# Riftbound keywords explained: Stun, Equip, Deflect, Reaction, Hidden and more > Riftbound keywords in plain English: Recycle vs Trash vs Banish, Conquer vs Hold, Ganking, Hidden, Stun, Equip, Deflect and Reactions, per the 9 Oct 2026 rules. - Source: https://tradematches.app/en/blog/riftbound-keywords-guide - Author: Joaquin Orozco · TradeMatches - Published: 2026-10-18 - Updated: 2026-10-27 - Language: en ![A Riftbound game on a purple playmat: champions and a battlefield in play, a row of runes and a player putting down a card](https://tradematches.app/assets/fotos/palabras-clave-riftbound-portada.webp) *Editorial illustration · not a photograph of a real card.* **In Riftbound, Stun stops a unit from dealing combat damage without lowering its Might: a Stunned 6-Might unit deals nothing in combat but still needs 6 damage to die, and the status wears off at the end of the turn.** That is the keyword players look up most, and this guide covers it first. Then come the other keywords people search for (Equip, Deflect, Reaction and the chain, Hidden and tokens), followed by the shorter ones. Every rule below was checked against the official Riftbound Core Rules dated 9 October 2026. Rule numbers are given in brackets so you can find them in the document. A few rules apply to every keyword. Keywords are printed with a coloured highlight, and the colour has no gameplay meaning (801). Card text overrides the rules when they conflict, which is the Golden Rule (002). A keyword granted by an effect that gives no duration lasts as long as the object stays on the board or in its current zone (801). What happens when a unit has the same keyword twice depends on the keyword: some add up, some do nothing extra, and some trigger once per copy. The table shows which is which. If you are new to the game itself, the [Riftbound beginner guide for collectors](https://tradematches.app/en/blog/riftbound-beginner-guide-collectors) explains the card types and how to organise a first collection. If a card shows a keyword that this guide doesn't cover, look it up in the [TradeMatches keyword glossary](https://tradematches.app/en/tools/keyword-glossary), which lists Riftbound keywords alongside those of other games and points to the guide that explains each one with examples. ## All keywords at a glance | Keyword | What it does | When it matters | Two copies on one unit | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Stun](#stun) | The unit deals no combat damage; its Might is unchanged | Combat damage step; cleared at end of turn | A Stunned unit can't be Stunned again | | [Equip](#equip) | Pay a cost to attach an Equipment gear to a unit you control | Your Main Phase, no chain, outside showdowns (unless the card says otherwise) | Each Equip is a separate ability | | [Deflect](#deflect) | Opponents pay extra Power each time they choose this object | While the opponent is playing the spell or ability | Values add up | | [Reaction / Action](#reactions) | Timing permissions: Action for showdowns, Reaction also while a chain exists | Any player's turn | — | | [Hidden](#hidden) | Pay one Power to hide a card facedown at your battlefield and play it later at no base cost | Hide on your turn; play from the next turn, with Reaction | Redundant | | [Tokens](#tokens) | Game objects created by effects; not cards | They stop existing when they leave the board | — | | [Recycle, Trash, Banish](#recycle-trash-banish) | Bottom of the deck, discard pile, or a separate zone | Whenever a card changes zone | — | | [Burn / Burn Out](#burn) | Top of the deck to the trash; running out reshuffles and gives an opponent 1 point | When you move more cards than your deck holds | — | | [Conquer / Hold](#conquer-hold) | The two ways to score a battlefield | After winning control, or in your Beginning Phase | Once per battlefield per turn | | [Ganking](#ganking) | Standard Move from one battlefield straight to another | Your Main Phase | Redundant | | [Accelerate](#accelerate) | Pay 1 Energy and 1 matching Power as you play the unit so it enters ready | Only while playing the unit | Redundant | | [Assault / Shield](#assault-shield) | +X Might while attacking / defending | During combat | Values add up | | [Tank](#tank) | Must be assigned lethal combat damage before its controller's other units | Combat damage assignment | Redundant | | [Vision](#vision) | When played, Predict: look at your top card and choose whether to recycle it | As the permanent enters the board | Each triggers separately | | [Deathknell](#deathknell) | An effect when the permanent is killed and goes to the trash | On death | Each triggers separately | | [Mighty](#mighty) | A unit with 5 or more Might | Whenever an effect checks it | — | ## Stun: what it does and what it doesn't Stun is a game action, and Stunned is the state it leaves behind (424). Rule 424 gives that state exactly two consequences. First, the unit does not contribute its Might to damage in the combat damage step (424.1.b). Second, it still has to be dealt damage equal to or greater than its full Might to be killed (424.1.c). The state is binary: a unit is Stunned or it isn't. You can only Stun something when a card or effect tells you to (424.2). ### How long Stun lasts Stunned units lose the status during step 3d of the end-of-turn cleanup (424.1.a.2), the step where every "this turn" effect expires (317.2.c). In practice, a unit stunned during your turn stays Stunned for the rest of that turn, including any combat you start later in the turn. A unit you stun during your opponent's turn stays Stunned until the end of their turn, then recovers. ### Timing: when a Stun has to land Combat damage is worked out when the combat showdown closes, using each unit's current Might (467.2). So a Stun has to resolve before that showdown closes. You have two windows: - **Before combat, in your own Main Phase.