vendetta set, as well as fixes to many logical and procedural errors.

Our first goal for this rules update is primarily to support the new cards in Vendetta when it releases to the English & Chinese audiences simultaneously! Compared to the Unleashed rules update, we’re focusing more of our energy on the new rules and systems for Vendetta than updates and changes to the overall mechanics of the game. We still have numerous bug fixes and areas of the rules that have been clarified and improved, but it is a smaller focus than it was in the Unleashed rules update.

Our second goal is to share the reasoning behind the changes we’ve made, so that you can understand why these changes are necessary and what cards or functions they support. Not all of the rules that have been changed are included in this document, but the changes and updates that were significant and merited deeper explanation to the community are ones we’ve elected to explain here. Additionally, all of the changes described in the Unleashed FAQ have been reproduced in the Core Rules Document and have been included here for completeness.

We’re releasing this rules update slightly early compared to our previous cadence. We heard player feedback from the updates which came with Unleashed and are adjusting our timing accordingly. This gives judges and players plenty of time to read any relevant rules before our first Pre-Rift events. The Vendetta rules update will be effective on July 24, 2026.

With that said, let’s take a look at the rules changes we have in store for Vendetta!

Vendetta Addition: Empower, Empowered, Disempower

Empower is the tentpole mechanic of Vendetta. Units, gear, and legends can be empowered or disempowered.
Empowered is a status that lasts indefinitely until the card leaves the board or is disempowered. The empowered status does nothing on its own, but can be referenced by other effects.
Many cards in the set have the Empower keyword. This is an activated ability with an associated cost. You pay the cost, and your unit will become empowered! You can only activate this ability if the unit isn’t already empowered.
If a card has an Empower ability, it likely also has an Empowered ability: this is a dependent keyword whose condition is the card having the empowered state. While the card is empowered, you get the extra effect!
Some effects may also instruct a player to disempower a card as an instruction or a cost. Disempowering a card is the same thing as removing the empowered status from it. You can’t disempower something that isn’t empowered.
NEW RULE: Empower keyword added.
NEW RULE: Empowered keyword added.
NEW RULE: Empower action added.
NEW RULE: Disempower action added.
NEW RULE: Empowered state added.

Vendetta Addition: Flow

The second key mechanic from Vendetta builds on the concept of using abilities quickly in succession by allowing players to play spells from their trash. That mechanic is the Flow keyword!
Flow is a keyword that appears on spells. It is a permission and an alternate cost. By playing a spell for its Flow cost, you can play it from the trash, then banish it. One and done.
Cards with Flow also have a nifty symbol on their text box to indicate that they have a function from your trash! This symbol will be appearing on more cards in the future when we want players to know they should pay attention to a card in the trash.
NEW RULE: Flow keyword added.

Vendetta Addition: Burn

Speaking of trash shenanigans, one of the other major mechanics in Vendetta allows us to take cards directly from our Main Deck and put them in the trash! That is the Burn keyword.
To burn X, a player takes X cards from the top of their Main Deck and puts them in their trash. Cards can trigger when burned, or when you burn a card, and effects can count the number of cards burned in a turn.
Burning cards can bring you closer to burning out, but it can also add valuable flow cards to your trash.
NEW RULE: Burn action added.
Danger and value go hand in hand.

Vendetta Addition: Skip

For the first time, a card has been printed that allows a player to skip part of their turn. In order to support that functionality, we’ve added a new action: skip. Skip is a replacement effect that replaces the named event or procedure of the turn with nothing. Anything that would occur as a result of that event or procedure of the turn doesn’t happen instead.
NEW RULE: Skip action added.
Poof! It’s gone. No triggers, no procedures, nada. Zip! Zilch!!

Vendetta Support: Naming Cards, Types, and Tags

In Vendetta, we’ve added a card that instructs a player to name a card, in addition to the List from Unleashed that instructs a player to name a tag. With a preponderance of these effects, it’s time to define their function and the process by which a player names a card, type, or tag. Naming a card in particular is more complex than either type or tag, and has some special rules to give players some flexibility with how they name cards.
NEW RULE: Naming cards, types, and tags added.

Vendetta Support: Ignoring Effects

A new class of effect has been added in Vendetta: the ability to ignore certain abilities or effects. Fortunately, the machinery of inactive text allows us to cleanly manage how these effects operate, and they should be fairly intuitive to players.
NEW RULE: Ignoring effects added.

Vendetta Support: Untargetability

In Unleashed we had one new card that could make a card unable to be chosen by enemy spells and abilities based on a condition. In Vendetta, we are getting several new such effects and it is important for us to clarify how this set of abilities functions. We say that a unit with this property is untargetable.
If a unit becomes untargetable after a spell or ability has already targeted that unit, the spell or ability will mistarget on resolution: any instructions related to that unit will be ignored. This is the same principle as a unit at a battlefield being targeted by Void Seeker and being moved to base in reaction to the spell. When Void Seeker resolves, any instructions related to that unit will be ignored because it is no longer at a battlefield as required by Void Seeker. Similarly, any instructions related to the untargetable unit will be ignored, because it too isn’t a legal target.
NEW RULE: Untargetability added.

Vendetta Support: Making New Choices

We have our second card that allows a player to make new choices for a spell on the chain. To support Mystic Reversal and this new spell, we’ve added rules for making new choices that will clarify the timing, legality, and nature of the choices allowed to be remade.
NEW RULE: Making new choices added.

Vendetta Support: Activated Ability Terminology

As of Vendetta, we’re shifting towards a new terminology for activated abilities in card text. On cards in previous sets, we’ve used the term “used” to refer to activating an activated ability which has led to some confusion over how it functions differently than playing a card. With Vendetta, we’re moving to the word “play” to refer to the act of activating an ability in card text. The Core Rules Document has been updated to refer to both uses of the term when discussing activated abilities.
NEW RULE: “Use” and “play” supported for activated ability card text.

Vendetta Support: Cards with Multiple Types

With the release of Vendetta, Riftbound has its first card with multiple card types. We’ve added rules that clarify how cards with multiple types function.
NEW RULE: Cards with multiple types added

Vendetta Support: Replacement Effects and Combat Damage

‘Prevent’ being clarified in the Unleashed rules update has set the stage for more and more instances of it appearing on cards. As ‘prevent’ is becoming more prevalent, we’ve taken another look at how replacement effects interact with combat damage assignment. It was strange that ‘prevent’ as a replacement effect could modify how combat damage is assigned, while any other replacement effect that interacts with damage only applied at the moment that damage was dealt. Given how strict our combat damage assignment rules have to be, this led to very strange situations.
We’ve done the technical work to ensure we can align how all replacement effects that interact with damage function during combat damage assignment. Now any replacement effect that would modify damage dealt to units during combat damage is applied to combat damage assignment instead. We’ve also updated the rules for how combat damage is assigned to remove inconsistencies this would cause.
We will note that this means combat damage assignment when a unit has a replacement effect that increases damage like Lotus Trap will become slightly more complicated, as players must incorporate those replacement effects into their assignment calculations. We think that slight added complexity will be worth the increased intuitiveness of these effects having the same timing.
NEW RULE: When assigning damage during the combat damage step, replacement effects that would apply to the resulting damage are considered to apply to the assignment instead.

Rules Update: Copying Tokens

Token is no longer a supertype. It being a supertype made several cards work in problematic ways, and it wasn’t entirely intuitive that it should be a supertype. Now, regardless of how a token is manipulated, copied, or altered, it will maintain its tokenness. Cards, similarly, cannot become tokens for any reason.
NEW RULE: “Token” is an intrinsic category of Game Objects, in the same way “card” is.
NEW RULE: Token Game Objects cannot lose their token nature by any means.
NEW RULE: Card Game Objects cannot become tokens by any means.

Rules Update: (Resource) Payment Optional

The combination of Diana, Lunari and the change to how triggered abilities are processed led to players noticing a discrepancy in how resource costs are handled: if an Energy or Power cost is instructed to be paid and a player has that resource in their rune pool, they do not have the choice to avoid paying it. However, if they do not have that resource in their rune pool, there is nothing that can compel them to generate it—if they don’t generate it, the related action is ignored. We have long believed that the latter is an important protection for players, but the former leaves a strange discrepancy between these two cases. For players, the difference between being compelled to spend a resource and generate one is relatively small, and so it feels unintuitive and confusing that a player with unspent or “floating” Energy or Power will have a different set of choices than a player without. As such, we’re moving to make the payment of Energy and Power optional in all cases, to unify these two scenarios.
This change will only affect cards like Diana, Lunari, Promising Future, and Cursed Sarcophagus that either instruct a player to pay Energy or Power, or instruct them to play a card without ignoring all of its costs. Regardless of whether or not a player has Energy or Power floating, they can choose either not to generate those resources or not to spend them.
This only applies to Energy and Power. Any other cost can be compelled to be performed as long as the instructed player has the ability to do so.
NEW RULE: When a player is instructed to Pay a resource, that player may remove that resource from their Rune Pool if it exists there. If they choose not to, the instruction is ignored.

