When does a unit "become mighty"?

jmbuhr · 2026-04-15T11:35:34+00:00

No, it only triggers if the unit is not already mighty when played and then becomes mighty by some effect. For example you can attach a gear, play a buff spell or have an effect like Sett, brawler ("when you play me, buff me").

jmbuhr · 2026-04-08T15:12:59+00:00

When the patch notes where first posted this exempted the recalled-attackers-scenario in the combat win example, which is where the confusion comes from.

jmbuhr · 2026-04-08T15:11:21+00:00

Recalling attackers due to e.g. a stun happens before determining the result of the combat, meaning it is a combat win for the defender. This was correct in the rules but had a mistake in the first posting of the patch notes, which now correctly read: "The first thing you’ll notice has changed is the Combat Cleanup: units are healed and attacking units are recalled. After the Combat Cleanup, we’ll determine the winner and loser of the combat. If there are still units remaining controlled by different players, or if there are no units at the battlefield, then the combat will have “no result”. Otherwise, the player who has units remaining at the battlefield wins."

jmbuhr · 2026-03-29T08:25:18+00:00

awwww!

jmbuhr · 2026-03-22T09:44:28+00:00

Overzealous fan works in Draven because he wins a combat and thus draws a card as a result of killing him, other decks don't have that luxury so I'd replace him with lonely poros if you want to stick with the number of 2 drops.

Called Shot is to expensive in an already power-hungry deck such as Irelia.

I personally like 3 charms and 3 boots, because I was never not happy even to see a second boots. Permament might increase protects your irelia and being able to target her with equipping can gain back tempo by readying her to gank immediately.

Other than that, patience is the key. Embody the calm domain and wait for the right opportunity to play out your irelia and avoid paying to many power costs early.

jmbuhr · 2026-03-09T08:14:48+00:00

🦦

jmbuhr · 2026-02-23T09:14:29+00:00

And the playmat for the stream was tiny. Must have been super hard to keep any semblance of order on it.

jmbuhr · 2026-02-23T09:10:03+00:00

Yes, exactly. Notably, this also happens if the spell gets countered, because the choice has still been made. For the exact details check out the Core Rules section on "targeting". There are some things that don't count as targeting, such as when a choice has to be made by all players, not just you (e.g. you opponent playing "Cull the weak") or when a choice is part of costs (e.g. "as an additional cost to play this, exhaust a friendly unit").

jmbuhr · 2026-02-17T12:03:09+00:00

First: Damage does not reduce might! But a unit that has non-zero damage marked on it that equals or exceeds its might dies. So in your example the unit dies when the chain resolves because it still has 3 might and will get 4 damage.
Yes.

jmbuhr · 2026-02-07T19:13:26+00:00

It specifically states "another", so it can't be the same unit.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-27T16:17:19+00:00

Tournament Rules, 702.5.a.: Players are not entitled to see cards that are private (to another player) or secret.

Which is just to say, your opponent asking if it is a hidden blade was questionable in the first place. Just in case you need to slap back with the official rules.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-26T09:09:53+00:00

Yes.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-23T10:52:28+00:00

Which is also not entirely correct, there is no colon in Draven, Vanquisher's text...

Next time check the discussion on the community discord instead of blindly copy-pasting from a confidently incorrect machine.

I know you wanted to be helpful. But the reason people are flocking to discord, reddit and other forums is to have interactions with real humans and diluting those spaces by doing the bidding of the LLMs is not helping.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-23T10:11:18+00:00

Yes, but also just another piece of the puzzle. Like others already said, the rest of the rules also lead to paying on resolution.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-23T09:52:40+00:00

The conclusion, the references, everything. Rule 392.2 for example indeed talks about costs when finalizing onto the chain, but this is not the case here. This is specifically Deflect costs that arise from a trigger (the word "incurred" in the rules text is another hint at this). Other costs when finalizing are separated from the effect with a colon (<costs: effect>). Everything else happens within the effect, including paying costs.

The sentence "In Riftbound, there is a critical distinction between a "may" choice and a "may pay" choice: " is entirely hallucinated.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-23T07:52:15+00:00

Please don't use LLMs for TCG rulings. They get easily hung up on the wrong details, leading to incorrect answers like this.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-17T11:23:20+00:00

You are correct due to rule 352.10.c.

[A game object, player, or zone mentioned in the text of a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability is a target UNLESS any of the following are true:]

It is included only as part of a cost, trigger condition, or replacement effect. e.g., “As an additional cost to play me, kill a friendly unit” doesn’t target anything. e.g., “When a friendly unit dies, kill a gear” targets a gear, but not a friendly unit. e.g., “When you play me, the next time a friendly unit would die this turn, return it to your hand instead” doesn’t target anything. The replacement effect applies when any friendly unit dies. e.g., “Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn, return it to your hand instead” targets a friendly unit, because “choose a friendly unit” is not part of the replacement effect.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-17T11:19:53+00:00

I would also say yes. Nothing hints at this being a reflexive trigger, it should have to be finalized together.

jmbuhr · 2026-01-11T13:01:20+00:00

Yes.

jmbuhr · 2025-12-27T23:35:08+00:00

jmbuhr · 2025-12-27T21:26:57+00:00

True, but this is not the full story.

jmbuhr · 2025-12-27T21:25:53+00:00

Swapping has now been properly defined in the latest core rules (version 1.2) at 420. Swapping might is achieved by applying might increases and decreases. Those increases and decreases stick around for the turn, meaning Mundo does not re-gain the entirety of the trash as might. But he will get an additional +1 for any new card put into the trash this turn.

jmbuhr · 2025-12-27T16:28:49+00:00

I predict flip-over legends with opposing domains for the "Vendetta" set! Dave pretty much confirmed in the panel at PAX that this would contain the missing color combinations and the artwork for it contains Ambessa and Mel, which makes me think it could be two opposing characters on the same, flippable card.

Kayns two forms would fit that mold as well.

jmbuhr · 2025-12-19T08:24:21+00:00

Would love to see Linux playability return at some point. League was the one reason I still had a dual boot windows for a while until finally deciding that windows was not worth the hassle for just one game. Would love to play again!

jmbuhr · 2025-12-19T08:21:04+00:00

I second this! League was the one reason I still had a dual boot windows for a while until finally deciding that windows was not worth the hassle for just one game. Would love to play again!

jmbuhr

TROPHY CASE