** With no chain and no showdown, you can play an ordinary spell that stuns. The enemy unit stays Stunned when you then move in and fight. - **During the combat showdown.** Only cards and abilities with Action or Reaction can be played in a showdown (308.1.a). This is how a defender stuns an attacker on the opponent's turn. ### What Stun does not do - It doesn't change the Might number. A Stunned 5-Might unit is still Mighty, and effects that read its Might still see 5. - It doesn't exhaust the unit. Exhausting is a separate action with its own rules (415). - It doesn't remove the attacker or defender designation, and it doesn't move the unit anywhere. - Rule 424 says nothing about moving or using abilities. If a specific card adds a restriction like that, the card's text applies (002). - It doesn't affect Equipment attached to the unit. Statuses of the top-most card and its attached cards are independent (719.4). - Rule 424.1.b is written for the combat damage step. An effect outside combat that has a unit deal damage equal to its Might is governed by that card's own text. ### Stunning a unit that is already Stunned A Stunned unit can't be Stunned again (424.1.a.1). The rules use Eclipse Herald as the example. It reads "When you stun an enemy unit, ready me and give me +1 [M] this turn." You can point a "Stun a unit" spell at an enemy that is already Stunned, but no new stun happens, so Eclipse Herald does not trigger. ### Worked example: does the Stun win the fight? You attack a battlefield with two units of 3 and 2 Might. Your opponent defends with a single 6-Might unit. During the combat showdown you resolve an Action spell that stuns the defender. 1. Damage step: your side has 5 Might in total. The Stunned defender contributes 0. 2. You assign 5 damage to the defender. Lethal for it is 6, so 5 is not enough (142.4.b). 3. Combat cleanup: units with lethal damage are killed first (none), then all units are healed, then attackers are recalled because a defender is still there (468.1). The combat has "No Result" (468.3.d). Your units took no damage and go back to base. The defender survives and keeps the battlefield. Now change one thing: before damage, one of your attackers also gets +1 Might. You now assign 6, which is lethal. The defender dies in the combat cleanup, you are the only player left there, and you establish control. That is a Conquer if you haven't scored that battlefield this turn (468.5.d). The Stun prevented all damage to your side. It didn't reduce the damage needed to kill the defender. ### Common Stun mistakes - Treating a Stunned unit's Might as 0 when assigning lethal damage to it. - Turning the Stunned unit sideways as if it were exhausted, then forgetting it is actually ready. - Carrying Stun into the next turn. It ends in the end-of-turn cleanup of the turn in which it was applied. - Trying to stun during a combat showdown with a card that has neither Action nor Reaction. ## Equip and Equipment: attaching, moving and losing the unit Equipment is gear with the Equipment tag (150). Each piece has effect text and a Might Bonus, and it can have the Equip or Quick-Draw keyword (150.2–150.3). Getting an Equipment onto a unit normally takes two separate steps with two separate costs. Equip itself is short for "[Cost]: Attach this gear to a unit you control" (818). ### Step 1: play the gear You pay the card's cost and play it like any gear. Gear goes to your base unless an effect says otherwise (149.2), and it enters play ready (149.1). At this point it is attached to nothing. Its effect text is inactive and its Might Bonus does nothing, because both only work while the card is attached (136.2.b, 137.3). ### Step 2: activate Equip Equip is an activated ability. It goes on the chain like a spell (377.3), and the unit you choose is a target (818). Activated abilities of gear can be used during your Main Phase, when no chain exists, and not during a showdown (151.2, 381.1). Some Equip abilities have text that changes their timing, cost or targets, and that text applies (818). The cost can include things other than Energy and Power. Because the unit is a target, your opponent can respond. If they kill the unit or move it out of reach before Equip resolves, the attach instruction is ignored (359.3.e.6). Nothing in the rules gives back the cost you paid. The gear stays where it was, unattached. ### What changes once it is attached - The unit gains the Equipment's effect text and has its Might changed by the Might Bonus (435.1.c–d). - The Equipment's own printed rules text becomes inactive while attached (435.1.e, 718.2). That includes the Equip ability, and inactive abilities can't be activated (721.2). So you can't simply pay Equip again to move the gear to another unit. - The gear goes wherever the unit goes (719.3.a). This doesn't count as a Move for the gear (448.1), so effects that trigger on moving don't trigger for it. - Exhausting or stunning the unit doesn't change the gear's state, and the reverse is also true (719.4). Attaching an exhausted Equipment doesn't ready it (435.5). - The Equipment is still a card on the board. It keeps its types and tags, and opponents can still choose it with their own spells (718.5). - When the attach completes, the unit counts as Equipped, and other cards can refer to that event (818). ### When the equipped unit leaves the board The Equipment doesn't go to the trash with the unit. When a top-most card leaves the board, everything attached to it detaches and stays where it is (719.5), at the last place the unit was (436.4.b). If that was a battlefield, the gear is recalled to your base in the next cleanup (459.1). Once detached, its rules text is active again (436.1.c), so you can pay Equip again to attach it to another unit. ### Quick-Draw and Weaponmaster **Quick-Draw** (819) gives the Equipment Reaction and the effect "When you play this, attach it to a unit you control." You can play it at Reaction speed, and its own triggered ability attaches it as you play it, with no separate Equip activation. **Weaponmaster** (821) is on units. When you play the unit, you may choose an Equipment you control and pay its Equip cost, reduced by one Power of any domain, to attach it to the new unit. This works outside the usual Equip timing. It can also take an Equipment that is already attached somewhere else (725.3, 821.1.c.5). If the Equip cost has no Power in it, you pay the cost with no reduction. If the Equipment has no Equip cost, Weaponmaster can't pay for it. ### Worked example: one Equipment, one response Picture an Equipment that costs 2 Energy to play, has Equip [1] and a +2 Might Bonus. These numbers are for illustration only. In your Main Phase you pay 2 to play it, and it lands in your base, ready. You activate Equip for 1, targeting a 3-Might unit at a battlefield. Your opponent responds with a Reaction spell that kills the unit. Their spell resolves first, so when Equip resolves its target is gone and nothing attaches. You have spent 3 Energy, and the gear sits unattached in base. On a later turn you equip it to another unit, which then has 5 Might. If that unit dies in combat at a battlefield, the gear detaches there and returns to base in the next cleanup, ready to be equipped again. ### Common Equip mistakes - Putting the gear in the trash when the unit dies. - Paying only the Equip cost and skipping the cost of playing the card. - Activating Equip during a showdown when the card doesn't allow it. - Moving an Equipment from one unit to another just by paying Equip again. - Applying the Equipment's printed rules text while it is attached. Only its effect text and Might Bonus count, and they go onto the unit. ## Deflect: the extra cost to choose a unit Deflect taxes your opponent's targeting. Spells and abilities an opponent controls that target the object cost extra Power equal to its Deflect value, for each time they choose it (809). If no number is printed, the value is 1. That Power can be of any domain (809). It is a mandatory additional cost (356.2.a.2), so the opponent can't choose to skip it. If they can't pay, the play fails the legality check and is undone (358.2, 358.5). ### When the cost applies The extra cost is added while the opponent is playing the spell or ability, when total cost is worked out (356.2), and it is paid with the rest of the cost (357). That means it applies to activated and triggered abilities as well as spells. It only matters when the Deflect object is actually chosen as a target. ### What counts as choosing it - "Choose" means target. Since the Radiance update, cards that "pick" something do not target it (355.7). - Effects that affect a whole group without choosing don't target the units in it. "Kill all units at a battlefield" targets the battlefield, not the units (355.10.d), so it pays no Deflect. - Choices made by each player for themselves, as in "Each player kills a unit they control", don't target (355.10.e). - When damage is split among several units, each chosen unit is targeted (355.14.a). Each one with Deflect adds its own cost. - Your own spells and abilities never pay for your own Deflect. Only an opponent's do. ### Several Deflects If an object has Deflect and gets more from another source, the values add up (809). A unit with Deflect plus a granted Deflect 2 has Deflect 3. The 1-Might Bird token comes with Deflect (187.7). Fiora, Victorious, a printed 4-Might unit, has Deflect, Ganking and Shield only while she is Mighty (478.4). ### Worked example: one spell, two Deflect units Your opponent controls a Bird token (Deflect 1) and a unit that has Deflect 3 because of the stacking above. You play a spell that deals damage to each of up to two units, and you choose both of them. On top of the spell's printed cost you must pay 1 + 3 = 4 extra Power, of any domain. If you only had a spell that kills every unit at their battlefield, you would pay its normal cost and no Deflect, because it targets the battlefield. If one of the two units is moved away before your spell resolves, your spell still affects the other one (359.3.e.8). Nothing in the rules refunds the Deflect Power you paid for the unit that left. ### Common Deflect mistakes - Paying the tax with Energy. Deflect asks for Power. - Thinking the Power has to match the spell's domain or the unit's domain. Any domain works. - Treating Deflect as "can't be targeted". It only makes targeting more expensive. - Paying once for a spell that chooses the same Deflect object in two separate choices. The cost is per choice. - Charging Deflect for an effect that never chooses the unit. ## Reaction, Action and the chain Reaction and Action are timing permissions. They don't change what a card does (806, 813). By default you can only play cards and use abilities on your own turn, with priority, when there is no showdown and no chain (310.1.a). Action and Reaction widen that window. | State of the turn | What it means | What can be played | | --- | --- | --- | | Neutral Open | No showdown or combat, no chain | Anything legal, by the turn player | | Neutral Closed | No showdown, but a chain exists | Reaction only (309.1.a) | | Showdown Open | Showdown or combat, no chain | Action or Reaction, by the player with Focus (308.1.a) | | Showdown Closed | Showdown or combat and a chain | Reaction only | **Action** lets a card or ability be played during showdowns, on any player's turn (806). **Reaction** includes everything Action allows. It also lets you play while a chain exists, on any player's turn (813). Neither one changes where a unit may enter. A unit with Reaction still has to be played to your base or a battlefield you control (813). ### How the chain resolves There is only ever one chain (330.1). Anything played while it exists joins it. Each item is first pending and becomes finalized once it passes the legality check (329). The rules summarise the loop as Finalize, Execute, Pass, Resolve: 1. Pending items are finalized in the order they were added (337.1). Then the controller of the next item on the chain gets priority (337.4). 2. The player with priority may add a legally timed card or ability, which means one with Reaction while the chain is open, or pass (338). 3. When every player passes in a row without adding anything, the newest finalized item resolves (339.1, 340.1). 4. If items remain, the controller of the newest one gets priority again (340.4). You can respond again before each item resolves. One exception matters a lot. Units, gear and abilities that add resources resolve as soon as they are finalized (337.2), so nobody gets a window to respond to the unit itself. You can respond to the abilities it triggers, such as "When you play me…", because those go on the chain. ### Showdowns and Focus In a showdown, the player with Focus may play one legally timed card or ability, or pass (347). When the chain created by a card or ability closes, Focus moves to the next player. When all players pass in sequence without playing anything, the showdown ends. If it is a combat showdown, combat continues to damage (348). The player who contested the battlefield gets Focus first (345). Combat is the most common kind of showdown. Its three steps are in rules 465–468, and the diagram lays them out from the moment a unit enters a battlefield you don't control until someone ends up holding it. ### Worked example from the Core Rules Your opponent plays Hidden Blade, targeting your unit at a battlefield to kill it. A chain now exists, so the turn is closed. When you get priority, you respond with Flash, which reads in part "Move up to 2 friendly units to base". The rules use Flash for exactly this kind of response. Flash is the newest item, so it resolves first and your unit goes back to base. Priority returns to the controller of the newest remaining item, Hidden Blade's controller, who can add something more or pass. When everyone passes, Hidden Blade resolves. Its target is no longer at a battlefield, so its kill instruction is ignored (359.3.e.6). ### Common timing mistakes - Trying to answer a spell with an Action card. Once a chain exists, you need Reaction. - Trying to respond to a unit or gear being played. It resolves on finalization; only its triggers can be answered. - Resolving the oldest item first. The newest finalized item resolves first. - Assuming Reaction lets a unit enter at an enemy battlefield. - Forgetting that abilities with Reaction that add resources can be used in the middle of paying a cost (357.1.a). ## Hidden: hiding a card and playing it later Hidden lets you take a special action called Hide (811, 422). While the card is in your hand or Champion Zone, on your turn and with no chain open, you may pay one Power of any domain to place it facedown at a battlefield you control. That battlefield must not already have a facedown card there. Starting from the next turn, the hidden card