Rules Update: Costs on Multi-Domain Cards

We’ve aligned that it was strange that signature cards’ power costs could be paid with power of any domain. The power cost symbols have the colors of their domains, and players felt intuitively that you should pay for their cost with only power of those domains. In order to align better with player intuition, the power cost rules have been updated for cards of multiple domains.
This means you’ll have to pay for a signature card’s power cost with a power of that card’s domains. If there is an [A] symbol in the card’s text, that can still be paid with power of any domain.
CLARIFIED RULE: A [C] shorthand on a card with multiple Domains is processed as any power of that card’s Domains.

Rules Update: Applied Costs

There is a class of abilities that apply a cost to an action outside of playing a card that we’ve seen in cards like Mageseeker Investigator. Those abilities were previously underdefined. Players understood intuitively how they should work, but we wanted to be clearer on the precise timing and function of these abilities. Additionally, we can give them a name! The costs applied by these abilities are applied costs.
NEW RULE: Applied costs added.

Rules Update: Deathknell and “When I Die” Alignment

The deathknell rules received a change in the Spiritforged rules update to allow them to use information from when its source was on the board. That was a much needed change, but it left other abilities that similarly triggered “When I die” to lag behind. In this rules update, we’ve expanded the rules so that any “When I die” triggered ability will be able to use information from before its source died.
NEW RULE: Deathknell and “When I die” abilities aligned

Rules Update: Gone Before its Time

Some effects will generate a delayed ability that applies or triggers at a specific time or has a certain duration. The question of what happens to those abilities if that time passes or the duration is completed before the delayed ability is generated was a bit of a mystery. Do you perform the action anyway? Or is it simply ignored?
Wonder no longer! With the Vendetta rules update, we’ve clarified how this should work.
NEW RULE: If a Delayed Ability’s duration has ended before it was generated, the Delayed Ability is not generated and any instructions related to it are ignored.

Rules Update: Event Definition

In the last several rules updates, we’ve done our best to define terms that were otherwise underdefined or underexplained. With more instances of replacement effects, and replacement effects that are replacing more complex events, we wanted to have a clear definition of what an event is outlined in the rules.
NEW RULE: An event is the singular moment that results from a Game Action being performed or from a Game Object changing state.

Rules Update: New Replacement Effects

There are three categories of card text that were previously undefined. The rules now recognize all three as replacement effects:
Abilities that describe how a unit enters, or an action to be performed as a unit enters, are replacement effects. They replace the unit entering as normal with the unit entering in the appropriate state.
Abilities that instruct a game action to occur “as” an event happens are replacement effects that replace the stated event with that event and also the game action being performed.
Abilities that instruct a player to “then banish it” or “then recycle it” are replacement effects that are short for “if it would leave the chain after becoming a finalized chain item, and leaving the chain wasn’t instructed by its own execution, perform the specified game action instead.”
NEW RULE: New replacement effects added

Rules Update: Battlefield Reuse

This update is specifically to support high level competitive events. When those events want a more intense and competitive top-cut experience, they may choose to run some or all of their top-cut as best-of-5. In order to support best-of-5, we need rules that clarify how you play your fourth and fifth games in a match.
Additionally, there were cases where players could draw a game and potentially need to play four games in order to complete a best of 3 match. In such a case, we need rules for how they choose their battlefields.
NEW RULE: In a Best of 5 match, during games 4 and 5 of the match players may present a battlefield that has been removed from the game.
NEW RULE: Players may only re-use a battlefield in this way if they have already presented each of their battlefields at least once during the match, and present a battlefield at most twice in a given match.
NEW RULE: If no player won a game, the battlefields presented for that game may be reused in a subsequent game.

Contested Removal

Contested status is very important to how the rules of Riftbound manage battlefields. Something that the rules didn’t state explicitly, but assumed implicitly, was how contested status is removed from a battlefield if that battlefield isn’t conquered and a showdown never occurs. For example, if a unit that has a move trigger move it to a battlefield and its controller plays Flash targeting it, returning it to base before the showdown can open. Without a rule to remove contested status in this situation, the battlefield is stuck in contested limbo!
A natural assumption would be that contested status is removed when the player who applied it doesn’t have any units there. That’s what the rules now explicitly state.
NEW RULE: In a cleanup, remove Contested status from each Battlefield without Units controlled by the player who applied Contested to that Battlefield and without a Showdown or Combat ongoing there.
NEW RULE: If as a result of the removal of Contested status there are Units located at an uncontested Battlefield that their controller does not control, their controller applies Contested status to that Battlefield.

Targeting Clarification

For the first time since the great big targeting list was codified in the second Origins rules update, we’ve added a new disqualification for something being a target. Thankfully in this case it should be relatively easy to remember: If a player, zone, or game object appears only as a restriction or permission for a game action, then it is not a target.
This means Thrill of the Hunt, Here to Help, and similar effects that instruct you to perform an action “to a battlefield” don’t target that battlefield. The restriction or permission is applied to the resulting action and is not a decision made on finalization.
CLARIFIED RULE: A player, zone, or game object isn’t a target if it is included only as part of a targeting restriction for another choice or only as a restriction or permission for a game action.

Splitting Up

The split damage rules have been clarified. Specifically, the rules that manage what happens if the amount of damage being split is reduced between choosing targets and when the spell or ability resolves.
CLARIFIED RULE: If, at resolution of the spell or effect, there are more Targets than available damage to divide, then the player who controls the effect dealing damage determines which Targets cease being Targets.
NEW RULE: That player cannot choose to have fewer Targets than they have damage to split when choosing which Targets cease being Targets.

2v2 Rules Clarifications

We’ve added some clarifications for the 2v2 specific rules!
Firstly, points are shared by teams. This was probably obvious, but it wasn’t stated directly and there were important clarifications that needed to be made.
Secondly, battlefields controlled by a teammate during the scoring step of a player’s beginning phase are now ineligible to be scored by that player’s team during that turn and count towards the final point rule.
CLARIFIED RULE: Points are shared by a team in the 2v2 game mode.
CLARIFIED RULE: Battlefield control is checked during the scoring step.

Hidden Targeting

The wording on the hidden targeting restriction wasn’t clear if it applied to each targeting decision individually or all of them collectively. We’ve clarified that you treat each choice individually when applying the hidden targeting restriction.
CLARIFIED RULE: The restriction on targets chosen by hidden spell and play effects is applied to each target separately and individually.

Trigger Condition and Effect

The Unleashed rules update brought some huge changes to how Triggered Abilities are parsed. Not all of those changes were clear, so we gave a deeper explanation in the Unleashed FAQ. Now the explanation from the FAQ has been reproduced in the Core Rules Document and the rules clarified.
In short, triggered abilities are split into two sections. The first section has the trigger condition, any extra conditional statement, the words “you may” and a cost within instructions (“[Do X] to [Do Y]”). Any of those elements besides the trigger condition may or may not appear, but when they appear in the appropriate place in that order, they are not part of the actual triggered ability that goes on the chain. Instead they represent conditions, choices, and costs that are made before or as the chain item becomes a finalized item.
One item that changed in this section from the previous rules update was the timing of when you make “you may” or “they may” choices when they appear as the first part of the effect of a triggered ability. Previously those decisions were made when the ability triggered to support “once each turn” triggered abilities. We’ve updated the phrasing for those rules in such a way that allows us to have the decision made on finalization instead. To help build an intuition, you can think about “once each turn” referring not to the ability triggering once each turn, but you playing the triggered ability to the chain as a finalized chain item once each turn. If it never became a finalized chain item, you haven’t “done” it so to speak.
CLARIFIED RULE: Trigger condition and effect have been made more clear and given direct examples
CLARIFIED RULE: Timing for “you may” or “they may” when it appears as the first part of the effect of a triggered ability has been changed to finalization.

“Play” Definitions

To reiterate, we recognize that the manifold use of “play” has been a sore spot. As mentioned in the Unleashed Rules Update, there is a major upcoming change to templating and card wording that we believe will make this significantly easier to understand. We recognize how this affects play and we’ll do our best to clarify the confusing points as much as possible in the meantime.
In the simplest terms, there are three uses of play:
Play as game action: When an effect instructs you to “play a unit,” or “play a spell,” play means “put the card or ability on the chain and queue it to be finalized.”
E.g. Here to Help reads “You may play a unit to a battlefield you control.”
Play in triggered abilities: When a trigger condition checks whether a card is played, play means “resolve.”
E.g. Lecturing Yordle reads “When you play me, draw 1.”
Play in any other context: When an effect checks whether cards have been played and that effect is anything other than a trigger condition, play means “finalize.”
E.g. Battering Ram reads “I cost [1] less for each card you’ve played this turn, to a minimum of [1].”
These three uses, especially the latter two, have been clarified in the Core Rules Document.
CLARIFIED RULE: Any triggered abilities that trigger when cards are played trigger when the act of playing the card has been completed by the resolution of the card.
NEW RULE: Non-triggered abilities that check cards being played do so by means of referencing whether said cards have been Finalized.

Oh Damage, My Damage

Lethal Damage was handled by the rules in a bit of a strange way. It was referenced obliquely in three different sections and only actually named in one of those sections. That made changes to the definition of Lethal Damage, like that in Elder Dragon’s passive ability, unclear as to which of those three sections it might apply. We clarified in the Unleashed FAQ that all three instances are referring to the same concept, and modification to one modifies all of them. Now the Core Rules Document has been updated to include that clarification in the text itself.
On the topic of damage, we defined “your damage” in the Unleashed FAQ to be “damage you marked on units.” That definition has now been added to the rules directly.
CLARIFIED RULE: Lethal damage has been unified across the document
NEW RULE: Game Effects may refer to a player’s Damage. This means the Damage marked by that player.

Battlefield Ability Control

The rules had some strangeness with control of battlefield abilities. In the Unleashed FAQ, we clarified that the player who makes a choice for a triggered ability of a battlefield will be the one who is responsible for that ability and put it on the chain. We’ve edited the Core Rules Document to reflect that directly.
NEW RULE: If an Ability of a Battlefield indicates that a specific player makes a choice, that player is the Ability’s controller. They take responsibility for adding it to the chain if applicable and make all choices required by the ability. They and only they control the ability, regardless of who controls the Battlefield.

Counting Targets

We clarified what kinds of targets count and in what situations for effects that check the number of targets a spell has in the Unleashed FAQ; specifically for the purposes of cards like Repulse. That clarification has now been addressed directly in the Core Rules Document.
NEW RULE: If another spell or ability attempts to reference the number of game objects, players, or zones that a Finalized Chain Item targets, it will include any mistargeted choices, but not any targets that have changed to a non-board zone.

I’m Getting Activated

In the Unleashed FAQ, we acknowledged that “activate” when it appears on card text was underdefined in the rules. As of the Vendetta Rules Update, we have the technology!
NEW RULE: Some effects may instruct a player to “activate” a named triggered ability. To do so, that player checks the condition of all of the specified effects, as if they had fulfilled the named part of the condition

Accelerate

In the Unleashed FAQ, we clarified that Accelerate is an ability made up of two parts: an optional additional cost, and a delayed replacement effect that is generated when you pay the cost. This has now been reflected in the rules themselves.
CLARIFIED RULE: Paying the accelerate cost generates a delayed Replacement Effect. Even if the unit loses the accelerate keyword during the finalization process, as long as the cost was paid, that unit will still enter ready.

Riftbound Core Rules: Unleashed Patch Notes

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-core-rules-unleashed-patch-notes

Date: see page

Learn all about the updates to Riftbound’s rules which arrive with Unleashed.

Welcome to the Patch Notes for Riftbound, Unleashed edition. Included in today’s update are system clarifications and expansions, fixes to many logical or procedural errors, and the new rules required to play with the mechanics included in the Unleashed expansion.

This rules update has three key goals:

To support the new expansion’s cards and mechanics with rules that will explain how they function.

To provide some clarity on rules changes and why we make them.

To shore up some of our rules foundations that were unclear or in need of updating.

Our first goal for this update is to ensure that all the new cards in Unleashed work when they’re released in China on April 8th. That has involved adding new rules systems, new keywords and individual rules, as well as modifying some extant rules to support new cards and systems introduced in Unleashed. Thankfully the work done in the Spiritforged rules update allowed us to streamline some of these rules by reusing the systems introduced then.

Our second goal with the update is to explain some of the decision making being done on what rules are changed and why. The team is looking at some changes to card templating in future sets that will make cards significantly easier to understand at a glance, and we want the introduction of those changes to be a relatively smooth transition for players. In order to facilitate that, we’re starting to introduce some of the necessary rules machinery in this update. Another reason for rules changes you’ll see in this update is to manage interactions introduced with cards printed in Spiritforged that the rules were not equipped to handle. Many changes in this update were made to clarify how those interactions function and to preemptively clarify interactions with Unleashed cards.

We can’t catch every rules edge case, but the good news is that as we apply these improvements to the rules, these types of fixes will become fewer and fewer as sets go on. We are still in Riftbound’s infancy and many of the pains felt around rules and templating are a normal part of games growing and changing, ours has simply been accelerated due to the attention and the immediate growth of our competitive scene.

And although the changes you’ll see might seem big at first, the goals when the team changes our rules are the following: to make the rules more intuitive for players, and to set up future changes that will improve the game overall. We have no plans to change the rules in order to manage the power level of cards, only to make the rules more intuitive and to align them with our design goals. Some cards will receive functional changes with these rules updates, but that isn’t the goal or the reason for the change. With each update, our hope is that fewer and fewer systems will be updated or changed in a functional way.

Now, let's take a look at the changes in this update:

Unleashed Addition: XP, Hunt, Level

XP is the marquee mechanic for Unleashed—players can now gain XP and unit abilities can reference that XP.
XP is a resource that spells and abilities will add and spend. XP comes with a few related keywords that you will see on cards: Hunt and Level.
Hunt is an ability that gives its controller 1 XP when a unit with Hunt conquers or holds. Higher Hunt Value means more XP gained.
Some cards allow players to spend XP just like players spend energy, power, or buffs—to spend XP, reduce your XP by that much.
Level is a dependent keyword (more on that in a second) that becomes active when its controller has a certain amount of XP. [Level 6] means it and its dependent ability will be active when its controller has 6 XP.
Some Unleashed booster packs will have a card in the token slot that is designed to help players keep track of their XP.
NEW SYSTEM: XP
NEW RULE: Hunt as a keyword was added
NEW RULE: Level as a keyword was added

Unleashed Addition: [>] Symbols

Since the Legion keyword was introduced in Origins, activated abilities with Legion have been a point of confusion. Does the Legion text only include the parts after the keyword appears? Can you activate the ability if you haven’t played a card this turn? Honestly, this has been a bit of a templating nightmare.
In order to better clarify how this works, and to support Level and future keywords with a similar effect, we’re adding a bit of templating magic to make things easier to understand. This is going to take the form of a small arrow pointing from the word backer of dependent and permissive keywords like Reaction, Action, Deathknell, Level, and Legion, which themselves will now come before the ability at the very start of the line. The arrowed backer indicates the ability that these keywords are associated with. That ability has those permissive keywords, or is the dependent ability of those dependent keywords. Outside of card text, this symbol will be expressed as “[>]”.
NEW SYSTEM: [>] Symbol added.

Unleashed Addition: Dependent Keywords, Updated Legion

As mentioned above, dependent keywords are being clarified and supported in this update. We already had one dependent keyword that was printed on cards in Origins (the aforementioned Legion) and with the addition of Level it only made sense to give those keywords a bit more structure in our rules. Additionally, the Spiritforged Rules Update gave us the machinery needed to make these abilities significantly easier to understand with the concept of inactive text.
A dependent keyword is made up of two parts: the keyword itself, which is short for a condition, and the dependent ability that is active while the condition is fulfilled. So long as the condition is not fulfilled, the ability is inactive meaning the ability’s effect will not apply and it can’t be triggered or activated.
This probably sounds familiar, because that is already how Legion works. Legion is being updated using the new dependent keyword rules.
NEW SYSTEM: Dependent Keywords
CLARIFIED: Legion is a dependent keyword.

Unleashed Addition: Ambush, Conditional Action and Reaction

The bot gank lives on in the Ambush keyword appearing on some units in Unleashed. Units with Ambush have two passive abilities: the first reads “I may be played to a battlefield where you control Units” while the second reads “I have [Reaction] as long as I’m being played to a battlefield where you control Units.” Fortunately, in Riftbound, you have the ability to control when your jungle shows up to a team fight.
In order to support the conditional Reaction keyword in this ability, a new rule has been added clarifying how and when cards with conditional permissive abilities can be played to the chain, and what happens if they lose those abilities while on the chain.
NEW RULE: Ambush as a keyword was added.
NEW RULE: Conditional permissive abilities might only be fulfilled while the card or ability with them is on the chain. In such a case, it can still be played or activated at the appropriate timing as long as doing so could fulfill the conditions.
NEW RULE: If the chain item does not fulfill the conditions by the time “step 5: check legality” has been reached, the actions taken while playing or activating the chain item are undone and it is returned to the zone it was played from if it is a card.

