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.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Take your turn in this order: Awaken → Beginning → Channel → Draw → Main → Ending.
Ready your cards, handle beginning effects and HoldHold means Scoring a Battlefield you already control during the Beginning Phase of your turn.View in Glossary scoring, ChannelPut the stated number of runes from the top of your Rune Deck onto the board. They enter ready unless instructed otherwise. If too few remain, channel as many as possible.View in Glossary runes, draw, then take your Main Phase actions. Finish with end-of-turn effects, healing and clearing resources and effects that last this turn.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Awaken: ReadyReady means a card or rune is available to be used for something that requires it to Exhaust. Ready objects are kept upright.View in Glossary everything you control that can be readied.
Beginning: handle beginning-of-phase effects, then Hold the battlefields you control for scoring. In team modes, a battlefield held by your teammate at this step cannot also score for you that turn.
Channel: normally channel 2 runes from the top of your Rune DeckYour separate deck of exactly 12 runes. Shuffle it separately from your Main Deck. Channeling takes runes from this deck and puts them on the board.View in Glossary , ready. On their first turn only, the second player in a Duel or Match channels 3 instead; in Skirmish, War and 2v2, the last player channels 3. If too few runes remain, take as many as possible.
Draw: normally draw 1 card. Both players draw on their first turn in a Duel or Match; in Skirmish, War and 2v2, the first player skips their first Draw Phase card draw. If your Main DeckThe deck of units, gear and spells, separate from your Rune Deck. Your deckbuilding list has at least 40 cards including your Chosen Champion; that chosen copy starts in the Champion Zone instead of the shuffled pile.View in Glossary is empty when you must draw, perform Burn Out, then finish the draw.
Main: every player's Rune PoolThe temporary supply of generated Energy and Power waiting to be spent, not the physical Runes in your Base. Every player's pool empties at the start of each Main Phase and at the end of each turn; this removes unused resources, not Rune cards.View in Glossary empties before start-of-Main-Phase effects. Then play cards, use abilities and move units when allowed, finishing each action and its responses before continuing. The earlier phases are not extra Main Phases for freely playing cards.
Ending: announce that you are ending your turn and resolve end-of-turn effects. Units with lethal damage die before the surviving units heal. Effects lasting this turn expire together, and every player loses unused Energy and Power. Finish any resulting effects before the next turn. This healing does not happen at the beginning of your turn.
In practice
Example
On a later turn in a Duel, you control one battlefield and have at least two runes left in your Rune Deck. With no effects changing the sequence: ready your cards → handle beginning effects and Hold that battlefield → channel two runes → draw one card → empty the Rune Pools and begin Main Phase actions. Healing waits until its instructed timing, not the Beginning Phase.