Erratas & Clarifications Riftbound

Q: Player A has a unit (A) on Abandoned Hall. They play Ride the Wind, targeting unit A and declaring another battlefield as the move destination. When Ride the Wind resolves, may I choose to target unit A with Abandoned Hall’s triggered effect and give it +1?

A: No. Abandoned Hall’s trigger condition is met when a spell resolves. Ride the Wind resolves moving unit A from Abandoned Hall, then leaves the chain, while Abandoned Hall’s trigger is added on the chain as a pending item. When the battlefield’s trigger is being finalized, unit A does not constitute a legal target; if there aren’t legal targets at the battlefield at all, the ability is removed from the chain and it is not finalized. The same process happens when Ride The Wind moves a unit to Abandoned Hall, but in this scenario the trigger finds that unit as a legal target during finalization.

Abandoned Hall + Ride the Wind breviary (“may I give +1 to the unit I just moved?”):

• Ride TO Abandoned → YES
• Ride FROM Abandoned → NO

Relevant Rules:

• From the Unleashed FAQ, about the meaning of “Play”: 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.
• 402.3. If there are not enough options to make legal choices for a Triggered Ability that has been put on the chain, remove it from the Chain now. It ceases to be a Pending Item but never becomes a Chain Item.

Q: I play Akshan paying its additional cost. The play effect (1) to “steal” a gear is finalized on the chain targeting opponent’s Gear A; in response, I play Thrill of the Hunt, targeting my Akshan, and the spell resolves. Akshan is played again paying its additional cost, and the play effect (2) to “steal” is finalized on the chain targeting opponent’s Gear B. Play effects are now on the chain in the order 1 > 2. What happens to Gear A when the first Play effect resolves?

A: Control of it will not change.

As a premise: the Akshan played via Thrill of the Hunt is considered as a different game object than the first Akshan, as it changed zone to a non-board Zone. Let’s say the second Play effect resolves (control of Gear B is gained) and the first is now resolving: Gear A moves to my base; Akshan’s ability reads “if it’s an equipment, attach it to me”, so if Gear A is an equipment, the cited instruction fails to find “me” since the Akshan that was the source of the ability that moved Gear A is no longer on the board, therefore it doesn’t attach; after the resolution of the ability, a cleanup will occur, in which Gear A will move to my opponent’s base again.

Relevant rules:

• 359.3.e.4. If a target changes Zones to or from a Non-Board Zone and then returns to its original zone, it is no longer a legal target, because it's not treated as the same object. [This rule can be found in the Targeting section, but its logic is applied also outside of targeting rules].
• 323.7. 5. Recall all Unattached non-Unit Gear at Battlefields, and all Permanents and Runes in Bases other than their controller’s. Remove all Hidden cards from all Battlefields that are not controlled by the same player and place them in their owner's Trash.

Q. If I take control of an equipment then move the equipment to another unit (say with Jax's ability for instance), what happens when Akshan dies?

The control of the stolen equipment is regained by the original controller, but the equipment remains attached to the unit until it dies or the gear is moved/detached by another ability.

718.5.e. Attached cards may have different Controllers from their Top-Most card.
718.5.f. Changes in Control of the Top-Most card do not impact Control of Attached cards and vice versa.
718.5.g. An Attached card still appends the abilities in its Effect Text to the Rules Text of the Top-Most card and modulates the Top-Most Card’s Might by its Might Bonus.

Q: I play <<Alpha Strike>> and choose my 3[M] unit and target 3 enemy 1[M] Recruits. Enemy reacts with <<Stupefy>> (targeting my 3[M] unit) and <<En Garde>> (targeting one of their 1[M] Recruits). After all spells resolve, am I able to only kill the Recruit that is now 2[M]?

Rules for Context - 355.14.h., 055.

A: No.

When choosing targets to cease being targets per 355.14.h., players cannot choose to remove any number of targets—only a number of targets such that there are targets equal to the damage being split. The spirit of that rule is Do As Much As You Can.

It can help to consider the alternate version of this scenario: if Stupify were not played, and En Garde was the only spell played here, you would not be able to kill the unit with 2[M].

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.

Q: I have an <<Alpha Wildclaw>> and an 8[M] unit on a battlefield. My enemy attacks and during the showdown, my enemy plays a kill spell and targets my 8[M] unit. I react with <<Discipline>> and target my <<Alpha Wildclaw>>. After all spells resolve, does my 8[M] unit still die?

Rules for Context - 359.3.e.2., 359.3.e.9.

A: No, the unit will not die.

The spell will resolve, but any instructions related to the unit will be ignored because it has mistargeted.

Le texte de la carte se lit désormais :

At the end of your turn, ready up to 2 runes.

Control of a battlefield is not lost as long as the state is closed. This changes how Arcane Shift and similar cards work, as you retain control of the battlefield as long as there are items on the chain, meaning the banished unit can be replayed on the battlefield even outside of showdowns.

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.

CR 321: while a chain item is resolving, a cleanup can not occur.

CR 323.6: while the turn is not in an Open State, there is no loss of control.

During the resolution, the state is Closed. After the resolution, the unit is pending and the state is still Closed. The condition for losing control (CR 187.4.c) is never met, and as such, you’re allowed to play the unit at the BF you were controlling if you banished the only unit at that BF. This may happen both during a Showdown and in a non-Showdown scenario.

