Core Rules

Riftbound is a trading card game set in the League of Legends universe for 2–4 players. Each player builds a deck around a Champion Legend, then sends Units, Spells and Gear out to fight over the Battlefields in the middle of the table. Cards are paid for with resources produced by Runes, which live in a separate deck.

The main goal is to gain points. Most points come from Conquering a Battlefield (taking control of one you have not scored yet this turn) and from Holding one (still controlling it at the start of your own turn). Points can also come from card effects, and from an opponent Burning Out and choosing you to gain a point.

• The Victory Score is 8 points by default (11 in the 2v2 mode). Modes or card effects can change it.
• A player wins when, during a Cleanup, they have at least the Victory Score and more points than every other player.
• If several players reach the Victory Score, the one with more points wins; if they are tied, play continues until someone is ahead during a Cleanup.
• Points cannot go below 0. Losing points while at 0 does nothing, and effects that trigger on losing points do not trigger.
• A player also wins if an effect says so or if they are the last player left. A player told by an effect to lose is removed from the game immediately.
• When a player wins, the game ends.

Golden Rule: when card text directly contradicts the rules, follow the card.

Silver Rule: card text uses different wording from the rulebook. Interpret card text through the rules rather than reading it as if it were rules text.

• On cards, 'card' means 'Main Deck card'. Runes, Legends and Battlefields are not 'cards' for card effects (though the rules still call them cards).
• Cards refer to themselves in the first person: Units and Legends say 'I/me', Gear and Spells say 'this', Battlefields say 'here'. They may also use their own name.
• Can't beats Can: an effect that forbids something wins over one that allows it. If a card says something can 'only' be done in certain circumstances, it cannot be done otherwise.
• Do as much of a card's text as possible and skip what is impossible. Even if nothing can be done, the card is still played and resolves with no effect.
• Your cards never go into another player's non-board zones (their hand, decks, trash, etc.). If they would, they go to your matching zone instead.

To play you need a Main Deck, a Rune Deck, one Champion Legend and the number of Battlefields your Mode of Play requires; together these are your deck. Some cards or modes add extra choices made while building.

• 1 Champion Legend: placed in the Legend Zone at the start of the game; its domain symbols (upper left) set the deck's Domain Identity.
• A Main Deck of at least 40 cards: your Chosen Champion plus Units, Gear and Spells.
• A Rune Deck of exactly 12 runes, matching your Legend's Domain Identity, shuffled and kept separate from the Main Deck.
• Battlefields: the number depends on the mode (the sanctioned modes ask for 3). They follow Domain Identity if they have domains, and you cannot include two with the same name when more than one is required.

Your Chosen Champion must be a Champion unit whose Champion tag matches your Legend's tag (e.g. a Jinx legend can take any Jinx champion unit). That copy starts in your Champion Zone, and every other copy with the same name, wherever it is, also counts as your Chosen Champion.

• Up to 3 copies of any one card name (your Chosen Champion counts toward this).
• A card's full name is 'Short Name, Subtitle': Yasuo, Remorseful and Yasuo, Windrider are different names, so you may run 3 of each.
• The same card printed in different languages has the same name.
• At most 3 Signature cards in total, all with your Legend's Champion tag. Signature cards are not Champion units and cannot be your Chosen Champion.
• A card with Unique is limited to 1 copy per name.
• All cards must be legal in the Format being played.

Domain Identity: a single-domain card is allowed if that domain is in your identity; a multi-domain card needs all of its domains in your identity; domainless cards go in any deck; cards an effect lets you add count as part of your identity.

The play area splits into The Board and the Non-Board Zones. Each zone has a privacy level: Public (anyone may look), Private (only the owner/controller may look) or Secret (no one may look).

• Base: each player has one. It is a Location where the Permanents and Runes you control reside. Public.
• Battlefield Zone: holds all Battlefields; each Battlefield is its own Location. Public.
• Facedown Zone: a sub-zone of each Battlefield holding up to one facedown card (effects can change this). Only usable at a Battlefield you control; if you lose control, cards there are removed in the next Cleanup. Not a Location.
• Legend Zone: holds your Champion Legend, which can never be removed or moved (extra legends added by effects can be removed).

• The Chain: where cards and abilities wait while being played. Public.
• Trash: where cards go when killed or discarded, or after a spell finishes. Unordered. Public.
• Champion Zone: holds your Chosen Champion at the start; you may play it from here normally. It can only return here if the zone is empty. Public.
• Main Deck and Rune Deck: face down; the card count is public, the order is secret.
• Banishment: where banished cards go, hard to recover, also used as a temporary holding space. Public.
• Hand: contents are Private, but the number of cards is Public.

Battlefield control: a Battlefield is controlled by one player or by no one. When a unit whose controller does not control it arrives (by moving, being played there, or changing controller), it becomes Contested, which is what triggers Showdowns and Combat. Control is established by still having units there at the end of a Showdown or Combat, and kept for as long as you have units there. With no units there in an Open State (and no Showdown or Combat there), you lose control in the next Cleanup.

• A Battlefield's controller controls its abilities. If it is uncontrolled, the Turn Player handles those abilities, and 'you' on an uncontrolled Battlefield refers to no one.
• Whoever plays, hides or creates a card or Game Object becomes its Controller and chooses its targets and modes and pays its costs.
• A card's Owner is the player who brought it into the game, regardless of who owns it in real life.
• Card wording: 'occupied' = has a unit there; 'uncontrolled' = no controller; 'open' = unoccupied and uncontrolled.

• Cost (upper left): the number is the Energy cost; the domain symbols stacked below it are the Power cost (not every card has one).
• Name: in the middle of the card. Cards with a subtitle are named 'Short Name, Subtitle'.
• Category/type, with supertypes before it (e.g. Champion, units only; Signature) and tags after it.
• Tags have no rules meaning of their own but can be referenced. Tags linking Legends, Champion units and Signature cards are Champion Tags.
• Domain: symbol(s) in the lower right corner.
• Might (units): upper right, sword-and-shield symbol, shorthand .
• Rules Text: the card's abilities and instructions. Keywords have a coloured highlight (colour has no game effect). Italic reminder text in parentheses is only a summary and has no game effect.
• Effect Text: a separate box below the rules text (e.g. on Equipment) that only works while the card is attached to another card.
• Might Bonus: a +X value in the lower right of Equipment that modifies the Might of the card it is attached to.
• Flavor text and illustration have no game effect.

• = Exhaust (a card turning sideways), meaning 'exhaust this' as a cost (older documents used ).
• = Might (older documents used ).
• = Power of that specific domain.
• = Power of any domain (rainbow symbol). As a cost it can be paid with any Power; when added to your pool it can pay any domain's Power cost.
• C = Power of the card's own domain. Multi-domain cards may use any of their domains; domainless cards treat it as .
• links a keyword to the ability that follows it, e.g. Action, Legion.

Main Deck cards are either Permanents (they stay on the board after being played: Units and Gear) or Spells (they do not). Runes come from the Rune Deck, are channeled rather than played, and are not Permanents. Battlefields and Legends start the game in place and are never played.

• Unit: located at a Base or a Battlefield, has Might, enters the board exhausted (unless something like Accelerate says otherwise), can be killed, and can never be attached to another card.
• Gear: played to your Base unless an effect says otherwise, and enters ready. An unattached non-unit Gear found at a Battlefield or in another player's Base is recalled to its controller's Base during a Cleanup. Gear with the Equipment tag have Effect Text and a Might Bonus.
• Spell: normally played on your own turn in an Open State outside Showdowns. Action spells can also be played in Showdowns, and Reaction spells also in Closed States. After resolving, it goes to its owner's Trash.
• Rune: produces Energy and Power; stays on the board until recycled to the Rune Deck.
• Battlefield: set up at the start of the game; cannot be moved or killed; can have any kind of ability; not a Permanent.
• Legend: sits in the Legend Zone; cannot be moved or killed; can have any kind of ability; not a Permanent.

Damage is marked on units. A unit dies when it has non-zero damage equal to or greater than its Might (lethal damage); a 0-Might unit needs at least 1 damage. Damage is healed at the end of every player's turn and during a Combat Cleanup.

• Might comes in three forms: Printed, Base (changed by 'base Might becomes' effects) and Effective (the final value after all modifiers). Plain 'Might' on cards means Effective Might.
• Negative Might is treated as 0 when referenced and when summing combat damage, but increases and decreases still use the real negative value.
• An object with several types has the properties of all of them; if one of them is Unit, it has Might, enters exhausted and can move.

Tokens are Game Objects created during play and can be represented by anything. Tokens are not cards (and cards can never become tokens). They follow the rules of their type, have no cost (treated as 0) and no domain unless an effect adds one. A token put into any non-board zone other than the Chain ceases to exist. Its controller and owner is whoever controlled the effect that created it.

• Recruit: 1 unit with the Recruit tag.
• Sprite: 3 unit with the Fae tag and Temporary.
• Sand Soldier: 2 unit with the Shurima tag.
• Mech: 3 unit with the Mech tag.
• Gold: a gear with a Reaction ability: kill it and exhaust it to add .
• Other tokens include Reflection, Bird, Tentacle, Shadow Clone, Bomb and the Brush and Baron Pit battlefield tokens (all domainless).