Rules Update: Winning the Game

Previously, there were two conflicting rules for winning the game: a player would win if they had points equal to the Victory Score in a cleanup, or they would win immediately if they accrued points equal to the Victory Score without needing to wait for a cleanup. We went back and forth on how to fix this, and ended up on the changes below. This should relegate unintentionally drawn games to a marginal occurrence and make it clear precisely when players win.
CLARIFIED: A player will win the game if, during a cleanup, they have accrued points greater than or equal to the Victory Score and greater than any opponent. Both must be true.
NEW RULE: If a player gains two or more points as result of burn outs processed in sequence and fulfills the above conditions, they win the game immediately without needing to wait for a cleanup.

Rules Update: Combats and Showdowns

The vast majority of players intuit that a showdown should be able to transition to a combat when units controlled by different players become present there, but the rules procedurally required the current showdown to end before a combat could begin. Although there were positives to that structure, it ultimately led to problems in card design long term.
Now, a showdown will open as long as the battlefield is contested and there is a unit there whose controller doesn’t control the battlefield. If there are units controlled by different players at that battlefield, it will open as a combat showdown. Otherwise, it will be a non-combat showdown. If a non-combat showdown is ongoing and a combat becomes staged at the same battlefield, the non-combat showdown will become a combat showdown in the next cleanup and the normal procedures for opening a combat will begin.
NEW RULE: Showdowns are staged at battlefields that are contested.
NEW RULE: Combats are staged at battlefields that are contested and have units controlled by different players occupying them
NEW RULE: If the turn player would initiate a showdown at a battlefield where a combat is staged, it opens as a combat showdown.
NEW RULE: If the turn is in a showdown open state and combat is staged at a battlefield with an ongoing showdown, a cleanup will cause the showdown to become a combat showdown.

Rules Update: The Resolution Step of Combat

To support the “winning combat” rules introduced in Spiritforged, we’ve updated the Resolution Step procedures for combat using the new HOT FEPR system (more on that below). The first thing you’ll notice has changed is the Combat Cleanup: units are healed and attacking units are recalled. After the Combat Cleanup, we’ll determine the winner and loser of the combat. If there are still units remaining controlled by different players, or if there are no units at the battlefield, then the combat will have “no result”. Otherwise, the player who has units remaining at the battlefield wins. Then, if applicable, a player will conquer the battlefield. Finally players and units lose the attacker or defender designation and any “this combat” effects expire.
CLARIFIED: The Resolution Step has been reorganized.

Rules Update: “May” Triggered Abilities and Extra Conditions

Triggered abilities that say “may” are now optional to place on the chain, and triggered abilities that say “[do X] to [do Y]” (costs within instructions) will have the cost (“[do X]”) be incurred when placing the triggered ability on the chain.
We know this is a big change, but it’s for a good reason: this is part of a larger development to templating and card layout that will be happening in a future set and by all accounts it is a massive upgrade to card readability. For now, this is being introduced to align the rules with player intuition and to set the stage for those upcoming changes.
CLARIFIED: If a triggered ability says “you may” as the first part of its effect, the controller of its source will choose whether or not to place the triggered ability on the chain when its trigger condition is fulfilled.
CLARIFIED: If a triggered ability contains a cost within instructions, that cost is treated as the base cost of the triggered ability. The cost must be paid in order to finalize the ability to the chain.
Replace

Replace is a game action that already has appeared once in the Core Rules Document sans rules for how it works (try to find it if you can!). Cards printed in Unleashed gave us the opportunity to give rules to how objects are replaced and where the replaced objects go. In short, they go to the same zone that banished cards go. Whatever token replaces that object will inherit all effects and statuses that that object had. Some effects may allow the replaced object to be swapped back, so don’t worry about it being lost forever.

NEW RULE: Replace action added
NEW RULE: Swapping back defined
Create
When a token is created, it is immediately generated in the appropriate zone without using the chain. This is a new game action added primarily to support the replace action outlined above. The tokens you’re replacing a game object with have to come from somewhere, and our current mechanism for generating tokens doesn’t make sense for this context. This game action may have some interesting uses, so expect to see it in future rules updates.
NEW RULE: Create action added
Predict and Word Backers
A common theme in this rules update is codifying instructions and abilities that have existed since Origins. In this case, we’re codifying instructions that say “look at the top card of your main deck. You may recycle it” into the game action Predict. Predicting is the act of looking at some number of cards from the top of your main deck and choosing to recycle any number of them and placing the remaining ones back in any order of the predicting player’s choosing. As part of Predict being codified into a game action, we’ve added word backers to several game actions that frequently appear in card text, similar to the ones we use for keywords. You’ll see those appear starting with cards printed in Unleashed, with backers for Stun and Buff joining Predict.
NEW RULE: Predict action added.
NEW SYSTEM: Action Word Backers added.
Copy Effects
In Unleashed, we get to see our first true copy effect, though the spectre of Svellsongur has long been hanging over Spiritforged. In order to support these copy effects, rules have been implemented clarifying what traits a copy effect is allowed to copy and how those traits are applied.
CLARIFIED: Copy effects will copy the “copyable traits” of a game object. Those traits are all of the printed or copied traits of that game object, including Rules Text. Nothing appended or granted will be seen by the copy effect.
CLARIFIED: Copy effects that copy only a specific set of traits from a game object will specify those traits, and only the specified traits will be copied.

NEW RULE: When a game object or some of its traits become a copy of another game object, all of the copied traits become the game object’s new copyable traits.

If you copy a copy, the new copy becomes a copy of the originally copied object. Copy copy copy.
Spicy HOT FEPR
In one of the most exciting changes for the rules experts in the audience, the FEPR process is being updated and expanded to manage more procedures of the game. The HOT FEPR acronym stands for Handle Outstanding Tasks; then Finalize Execute Pass Resolve. Tasks are the various procedures that the game requires players to perform during their turn: things like cleanups, the start of turn procedures, the procedures of combat, and the end of turn procedures. It was previously unclear when precisely the procedures of the turn paused items on the chain undergoing the FEPR process, but with tasks we can now say very clearly: when tasks are outstanding, pause the FEPR process until those outstanding tasks have been handled, and then perform the FEPR process on any pending chain items. Note in the change to cleanups below, pending items on the chain are no longer finalized during cleanups.
NEW SYSTEM: HOT FEPR
Cleaned Up Cleanups
Finalization was removed from the cleanup and made part of the HOT FEPR process—it being part of the cleanup was a vestigial rule from before the FEPR process was introduced,which led to some serious strangeness. Additionally, to support player understandings of what it means for a unit to be “in combat,” combat designations are removed or added earlier in the cleanup.
CLARIFIED: Combat designations are removed or added before units die to marked damage in a normal cleanup.
CLARIFIED: A unit is “in combat” if it occupies a battlefield where combat is ongoing and if it has an appropriate combat designation.
CLARIFIED: Finalization is no longer managed by the cleanup and instead happens after any outstanding tasks occur if there are pending items on the chain.
Loopy Expiration Step
This is secretly two changes in one: the first, is that we’re renaming the end of turn phase to the ending phase. The second, now that we have the machinery of HOT FEPR, is to make the expiration step properly loop. In Spiritforged we saw the first instance of a triggered ability triggering in the expiration step, and it produced some very unintuitive results: things like “this turn” effects applied in reaction to an expiration step trigger lasting until the next turn, and damage applied in the expiration step carrying over to the next turn. To avoid things getting even weirder going forward, the expiration step will now repeat if any items underwent the FEPR process during it.
CLARIFIED: The End of Turn Phase is now the Ending Phase.
CLARIFIED: The End of Turn Cleanup has been folded into the Expiration Step.
NEW RULE: If any items underwent the FEPR process during the Expiration Step, return to the start of the Expiration Step.
Replacement Effects
There have been a number of points of confusion with replacement effects—what happens if multiple events occur simultaneously that a replacement effect would apply to? What happens if the event being replaced is modified by another game action or game effect? Who controls a replacement effect? How the heck do Soraka and an equipped Guardian Angel work?
In order to answer these questions and more, the replacement effects section has been beefed up with additional rules and examples. Primarily, we’re aligning the rules with how players already apply replacement effects—if multiple units die simultaneously while their controller has a Zhonya’s Hourglass in play, players are already choosing the order they apply their replacement effects when they pick one of those units to save. We wanted to make the rules more explicit for how these situations are handled. In a few cases, we’re clarifying how to apply replacement effects to pretty complicated interactions—see the examples in the Core Rules Document itself for more information. Finally, some cards printed in Unleashed require rules on how replacement effects interact with modified events.
CLARIFIED: If multiple simultaneous events are able to be replaced by a replacement effect, the controller of the replacement effect decides the order in which it is applied to those events.
CLARIFIED: When applying replacement effects to simultaneous events, each replacement effect can only be applied in one sequence—one uninterrupted series of applications.
NEW RULE: The controller of a replacement effect is the player who controls the source of the replacement effect.
NEW RULE: If an event replaced by a replacement effect would be modified by a game effect or a game action, the replacement effect inherits those modifications.
Control of Battlefields
As mentioned in the Spiritforged FAQ, there were issues with how control of battlefields was handled in the cleanup, specifically in control being locked with contested status and cards like Hostile Takeover and Stormbringer causing the game to reach an ambiguous state. In order to fix those bugs, the solution that made the most sense was to have control locked by the presence of a combat or showdown at the battlefield instead. Although the timings are quite similar, this allows Hostile Takeover, Stormbringer, and similar effects to exit the strange interstitial state between showdown and combat that they were stuck in.
Additionally, a small but functional change to how cleanups manage control is that control of a battlefield cannot be lost while there is an item on the chain. This is to support cards printed in Unleashed.
CLARIFIED: 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.
Responsibility for Game Actions
Certain card effects will care about who performs a game action—in order to help square those effects, the concept of responsibility has been added to the rules. A player is responsible for a game action if they are the player who performed the game action, or if they have been assigned responsibility (usually if they were responsible for a deal action that was attributed a kill action). Even if they did not control the effect that instructed them to perform the game action, they and only they will maintain responsibility for it. This is important for cards printed in Unleashed, and also for shoring up the rules for Immortal Phoenix. In order to fulfill a condition that reads “when you kill a unit with a spell”, a player must be responsible for the kill action, control the spell that instructed it, and the spell itself must have attribution for the kill action.
NEW RULE: Responsibility
Linking
Linking is a new concept that we’re using to clarify two sets of rules objects: linked instructions and linked abilities. Instructions or abilities are linked when they reference or are referenced by another instruction or ability. Linked instructions are especially important for spells that have been granted the repeat keyword, as in the case of repeated Hidden Blade. Linked abilities, on a similar note, are useful for clarifying how abilities function when they reference other abilities, and what game objects they are allowed to affect.
NEW RULE: Instructions that reference Game Objects affected by, or Game Actions performed in, other instructions are “linked instructions.”
NEW RULE: In order for a later linked instruction to execute, its earlier linked instruction must have executed. If the earlier linked instruction was ignored for any reason, the later linked instruction will also be ignored.
NEW RULE: If a game action in an earlier linked instruction was replaced, this will not affect the later linked instruction.
NEW RULE: Linked Abilities added
Referents
Ignore the fancy word, what’s important here is that we are codifying a rules concept that players are already well aware of—if a spell, triggered ability, or activated ability says “here”, “my”, “its”, or similar referential word, that information is checked when the spell or ability resolves. Some new effects will also reference the trigger condition in their text—those abilities will check that information when they trigger and are placed on the chain, not on resolution.
NEW RULE: Referents
Additional Turn Effects
Time Warp has been the subject of debate since it was printed in Origins. We’re here to settle the matter and clarify how exactly additional turns work.
NEW SYSTEM: Additional Turns
CLARIFIED: When an additional turn is created, it is owned by the player instructed to take it and inserted directly after the current turn into the repeating queue of turns generated at the start of the game.
CLARIFIED: Turn order remains unaffected by any additional turns.
CLARIFIED: After an additional turn is finished, it is removed from the queue.
Preventing Damage
Several cards were printed in Origins and Spiritforged that instructed a player to “prevent” damage, but the precise mechanism for how damage is prevented did not exist at the time. Well, it exists now! Prevent is a game action and also a delayed replacement effect—it creates a pool of prevented damage that acts as a shield on the affected units.
NEW RULE: Prevent action added
Discounts to Cost Components
The discount rules in the section for the Process of Play were fairly vague about how discounts that only affect a component of the cost work—they’re applied with other discounts, but by that point the total cost has been summed. How can we identify which component is which in order to apply the appropriate discounts?
Now, discounts that only affect a component of a cost will be applied when that component is added, before any other discounts are applied. This will make interactions like Vex and Ezreal where multiple discounts of different types apply to the same card more intuitive to players.
CLARIFIED: Discounts that only affect a specific component of a cost will apply as soon as that component is added to the total cost when finalizing a card or ability.
Main Phase Renamed
The action phase has been a bit of a sore thumb name, especially with the prevalence of terms with the word “action” in them: game actions, discretionary actions, limited actions, and the action keyword muddle the meaning of the action phase. This is especially true of the action keyword, the only of these terms that is actually printed on cards. In order to make these concepts more distinct, we’ve moved to rename the action phase to something more aligned with how players experience it. The main phase is the main part of your turn, where you play most of your cards and spend most of your time.
CLARIFIED: The action phase has been renamed the main phase.
Unique

Unique already existed on three cards in Spiritforged, but never received a corresponding part of the keywords section of the Core Rules Document. That is no longer an issue.

NEW RULE: Unique as a keyword was added
Backline

Backline is the keyword version of the ability that both Caitlyn, Patrolling and Soraka, Wanderer feature that requires them to be assigned combat damage last. There were some points of confusion with how this ability worked (especially in multiples), and now that cards in Unleashed are being printed with the same ability we took the opportunity to give them a bit of love in the rules. Units with Backline must be assigned damage during the Combat Damage Step after any other unit with the same controller that doesn’t have Backline.

NEW RULE: Backline as a keyword was added
Attaching Again
Attaching as a game action was missing a rule that prevented an attached equipment from attaching to the unit it’s already attached to. This was unintuitive, and such a rule has been added to align the game action with ready, stun, and exhaust.
CLARIFIED: Attaching a card to a new Top-Most Card will cause it to Detach from the card to which it is currently Attached.
NEW RULE: Attaching a card to its current Top-Most Card will not have any effect.
NEW RULE: If a Game Effect instructs a player to Attach a card to its current Top-Most Card, nothing additional happens.

Riftbound Core Rules: Spiritforged Patch Notes

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-core-rules-spiritforged-patch-notes

Date: see page

Here are the updates for Riftbound’s Core Rules that come with the arrival of Spiritforged.

Spiritforged Rules Patch Notes

Welcome to the Patch Notes for Riftbound, Spiritforged edition. Today we are going to be updating the Core Rules to support our newest expansion, Spiritforged! Included in today’s update are system clarifications, fixes to a few logical errors, and the new rules required to play with the mechanics included in the Spiritforged expansion.

What this is

In addition to the new Spiritforged cards, this is also an opportunity for us to speak directly with all of you about how these updates work, why we make them, and what they do. For instance, we have heard feedback from players about the “missing numbers” in the structure of the Core Rules. (The gap before rule 649 is the most noticeable, but fun fact, there are actually four of them!) These gaps are intentional. They help separate groups of rules and leave gaps for us which will minimize the need to renumber the rules going forward. These gaps don’t entirely eliminate the need to renumber, but they lessen it significantly.

The primary purpose of this rules update is to ensure that all the new cards in Spiritforged work when they’re released in China on December 12. To meet that goal, we’ve focused on the new systems required to support those cards. Some clarifications we could have made, or some housekeeping tasks we would have liked to tackle, have been left undone. We tried hard to get to things we felt we could address confidently while also getting you all the rules for Spiritforged.

This is what patch notes will typically look like: Systems updates, clarity, and new rules focused primarily on providing rules guidance about new cards and mechanics, and secondarily on fixing known issues in the rules. More importantly, it also illustrates what patch notes will never be: balance changes to your cards.

What this isn’t

Riftbound is a physical trading card game, and that means these updates serve only some of the purposes you might be accustomed to from “patch notes.” We change the rules to make new cards work and to work toward systemic stability for the game. We have also issued card errata (technical updates to the rules text of cards) for a number of cards in Origins. These errata are for the sake of clarity and error correction. We have no plans to use either rules updates or card errata to balance the power level of cards. Our updates are focused on system stability and growth for the future of Riftbound.

With these updates having the primary goal of supporting new releases, you can expect that rules updates like this will generally coincide with those releases. Because our releases are not (yet!) globally synched, however, these changes will have different impacts in different regions. In light of this, rather than taking effect immediately, these rules will have an effective date of December 12, 2025. This ensures that the Chinese release of Spiritforged is fully supported right away, while other regions have a little more time to absorb the rest of these changes without impacting major tournaments.

