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.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Burn Out lets you continue an action when your Main Deck runs short, but it gives an opponent a point.
If you need to draw or take more cards than remain, do as much as you can, recycle your trash into your Main Deck, choose an opponent to gain 1 point, then finish the action.
That point is not a ConquerConquer means taking control of a Battlefield you did not already control and Scoring it for the turn.View in Glossary point. The normal Final Point restriction does not turn it into a card draw, so Burn Out can give your opponent the point they need to win.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Simply having an empty Main Deck does nothing by itself. Burn Out happens when an action needs to take more cards from it than remain.
Use the cards that are still there first. Then RecycleRecycle means returning a card to the bottom of the appropriate deck. When you Recycle a rune, it returns to your Rune Deck.View in Glossary all cards in your trash into your Main Deck, putting them on the bottom in a random order. This refills your Main Deck, not your Rune Deck.
Choose an opponent to gain 1 point. In a two-player game, that is your only opponent. Then continue where the original action stopped. For example, if you needed to draw 3 cards and could only draw 1, you still need to draw 2 after Burning Out.
The Final Point restriction you may know applies to gaining a point through ConquerConquer means taking control of a Battlefield you did not already control and Scoring it for the turn.View in Glossary when you are one point short of the winning score, or have even more points. It can make you draw a card instead of gaining that point. Burn Out gives a point without Conquering a battlefield, so that restriction does not apply. An opponent at 7 points in an 8-point game can gain their eighth point from Burn Out without meeting the usual final-Conquer condition.
Looking or revealing instead of taking cards: these actions do not cause Burn Out. If told to look at the top 5 cards when only 2 remain, look at those 2. Do not refill the deck to find 3 more.
If both your Main Deck and trash are empty: recycling cannot refill the deck. Trying to finish the action causes another Burn Out. Unless an effect intervenes, this repeats, giving an opponent another point each time.
From the second Burn Out in that same sequence onward, those points cannot be prevented or replaced by any means. If one of these later points brings a player to their game mode's winning score or higher, and they have more points than every opponent, they win immediately, without waiting for cleanup. These extra protections apply to the later points in the sequence; the first point does not have them.
Card reference
Shadow Temple
If an instruction tells you to Burn cards: Burn and Burn Out are different actions. Burning a card sends it from the top of your Main Deck to your trash. Burn Out handles running short of cards, including during a Burn instruction. The worked example below walks through both actions separately. The same Burn Out procedure applies to other instructions that take more cards from the Main Deck to another zone than remain.
Battlefield
Shadow Temple
When you hold here, [Burn 3]. (Put the top 3 cards of your Main Deck into your trash.)
For instructions after looking or revealing: use only the cards actually available. Ignore any part that needs more of those cards than you found; this does not cause Burn Out, even if those later instructions change their zone. Predict also uses only the cards that remain and does not cause Burn Out.
In practice
Example
Example 1 - Drawing 3 with only 1 card left
Suppose your trash has 6 cards. Draw the last card from your Main Deck. You still owe 2 draws.
Burn Out: recycle the 6 cards from your trash into your Main Deck in a random order, then choose an opponent to gain 1 point. Now draw 2 cards to finish the original draw-3 instruction.
Example 2 - Burning 3 with only 1 card left
Suppose your trash already has 4 cards. First, Burn the 1 remaining card: put it from the top of your Main Deck into your trash. Your trash now has 5 cards, and you still need to Burn 2.
Now Burn Out. Recycle all 5 cards from your trash into your Main Deck in a random order. Choose an opponent to gain 1 point.
Continue the original Burn-3 instruction: take the top 2 cards of the refilled Main Deck and put them into your trash. You have now Burned the 3 cards the original instruction required.