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Rules
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87 rules
Explanations & referencesCards And Zones
Can You Change a Target or Mode After Playing a Card?
Keep the choices you made unless an effect specifically permits new ones.
Cards And Zones
How Do "Later" and "Do This" Abilities Work?
Do the immediate instructions now; queue "do this" effects separately and save delayed effects for their stated time.
Cards And Zones
How Do Drawing, Discarding and Burning Cards Work?
Draw into your hand, discard from your hand to your Trash, and burn from the top of your Main Deck to your Trash.
Cards And Zones
How Do Empower and Empowered Work?
Use an Empower ability to give its source the Empowered status, which turns on its Empowered text.
Cards And Zones
How Do Passive and Activated Abilities Work?
Passive abilities apply automatically; activated abilities require you to choose to use them and pay their costs.
Cards And Zones
How Do Repeat Choices and Costs Work?
Pay Repeat while playing a spell or ability to execute its instructions again when it resolves.
Cards And Zones
How Do Tokens Work?
Use a clear marker for a token, follow its type and the creating effect, and remove it when it leaves for most off-board zones.
Cards And Zones
How Do Units, Gear, Spells and Runes Differ?
Units fight, gear stays in play, spells carry out instructions, and runes provide resources. Their types determine how they enter and what can affect them.
Cards And Zones
How Do You Hide and Play a Facedown Card?
Hide a card with Hidden at a battlefield you control, then play it from there starting on a later turn.
Cards And Zones
How Do You Play a Spell with Flow from Your Trash?
Flow lets you play a spell from your Trash for its Flow cost, then usually banishes it when it leaves the chain.
Cards And Zones
How Do You Play and Use Gear?
Play ordinary gear ready at Base, then use its abilities as instructed. Equipping is a separate action.
Cards And Zones
How Do You Use Accelerate?
Pay Accelerate as an optional additional cost while playing a unit to have it enter ready.
Cards And Zones
How Does Deploy Work?
Play or create Deploy gear only to a battlefield. It stays through the usual recall check, but an opponent holding there triggers its destruction.
Cards And Zones
How Does Disarm Work?
On its first attack each combat, a unit with Disarm gives an enemy unit here a Might reduction for this turn. Add its Disarm values for one trigger.
Cards And Zones
How Does Equipment Attach and Detach?
Attached Equipment gives its unit its Effect Text and Might bonus, while remaining a separate card.
Cards And Zones
How Does Quick-Draw Equipment Work?
Quick-Draw lets you play Equipment at Reaction timing and then attaches it with a play trigger.
Cards And Zones
How Does Recycling Work?
Return Main Deck cards and runes to the bottoms of their owners' corresponding decks.
Cards And Zones
How Does Show Off Work?
Show qualifying cards from hand and/or pick qualifying friendly objects on the board while playing the card. The information it uses is fixed then.
Cards And Zones
How Does Weaponmaster Attach Equipment?
A unit's Weaponmaster play trigger can attach Equipment you control after you pay its discounted Equip cost.
Cards And Zones
What Are the Steps for Playing a Card?
Choose the card, make its required choices and pay before carrying out its result.
Cards And Zones
What Counts as Choosing a Target?
Recognize specific choices, check their restrictions and distinguish targets from whole groups or costs.
Cards And Zones
What Do Temporary and Vision Do?
Temporary kills its permanent before its controller scores at the start of a turn. Vision lets you Predict when you play the permanent.
Cards And Zones
What Does a Card Forget When It Leaves the Board?
Leaving for a non-board zone clears temporary changes. Coming back is a new object, while simply moving between board locations is different.
Cards And Zones
What Does Copying a Card Actually Copy?
Copy the traits specified by the effect, without transferring the other object's statuses or temporary bonuses.
Cards And Zones
What Does Naming a Card or Tag Require?
Identify one real, format-legal card clearly, or name a real tag when the instruction asks for a tag.
Cards And Zones
What Happens If a Spell's Target Changes?
Recheck the original targets when the spell resolves and carry out the parts that still work.
Cards And Zones
What Happens When a Battlefield Is Replaced by a Token?
The token takes the battlefield's place and inherits its current effects and statuses.
Cards And Zones
What Happens When an Effect Says "Instead"?
Change the event before it happens, then carry out the replacement rather than the original event.