gains Reaction and you may play it ignoring its base cost (811). The card stays there as long as you control that battlefield. ### Hiding is not playing Hiding is not a form of playing a card and it doesn't open a chain (811.1.c). Your opponent therefore can't respond to the hide, and "when you play" effects don't happen at that moment. Playing the card from facedown later is a real play. It opens a chain and can be answered normally. ### Restrictions when you play it from facedown - A hidden unit or gear must be played to that battlefield. For gear, this overrides the usual base-only rule (811.1.d.1). - A hidden spell must choose its targets at that battlefield, unless its own wording makes that impossible. If it has no valid targets there, you can't play it from facedown (811.1.d). - A permanent's play effect chooses targets at the battlefield where the permanent was played (811.1.d). - Ignoring the base cost doesn't remove additional costs (356.1.b). If the card targets a Deflect unit, for example, that Power still has to be paid. ### Losing the battlefield Each battlefield holds one facedown card, and only the player who controls the battlefield can keep one there (107.3). If you lose control of the battlefield, your facedown card is removed in the next cleanup and goes to your trash (107.3.d, 323.6.a). The same thing happens after combat when the battlefield ends up with a different controller (468.5.c). A facedown card is private information, and it is not "a card with Hidden" for effects that look for that keyword (811). Its owner reveals it if it changes zones or the game ends (422.4). You can also ignore Hidden and play the card from your hand for its normal cost (811). ### Worked example: an ambush on your opponent's turn On your turn you control a battlefield. You pay one Power and hide Blastcone Fae there. Its rules text includes "When you play me, give a unit -2 [M] this turn, to a minimum of 1 [M]." On your opponent's turn, they move units to attack that battlefield. It is now the "next turn", so the facedown Fae has Reaction. During the combat showdown, you play it from facedown, ignoring its base cost. It must enter at that battlefield. Its play effect must target a unit there, so you give an attacker -2 Might (811.1.d). Because the Fae entered at the battlefield where the combat is happening, it becomes a defender in the following cleanup (323.2.a). ### Common Hidden mistakes - Hiding on your opponent's turn or while a chain is open. Hiding needs your own turn and an open state. - Playing the card from facedown on the same turn you hid it. - Playing a hidden unit to a different battlefield or to base. - Keeping the facedown card after losing the battlefield. - Treating the hide payment as the card's cost. It is a separate payment of one Power. ## Tokens: what they are and where they go Tokens are game objects created by spells and abilities (180). Any marker can stand in for them, and the printed tokens in booster packs are optional (181). Tokens are not cards, and nothing can turn a token into a card or a card into a token (185.1). That matters more than it sounds. When card text says "card", it means a Main Deck card (052), so token units don't count for effects that talk about cards. ### The rules tokens follow - A token exists only on the board or on the chain. If it goes to any other zone, it stops existing right after it arrives (186.1). A dead token reaches the trash and immediately disappears. - A token follows every rule for its type (185.2.d). A token unit enters exhausted unless the effect says otherwise (184.1). It can make a Standard Move, deals combat damage equal to its Might and can be targeted like any unit. - Tokens have no cost (treated as 0) and no domain, unless an effect gives them one (185.3). - The token's controller is whoever controlled the effect that made it, unless something says otherwise. Its owner is the player who controlled that effect (182–183). ### "Play" a token or "create" a token The wording changes the route. "Play a 1 [M] Recruit token" creates the token on the chain, and it goes through the normal steps of being played. "Create a 1 [M] Recruit token" puts it directly at a location on the board where it could be played (440.2.c). When an effect refers to a card being played, it means the play action of putting it on the chain (420.5), so check which verb the card uses. | Token (rule 187) | Type | What it has | | --- | --- | --- | | Recruit | Unit | 1 Might, Recruit tag | | Sprite | Unit | 3 Might, Fae tag, Temporary | | Sand Soldier | Unit | 2 Might, Shurima tag | | Mech | Unit | 3 Might, Mech tag | | Bird | Unit | 1 Might, Bird tag, Deflect | | Tentacle | Unit | 1 Might, Bilgewater tag | | Reflection | Unit | 0 Might | | Shadow Clone | Unit | 0 Might; when it attacks you may banish a unit from your trash to give it Assault 4 this turn | | Gold | Gear | Reaction ability: kill this and exhaust it to add one Power of any domain | | Bomb | Gear | Deploy, plus a Deathknell that deals 2 to an enemy unit there and kills your other Bombs there | | Brush, Baron Pit | Battlefield | Battlefield tokens with their own text | ### Worked example: Bird tokens Ultrasoft