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.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
When you have permission to play a card, put it 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 , make its required choices, work out and pay its full cost, then check that the play is legal.
A unit or gear enters the board after those steps. A spell waits on the Chain so players can respond before it resolves.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Normally, play a card from your hand or your Chosen ChampionThe champion unit selected during deckbuilding to start in your Champion Zone. Its champion tag must match your legend. During play, champion units with that same full name also count as your Chosen Champion.View in Glossary from the Champion ZoneThe separate zone where your Chosen Champion starts the game. You can play it from there using the normal timing, costs and restrictions. It is not a location on the board.View in Glossary . Playing from somewhere else needs permission from a card or rule.
Choose first: select a unit's entry location, a spell's ModeAn option in a spell or ability's bulleted choice list. Choose the permitted mode or modes when putting it on the Chain, rather than waiting for it to resolve.View in Glossary and 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 , any move destinations, and any optional additional costs that apply. You cannot wait to see an opponent's response before making those choices. Other choices that the instructions leave for resolution are made then.
Next, calculate and pay the whole cost, including additional costs and any applicable changes. Check targets, payment, timing and other legal requirements. If the play fails this check, undo the steps and cancel it.
A PermanentA Main Deck game object that remains on the board after being played. Unit and Gear are permanent types. Runes, battlefields and legends are not permanents simply because they stay on the board.View in Glossary then enters the board without waiting for a normal response window on the Chain. Its triggered abilities can still create a Chain. A spell waits for responses, then follows its instructions from top to bottom and goes to its owner's TrashA player's off-board zone for cards that are killed or discarded and spells that finish resolving, unless an effect changes their destination. Its cards are public information and their order does not matter.View in Glossary .
If an effect tells you to play a card, follow the same process with the exceptions that effect gives you, such as ignoring a cost.
In practice
Example
Card example
Hextech Ray
For a spell that deals damage to a chosen unit:
Put the spell 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 → choose a legal unit → work out and pay the cost → check the play is legal → allow responses → resolve the spell.
You choose the unit before responses, not when the damage is dealt.
Spell
Hextech Ray
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield.