Every Riftbound keyword explained

Keywords in Riftbound come with reminder text on the card, so you can always look them up mid-game. What the reminder text does not tell you is when they apply and what they interact with, which is where the mistakes come from.

Combat keywords

Assault X

+X Might while I am an attacker (rule 807).

Applies only while the unit has the attacker designation, which it gets when it is at a contested battlefield and its controller applied the contested status. It does nothing on defence, and nothing at all while sitting in your base.

Assault is what makes a small unit worth moving in. A 2-Might unit with Assault 2 attacks as a 4.

Shield X

+X Might while I am a defender (rule 814).

The mirror image. Stalwart Poro is a 2-Might unit that defends as a 3. It makes ground you already hold more expensive to take than it looks, which is exactly what you want from a unit you leave standing on a battlefield.

Tank

I must be assigned combat damage first (rule 815).

This is a restriction on the other player's damage assignment. With a Tank present they cannot pick off your small units first, they have to pay for the Tank before touching anything else.

Combined with the no-overkill rule, a big Tank soaks a lot of a damage total on its own.

Ganking

I can move from battlefield to battlefield (rule 810).

Normally the standard move is base to battlefield, or battlefield to base (rule 144.4). Ganking adds the sideways move, which means the unit can leave one fight and join another without spending a turn going home.

That is a bigger deal than it reads. It halves the response time of your best unit.

Timing keywords

Action

Can be played on your turn or during showdowns. This is what lets a spell be a combat trick.

Reaction

Can be played almost any time, including in response to other things resolving. Broader than Action.

A spell with neither can only be played in your own Main Phase, outside a fight.

Hidden

Pay 1 Power of any domain to place this facedown at a battlefield you control. From your next turn you may play it for free (rule 811).

Hidden is the closest Riftbound has to a bluff. The other player can see there is a facedown card at that battlefield, but not what it is. They have to decide whether to attack into it.

The details that matter:

• it costs you a rune off the board to hide something
• you cannot play it the same turn you hid it
• a hidden permanent must be played to the battlefield where it was hidden (rule 811.1.d.1)
• if you lose control of that battlefield, the card is removed

Cost keywords

Accelerate

You may pay 1 extra Energy and 1 Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready (rule 805.1.a).

Units normally arrive exhausted (rule 143.4), which means they cannot move the turn they arrive. Accelerate buys you that turn back.

It is optional, and it is a real cost. On a big unit it is often the difference between a threat now and a threat next turn, which at 7 points can decide the game.

Triggered keywords

Deathknell

Get this effect when I die (rule 808).

Makes a unit awkward to remove, because killing it pays the other player. Undercover Agent in the Jinx deck discards 2 then draws 2 when it dies, which in a deck built around discarding is closer to a bonus than a drawback.

Temporary

Kill this at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring (rule 816).

Read the "before scoring" part carefully, because it is the whole point. A unit made Temporary will be dead before its controller's Hold check happens, so it cannot score the battlefield it is standing on.

Fading Memories in the Jinx deck is removal that works on a delay but denies a point on schedule.

States that are not keywords

Stunned

Applied by effects, not printed on cards (rule 423). A stunned unit:

• contributes no Might to the combat damage step (rule 423.1.b)
• still requires its full Might in damage to be killed (rule 423.1.c)
• stops being stunned at the start of the next Ending Step (rule 423.1.a.2)

So stunning a big defender does not make it easier to kill, it just stops it hitting back.

Buffed

A buff is an object placed on a unit, worth +1 Might (rule 702). A unit holds at most one (rule 702.3.a), so buffing something already buffed does nothing.

Buffs can be spent as a cost by cards that ask for it. The Lee Sin deck is built around this: put buffs on, then cash them in for draws, readies and effects.

Several cards care about whether a unit is buffed at all rather than the +1. Wizened Elder gets an additional +1 while buffed, so a buff on it is worth 2. Bilgewater Bully gains Ganking while buffed. Lee Sin, Centered gives other buffed friendly units at his battlefield +2.

The ones people misread

1. Assault does not work on defence. It says attacker and it means it.
2. Tank does not protect, it redirects. It makes them hit the Tank first, which is often good for you and sometimes just kills your best unit first.
3. Temporary kills before scoring, not after. That is the entire reason to play it.
4. A stunned unit is not weakened. It still takes full Might to kill.
5. Accelerate costs Power, not just energy. It is 1 Energy and 1 Power, so it costs you a rune off the board.
6. A second buff does nothing. Check before you spend a card on it.

Practising it

The Trainer has four lessons on keywords, split by what they do rather than alphabetically: the ones that change costs, the defensive ones, the timing ones, and the rest. Each ends in tests on real boards where the keyword decides whether a move works.

Free, no account needed.