Without further ado, the changes themselves!

Patch Notes

Spiritforged Addition: Attachment, Attached, and Detached
Cards can now attach to other cards. The term “attach” is a verb, and is the act of one card being linked to another. Cards that attach will have a unique new frame that makes this really obvious. “Attached” is the state of being linked in such a way. “Detach” is the opposite verb, but there is no opposite state

(everything isn’t constantly “detached,” it’s just not attached). We encourage players to overlay the card like you see below to represent how attached cards append their abilities to the card on top.

(Seriously. Everything about attached cards will make more sense if you do it this way.)

Notably, the special frame for cards that attach also includes a Might Bonus. That number modulates the Might of the card on top.
While a card is attached, its rules text becomes inactive, which we’ll get into in a moment.
NEW SYSTEM: Attachment, Attached, and Top-Most Card State added
NEW SYSTEM: Effect Text added to Parts of a Card
NEW SYSTEM: Might Bonus added to Parts of a Card
NEW RULE: New rules added to layers to account for attachments and might bonuses
NEW RULE: Attach action added
NEW RULE: Detach action added
Spiritforged Addition: Inactive text
To support the state of cards being attached, the concept of text being inactive has been defined. Inactive text is text that is ignored. By default, certain sections of the new attachment frame—the effect text and might bonus—is inactive while the card is not attached.

When a card with these text sections becomes attached, then that section stops being inactive, and its rules text becomes inactive instead.

While inactive text has no effect on the game, it does still exist. This means other effects can still check on it. For example a card with Temporary still has Temporary even if it is inactive and won’t trigger. So a hypothetical effect that said “Destroy a card with

Temporary” could still choose something with an inactive Temporary keyword. For the full list of nuances and exceptions, check the Core Rules Document.

NEW SYSTEM: Inactive Rules System Added
Inactive but not forgotten
NEW RULE: Exceptions toInactive rules added
Spiritforged Addition: Equip
The fancy part of the new expansion: the Equip keyword and the tag that goes with it,

Equipment! Equip is fairly easy to explain now that we have the dense stuff about attaching cards out of the way. You simply pay the Equip cost listed next to the ability, choose a unit you control, and attach the Equipment to that unit.

Notably, because of the way rules text becomes inactive when you attach these cards to a unit, you can’t use an Equip ability if it’s already attached to something. On the bright side, if the unit carrying it is killed or otherwise leaves the board, you keep the gear! Equip it to the next contender and continue the fight.
NEW RULE: Equip keyword added
Get suited up
NEW RULE: Equipment tag referenced in various rules
Spiritforged Addition: Quick-Draw
Some Equipment have a new keyword on them in addition to Equip. The new Quick-Draw keyword lets you play (and consequently attach) Equipment straight from your hand at Reaction speed. That is because Quick-Draw cards inherently have Reaction as a nested part of

Quick-Draw. In addition to granting Reaction, this keyword is also a Play Effect that attaches the played Equipment directly to a unit you control—no need to pay the Equip cost. This time.

Quick-Draw doesn’t, however, change when you can use an Equipment’s Equip ability, only when you can play it from your hand.

NEW RULE: Quick-Draw keyword added
NEW RULE: Quick-Draw contains Reaction
Lickity-split
Spiritforged Addition: Weaponmaster
Some units have a new keyword called Weaponmaster. This is a Play Effect that will choose an

Equipment you control, and then let you pay that Equipment’s E quip cost, reduced by

[A], to attach it to the Unit with Weaponmaster. The coolest part? It can even choose

Equipment that’s already attached to a different unit! Remember, inactive text like

Equip costs can still be referenced by other effects. Weaponmaster can check on that cost and reference it to determine the cost you need to pay.

NEW RULE: Weaponmaster keyword added
NEW RULE: Exceptions and clarifications added to Inactive
(This is a reminder—check out the Inactive section)
Spiritforged Addition: Repeat
Now here is something that bears repeating. Now here is something that bears repeating. A spell mechanic that lets you get the effect of your spell a second time! Repeat is an optional additional cost that, when paid, will let you execute the effect of the spell one additional time. You can only pay this cost once, and this still only counts as playing the spell once (sorry, Ravenbloom Student).
NEW RULE: Repeat as a keyword added
It bears Repeating
NEW RULE: Repeat as a keyword added
Okay, we’ll stop
Control of Abilities
Added a rule to clarify the unlikely situation where control of an object changes while an ability originating from that object is on the chain. Control of the ability will not change along with its originating object.
NEW RULE: Control of abilities on the chain is independent of the objects from which they originate
Priority and Focus
We wanted to take a moment and clarify the language in our rules around priority and focus. Priority is the singular and exclusive right to take discretionary actions. Priority restricts actions for all players to one bottleneck—only the player with priority may act. Focus, however, is like a “home base.” It is an additional permission, and a tracking tool. Focus passes around to make sure everyone gets a turn to play Actions in showdowns, even as priority bounces around from player to player. There is no situation where more than one player can contest having authority to do something at the same time. So we took this opportunity to clear some language up.
CLARIFIED: Priority is the singular exclusive right to take discretionary actions during a closed state
NEW RULE: Granting priority to a player either creates priority or removes it from a player that has it
No sharing. Even if you hold hands.
NEW RULE: Having focus without priority does not grant the right to take discretionary actions
Deathknell
Hey, we made Deathknell work. Okay, so Deathknell worked before, but it was fuzzy, and annoying, and for many people not logically consistent. So we took a look at it and clarified some spaces, and added additional steps in others explicitly to capture the intent of Deathknell. Now that Svellsongur exists, and we want things that grant Deathknell to work without having to squint at it, this was our call to do that work. Specifically there are new steps in Cleanups, Kill Instructions, and in the Deathknell keyword itself to support this.
CLARIFIED: Deathknell now works
This, somehow, is a Kog’maw buff despite what we just wrote. Trust.
NEW RULE: New rules added to Cleanups to support Deathknell
NEW RULE: New rules added to Kill action to support Deathknell
NEW RULE: New rules added to Deathknell to support remembering state and information about the game object with Deathknell after it dies
Cleanups
We did some work to cleanups and special cleanups. We just discussed how we added new rules to support

Deathknell, but we also fixed a formatting and numbering error that made removing Contested status appear to be a part of the end-of-combat special cleanup. It’s not! We have also added rules to clarify when showdowns and combat are staged as well as when they cease to be staged.

CLARIFIED: Removal of Contested status is not a part of the Special Cleanup at the end of combat
Call that a step in time
NEW RULE: Added rule for ceasing showdowns being staged
NEW RULE: Added rule for ceasing combat being staged
CLARIFIED: Various improvements and adjustments across cleanups and special cleanups
Playing Units to Valid Locations
As of the previous update, the rules specified that units could be played to any “valid location,” but neglected to spell out which locations are valid. Oops. If you’ve read our learn-to-play materials you already know the answer, but it turns out the rules didn’t actually define it. We’ve now fixed that, with both a default and an allowance for exceptions.
NEW RULE: By default, a player can play a unit to their base or to a battlefield they control
NEW RULE: Specific cards may restrict or expand the list of valid locations
Validating
Double and Swap
Riftbound already had a card that “doubles” a unit’s Might. With the release of Spiritforged, we have another one, plus a card that “swaps” two units’ Might. And while we could try to ride the simple

English meaning of those two words, it turns out there are some nuances we need to make explicit when those verbs are being applied to numerical values for a limited duration. We’ve now added both double and swap to our list of game actions. (Note that Gearhead gets away with using the simple English meaning of double, because it’s not being used as a verb and doesn’t have a duration. Saying that a gear “gives double its Might bonus” is the same as saying it “gives twice its Might bonus.”)

NEW RULE: Double added to the list of game actions
This bears—no wait
NEW RULE: Swap added to the list of game actions
CLARIFIED: Various housekeeping and updates to language across the document, including adjusting or removing examples that are no longer accurate

Riftbound Core Rules: Patch Notes (first major patch, 2025-10-24)

Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-core-rules-patch-notes

Date: 2025-10-24

The first major Riftbound rules patch is here!

Welcome to Riftbound’s first official Rules Update Patch! This will be a big one—not necessarily because of the volume of changes or shifts in how players playing already are going to be interacting with the game, but because it is the first time we are changing our Official Rules Documents (ORD)! This patch is specifically updating the Core Rules (CR) and not the Tournament Rules (TR), and the following changes will go over the broad areas of interest in more detail.

