The Riftbound rules

Non-Board zones corresponding to a player include Main Deck, Rune Deck, Trash, Hand, Chosen Champion zone, and Banishment.

Non-Champion legends may be removed from the Legend Zone. They cannot exist in any zone other than the Legend Zone or Banishment.

Banishments

Each player has their own Banishment.

This space is where cards are placed when they are banished by a spell or effect.

The cards in the banishment are unordered. Their sequence does not matter, and they may be reorganized.

The cards in any player's Banishment are Public Information. See rule 128. Privacy for more information.

A Game Object can have any of the following statuses (non-exhaustive): Attached, Attacking, Buffed, Banished, Controlled, Defending, Empowered, Equipped, Exhausted, Facedown, Readied, Replaced, Revealed, Stunned, and any applied Layer alternations.

Instructions do not include trigger conditions or the events or actions that a replacement effect defines as being eligible to be replaced. Example: An ability reads “When you play me, draw 1.” The trigger condition for this ability is not an instruction. “Draw 1,” is the only instruction included in the ability. Example: An ability reads “If a unit would die, banish it instead.” The text “If a unit would die,” is not an instruction of the ability. Example: An ability reads “As I’m revealed from your Main Deck, Add [2].” The text “As I’m revealed from your Main Deck,” is not an instruction of the ability.

A 0 [M] Shadow Clone token is a domainless unit token with 0 Might and “When I attack, you may banish a unit from your trash. If you do, give me [Assault 4] this turn.” See rule 807. Assault for more information.

Effects that need to determine an ability’s cost for any purpose use its base cost, ignoring any alterations to that base cost unless otherwise specified. Example: A card reads “When you play an activated ability with Energy cost [7] or more, you may exhaust me to ready up to 2 runes.” A gear has an activated ability that reads “[12], Banish this: Choose an opponent. Banish all units they control. This ability costs [1] less for each point the chosen opponent has.” The ability of the first card will trigger when the activated ability is played, even if the chosen opponent has 6 or more points. Example: An equipment has an ability that reads “Equip [4][A]. This ability costs [1] less for each occupied enemy battlefield.” If its controller plays a unit with Weaponmaster, the Weaponmaster trigger will refer to the cost including the alterations. This is because Weaponmaster specifies that it includes modifications to the cost.

If the spell checks information about a target that is no longer legal or a card or permanent whose location, zone, or status has changed such that that information is no longer available, that check returns "null" and all calculations based on it are ignored. Examples: A unit that is no longer on the board is treated as having null Might, null cost, etc. A unit that is no longer on the board has no location, is neither exhausted nor readied, etc. Baited Hook says "[1][C], [E]: Kill a friendly unit. Look at the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish a unit from among them that has Might up to 1 more than the killed unit and play it, ignoring its cost. Then recycle the rest." While Baited Hook’s ability is on the chain, an opponent reacts with a spell that returns the friendly unit to its owner's hand. Because the friendly unit is no longer a legal target, it can't be killed and its Might is treated as null. Baited Hook’s controller looks at the top 5 cards of their Main Deck, but can’t choose any unit from among them. Strike Down reads “Choose an equipped friendly unit. It deals damage equal to its Might to an enemy unit. Then detach an Equipment from it.” While Strike Down is on the chain targeting a unit with only one Equipment attached to it, that unit has its Equipment detached via Angle Shot. When Strike Down goes to resolve, the targeted unit is no longer legal, so the unit’s Might will return as “null” and the instructions related to it are ignored. 359.3.e.12.a. If the spell checks information about a target that is legal or a card or permanent whose location, zone, or status has not changed such that information is no longer available, that information is accessible.

Some instructions may reference Game Objects affected by, or Game Actions performed in, other instructions in a card. The referenced and referencing instructions are called “linked instructions.” Example: Hidden Blade reads “Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2.” The “its” in the second instruction references the unit in the first, so the two instructions of the spell are linked. 359.3.e.14.a. In order for a later linked instruction to execute, its earlier linked instruction must have executed. If the earlier linked instruction is ignored for any reason, the later linked instruction will also be ignored. Example: Hidden Blade reads “Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2.” If the chosen unit changes zones or moves to base in reaction to Hidden Blade, the spell will mistarget and the first instruction will be ignored. If the first instruction is ignored, the second instruction will not execute and the unit’s controller will not draw 2. 359.3.e.14.b. If the Game Action performed in an earlier linked instruction is replaced, this will not affect the later linked instruction, unless the later linked instruction directly references the Game Action being performed. Example: Hidden Blade reads “Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2.” This effect is split into two instructions: killing the unit and the targeted unit’s controller drawing 2. The later linked instruction doesn’t reference an action directly, so it will execute even if the kill action of the earlier linked action is replaced by some other event. Example: Deathgrip reads “Kill a friendly unit. If you do, give +[M] equal to its Might to another friendly unit this turn.” If the friendly unit in question is not killed by Deathgrip because its death is replaced with another event, the later linked instruction will not execute because “if you do” directly references the game action. 359.3.e.14.c. Referencing a game action in this way only refers to the game action being performed and the object or player it was performed on, not the circumstances of its performance. Example: A spell reads “Deal 3 to an enemy unit at a battlefield. If you do, heal units you control at the same location as that unit.” If some but not all of that damage is prevented, the later linked instruction will still execute. Example: A spell reads “Banish an enemy unit at a battlefield, then play it to any battlefield. Then if you do, do this: stun all enemy units there.” A player plays it targeting a unit that has a passive replacement effect that reads “I enter in base.” The replacement effect causes the unit to enter in base, but this does not prevent the reflexive trigger of the spell from being placed on the chain. All that matters is that the unit was played.