Poro reads "[E]: Play two 1 [M] Bird unit tokens with [Deflect]. Use this ability only while I'm at a battlefield." (377.2.b). You exhaust the Poro at a battlefield, and two Birds are played, exhausted by default. Each one has Deflect, so an opponent who wants to remove both with targeted spells pays at least 1 extra Power per Bird. If a Bird dies in combat, it is put in your trash and stops existing there. No effect can later return it to your hand or recycle it. ### Common token mistakes - Counting tokens in the trash. They are gone. - Letting token units attack the turn they arrive when nothing made them enter ready. - Counting tokens for "card" effects. - Thinking a token's death doesn't trigger anything. A token is killed and reaches the trash like any permanent, and the Bomb token has its own Deathknell. ## Recycle, Trash and Banish All three move cards, but they send them to different places and with different consequences. | Term | Where the card goes | Key details | | --- | --- | --- | | Recycle (417) | Bottom of its own deck: Main Deck cards to the Main Deck, runes to the Rune Deck | Two or more cards to the Main Deck go in random order. Runes go in the order their owner chooses. Each player always recycles into their own decks. | | Trash (108.2) | Each player's discard pile | Killed and discarded cards and resolved spells go here. It is public and unordered. | | Banish (428) | Each player's Banishment zone | A separate public zone, harder to recover from. Banishing is not killing and not discarding. | To follow those three terms you need to know each player's zones. The Core Rules define them as logical spaces, not fixed spots on the table (106): the board is made up of the bases and the Battlefield Zone (107), while the Main Deck, Rune Deck, Trash, Banishment and hand are non-board zones (108). The first recycle of the game happens before the first turn. Each player draws 4 cards and, in turn order, may set aside up to 2, draw that many and recycle the set-aside cards to the bottom of their Main Deck (116–117). With 3 copies of a card other than your Chosen Champion among the 39 cards you shuffle, since the Chosen Champion starts in its Champion Zone (112), the chance of having at least one in those 4 cards is 28.4% before the mulligan (1 − C(36,4)/C(39,4), a hypergeometric distribution). For other numbers, or to add the draws of your first turns, use the [opening hand probability calculator](https://tradematches.app/en/tools/opening-hand-probability) with a 39-card deck and a 4-card hand. ### Cost or effect When recycling is a cost, you must be able to do all of it. Vi, Destructive's ability "Recycle 1 from your trash: Give me +1 [M] this turn" can't be used with an empty trash (417.3). When recycling is part of an effect, you recycle as many as you can. Dr. Mundo, Expert recycles 3 from your trash at the start of your Beginning Phase, and with only 2 cards there you recycle 2 (417.6). An instruction in the form "Recycle X from [zone]" lets you choose the cards and doesn't target them (417.6). ### Why Banish matters for death triggers Deathknell and similar abilities need the permanent to be killed and sent to the trash (808). A unit that is banished from the board goes straight to Banishment (428.2). That isn't a kill, so its Deathknell does not trigger. ### Common mistakes - Putting a recycled card on top of the deck. Recycling always goes to the bottom. - Recycling several cards in a chosen order to the Main Deck. They must be randomised. - Expecting death triggers from a banished unit. ## Burn and Burn Out **Burn X** moves the top X cards of your Main Deck to your trash (441). **Burn Out** is what happens when you try to move more cards out of your Main Deck than it contains, by drawing, burning or any other instruction (432.1). It is not an automatic loss. You do the following in order (432.2): 1. Do as much of the action as you can. 2. Recycle your trash into your Main Deck. It is shuffled, because several cards are recycled at once. 3. Choose an opponent to gain 1 point. 4. Finish the rest of the action. In your Draw Phase with an empty deck, you Burn Out and then still draw 1 (315.4.b). Looking at or revealing more cards than you have doesn't cause a Burn Out (432.1.c), and neither does Predicting with too few cards (437.4.a). If both your deck and trash are empty, you keep burning out, and each time an opponent gains a point. After the first one, those points can't be prevented. An opponent who reaches the Victory Score with more points than everyone else wins on the spot (432.3). ### Worked example You have one card left in your Main Deck and must Burn 3. You burn the one card, so your trash now includes it. You Burn Out: your whole trash is shuffled into your Main Deck, and your opponent gains 1 point. Then you burn the remaining 2 cards from the new deck. ## Conquer and Hold: the two ways to score Scoring is how you take points from battlefields, and there are two ways to do it (471): - **Conquer:** you gain control of a battlefield you haven't scored yet this turn. Usually this happens after winning a combat (468.5.d) or a showdown with no combat (348.2.a.1). - **Hold:** you still