Cards And Zones
What Happens When You Look, Reveal or Predict?
Look privately, reveal to everyone, and Predict by choosing which top cards to recycle.
Cards And Zones
What If a Card Has More Than One Type?
A card with multiple types follows each type and can be affected through any of them. Unit behavior and rune recycling have explicit priority rules.
Cards And Zones
What If Card Text Changes the Usual Rules?
Follow a card's exception to the normal rules, but respect restrictions that forbid the action.
Cards And Zones
What If Several Abilities Trigger Together?
Order your own simultaneous triggers; normally the turn player adds theirs first, followed by the others in turn order.
Cards And Zones
What If You Cannot Do Everything a Card Says?
Follow effects as far as possible, while respecting full costs and instructions that depend on earlier actions.
Cards And Zones
What Information Can Players Look At?
Distinguish public card information from your private cards and secret decks, and separate showing a card from the Reveal action.
Cards And Zones
What Is the Difference Between Killing, Banishing and Recalling?
Kill sends a permanent from the board to its owner's Trash, Banish sends a card to its owner's Banishment, and Recall sends a permanent to its controller's Base.
Cards And Zones
When Do Triggered Abilities Happen?
The stated event starts the ability; finish the current effect before resolving the trigger.
Cards And Zones
When Does Deathknell Happen?
Deathknell triggers only when its own permanent is killed and sent to the Trash.
Cards And Zones
When Is Legion Active?
Legion text is active after you have finalized another card this turn, even if that card was countered.
Cards And Zones
Where and When Can You Play a Unit with Ambush?
Ambush lets you play a unit to a battlefield where you control units, with Reaction timing for that play.
Cards And Zones
Where Can You Play a Unit or Your Chosen Champion?
Choose your Base or a battlefield you control, unless a card gives another permission.
Cards And Zones
Where Do Cards Go During a Game?
Learn which spaces are on the board, which hold cards off the board, and why a battlefield is not the same space as its facedown zone.
Cards And Zones
Who Owns a Card, and Who Controls It?
Ownership records who brought a card into the game. Control determines who uses it now. Changing control does not change ownership.
Cards And Zones
Whose Damage or Kill Counts for an Ability?
Check both who performed the action and what dealt the damage or caused the kill.
Combat
How Do Assault, Shield, Tank and Backline Change Combat?
Assault and Shield add Might while Tank and Backline change combat damage assignment order.
Combat
How Do Bonus Damage and Split Damage Work?
Bonus Damage increases each dealt amount or one shared split total, depending on the instruction.
Combat
How Do Buffs and Other Counters Work?
A Buff counter gives a unit +1 Might; other counters track the effect that created them.
Combat
How Do Damage, Might and Healing Work?
Mark damage separately from Might, kill units with lethal damage during cleanup, and clear damage when units heal.
Combat
How Do You Assign Combat Damage to Several Units?
Assign enough damage to make one opposing unit lethal before assigning damage to another.
Combat
How Does Combat Work?
Units use Might to assign combat damage, and the units remaining determine the result.
Combat
How Does Preventing Damage Work?
Reduce the next matching damage by the prevention available, keeping any unused amount for the effect's remaining duration.
Combat
What Does Stun Stop a Unit From Doing?
Stun removes a unit's contribution to combat damage. It does not switch the whole unit off.
Combat
When Is a Unit Mighty?
A unit is Mighty at 5 or more Might, using current Might on the board and printed Might elsewhere.
Combat
Who Wins Combat, and What Happens to Survivors?
After combat cleanup and its effects resolve, the units remaining determine the combat result.
Gameplay Basics
How Do Doubling, Swapping and Might Changes Work?
Doubling and swapping calculate fixed modifiers from the values when the action happens.
Gameplay Basics
How Do Three- and Four-Player Games Work?
Skirmish and War are free-for-all games with three battlefields. Everyone can respond, but each combat still involves only two players.
Gameplay Basics
How Do XP, Hunt and Level Work Together?
Hunt gains XP for a unit's controller; Level text works while that controller has enough XP.
Gameplay Basics
How Do You Win?
Reach the Victory Score, stay ahead of every opponent, and account for the final Conquer restriction.
Gameplay Basics
Ready vs Exhausted
Ready objects can pay Exhaust costs; Exhausted objects stay in play but cannot Exhaust again yet.