1. Put your Champion Legend in the Legend Zone.
2. Put your Chosen Champion in the Champion Zone.
3. Set your Battlefields aside; your Mode of Play says how they are placed.
4. Shuffle your Main Deck and Rune Deck separately and put them in their zones.
5. Determine turn order by any fair random method everyone agrees on. The mode says how the First Player is chosen; otherwise play goes clockwise from them.
6. Each player draws 4.
7. Mulligan in turn order: set aside up to two cards from your hand, draw that many, then recycle the set-aside cards (to the bottom of your Main Deck).
8. The First Player takes the first turn.

Runes produce two resources: Energy pays numeric costs and has no domain; Power pays domain-symbol costs. Power normally has the domain of the rune that made it, but universal Power () can pay for any domain.

There are six Basic Runes, one per domain (Fury, Calm, Mind, Body, Chaos, Order). Each has two abilities: Reaction exhaust it to add (one Energy), and Reaction recycle it to add C (one Power of its domain).

• Rune Pool: holds Energy and Power you have added but not spent. You must add resources to your pool before you can spend them.
• Every player's Rune Pool empties (unspent resources are lost) at the start of each player's Main Phase and at the end of each turn.
• Channel: put runes from the top of your Rune Deck onto the board, ready by default. If there are not enough, channel as many as you can.
• Exhaust: turn the card 90 degrees to mark it as spent. Something already exhausted cannot be exhausted again to pay a cost.
• Ready: turn it back upright, available for use. All your objects ready during your Awaken Phase.
• Recycle: put a card on the bottom of its matching deck (Main Deck cards to the Main Deck, runes to the Rune Deck). Several cards recycled to the Main Deck at once go in random order; to the Rune Deck, in the owner's chosen order.
• Add abilities with Reaction can be used whenever you need to pay resources, and they finalize and resolve immediately.
• is not a resource to remove; a cost of 0 is simply paid.

Cost kinds: Base Cost (upper-left of a card, or before the ':' of an ability); Additional Costs ('as an additional cost', mandatory, or optional when it says 'may'); Costs within Instructions ('do X to do Y', paid on resolution); and Applied Costs (attached to a game action, usually phrased with 'must', paid as the action happens without using the Chain). If you cannot pay, you do not get the linked effect.

Play continues until someone wins. Phases are fixed, but actions inside a phase can be done in any order unless stated. Every action is done one at a time and completely; simultaneous events are ordered by turn order starting with the Turn Player. When the Chain is empty and the Turn Player takes no further action, the current phase or step ends.

1. Awaken Phase: the Turn Player readies everything they control.
2. Beginning Phase – Beginning Step: 'start of Beginning Phase' effects happen (including Temporary, which kills its permanent before scoring).
3. Beginning Phase – Scoring Step: the Turn Player Holds every Battlefield they control (scoring from Hold).
4. Channel Phase: channel 2 runes from your Rune Deck (as many as possible if fewer remain).
5. Draw Phase: draw 1. If your Main Deck is empty you Burn Out first, then draw.
6. Main Phase: every Rune Pool empties and 'start of Main Phase' effects happen. Then it is open: play cards, activate abilities, move units and hide cards as much as you like, which may cause Showdowns or Combats. When you are done, declare the end of your turn.
7. Ending Phase – Ending Step: 'end of turn' effects happen.
8. Ending Phase – Expiration Step: a special Cleanup that also heals all units, expires all 'this turn' effects at once and empties every Rune Pool. If anything used the Chain during this, restart the Expiration Step.
9. The next player in the turn queue becomes the Turn Player.

Additional Turns: effects like 'take a turn after this' insert an extra turn right after the current one without changing the game's turn order. Several extra turns are queued in the order their effects happened.

By default you can only play cards from your hand or Champion Zone. Playing a card yourself is a Discretionary Action; when an effect tells you to play one, it is a Limited Action that follows the normal steps with whatever changes the effect specifies. A card counts as played once the whole process is complete.

1. Move the card from its zone to the Chain as a Pending item (this puts the game in a Closed State).
2. Make choices: 'as you play me' choices and whether to pay optional additional costs; a location for a unit (normally your Base or a Battlefield you control); spell modes; move destinations; and targets.
3. Determine the total cost: apply base-cost changes (e.g. 'play for X', 'ignoring its cost'), add additional costs, add cost increases, apply discounts (component discounts first, then whole-cost discounts), then any total-cost modifications. Energy and Power cannot go below 0.
4. Pay the costs: the combined Energy and Power, plus non-resource costs in any order. You may use Reaction Add abilities (such as runes) during this step.
5. Check legality: choices and targets are legal, all costs were paid, the result would not create an illegal state, and the timing is allowed. If any check fails, undo everything as if it never happened.
6. Finish finalizing: a Permanent leaves the Chain and enters the board (a unit exhausted at the chosen location, a gear ready in your Base). A Spell stays on the Chain so others can respond, then resolves top to bottom and goes to the Trash.