Q. You play <Arcane Shift> on <Thousand-Tailed Watcher>. Can you use <Accelerate> to have the unit enter ready? And do you have to pay the 1 energy 1 mind power cost?

Yes, but you pay the accelerate cost.

731.+
Accelerate is functionnaly short for "As you play me, you may pay [1] and 1 Power as an additional cost. If you do, I enter ready."

Accelerate is an Optional Additional Cost to be paid as a player plays the unit with the ability.

350.+ Playng cards

• If an ability or instruction allows you to "ignore" on or more of a card's costs, set the appropriate Base Cost(s) of the card to zero.
• Apply aditional costs in any order (including Accelerate)
• Apply cost increases.
• Apply discounts in any order.

Card text now reads as:

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

Q: I have a Reflection token that has copied <<Atakhan>>. I play another (real) <<Atakhan>> from my hand and kill the Reflection token as an additional cost. Can I play <<Atakhan>> for free?

Rules for Context - 131.4., 359.3.e.13.

A: Yes. Because its cost will be reduced by [10][Y][Y][Y].

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.

Le texte de la carte se lit désormais :

When I attack, you may pay [C] to play a card with [Hidden] from your hand, ignoring its cost. If it’s a unit, play it here.

Q: I have a Reflection token that has copied a unit. I attack with <<Azir Sovereign>>. Can I move the Reflection token?

Rules for Context - 184.6., 472.1.b.1.

A. No.

With Unleashed’s launch in China, their judge community received official guidance from us that tokens copy everything about the unit including whether the unit is a token or card and this replaces the copy’s trait with this information.

This means if a Reflection copies a unit, such as Loyal Poro, the Reflection token becomes a Loyal Poro card and stops being a token. So it won't count as a token, and can’t be chosen by spells or abilities which choose tokens.

If a Reflection token copies a Bird token, then your Reflection is a Bird and remains a token.

However, while this is valid for the rules as written, this is not our design intent. We will be revising these rules with July’s Vendetta Rules Update.

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?

Baited Hook kills a unit, then uses information about “the killed unit.” If you prevent that unit’s death, there’s no killed unit, so Baited Hook can’t evaluate its Might. As a result, the check for the Might of the “killed unit” returns a null value, and you’re not able to play any unit. If the unit is killed before the ability of Baited Hook resolves, the outcome is the same.

Le texte de la carte se lit désormais :

[1][C], [E]: Kill a friendly unit. Look at the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish a unit from among them that has Might up to 1 more than the killed unit and play it, ignoring its cost. Then recycle the rest.

Q: What about cards like Blind Fury and Promising Future, which let players look at or reveal cards from the top of a deck, play one, and recycle the rest? If I can’t play that card, where does it go? It sounds like it’s too late for it to be recycled as part of “the rest.”

Hey, you’re pretty sharp! For most cards that let you play something, it’s easy to put the card back where it came from if you can’t play it. The Harrowing would put it back in your trash, Ava Achiever would put it back in your hand, and so on. But when the card came out of a deck, which is both secret and randomized, it’s not so simple.

To provide a clear and easy answer to this question, four cards in set 1 that let you play other cards from decks are receiving errata. They’ll each banish the card before instructing a player to play it. If the card can’t be played for any reason, it just stays banished. This is a small functional change, but it’s one we feel is well worth it to avoid the fuss of getting these cards back into a deck somehow.

Q. You play Bellow's Breath repeated, targeting Stellacorn Herder and 2 Traveling Merchants at Void Gate. Your Opponent plays Flash in response, returning the 2 Traveling Merchants to base. What happens next (other than your opponent discarding 1, drawing 1 twice)?

You choose either the Herder or the two Merchants to die.

352.11.b
If the group of targets no longer collectively fulfill the targeting restriction as the spell or ability resolves, that spell or ability's controller can choose a subset of the original targets that fulfills the targeting requirement for the spell or ability to affect.

Q. Can I sacrifice the unit I want to equip Blade of the Ruined King to?

No.

355.16 A player may not make choices during this step that will deterministycally result in illegal choices or actions later in this process unless they have no choice.
_Example: A player plays a card which reads "as an additional cost to play this, kill the unit you control with the most Might. Give a friendly unit +[M] equal to the killed unit's Might this turn. predict 2." They cannot choose to target their unit with the highest Might during this step of finalization.

Q: What about cards like Blind Fury and Promising Future, which let players look at or reveal cards from the top of a deck, play one, and recycle the rest? If I can’t play that card, where does it go? It sounds like it’s too late for it to be recycled as part of “the rest.”

Hey, you’re pretty sharp! For most cards that let you play something, it’s easy to put the card back where it came from if you can’t play it. The Harrowing would put it back in your trash, Ava Achiever would put it back in your hand, and so on. But when the card came out of a deck, which is both secret and randomized, it’s not so simple.

To provide a clear and easy answer to this question, four cards in set 1 that let you play other cards from decks are receiving errata. They’ll each banish the card before instructing a player to play it. If the card can’t be played for any reason, it just stays banished. This is a small functional change, but it’s one we feel is well worth it to avoid the fuss of getting these cards back into a deck somehow.