The empowered status is a temporary modification and not part of a card's printed traits, so it is not copyable by copy effects such as Shady Spectacles. Equipping Shady Spectacles and choosing to copy an empowered unit will not grant the empowered status to the equipped unit.
Citaat uit de bron: “empowered is a status, a temporary modification, and not part of the printed traits of the card, so it will not be copied by Shady Spectacles”
If a Sand Soldier equipped with Shady Spectacles (copying Azir, Ascendent) uses the copied activated ability, and then Shady Spectacles is detached and reattached to that same Sand Soldier copying the same unit, the activated ability can be used again. Each attach creates a new, distinct instance of the copied ability, even on the same game object.
Citaat uit de bron: “Each instance of the copied ability is a different ability... the copied rules text is an entirely new instance of the ability.”
When Akshan, Mischievous steals Shady Spectacles and his controller chooses to copy Aphelios, Aphelios's triggered ability does not trigger. The attach event has already completed before the copy effect is applied, so Aphelios's new triggered ability (gained via copy) cannot react to an attachment event that already occurred.
Citaat uit de bron: “if his controller chooses to make him a copy of Aphelios, it's too late by that point for his new triggered ability to see the attachment event”
Action Spells may be played during the controller's turn or during a Showdown; on an opponent's turn, a player may only play Action Spells during Showdowns.
community (1 bron, trust 0.50, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“Most Spells are labeled Action, which means you can play them during your turn or during a Showdown. If it's not your turn, you can only play Action Spells during Showdowns.”
When Stupefy (give -1M, minimum 1M) is cast while an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened is in play, Mel's replacement effect changes the -1M to -2M, but the replaced event inherits Stupefy's "to a minimum of 1M" modifier. A replacement effect inherits any modifications applied by the game effect that generated the replaced event, so a 2M unit becomes 1M.
Citaat uit de bron: “a replacement effect that replaces an event modified by the game effect that generated that event will inherit any of those modifications”
Units with the Ganking ability may move directly from one Battlefield to another, whereas normal units can only move between their controller's Base and a Battlefield.
community (2 bronnen, trust 0.75, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“only units with the Ganking ability may move between battlefields”
If Stupefy is played on an empowered Gangplank, Naval who has exactly 1M, the -M value snapshots to -0M, meaning no actual -M event is generated. With no suitable event to replace, Gangplank's replacement effect does not trigger.
Citaat uit de bron: “In the case of Stupefy played on a 1 M unit, no -M is given; it is snapshot to -0 M. Thus, there is no suitable event for Gangplank's replacement effect to replace.”
Ravenborn Tome's Bonus Damage effect now applies only to the next spell played 'this turn,' preventing the bonus from carrying forward to future turns.
community (1 bron, trust 0.50, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“The next spell you play this turn deals 1 Bonus Damage.”
Baron Nashor's passive generates a delayed replacement effect ('I enter there') that replaces his entering any other location with entering the Baron Pit, bypassing play-location restrictions such as Mageseeker Warden. Dragon Roost is only a permission on play location, not a replacement effect, and therefore cannot bypass such restrictions.
Citaat uit de bron: “Baron Nashor's passive ability generates a delayed replacement effect...This replacement effect replaces the event of him entering to any other location with him entering to the Baron Pit.”
During the Beginning Phase, each player channels 2 Runes from the top of their Rune Deck; the second player channels 3 Runes on their very first turn to compensate for going second.
community (1 bron, trust 0.50, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“If you're going second on your very first turn, you get 3 Runes instead to help catch up.”
When a player controls the battlefield but has no units there (achievable via Hostile Takeover or Stormbringer), the current rules have a gap with no obvious outcome. The interim ruling is to start a noncombat showdown as the least disruptive way to handle this scenario.
Citaat uit de bron: “starting a noncombat showdown is the least disruptive way to handle this scenario”
Gear cards enter play in the Ready state (not Exhausted), so they can be used immediately; Gear always enters at the controller's Base.
community (2 bronnen, trust 0.75, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“Gear cannot hold or conquer battlefields, and can only exist in base. If a Gear card is played at a battlefield, it is immediately recalled to the base.”
Dragon Form sets a unit's base Might to 5 via the Trait-Altering layer; existing arithmetic modifiers (e.g., Stupefy's -1) are applied in the Arithmetic layer. Layer evaluation is instantaneous—there is no window where the unit momentarily exists at 5 Might before the modifier is applied. A unit under both Dragon Form and Stupefy is immediately 4 Might; Fiora, Grand Duelist will not trigger.
Citaat uit de bron: “this process happens instantaneously; there is no window while evaluating layers for the unit to see itself become 5 M and then go down to 4 M”
Each Battlefield can only award 1 point per turn; moving a unit away and replacing it with another unit in the same turn does not grant additional points.
community (2 bronnen, trust 0.75, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“Moving away from a battlefield and back to it with another unit the same turn will not gain you a bonus point.”
