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.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Pay the listed cost to activate 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 . When the ability resolves, its source becomes 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 , turning on its Empowered text. Paying the cost alone does not give it that status.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Card reference
Punching Poro
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 an Activated AbilityAn ability you choose to use by paying the cost before its colon. Its effect is written after the colon.View in Glossary ; 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 the resulting status. Having the ability does not mean the card is already Empowered. The ability does not target its own source. Follow any card text changing its cost or timing.
Unit
Punching Poro
[Empower] — Discard 1 (Pay the cost: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have +1 [Might].
Text after the 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 label is active while the card has that status. A "When I become Empowered" ability in that text triggers when the card gains the status.
Normally, you cannot activate 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 on an already Empowered card. A card can explicitly allow multiple Empowered statuses. DisempowerAn instructed action that removes one Empowered status from a card. It does nothing to a card without that status.View in Glossary removes one status when an effect instructs it; Empowered text stops working once no such status remains.
A card permitted to be Empowered multiple times ignores Empower’s normal already-Empowered activation restriction. You may activate it even at its stated maximum; pay the cost, but no additional status is gained while at that maximum.
In practice
Example
Your permanent has "Empower 2" and an Empowered bonus. Pay 2 Energy to activate the ability. The bonus turns on when that ability resolves and Empowers the permanent, not when you pay.