• Targets: when a card 'chooses' specific objects, players or zones, they are targeted; when it 'picks' them, they are not. You must make legal choices for every target to put it on the Chain.
• Not targets: things in non-public zones (e.g. your hand), things that are only a restriction (e.g. 'at a battlefield' in 'kill a unit at a battlefield'), things in costs or trigger conditions, things selected by their characteristics with no choice possible ('kill all units'), things chosen by other players, and things named in a 'must' instruction.
• 'Up to' or 'any number' choices may be zero.
• Split damage: you may pick at most as many targets as there is damage; how it is divided is decided on resolution, and each target must get at least 1.
• You may not make a choice or pay a cost that will certainly make a later step illegal, unless you have no alternative.
• Mandatory requirements set by effects must be followed if possible; restrictions must always be followed, or the card fails to finalize.

If some targets are no longer legal when a spell resolves (they moved out of the required place, or changed to/from a non-board zone), the spell still resolves; those targets are unaffected and instructions about them are Ignored, while other instructions still happen (Void Seeker whose target escaped still draws 1). Instructions that fail for any other reason are Negated. When a later instruction is linked to an earlier one, it is also ignored if the earlier one was ignored; if the earlier one was only negated, the later one still happens unless it refers directly to that action, e.g. 'If you do'.

The turn has two axes of state: Showdown State if a Showdown or Combat is in progress, otherwise Neutral State; and Closed State if a Chain exists, otherwise Open State. That gives four combinations.

• Neutral Open: no Showdown, no Chain. By default you can only play cards and activate abilities now, on your own turn.
• Neutral Closed: a Chain but no Showdown. Only Reaction cards and abilities.
• Showdown Open: a Showdown or Combat but no Chain. Only Action or Reaction, and you need Focus.
• Showdown Closed: both a Showdown and a Chain. Only Reaction.

Priority is the single exclusive right to take Discretionary Actions at a given moment (at most one player has it). Focus is the permission to act during a Showdown Open State; gaining Focus also gives Priority, and passing Priority keeps Focus. No one has Focus in a Neutral State.

The Chain is a temporary zone that exists whenever a card or ability is being played. Only one Chain exists at a time; anything else played joins it. Items start Pending and become Finalized after the legality check. The rules call the procedure HOT FEPR: Handle Outstanding Tasks first, then Finalize, Execute, Pass, Resolve.

1. Finalize: the controller of the oldest Pending item completes playing it. Units, Gear and Add abilities resolve immediately. Repeat while Pending items remain; then the controller of the newest item gets Priority.
2. Execute: the player with Priority may play a legally timed card or ability (normally one with Reaction), which returns to Finalize, or pass.
3. Pass: Priority goes to the next player in turn order. If everyone passes in sequence without adding anything, go to Resolve.
4. Resolve: the newest Finalized item resolves completely. If the Chain is now empty, the game returns to an Open State; otherwise the controller of the newest item gets Priority and you return to Execute.

A Showdown is a window where players take turns playing Action or Reaction cards and abilities. It begins when a Battlefield is Contested during a Cleanup while the turn is Neutral Open. If two players' units are there it is the first part of a Combat; if not (e.g. you moved into an empty Battlefield) it is a Non-Combat Showdown, which becomes a Combat if another player's units arrive during it.

1. The player who applied Contested to the Battlefield gains Focus first.
2. The player with Focus either plays a legally timed card or ability (which opens a Chain as normal) or passes.
3. When that Chain finishes and the state returns to Open, Focus passes to the next player (but not if the Chain was opened by a triggered ability or an Add ability).
4. If all players pass once in sequence, the Showdown ends.
5. In a Combat Showdown, continue with the remaining steps of Combat. In a Non-Combat Showdown, if only one player's units remain and they do not already control it, they establish control, which is a Conquer if they have not scored that Battlefield this turn.

Every unit has the inherent Standard Move: exhaust it as the cost to move it from your Base to a Battlefield, or from a Battlefield to your Base. You can do it during your Main Phase in an Open State, never during a Showdown or Combat. Units with Ganking may also Standard Move from one Battlefield to another.

• You can move several units in one action; they must share a destination but may come from different places, and their exhaust costs are paid together.
• No unit may ever move to a Battlefield that already has units of two other players.
• Moving is instant: there is no 'in transit' state, it does not use the Chain and cannot be responded to. A Cleanup follows every completed move.
• If the destination is an uncontested Battlefield you do not control, it becomes Contested, which can lead to a Showdown or Combat.
• Moves caused by spells and abilities are also Moves; their source defines any destination limits.
• A card changing zones (e.g. hand to board) is not a Move.

A Recall returns a Permanent to its controller's Base without being a Move: move triggers do not fire and movement restrictions cannot stop it. Damage and statuses stay as they were. If a move would put a unit somewhere it is not allowed to be, it is recalled instead.