Reflexive triggers, identified by 'then do this:' language, create new chain items to handle effects that need to offer players a chance to react between two effects, or that must happen after the rest of a spell or ability resolves.
Citaat uit de bron: “Reflexive triggers, identified by 'do this:' language, create new chain items to handle things that need to offer players a chance to react, or just need to happen later”
As of the Unleashed rules update, when Glasc Mixologist dies alone at a battlefield it controls, the unit from its Deathknell can be played to that same battlefield regardless of whether Combat is occurring. Previously this was only possible during an active Combat.
Citaat uit de bron: “whenever Glasc Mixologist dies alone at a battlefield with the same controller, regardless of if there is a Combat there or not.”
Signature Cards are Legend-specific cards that can only be included in a deck matching their designated Legend, with a maximum of 3 total Signature Cards permitted across the entire deck.
community (1 bron, trust 0.50, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“You can only use them with their matching Legend, and you can't put more than 3 total Signature Cards in your deck.”
Icathian Rain is no longer a reflexive trigger. All six targets are chosen upfront before anything resolves; the opponent can react before resolution; then each chosen unit takes 2 damage on resolution. The same unit may be chosen for multiple instances.
Citaat uit de bron: “you pick all the targets up front, the other player can react before any of it resolves, and then each of the units affected take the damage on resolution”
Elder Dragon's passive ('Any amount of your damage is enough to kill enemy units') alters the lethal damage threshold for units with damage marked by Elder Dragon's controller to any non-zero amount. As a result, Elder Dragon can check damage marked on units before it enters the board, and its controller need only assign one damage per unit during the Combat Damage step.
Citaat uit de bron: “Elder Dragon can check damage marked on units by its controller before it enters the board, and that players need only assign one damage to units during the Combat Damage step while they control Elder”
When an Attacker destroys all Defending units and still has units remaining, they conquer the Battlefield and immediately score 1 point; additionally, every time a Battlefield is conquered without winning the game, the conquering player draws a card.
community (1 bron, trust 0.50, officieel bevestigd, status=unreviewed — nog niet gereviewd)
“every time you conquer a Battlefield but it doesn't win you the game, you get to draw a card”
If Counter Strike (or any prevent effect) completely prevents Elder Dragon's 1 damage to a unit, that damage is never dealt per rule 437.2.a. Since no damage is dealt, Elder Dragon's passive ability—which redefines lethal damage thresholds for units that have damage marked on them by its controller—has no opportunity to apply to that unit.
Citaat uit de bron: “If the damage is entirely prevented, it is never dealt per rule 437.2.a., and thus there is no opportunity for the passive ability of Elder Dragon to apply”
A player cannot be compelled to perform an action on cards whose privacy is secret or private if that action specifies a type or quality of card. If such an effect would compel this, the player may ignore it instead. This means Rift Herald's Deathknell cannot force an opponent to play a unit from hand.
Citaat uit de bron: “A player cannot be compelled to perform an action on cards whose privacy is secret or private if that action specifies a type or quality of card.”
When Deceiver's reflexive trigger copies Zilean, Time Mage, the two Reflection tokens resolve and become copies of Zilean. However, there is no subsequent 'play token' game action for Zilean's replacement effect to apply to, so no further tokens are produced and the loop does not repeat.
Citaat uit de bron: “there is no subsequent play game action involving tokens to apply their replacement effects to”
Spinning Axe (Temporary while attached) (§816.2.a)
When Spinning Axe is attached to a unit, its printed rules text—including its printed Temporary keyword—becomes inactive. If Spinning Axe is separately granted Temporary, only that granted instance is active. Because only one active instance exists, rule 816.2.a does not prevent it from triggering; the inactive printed Temporary is treated as if it did not exist.
Citaat uit de bron: “the grey Temporary doesn't have any function. We can treat it as if it didn't exist for the purposes of rule 816.2.a.”
If a player kills their only unit at a battlefield to pay Cruel Patron's additional cost, a cleanup is triggered, but control of the battlefield is not lost because Cruel Patron is on the chain. The player may then choose to play Cruel Patron to that same battlefield.
Citaat uit de bron: “because there is an item on the chain (Cruel Patron) I don't lose control of the battlefield”
Ravenbloom Student's triggered ability checks whether a spell you control resolves, not whether you finalized it. Gaining control of an opponent's already-finalized spell (e.g., via Rebuttal on Stupefy) still causes the ability to trigger when that spell resolves.
Citaat uit de bron: “Ravenbloom Student's triggered ability checks whether a spell that you control resolves. You gained control of the Stupefy, and it resolved, so you will have triggered Ravenbloom Student's ability.”