These notes are not comprehensive or exhaustive, but meant to draw attention to the most broad areas of focus so we have a stage to discuss intent and clarify the point of the largest and most sweeping changes in the document. If we had a line item for every comma and other punctuation change, this article would begin to rival some sections of the rules themselves.

Before diving in: It may seem odd for us to be delivering changes to a card game as “Patch Notes.” We get it. However we wanted to keep you, our players, informed and up to date on our intentions and thinking about the game. Given that we already do things a little differently, and a patch note format is something we have experience writing, why not format things this way?

Origins has already had the initial rules release, the FAQ, and now this update. That’s because it’s the first set and we’re still getting our rules situated. We anticipate a more regular rules update cadence in the future.

You may have already seen the [FAQ] we posted a few weeks ago. A lot of that information is repeated in these notes, as the Core Rules now reflect the rules that inform those answers. A very small amount of that information is explicitly contradicted in these notes and in the new rules, as our continuing work on the rules led us to different conclusions. We’ll point it out explicitly when that’s the case.

Contents of this Patch

As previously mentioned, these notes are not a comprehensive changelog, but instead the grouping of major points of change to the rules players should be aware of.

Many rules have changed their number as a result of this. Some rules are new, and are numbered for the first time. Some entire sections may have moved. For the most part, changes of this nature are not mentioned here.

The rules updates and clarifications from our recent [FAQ] are present and iterated in these notes, such as the addition of pending chain items, triggered abilities evaluating their conditions based on the destination of the triggering game object, the implications of individual card errata, and more.

However there are also new clarifications and changes that were not mentioned in the FAQ that are important to go over! Those are detailed below. These changes have been detailed to the community directly in some cases. In other cases they are rules interactions and cases we caught ourselves and wanted to make crystal clear.

Patch Notes

New Silver Rules

Our Silver Rules are where we want to express broad rules and concepts across the game that are nearly always true.

Considering cards often supersede them, and exceptions are very common, Silver Rules are where we keep the concepts that have vanishingly few exceptions. Not zero, but few. We have two more to add because of how often we found ourselves repeating them.

NEW RULE: Can’t beats can.
NEW RULE: “Do as much as you can”, otherwise known as DAMAYC.

Adjustments to Foundational Definitions

We have some housekeeping to get out of the way, mostly consisting of us clarifying existing rules and making sure implied rules were written out explicitly.

Clarified: You cannot ready something that is already ready. It can be targeted with an effect that will ready it, but it will not become ready for the sake of triggers or other game effects. This was already spelled out for exhaust, so ready should match.
Clarified: Domain Identity is keyed off of Champion Legend.
Clarified: Corrected vague language in the rules regarding Domain.
Clarified: A player’s Chosen Champion is not one specific piece of cardboard, but any Champion

Unit with the same name as the Chosen Champion that began the game in the Champion Zone.

Clarified: The Champion Zone has a maximum occupancy of 1.
Clarified: The Main Deck is secret information.
It is a secret to everyone.
Clarified: When cards are returned to players’ hands, they are returned to their owners’ hands only.
You might be friends enough to share, but that isn’t a game mechanic.
Clarified: When cards are recycled, they are only recycled by their owner, regardless of which player is instructed to recycle them.

Minor Deckbuilding Clarification

Clarified: Players cannot have duplicate battlefields among their 3 battlefields.
New Rule: In 2v2, partners cannot include the same battlefield across both of their decks.

This is something many players intuited, but it wasn’t made directly clear. We want battlefields to be a source of variance and expression, and that is undermined if both players bring the same battlefield—worse if they each bring three of the same battlefield. We played it this way internally and simply overlooked its definition in the rules. So it is now clear and outlined as intent.

Speaking of 2v2 rules…

2v2 Adjustments

There are a few clarifications and new rules for 2v2. We want players on teams to act as one unit, and to that end we want them to consider things in a combined and intentional way when approaching this way of playing.

NEW RULE: Allied players cannot repeat battlefields in their decks.
Already said this, but it bore repeating
NEW RULE: Players cannot have the same Champion Legend as their partner.
This was how we tested and played internally, and is a key thought behind the intent of how players approach this format.
CLARIFIED: Partners win or lose together. This means one player conceding has their partner lose as well.
Rule 650: No change
Card Details
CLARIFIED: Cards with subtitles have the subtitles as part of their name.
CLARIFIED: References to cards’ costs always mean their base cost.
NEW RULE: Defined Tags, Domains, Types, and Supertypes.
CLARIFIED: More clearly defined details about shorthands for Exhaust and Might.
CLARIFIED: Clearly defined shorthand for Domains.

We made a bunch of definitions more easy to find, and less needed to intuit. Now it is easy to follow along with the way we write out cards in plaintext without needing to know the arcane secrets of letters and brackets. We just let everyone in on the Card Cant.

Damage, Deal, and Heal

NEW RULE: Damage is now defined.
It is really weird we didn’t do this before. Seems like we all might be a little bit game-rotted.
NEW RULE: Deal is now defined as a game action.
NEW RULE: Heal is now defined as a game action.
Also weird that these weren’t defined, but now they are!

Bonus Damage

CLARIFIED: Bonus Damage is now properly defined.
CLARIFIED: More clearly defined how Bonus Damage interacts with the Deal action.

Bonus Damage for the most part was an easily understood fantasy. If Void Seeker normally deals 4 damage and is dealing 1 Bonus Damage, now it deals 5. However we needed more explicit and detailed rules about how it should interact with our more complex spells and abilities, and the rules were vague in those sections. So we clarified the intent here.

Removal of Relevant Players and the Invite Mechanic in FFA

Please put down the torches and pitchforks. We get to the first intentionally functional change and it is one that will be divisive but bear with us. This was not an easy decision for us, as every time we explained the “Relevant

Player” system for Free-For-All, players’ eyes would light up with the potential. The idea of being invited to betray their friends, or the decisions for table politics—they obviously felt all that was exciting and interesting, and we agree!

However, in practice these rules instead created situations where players were powerless to defend themselves in FFA games, and that is a worse situation. We are removing the system wholesale because, as we are fond of saying, the juice is not worth the squeeze.

REMOVAL: Concept of “Relevant Players” has been stricken from the Core Rules.
CLARIFIED: All players always have agency to act during Showdowns and Chains in all modes.

Basic Rune Abilities

CLARIFIED: Basic rune abilities have Reaction.
They always did.
We forgot.

Pending and Finalizing

This is a topic we discussed in our recent FAQ, but now we have the full rules available for perusal. The process is detailed as well as the result. The process has its own acronym, FEPR, and the outcome, pending and finalizing, has helped us sequence and control our unique method of card effects and sequencing consistently.

One thing to note is that there is one functional change amidst this new system that has a notable impact on players already familiar with the existing rules: Players can now refuse Deflect costs incurred by triggered abilities. This will result in the triggered ability failing to finalize on the chain.

NEW SYSTEM: Pending and finalizing have been added and detailed. For a more detailed explanation, please see the [FAQ].
NEW SYSTEM: FEPR: Finalize, Execute, Pass, Resolve. This is the process through which chains are resolved and has been detailed.
Felicia Fifer FEPR’d a Flute of Fixin’s
NEW RULE: Triggered abilities that incur a cost when put on the chain may be refused. This will cause them to fail to be finalized.

Reflexive Triggers

Reflexive triggers are now clearly communicated. These were also discussed in our recent [FAQ]. Notable is that we have clarified when triggered abilities from spells are still part of the spell—and when they are not.

NEW RULE: Defined reflexive triggers and how to identify them.
NEW RULE: Defined how reflexive triggers interact with Bonus Damage.
CLARIFIED: Made more clear that triggered abilities originating from spells are part of the spell for considerations of kill attribution, but are still abilities for the sake of effects such as “Counter a spell.”

Numbering sections

Many sections have had numbers appended to the text of their rules to clarify that they are sequentially processed:

Steps of playing a card
Cleanups
Layers
Steps of combat

The Steps of Combat

CLARIFIED: Initial Chain population sequence (Attacker, Everyone Else, Defender)
CLARIFIED: Focus does not pass at the end of the initial chain.
This is so that who gets to play first in a showdown is not reliant on whether or not there was an initial chain.
CLARIFIED: Defined more clearly when and how the Attacker and Defender designations are gained.
CLARIFIED: Spelled out the end of combat sequence.
CLARIFIED: Assigning and dealing combat damage are now clearly and separately defined.
CLARIFIED: Combat Cleanup defined as a Special Cleanup.

The steps of combat needed some attention for clarity. The sequence of how things started and ended were just vague enough to cause some confusion, and with this, and some work mentioned later to clarify around the contested status, we believe this will make the systems easier to follow for the more rules-ingrained among our players.

