Advanced Systems
Empower and Dependent Text
Follow activation, payment, the Empowered status and dependent text, with Kayle’s explicit multiple-status exception.
Guide overview
What you’ll learn
- Separate paying Empower from becoming Empowered.
- Track dependent text when statuses are gained or removed.
- Apply Kayle’s explicit exception allowing three statuses.
Guide content
Understand the concept
EmpowerAn activated ability with a listed cost. When it resolves, it Empowers its source permanent or legend, without targeting it. Normally it can be activated only if the source is not already Empowered.View in Glossary is the Activated AbilityAn ability you choose to use by paying the cost before its colon. Its effect is written after the colon.View in Glossary you choose to use by paying its cost. EmpoweredA status that makes a card's Empowered text active. A card normally either has this status or does not, unless its text allows multiple instances.View in Glossary is a status - a condition a card or token can have - that its effect gives when it ResolveCarry out a finalized Chain item's effects. Normally the newest waiting item resolves after everyone passes Priority in sequence. Units, Gear and Add abilities instead resolve immediately when finalized.View in Glossary . Resolving means carrying out the ability’s instructions. Dependent text is text that works only while its stated condition is met; here, while that game element is Empowered. Use that sequence to explain both simple bonuses and cards whose text changes the normal one-status limit.
Pay the actual Empower cost
An Empower cost may be resources, an action such as DiscardMove a card directly from your hand to your Trash without playing it or following its normal rules text.View in Glossary a card or a combination. Use the ability’s cost and timing, including any card-specific changes. The ability refers to its source, the game element carrying the ability, such as a unit card or token. It does not choose that element as a TargetA specific object, player or zone chosen by a spell or ability under the targeting rules. Check legality when choosing and when resolving. Costs, automatic groups and explicit "pick" choices do not target; pending Chain items cannot be targeted.View in Glossary .
Example - Punching Poro Its cost is discarding 1 card. You pay that cost when activating the ability, then the ability waits on the ChainAn off-board zone that holds cards and abilities during the process of playing them. Cards and abilities on it are public information.View in Glossary , the list of spells and abilities yet to resolve. The Poro has not yet gained its Empowered status just because you discarded. Its printed 2 MightMight represents both how much Combat Damage a unit can contribute and how much marked Damage it can normally take before being killed.View in Glossary is still the starting value.
Card example
Punching Poro
Discarding pays the activation. The Empowered +1 Might turns on when the ability resolves successfully.
Unit
Punching Poro
[Empower] — Discard 1 (Pay the cost: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have +1 [Might].
Resolution changes the status and dependent text
When the Empower ability resolves successfully, the game element that supplied it becomes Empowered. Punching Poro’s dependent +1 Might becomes active, so its Might becomes 3 if no other bonuses or reductions apply. A response before resolution does not have to evaluate it as already Empowered.
A dependent “When I become Empowered” ability can trigger as the status is gained, even though that text was inactive beforehand. Process the trigger in the normal way; do not resolve it in advance at cost payment.
Removing the status turns dependent text off
An effect may instruct DisempowerAn instructed action that removes one Empowered status from a card. It does nothing to a card without that status.View in Glossary . On an ordinary Empowered card, that removes the status and switches off its dependent text. The Poro returns from 3 to 2 Might if its +1 was the only change to its Might. Disempowering a card without the status does nothing.
Normally an already Empowered card cannot activate its ordinary Empower ability again. Multiple Empower abilities are distinct activated abilities with their own costs, but having several does not itself allow stacked statuses. Look for an explicit exception.
Kayle explicitly allows three statuses
Kayle, Justified changes the normal rule. She can hold up to three Empowered statuses and gains +2 Might for each. Her base 3 becomes 5, then 7, then 9 after three successful Empower resolutions. At three statuses, she also has DeflectA keyword that adds X Power of any Domain to an opponent's spell or ability cost each time it targets this permanent. No number means 1; multiple Deflect values add together.View in Glossary 3 and GankingGanking is a keyword that allows a unit to move from one Battlefield directly to another with its Standard Move.View in Glossary .
The FAQ allows her Empower ability to be activated even at three statuses. You still pay its cost, but resolution adds nothing while she is already at her limit. Do not generalize that permission to Punching Poro or other ordinary cards.
Card example
Kayle, Justified
Her explicit permission changes the usual limit of one Empowered status. These calculated totals do not alter the printed card.
Champion Unit
Kayle
Justified
[Empower] [Energy 3] ([Energy 3]: Empower me.) I can be [Empowered] up to three times. I have +2 [Might] for each time I'm [Empowered]. While I'm [Empowered] three times, I have [Deflect 3] and [Ganking].
Remove one status, then reassess every condition
Disempowering Kayle removes one Empowered status, according to the FAQ. From three statuses she goes to two: 9 → 7 Might, and the three-status Deflect 3 and Ganking stop applying. She remains Empowered. Removing another gives one status and 5 Might; removing the last leaves her unempowered at 3.
Read each ability’s actual condition. Text requiring the status can remain active at one status, while a condition requiring exactly three stops earlier. Existing unrelated temporary bonuses or reductions remain separate throughout this sequence.
Keep in mind
Key points
- Pay first; the status is gained on successful resolution.
- Empowered-dependent text follows the current status.
- Kayle’s extra statuses and one-at-a-time Disempower are specific exceptions.