Modifying or replacing an event is the same as modifying or replacing that Game Action or change in state that generated that event. Example: Zhonya’s Hourglass reads in part “If a friendly unit would die, kill this instead. Heal that unit, exhaust it, and recall it.” A unit’s death being replaced by Zhonya’s Hourglass is the same as the kill action that caused that death not occurring. Example: A card reads in part “The next time an enemy unit would become Mighty this turn, banish it instead. Its controller plays a 3 [M] Mech unit token to its location.” A unit becoming Mighty being replaced by this effect means the unit never became Mighty—no effects that trigger on units becoming Mighty will trigger.

If a Game Object has a Replacement Effect that is active in a specific zone, it is evaluated and subsequently applied if it enters that zone before an event occurs that it could replace. Example: A unit that reads “if a unit you control would die, you may banish me from your trash instead. If you do, heal that unit, exhaust it and recall it.” The first unit dies simultaneously with a 1 [M] Recruit token. It does not enter the trash before the Recruit dies, so it will not be able to replace its death.

If the Triggered Ability says “you may” or “they may” as the first part of its effect, its controller has the choice of whether or not it is performed. 383.3.e.2.a. During finalization of the Triggered Ability , the player who controls the Triggered Ability may choose to perform it. 383.3.e.2.b. If they do not, it is removed from the chain. Example: A player controls a unit that reads in part “Once each turn, when an enemy unit dies, you may banish it.” When an enemy Recruit token dies, the triggered ability goes on the chain. If they choose not to perform the ability on finalization, it is removed from the chain. When a Stalwart Poro dies later in the turn, they can choose to trigger it then.

Some Delayed Replacements take the form “then recycle it,” or “then banish it,” in reference to chain items being played by linked abilities or instructions. These are short for “if it would leave the chain after becoming a finalized chain item, and leaving the chain wasn’t instructed by its own execution, perform the specified game action instead.”

In order for a set of Abilities to be Linked , they must be present in the printed Effect or Rules Text of the same Game Object, or be granted by the same source to another Game Object. Example: The Zero Drive is an Equipment gear whose rules text reads in part “[3][B], Banish this: Play all units banished with this, ignoring their costs.” The Zero Drive’s effect text reads “[Deathnkell][>] Banish me.” The granted deathknell ability is linked with the Zero Drive’s activated ability.

A component Linked Ability that references a Game Object affected by another Ability in the set may only interact with Game Objects affected by the Abilities it is Linked with. Example: The Zero Drive is an Equipment gear whose rules text reads in part “[3][B], Banish this: Play all units banished with this, ignoring their costs.” Any units banished by effects other than component Linked Abilities in the same set as the activated ability cannot be played when resolving the activated ability.

Banish

Banishing is the action of placing a card from any other zone into Banishment. See 108.6. Banishment for more information.

When a card is Banished it is placed directly into the Banishment zone from its origin.

Banish is not a subset of Kill.

Banish is not a subset of Discard.

Cards and effects can refer to cards that were banished by the same object.

Separate instances of an object or effect banishing cards do not reference other banished cards by objects of the same name or effects originating from cards of the same name. Example: A spell reads "Banish the top card of your Main Deck. When you conquer this turn, draw it." This card effect allows you to draw the banished card from banishment if a condition is met. If more than one of these effects is played, each one triggers separately. Each card will be drawn separately. If the turn player passes the turn without playing the card, the card remains in banishment indefinitely. If the same player plays another copy of the same spell, banishes another card, and satisfies its condition, they could play the new banished card, but not the original banished card. See rule 393. Linked Abilities for more information.

Banishing is a Limited Action.

Players may only Banish cards or permanents when Game Effects direct them to do so.

This action is formatted as "Banish [one or more permanents or cards]." e.g., "Banish a card from your hand." e.g., "Banish 2 cards from your trash." e.g., "Look at the top 2 cards of your Main Deck. Draw one of them and banish the other."

Replacing is not a subset of Banishing.

The card or token that is Replaced is placed in Banishment.

While it resides in Banishment, it is considered to have been Replaced and not Banished.

If a token is Replaced it will stop existing once it begins its occupancy in Banishment.

If there is nothing in Banishment to swap back to then this object can never swap back.

Banish all permanents, runes, and facedown cards they currently control and all permanents, runes, and facedown cards they own.

If multiple Additional Turns are queued, they are added to the queue in the order the Game Effects that generated them occurred. Example: The First Player plays, through some means, two Time Warps during their turn. The Time Warps create two Additional Turns for their controller and insert them into the turn queue after the current turn. If the turn queue is represented as [> A > B > C > D >], then these Additional Turns will appear as [> A > A* > A* > B > C > D >]. After the last Additional Turn is played, the queue returns to its previously queued turns. The “*” denotes that a turn is an Additional Turn. Example: The First Player plays Promising Future during their turn, during the resolution of which the Second and Fourth Player choose, banish, and play one Time Warp each. The Fourth Player’s Time Warp resolves first, inserting an Additional Turn for them in the queue as such: [> A > D* > B > C > D >]. The Second Player’s Time Warp resolves afterwards, inserting that turn: [> A > B* > D* > B > C > D >]. When the First Player passes the turn, the Second Player will take their turn, followed by the Fourth Player, after which the queue returns to its previously queued turns.

It is functionally short for “You may play this from your trash for its flow cost. Then banish it.”

Banishing the spell in this way is a delayed replacement effect. If the spell would leave the chain after becoming a finalized chain item, and leaving the chain wasn’t instructed by its own execution, banish it instead. See rule 367. Replacement Effects for more information. See rule 389. Delayed Abilities for more information.

Déplacer une carte, depuis n'importe quelle zone, vers la zone de bannissement. Bannir n'est ni une élimination ni une défausse : la carte quitte la partie.