Gameplay Basics
What Changes Between a Duel and a Match?
A Duel is one game with randomly selected battlefields. A Match normally takes two game wins, with chosen battlefields changing between games.
Gameplay Basics
What Changes in a Two-Versus-Two Game?
Magma Chamber shares points and victory, while players keep separate control of their cards and separate XP.
Gameplay Basics
What Happens When Someone Concedes?
A player may concede at any time. If others continue, remove that player and their cards while preserving the battlefield location.
Gameplay Basics
What Happens When Your Main Deck Runs Out?
An empty Main Deck does not immediately make you lose. Burn Out refills it from your trash, but gives an opponent a point.
Gameplay Basics
When Is Card Text Inactive or Ignored?
Inactive text stays on the card but does not apply, trigger or let you activate it.
Gameplay Basics
Which Effect Applies First When a Card Changes?
Apply copy effects first, then trait changes, ability changes and numerical changes.
Movement
Can You Move Several Units Together?
Exhaust several ready units for one Standard Move when every unit can move to the same destination.
Movement
How Does Movement Work?
A Standard Move takes a Ready unit between its Base and a Battlefield and Exhausts it.
Movement
What Happens When a Unit or Gear Is Recalled?
Relocate the permanent to its controller's Base without treating the Recall as a Move or changing its state.
Movement
When Do You Gain or Lose Control of a Battlefield?
Control changes after the game settles a contest, not merely because another unit arrives.
Resources
How Do Runes Work?
Use Runes for reusable Energy or Recycle them for domain-specific Power.
Resources
How Do You Work Out and Pay a Card's Cost?
Make the card's choices, calculate the full cost, then pay both resources and any required actions.
Resources
Must I Pay the Whole Cost If I Cannot Do Everything?
Pay a cost in full to get its linked effect; impossible effect instructions are handled differently.
Resources
What Does Ignoring or Reducing a Cost Actually Cover?
Read which part of the cost changes: ignoring the base cost can still leave additional costs to pay.
Resources
What Extra Cost Does Deflect Require?
An opponent pays Deflect's extra Power for each time their spell or ability chooses the protected permanent.
Resources
When Do Unused Energy and Power Disappear?
Keep unused resources until a Rune Pool emptying point: the start of each Main Phase or the end of each turn.
Scoring
How Battlefield Scoring Works
Score by taking control of Battlefields through Conquer and by keeping control through Hold.
Setup And Decks
Champion Legend and Chosen Champion: What Is the Difference?
Your legend defines your deck and stays in its own zone. Your Chosen Champion is a matching champion unit you can play.
Setup And Decks
How Do You Read a Card?
Read the name, cost, type, tags, domains and rules text separately. Each tells you a different part of what the card is or does.
Setup And Decks
How Do You Replace Cards in Your Opening Hand?
A mulligan lets you exchange up to two opening cards. Draw their replacements before putting the set-aside cards back.
Setup And Decks
How Do You Set Up a Game?
Put the legend and chosen unit in their zones, shuffle the two decks separately, set turn order, draw four and mulligan.
Setup And Decks
What Belongs in a Legal Deck?
Start with one Champion Legend, at least 40 Main Deck cards including your Chosen Champion, 12 runes and the battlefields for your mode.
Turn Structure
How Do Extra Turns and Skipped Phases Work?
Insert an additional turn after the current turn, or omit only the event a Skip instruction names.
Turn Structure
How Do Reactions and the Chain Resolve?
Resolve the newest waiting spell or ability first, with fresh response opportunities before the next item.
Turn Structure
What Happens During Each Part of Your Turn?
Follow the turn from readying your cards to scoring, channeling, drawing, taking actions and ending the turn.
Turn Structure
What Happens in a Showdown, Even at an Empty Battlefield?
Give players their chance to act before settling a contested battlefield, even when no enemy unit is there.
Turn Structure
What Happens When a Spell or Ability Is Countered?
Countering stops a chain item from executing, but paid costs stay paid.
Turn Structure
When Can You Play a Card or Use an Ability?
Check whose opportunity it is, whether a Chain is waiting and whether Action or Reaction permits your play.
Turn Structure
When Does the Game Check Damage, Control and Winning?
Automatic checks handle lethal damage, winning and battlefield control before play continues. They are not an extra action to announce.
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