Combat happens when units of two players are at the same Battlefield (usually because someone moved in, but spells and effects can cause it too). It is staged during a Cleanup and begins during a Cleanup when the Chain is empty and no other Showdown or Combat is ongoing. If several are staged, the Turn Player chooses which goes first. Combat is always between exactly two players.

1. Step 1, Combat Showdown: 'start of combat' effects happen (with 'start of showdown' effects if the Showdown just opened). The Attacker is the player who applied Contested; the Defender is the other. Their units at the Battlefield take the matching designation. 'When I attack' and 'When I defend' triggers go on the Chain, attacker's first, then the defender's. Then the Showdown plays out as normal.
2. Step 2, Combat Damage: when the Showdown ends and both sides still have units there, total the Might of all attacking units and of all defending units. Starting with the attacker, each player assigns damage equal to their total among the other side's units. Once all damage is assigned, it is dealt at the same time.
3. Step 3, Resolution: perform a Combat Cleanup, which kills units with lethal damage, then heals all units and recalls the attackers to base if any defenders are still there.
4. Determine the result: a player wins the combat if they are the only one with units left there. If attackers were recalled, or both or neither side has units, there is No Result; if both sides still have units, a new Showdown and Combat are staged there.
5. If nothing is staged, the player with units remaining establishes control (if they did not already have it) and Contested is cleared. If no one has units, the Battlefield becomes uncontrolled. Hidden cards not controlled by the Battlefield's controller are removed. Establishing control is a Conquer if that player has not scored this Battlefield this turn (it does not have to be the attacker).
6. Combat ends: remove the Attacker/Defender designations, 'end of combat' effects happen, and all 'this combat' effects expire together.

• Assigning damage is not dealing it; everything is dealt together after assignment.
• Each unit must be assigned lethal damage in full before you move on to another. With 5 damage against four 3-Might units you must do 3 and 2, not 2-1-1-1.
• You may not assign more than the minimum lethal amount to a unit unless no other units are left (damage already marked counts).
• Prevention and damage-increasing effects apply to assignment: a 2-Might unit that prevents the first 3 damage needs 5 assigned to be lethal.
• Tank units must be assigned damage first, Backline units last. If one unit has both, the assigning player picks one to honour.
• Stunned units add no Might to combat damage, but still need their full Might in damage to die.
• Combat damage is dealt by the opposing units.
• Units that arrive during a Combat gain their controller's Attacker/Defender designation in the following Cleanup.

Scoring is seizing or keeping control of a Battlefield you have not scored yet this turn. It is separate from gaining points: card text 'Score X points' means gaining points, while 'score' with no number refers to the Scoring process.

• Conquer: gain control of a Battlefield you have not scored this turn. It can happen on any turn (e.g. you are the only one left there after a fight).
• Hold: still control a Battlefield during the Scoring Step of your own Beginning Phase.
• Each Battlefield can be scored only once per player per turn, by either method.
• When you score, you gain up to one point, and Conquer/Hold abilities of that Battlefield and the units involved trigger.

Final Point: if you would gain a point from a Conquer while you are within 1 point of the Victory Score, you only gain it if you have scored every Battlefield this turn; otherwise you draw a card instead. This applies only to Conquer. Points from Holding or from card effects are not restricted.

• Conquer effects ('When I/you conquer') of units present go on the Chain after the player gains control and the point; they still trigger even if gaining the point is replaced or negated.
• Hold effects ('When I/you hold') trigger when you hold in your Beginning Phase, and also still trigger if the point is replaced.
• The win check happens in a Cleanup: at or above the Victory Score and ahead of every opponent.

Cleanups are frequent checks of the game state: after the state switches between Open and Closed, after a phase change, after an item is added to, finalized on, or removed from the Chain, after objects enter or leave the board, after any status change, and after a move. Chain items cannot finalize or resolve during a Cleanup, and a Cleanup cannot happen while something is resolving (it waits). If a Cleanup causes another, repeat until nothing changes.

1. If a player has at least the Victory Score and more points than every opponent, they win.
2. If a Combat is in progress, fix Attacker/Defender designations: units there without one take their controller's; units with the wrong one switch; units elsewhere lose theirs.
3. Handle the board: units with lethal damage are killed and put in their owners' Trash.
4. Players lose control of Battlefields where they have no units, if the turn is Open and no Showdown or Combat is ongoing there.
5. Recall to base: unattached non-unit Gear at Battlefields, non-unit Runes at Battlefields, and unattached Permanents and Runes in someone else's Base. Also trash any facedown cards at Battlefields their controller does not control.
6. Stage a Showdown at each Battlefield that became Contested and has no ongoing Combat (it stays staged while Contested and the contesting player still has units there).
7. Stage a Combat at each Contested Battlefield that has units of opposing players (it is unstaged if they are no longer both there before it starts).
8. Remove Contested from Battlefields where the contesting player has no units and no Showdown or Combat is ongoing. If that leaves units at a Battlefield their controller does not control, that controller applies Contested.
9. If the turn is Neutral Open and Showdowns are staged where no Combat is staged, the Turn Player chooses one and that Showdown begins.
10. If the turn is Neutral Open and Combats are staged, the Turn Player chooses one and that Combat begins. If the turn is Showdown Open and a Combat is staged where a Non-Combat Showdown is ongoing, it becomes a Combat Showdown.