control a battlefield during your Beginning Phase, in its scoring step (315.2.b, 471.2). Each player can score a given battlefield only once per turn, whichever way they score it (472). Scoring gives up to one point and triggers that battlefield's Conquer or Hold abilities (473). In card text, "Score X points" means gaining points, not the scoring process (470.2). You also lose control of a battlefield that has none of your units on it once the turn is open and there is no showdown or combat there (323.5). Hold has a fixed moment in the turn; Conquer doesn't. The diagram shows the order of phases set by the Core Rules (314–317): Hold comes in the Beginning Phase, before channelling and drawing, while a Conquer happens whenever you gain control of a battlefield, usually after a combat or showdown in your Main Phase. ### The final point The Victory Score in 1v1 is 8 (487.3). If you are one point away and try to win it through a Conquer, you only get it if you have scored every battlefield this turn. Otherwise you draw a card instead (473.1.b.1). This restriction applies only to points from Conquer (473.1.a.1). ### Worked example You have 7 points in a 1v1 game. At the start of your turn you still control battlefield A, so you Hold it. Hold is not a Conquer, so the final-point restriction doesn't apply. You gain the 8th point and, with more points than your opponent, win at the next cleanup (474). Now suppose you had lost A on your opponent's turn instead. You conquer battlefield B in your Main Phase without having scored A this turn. You draw a card instead of gaining the point. ## Ganking: moving between battlefields Every unit has a Standard Move. You exhaust it as the cost, during your Main Phase, with no chain open and no showdown or combat going on (144). Normally it can only go from your base to a battlefield or from a battlefield back to base. Ganking adds one option: moving from one battlefield directly to another with that same Standard Move (810). It costs nothing extra and doesn't give a second move. Two copies do nothing more than one. The usual destination limits still apply. For example, you can't move to a battlefield that already has units from two other players (144.4.a.1). ### Worked example Your Ganking unit starts your turn at battlefield A, readied in your Awaken Phase. You Hold A in the Beginning Phase. In your Main Phase you exhaust the unit to move it straight to battlefield B, which your opponent controls, and combat begins there. Without Ganking, that Standard Move could only take the unit back to base, and it would need to be readied before moving again. Keep in mind that A now has none of your units, so you lose control of it in the next cleanup unless another unit is there. You have already scored A this turn, though. ## Accelerate: entering ready Units enter the board exhausted (143.4). Accelerate is an optional extra cost, 1 Energy plus 1 Power of one of the unit's domains, paid as you play the unit. If you pay it, the unit enters ready (805). For a unit with no domain, the Power can be of any domain. You can't pay it later while the unit is on the board. The unit enters ready instead of entering exhausted and then readying, so abilities that trigger when a unit becomes ready don't trigger (805). Two copies of Accelerate are redundant. The rules use Legion Rearguard as the example: a Fury unit that costs 2 Energy and 0 Power and has Accelerate. Paying 3 Energy and 1 Fury Power puts it in play ready, so it can make a Standard Move that same Main Phase. If an effect lets you play it ignoring its costs and you still choose Accelerate, you pay only the 1 Energy and 1 Fury Power (356.1.b.3). ## Assault and Shield **Assault X** means "While I am an attacker, I have +X Might" (807). **Shield X** means the same while the unit is a defender (814). With no number, X is 1. Extra copies add up: Petty Officer has Assault, and after Cleave gives it Assault 3 it has Assault 4 that turn. Stalwart Poro with Shield plus Block, which gives Shield 3 and Tank, has Shield 4 (807, 814). The bonuses last only while the unit has the designation. Designations are given when combat starts, also to units that arrive later, and removed when combat ends (466.2.c.3, 468.7.a). A Stunned attacker with Assault has more Might but still contributes none of it to combat damage. ## Tank: who must be assigned damage first A unit with Tank must be assigned lethal damage before any unit without Tank that has the same controller, in the combat damage step (815). Lethal means enough to kill it, counting damage already marked and effects that would change the damage (467.2.c.4–5). If several units have Tank, you can take them in any order, but every Tank needs lethal assigned before a non-Tank unit can receive any. Backline works the other way: that unit must be assigned damage last (826). A unit with both lets the assigning player satisfy only one of them (467.2.c.8). Tank changes only combat damage assignment, not targeting by spells. **Example:** you have 6 damage to assign. The defenders are a 3-Might Tank, a 2-Might Tank and a 4-Might unit without Tank. You must assign 3 and 2 to the Tanks first, and only the last point can