What’s a “Special Cleanup,” you ask? An excellent segue to the next section…

Cleanups

CLARIFIED: Made the cleanup step as a whole much more robust—when they occur, what happens during them (and what doesn’t), and what order those things happen in.
They now happen all the time. Figuratively.
NEW RULE: Cleanups occur repeatedly until a cleanup occurs with nothing of note occurring.
NEW RULE: Introduced the concept of Special Cleanups. A Special Cleanup has unique steps inserted, and if it repeats, a normal cleanup is what repeats until nothing of note occurs.

We wanted our cleanup step to do a lot of things. Some of those things only need to happen under very specific circumstances, but others needed to happen repeatedly, almost constantly. Rather than create situations with awkward reminders or exceptions, we created the Special Cleanups with a simpler rule of thumb for players to remember:

Cleanups repeat, and Special Cleanups happen once. If a Special Cleanup needs to repeat, it repeats into a normal cleanup.

Contested Status and Control

CLARIFIED: Made more clear the process of contesting battlefields.
Related to Attacker and Defender designations.
NEW RULE: Players now can’t lose control of battlefields while a battlefield is contested, even if they have no units there.
CLARIFIED: Spelled out how control is established, and when specifically the contested status is removed from battlefields.
CLARIFIED: Made clear that if a player moves units into a battlefield that a differing player had moved to, and opened a showdown for, the current showdown will end and a second showdown will begin alongside combat beginning.
We call this “surprise defense.”
CLARIFIED: Control of a battlefield establishes control of its abilities.
NEW RULE: Defined the concept of neutral abilities and how to handle them.
CLARIFIED: Made it clear that control is established at the end of a non-combat showdown.

The concept of contested status is a key part of the state machine that keeps control and conquering flowing in our game. This helps make clear the logic of that machinery. We also defined a few interactions that we answered directly to the community but that weren’t entirely written in black-and-white in the CR—namely the concept of

“surprise defense” and “conquering on defense,” both of which are now well documented in the rules.

Showdowns and Combat Staging

EDIT: Combat is now “staged” instead of “pending.”
CLARIFIED: Showdowns are now marked as staged.

This is a lexicon change to ensure ongoing clarity. Pending means more for the pending and finalize systems, so combat and showdowns are Staged going forward. Showdowns weren’t previously marked as pending but were handled similarly to pending combats, so we brought them along in the new terminology.

Targeting and Choosing

CLARIFIED: Targeting has clear definitions.
CLARIFIED: “Valid target” has a rote definition.
NEW RULE: Move destinations are a required choice. This means they are required to be made at time of putting a spell or ability on the chain. It also means that you cannot choose destinations that are not valid to satisfy the conditions of a spell or ability.

Targeting in our game is complex. This is partially because we have so many moving parts and partially because we have opted to write our cards in a way that nine times out of ten are in plain conversational language. However, this means that getting to the nitty gritty interpretation can get hairy sometimes. We can’t put a Riftbound designer in every game store to answer your targeting questions, so now the rules answer them instead.

Null Isn’t Zero

CLARIFIED: Clarified that unavailable numerical information always resolves to a null value rather than to 0.

This is an odd sentiment, but it can be easily understood with Baited Hook. If you target a unit with Baited Hook, and before the effect resolves that unit gets returned to your hand, then its Might is treated as null—a value that cannot be figured out. So you can’t compute Baited Hook’s ability successfully, because null + 1 is null, and no unit has null as a Might. You’ll reveal the top 5 cards of your Main Deck, but you won’t get to play any of them.

Layers

Layers! Everyone’s favorite topic. In addition to numbering these, as previously mentioned, we have done something rather radical to them. Our layers loop now! Layers in Riftbound apply repeatedly until each effect has been applied (or removed) once and layers have been evaluated with no objects changing. Loopy Layers!

This helps Fiora actually work without being a paradox. Notably, we are keeping an eye on this.

NEW RULE: Layers apply repeatedly until all applicable effects are applied or disqualified a single time and no objects have changed during one sequence of application.
CLARIFIED: Dependencies have been more clearly defined.
CLARIFIED: Method of resolving dependencies have been more clearly defined.
These are vanishingly rare, but forearmed is forewarned.

Triggered Ability Updates

CLARIFIED: Made clear how to identify triggered abilities, including “Nth time” abilities.
Notably, the terms that identify triggered abilities don’t have to appear at the start of the ability’s sentence. Sona.
CLARIFIED: In the case of “Nth time” triggers, when the triggering event occurs at the specified N but more than one qualifying event occurs simultaneously, the “Nth Time” trigger will only trigger once.
CLARIFIED: Triggered abilities evaluate conditions from the destination of their object.
See our [FAQ] for more information on this—specifically the entries for Immortal Phoenix and Viktor,

Leader.

NEW RULE: Several common trigger shapes have been defined: Play, Conquer, Hold, Attack, and

Defend abilities.

NEW RULE: Attack and Defend triggers can happen once per combat, specifically the first time something gains the attacker or defender designation during that combat.
Note that this is a CHANGE from the FAQ as we further tested and iterated on the rules!

We had feedback from the community that our triggered abilities were sometimes hard to identify, so the rules now help with that. And by grouping things like “play effects” and “conquer effects,” we make it easier for rules and cards to refer to them and for players to understand what we mean (and don’t mean) when they do.

We also had some work that came out of the recent [FAQ]. We knew we wanted Attack and Defend triggers to be able to trigger even if a unit joined combat “late.” When we wrote the FAQ, we expected the rules update to allow those those triggers to potentially go off multiple times. After all, to quote our past selves, “moving a unit at Action speed isn’t easy to do, and doing it twice is even harder.” Since then, though, we decided that triggering Attack and Defend triggers multiple times didn’t feel right, and moving units repeatedly in and out of combat wasn’t something we wanted to reward. (We won’t stop you, though.)

Delayed Abilities

NEW RULE: Defined the concept of a delayed ability and how to identify them.
NEW RULE: Any type of ability can be delayed. Added rules to clarify how those operate with delay.

A tool that was undefined but utilized can now be easily identified and understood.

Costs

CLARIFIED: Made clear that replaced costs are still paid costs.

Scoring

CLARIFIED: Conquering on defense has been clarified through the concept of contested status.

Burn Out

CLARIFIED: Made the conditions to Burn Out more clear.
CLARIFIED: Made the conditions to repeatedly Burn Out more clear.

Added more language to make clear the intention for Burn Out and when players should be triggering the situation.

Also added examples and logistics to make clear when and how, specifically, players would hypothetically infinitely

Burn Out.

Add

CLARIFIED: ‘Add’ abilities finalize immediately like Units and Gear.
CLARIFIED: Focus and Priority do not pass on resolution of Add abilities.

Kill

CLARIFIED: Kill effect definition clarified.
CLARIFIED: Kill attribution rules clarified.

Hide/Hidden

CLARIFIED: Cards in the Champion Zone can now use their Hidden abilities.
CLARIFIED: Hidden costs [A], not [C].
CLARIFIED: Hidden’s targeting restrictions have been rearticulated as part of the broader targeting changes.
CLARIFIED: Hidden cards gain Reaction when played from facedown—they aren’t just played as though they have it.

Hidden is one of our most complex mechanics. It allows you to hide, which is a specific action, but Hidden itself is a keyword, not an action. That is neither here nor there for this update, though, as the things most worth mentioning are related to things that occur after the card is facedown.

Of particular focus, hidden cards now gain Reaction, and the restrictions on targeting for cards played from facedown have been altered. The former is a minor change, and will not have a tangible impact on most players, but as outlined in the FAQ, the latter has a material impact to the way Zhonya’s Hourglass plays. This targeting change and change to hidden means that the card no longer restricts its replacement effect to the battlefield it was hidden at.

More details about the change are in the complete CR. This marks us trying to zero in on making Hidden play intuitively, and we anticipate authoring content in the future that leans in to the intuition as opposed to requiring players to know every gotcha and pitfall.

Legion

CLARIFIED: Made clear the specific differences in Legion as a spell ability, play effect, and activated ability.

Accelerate

CLARIFIED: The cost of the ability always matches the domain of the unit that has the ability.
CLARIFIED: If the ability is ever on a unit with no domain or more than one domain, it becomes

[A].

Recall

CLARIFIED: Recalls are only to the object’s base.
CLARIFIED: Recalls do not affect the state of the object.
CLARIFIED: Recalls are not moves.

Sobre este texto

Convertido del documento oficial publicado por Riot Games. Los números y la redacción de las reglas no cambian; solo se quitaron los saltos de página y de línea. Si esta página y el documento oficial difieren, se aplica el documento oficial.

Última actualización: 2026-08-14

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