Ability structures: Passive, Replacement Effects, Activated, Triggered and Delayed, plus Reflexive Triggers and Linked Abilities. A card can have several abilities of several kinds.

• Passive Abilities are statements of fact, e.g. 'Friendly Yordles here have Shield', and may be conditional ('if/while'). On Permanents they work while on the board; off-board ones describe their own context (e.g. 'You may play me from your trash...'). Cost-changing abilities work in any zone the card can be played from.
• Activated Abilities read 'cost: effect', e.g. ': Draw 1'. They use the Chain like a card (like a spell with no card). Usable in the controller's Main Phase in an Open State, not during Showdowns, unless they have Action/Reaction. Cards call activating them 'use' or 'play'.
• Triggered Abilities start with 'When...', 'At...' or 'The Nth time...'. When the condition happens they go on the Chain, on any turn and even in a Closed State. If the effect begins with 'you may', the controller decides on finalization (declining means it never triggered); a 'may' elsewhere is decided on resolution.
• An 'if' clause immediately after the trigger condition is part of the condition; if false, the ability never goes on the Chain.
• Simultaneous triggers are ordered by their controller; with several controllers, starting with the Turn Player in turn order.
• Named trigger families: Play Effects ('When you play me'), Targeting Effects ('When you choose me'), Conquer Effects, Hold Effects, Attack Triggers ('When I attack') and Defend Triggers ('When I defend'); attack/defend conditions are checked only once per combat.
• Leave-the-board triggers (like Deathknell) go on the Chain just before the card changes zones, but do not trigger if a replacement stops it from leaving that way (e.g. recalled instead of dying).
• Reflexive Triggers are marked by 'Do this:' or 'Do one of the following:' and create new Chain items when their condition is met.
• Delayed Abilities work only during a stated window, e.g. 'The next spell you play this turn...' or 'Kill it the next time it takes damage this turn', and work even if their source has left the board.
• Linked Abilities are abilities on the same object that refer to each other, e.g. 'play units banished with this', which only reaches things handled by abilities in the same set.
• 'Once each turn' or 'N times each turn' limits uses per turn; choosing not to use it on one occasion does not count against the limit.

Replacement Effects change how an event happens before it happens. Look for 'as', 'would' or 'instead', e.g. 'If a friendly unit would die, ... instead' or 'I enter ready'. Burning Out, preventing damage and Skip are also replacement effects.

• Each replacement effect can apply only once to a given event (or to events replacing it).
• If several apply to the same event, the controller of the affected object (or the affected player) orders them; for an uncontrolled Battlefield, the Turn Player does.
• A replaced event is treated as never having happened, so effects waiting for it do not trigger; a cost whose action was replaced still counts as paid.

Actions are either Discretionary (you choose to do them on your turn in a Neutral Open State: playing cards, Standard Move, Hide) or Limited (only when an effect or a turn step tells you: draw, kill, channel, etc.). The player performing an action is responsible for it, and 'when you ...' triggers look at actions you are responsible for.

• Draw: take the top card of your Main Deck into your hand. If there are not enough, draw what you can, Burn Out, then draw the rest.
• Burn Out: happens when you must take more cards out of your Main Deck than it holds (looking or revealing never causes it). Do as much as you can, recycle your whole Trash into your Main Deck (randomised), choose an opponent to gain 1 point, then finish the action. With an empty deck and trash you keep burning out; a point from a later burn out that puts an opponent at the Victory Score and in the lead wins immediately, without waiting for a Cleanup.
• Deal: mark damage on units; it must be a positive whole number. 'Deal X for each ...' is a single instance of damage.
• Heal: clear damage from units.
• Kill: send a Permanent from the board to the Trash, either by instruction (active) or from lethal damage or another state (passive). Not a Move.
• Banish: put a card directly into Banishment. It is neither a kill nor a discard.
• Discard: move a card from hand to Trash without using its text. If told to discard more than you have, discard what you can.
• Stun: give a unit the Stunned status (it cannot stack). Stunned units add no Might to combat damage; the status ends at end of turn.
• Buff: place a Buff counter on a unit (+1 Might). A unit can hold only one unless an effect allows more.
• Reveal: show a card to everyone temporarily; it stays in its zone. Voluntarily showing your hand is not a reveal.
• Counter: cancel a card or ability on the Chain; no costs are refunded.
• Predict: look at the top card of your Main Deck and choose whether to recycle it (with several, recycle any number and put the rest back in any order). Never causes a Burn Out.
• Burn: move cards from the top of your Main Deck to your Trash; burning more than you have causes a Burn Out.
• Prevent: reduce the next damage a unit would take by the prevent value tracked on it.
• Hide: place a card facedown at a Battlefield you control (via the Hidden keyword). If a facedown card would change zones or the game ends, its owner reveals it.
• Others: Ready, Exhaust, Recycle, Channel, Add, Pay, Move, Attach/Detach, Empower/Disempower, Double (add the current value), Swap (exchange two values), Replace (swap in a token), Create (make a new Game Object), Copy and Skip (replace an event with nothing).

Layers are the system for ordering effects that change an object's characteristics. They are evaluated continuously and repeated until every effect has applied once and nothing changes. Most games never need it, but it settles complex interactions.

1. Copy Effects: copy another object's copyable (printed) traits, such as name, type, tags, cost, domain, text and Might.
2. Trait-Altering Effects: change name, supertype, type, tags, controller, cost, domain, base Might or base Might Bonus; often worded 'become', 'is', 'are', 'give'.
3. Ability-Altering Effects: grant, remove or replace abilities and keywords, including attached cards' Effect Text.
4. Arithmetic Effects: add and subtract numbers (Might, Energy cost, Power cost), increases first, then decreases. Attached cards' Might Bonuses apply here.

• Snapshotting: a non-passive arithmetic effect with a limit (e.g. '-4 Might, to a minimum of 1') calculates the limit when applied and keeps that value; on a 2-Might unit it is -1 for the whole duration.
• Increasing a value by a negative amount is not possible; it increases by 0 instead.
• Within a layer, if one effect changes the result of another (a dependency), apply the one depended on first. If they depend on each other, or there is no dependency, use timestamp order, earliest first.
• Example: a unit under a passive 'Might increased to 5' that also gets +2 applies the +2 first, then the passive, ending at 6 Might.

• Buffs: a counter on a unit giving +1 Might; only one at a time. 'Spend a buff' removes one (only from units you control). Buffs are removed when the unit leaves play.
• Mighty: a unit with 5 or more Might. It 'becomes Mighty' at the moment its Might goes from below 5 to 5 or more. Off the board, use printed Might.
• Bonus Damage: adds to a single deal action. Multiple sources are summed; with several targets each gets it separately; with split damage it is added before splitting (so you may pick more targets). No damage dealt means no bonus.
• Attachment: an attached card (e.g. Equipment) has its own rules text switched off, but its Effect Text is added to the Top-Most Card and its Might Bonus applies to it. Attached cards move with the top card. If the top card leaves the board, attachments detach where it was (Gear at a Battlefield is then recalled in the Cleanup). Units can never be attached.
• Inactive text is still on the card and can be referenced (it still 'has' the keyword).
• Dependent Keywords such as Legion, Level and Empowered are conditions; the ability after them works only while the condition is true. With several, all must be true.
• XP: a player resource that is gained and spent with no upper limit. Public, not a Game Object, and not shared with teammates.
• Counters: Game Objects placed on other objects. They are never targeted, have no controller, and vanish when their object goes to a non-board zone.
• Untargetable: 'can't be chosen by ...' makes something an illegal target; if it happens after targeting, the spell mistargets on resolution.
• Making New Choices: you must remake all of them (locations, modes, destinations, targets), legally, and no new costs are paid.
• Naming: a named card must be legal in the Format and cannot be a token; use the exact name or traits that identify it uniquely. A named tag must exist in the game.
• Ignoring: an effect telling you to 'ignore' an ability turns it off only for that action and only for the player directed.

• Friendly: two objects with the same controller, or whose controllers are teammates.
• Enemy: objects whose controllers are opponents.
• Alone: no other friendly units at the same location.
• One on one: your unit and the enemy unit at the same location are both alone.
• In combat: at a Battlefield where combat is ongoing and holding a combat designation.
• Tie: units of different players are still at the combat's Battlefield at the attacker-recall step of the Combat Cleanup.

Keywords are shorthand for longer rules or abilities and have a coloured highlight. Effects can grant or remove them; with no duration stated, it lasts while the object stays in its current zone. They work top to bottom like other text, and whether something has a keyword can be checked by other effects.