go to the 4-Might unit. With 5 damage, the 4-Might unit gets nothing. ## Vision: Predict when played Vision is short for "When this is played, Predict" (817). To Predict is to look at the top card of your Main Deck and choose whether to recycle it to the bottom (437). It is not a draw. Each copy of Vision triggers separately, and you decide for each one. If you keep the card on top the first time, the second Vision shows you the same card (817). Predict 2 is different: you look at two cards at once, recycle any of them and put the rest back on top in any order (437.1.a). With too few cards you predict as many as you can, and there is no Burn Out (437.4). ## Deathknell: when the unit actually dies Deathknell means "When I die, [effect]" (808). It triggers when the permanent is killed and sent to the trash. If the death is replaced, the trigger is removed from the chain. The rules' example is Zhonya's Hourglass healing, exhausting and recalling the unit instead. The trigger goes on the chain before the card reaches the trash. Its location and details are noted so the effect can still use them. Each Deathknell on a permanent triggers separately, and its controller chooses their order. A permanent that is banished, or returned to hand from the board, has not died. **Example:** Undercover Agent has "[Deathknell][>] Discard 2, then draw 2." If it dies while you hold one card, you discard that one card and still draw 2. With an empty hand, you only draw 2 (423.4). ## Mighty: the 5-Might threshold A unit is Mighty while its Might is 5 or more. It "becomes Mighty" at the moment it goes from below 5 to 5 or more (708–709). A 5-Might unit that gets +1 does not become Mighty again. On the board, current Might counts. In other zones, such as the trash, printed Might counts (710–711). The rules show this with Fiora, Victorious, printed at 4 Might, who has Deflect, Ganking and Shield while she is Mighty. With a buff she has 5 Might and those three keywords, and Shield makes her 6 while defending. If the buff is removed in combat, she drops straight from 6 to 4 and loses all three, Shield included (478.4). ## Temporary, Legion and newer keywords **Temporary** kills the permanent at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring. It triggers only once, however many copies there are (816). **Legion** turns on its extra text if you have played another card this turn. One other card satisfies all your Legion abilities at once (812). The Radiance update, effective 16 October 2026, added Deploy, Disarm and Show Off (830–832). They are not covered here. New keywords arrive with new sets, as happened with Radiance. To see when the next Riftbound set comes out, check the [TradeMatches release calendar](https://tradematches.app/en/tools/release-calendar), which also covers other games. ## Finding the cards you are missing If a deck needs a particular Equipment or a few more Deflect units, TradeMatches lets you keep a list of what you have and what you want, see matching collectors nearby and talk in your province's chat. For places to play and trade in person, see [where to trade Riftbound cards in Spain](https://tradematches.app/en/blog/where-to-trade-riftbound-cards-in-spain). ## FAQ ### Does Stun set a unit's Might to 0 in Riftbound? No. The Stunned unit simply doesn't add its Might to combat damage. Its Might stays the same, so killing it still takes damage equal to its full Might, and it still counts as Mighty at 5 or more. ### Can a Stunned unit still defend a battlefield? Yes. Stun doesn't remove the defender designation and doesn't move the unit, so it stays in the fight and keeps any Shield bonus. It just deals no combat damage that turn. ### Can I move an Equipment to a different unit? Not by paying Equip again, because the gear's rules text, including Equip, is inactive while attached. Weaponmaster can take it from another unit, and if the first unit leaves the board the gear detaches and can be equipped again. ### Do I pay Deflect on my own spells? No. Deflect only taxes spells and abilities controlled by an opponent of the Deflect object's controller. ### Can my opponent respond when I hide a card? No. Hiding doesn't open a chain. They can respond later, when you play the card from facedown, because that play does open one. ### What is the Victory Score in Riftbound 1v1? Eight points, in both the Duel and the Match mode of 1v1. ## Sources and checks On 18 October 2026 we went through the official Core Rules PDF, last updated on 9 October 2026, rule by rule for each keyword in this guide. We also read Riot's Radiance patch notes, effective 16 October 2026. Two of their clarifications touch this guide: a card that "picks" something does not target it, and units can't be attached to other objects. - [Riftbound Core Rules (PDF, last updated 2026-10-09)](https://cmsassets.rgpub.io/sanity/files/dsfx7636/news_live/5c7946f7c3b8c6e0faff85ab6dadc6d2e721ea94.pdf) - [Riftbound Rules Hub](https://playriftbound.com/en-us/rules-hub/) - [Core Rules Radiance patch notes (effective 16 October 2026)](https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/announcements/core-rules-radiance-patch-notes-effective-october-16-2026/)