• Accelerate: optional additional cost when playing a unit: pay C and it enters ready (it does not 'become ready'). Only usable while playing it; multiple instances are redundant.
• Action: may be played or activated during Showdowns on any player's turn, in addition to normal timing. A unit with Action still has to be played to your Base or a Battlefield you control.
• Reaction: everything Action gives, plus it may be played during Closed States (responding on the Chain) on any player's turn.
• Assault X: +X Might while attacking (1 if no number). Multiple sources add up.
• Shield X: +X Might while defending (1 if no number). Multiple sources add up.
• Tank: must be assigned lethal combat damage before same-controller units without Tank.
• Backline: is assigned combat damage after same-controller units without Backline.
• Deathknell: 'When I die, ...'; it triggers on actually being killed and put in the Trash, not if the death is replaced.
• Deflect X: opponents' spells and abilities that target this cost X more Power (any domain) for each time they choose it, a mandatory additional cost. Multiple sources add up.
• Ganking: the unit may Standard Move from one Battlefield to another.
• Hidden: on your turn in an Open State, pay to hide the card facedown at a Battlefield you control with no facedown card. From the next turn it has Reaction and can be played ignoring its base cost; when played from facedown, its targets and location are tied to that Battlefield (unless that is impossible). You can also just play it normally from hand.
• Legion: the following ability works if you have played another card this turn (one card switches on all your Legion abilities).
• Temporary: at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill it.
• Vision: when played to the board, Predict. Multiple instances trigger separately.
• Equip: an Equipment ability: pay the cost to attach it to a unit you control (the unit is targeted).
• Quick-Draw: the Equipment has Reaction and, when played, attaches to a unit you control.
• Repeat: optional additional cost; if paid, the spell or ability's instructions are executed one more time (with choices made when playing), but it is still only played once.
• Weaponmaster: when you play this unit, choose an Equipment you control and pay its Equip cost reduced by to attach it to this unit, regardless of normal timing.
• Ambush: the unit may be played to a Battlefield where you have units, and has Reaction while being played there.
• Hunt X: when this unit Conquers or Holds, its controller gains X XP.
• Level N: the following ability works while you have at least N XP.
• Unique: deckbuilding limit of one copy per name.
• Empower: pay the cost to give this the Empowered status (normally only if not already Empowered); Empowered abilities work while it has that status.
• Flow: you may play this spell from your Trash for its Flow cost instead of its base cost, then banish it.
• Deploy: gear that may be played or created to any Battlefield (and only to a Battlefield), is not recalled in Cleanups, and is killed when an opponent holds there.
• Disarm X: when this attacks, give an enemy unit here -X Might this turn (triggers once using the total value).
• Show Off: as you play it, you may reveal the specified object(s) from hand and/or pick them among your objects on the board, for linked abilities to use.

Each mode defines the number of players, team formation, Victory Score, battlefield count, setup, format, first-turn adjustments and any unique rules. In the sanctioned modes, every player brings 3 Battlefields in their deck.

• 1v1 Duel: 2 players, 8 points, 2 Battlefields; each player randomly picks 1 of their 3. Best of 1. The second player channels one extra rune in their first Channel Phase.
• 1v1 Match: like Duel, but players choose their Battlefield, best of 3. A Battlefield used in a game someone won cannot be chosen again in that match (it can be reused if nobody won). In best of 5, games 4–5 may reuse removed Battlefields once all of a player's Battlefields have been presented, at most twice each per match.
• FFA3 Skirmish: 3 players free-for-all, 8 points, 3 Battlefields (one random pick each), best of 1. The first player skips their first draw; the last player channels one extra rune.
• FFA4 War: 4 players free-for-all, 8 points, 3 Battlefields: the first player's are not used and the other three each pick one at random. Best of 1, same first-turn adjustments as FFA3.
• 2v2 Magma Chamber: 4 players in 2 teams, 11 points, 3 Battlefields (the first player's are not used). Turn order alternates teams. Best of 1, same first-turn adjustments as FFA.

• Teammates win and lose together; if one concedes or loses, the whole team loses.
• Points are shared by the team, but control and XP are not.
• You may play spells or activate abilities on your teammate's turn when they invite you with their Priority.
• A Battlefield can be scored once per team per turn. Battlefields your teammate controls during your Scoring Step cannot be scored by your team that turn.
• You cannot hide cards at your teammate's Battlefields, Standard Move their units, or move into a Battlefield they occupy.
• The Final Point from Conquer requires scoring every Battlefield that turn, except ones your teammate occupied during that turn's Scoring Step.
• Teammates may not use the same Champion Legend or the same Battlefields.
• 'Friendly' includes your teammate's objects, and you may show your hand to your teammate at any time (this is not a reveal).

Conceding: a player may concede at any time and is removed from the game. If one player remains, they win. If the game continues: banish all permanents, runes and facedown cards they control or own; replace their Battlefield, if in use, with a token Battlefield with no abilities (units there stay); remove all their cards; counter all their spells and abilities; then continue, passing the turn, Focus or Priority to the next player as needed.