How do card abilities work?

Almost everything a card does in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, it does through its abilities. An ability is a piece of rules text that says what a card may or must do, and one card can carry several. Abilities matter most on the cards that stay on the board, while the text of a spell is mostly instructions that are carried out as it resolves.

Each kind of ability is worded in its own way, and the wording tells you when an ability takes effect and whether your opponent can answer it.

How can you tell which kind of ability a card has?

The Core Rules, which Riot publishes on its Rules Hub, list five kinds of ability, and the wording of four of them gives the kind away.

• Passive abilities are statements of fact, such as "I have +1 Might for each friendly gear" on Ornn, Forge God. Many hold a condition with "while" or "if".
• Activated abilities are written as a cost, a colon and an effect. Iron Ballista shows the exhaust symbol, a colon and "Deal 2 to a unit at a battlefield."
• Triggered abilities are usually worded with "When" and an event, "At" and a point in the turn, or "The first time". Sona, Harmonious readies up to four of your runes at the end of your turn if she is at a battlefield.
• Replacement effects usually use the words "would", "instead" or "as", because they change something that is about to happen.

The fifth kind, the delayed ability, is left behind by a spell or ability for a limited time. Many keywords stand for one of these kinds: Assault is a passive ability that adds Might while a unit attacks, and Deathknell is a triggered ability that works when its card dies.

How do passive abilities work?

A passive ability is on for as long as its card is on the board, without you doing anything. Wielder of Water has +2 Might while it attacks or defends alone. Tianna Crownguard stops your opponents from gaining any points while she stands at a battlefield.

A passive ability never goes on the Chain, so there is no moment at which your opponent can answer it, as they could answer a spell. Abilities that change a card's own cost work from your hand, because that is where you play the card from. Rhasa the Sunderer, a 10 Energy unit, costs 1 Energy less for each card in your trash.

How do you use an activated ability?

You use an activated ability by paying the cost written before the colon. The ability then goes on the Chain and resolves like a spell without a card, so your opponent can answer it with a Reaction first. By default, you can use an activated ability only in your own Main Phase, while no showdown is going on and nothing waits on the Chain. Action or Reaction printed in front of the cost lifts that limit: Eye of Twilight, the Legend of Shen, can give a friendly unit Tank in the middle of a fight because its ability has Action.

The rules set no limit on how often you use an activated ability, so its cost is what holds it back. An ability that costs an exhaust works once a turn, because an exhausted card cannot be exhausted again until something readies it. Renekton, Brute from Vendetta gives himself +1 Might this turn for just 1 Energy, as many times as you can pay before he moves into a fight. Some cards add a limit in words: Ultrasoft Poro can make its Bird tokens only while it stands at a battlefield.

Every basic rune has two activated abilities with Reaction: exhaust it to add 1 Energy, or recycle it to add 1 Power of its domain. Abilities that add Energy or Power resolve the moment you use them and cannot be answered.

When do triggered abilities happen?

A triggered ability happens by itself whenever its condition is met, on any player's turn, even in the middle of a showdown. Loose Cannon, the Legend of Jinx, draws you a card at the start of your Beginning Phase if you hold one card or none. Viktor, Leader plays a 1 Might Recruit token into your base when another non-Recruit unit you control dies. Wraith of Echoes draws you a card the first time a friendly unit dies each turn.

A triggered ability costs nothing unless its text asks for a cost. It goes on the Chain like an activated ability, where players can answer it with Reactions, and once it is there, it resolves even if its card leaves the board first. The ones that begin "When you play me" are called play effects, and they join the Chain only after their unit has entered the board, so answering one never keeps the unit out. When several abilities trigger at once, each player puts their own on the Chain in the order they choose, starting with the turn player, and since the newest item resolves first, the turn player's triggered abilities resolve last.

What does a replacement effect do?

A replacement effect changes an event before it happens, so the original event never takes place. Zhonya's Hourglass reads "If a friendly unit would die, kill this instead," and then heals that unit, exhausts it and sends it back to your base. Master Yi, Honed from Proving Grounds has a quieter one: "I enter ready" replaces the usual way a unit enters play, which is exhausted.

Because the replaced event never happens, nothing that waits for it is set off. When Zhonya's Hourglass saves Ekko, Recurrent in a Calm and Mind deck, the unit does not die, so its Deathknell does not trigger. A replacement effect is applied as part of the event it changes and never waits on the Chain. Some work only once each turn: Zilean, Time Mage lets you play an extra copy of a unit token once each turn while he is at a battlefield, and you may skip a small token to save the copy for a better one later that turn.

Do abilities work while a card is in your hand or trash?

Mostly they do not. The abilities of units and gear normally work only while the card is on the board, and a card whose ability works anywhere else says so. Undying Legion can be played from your trash for 3 Energy and one Fury Power if you have played another card this turn. Immortal Phoenix lets you pay 1 Energy and one Fury Power to play it from your trash when you kill a unit with a spell. Equipment works the other way round. The effect text in the second box of Guardian Angel does nothing until the gear is attached to a unit, and then it gives that unit a replacement effect: if the unit would die, the gear is killed instead.

Can a card give abilities to other cards?

Yes. A spell or ability can hand an ability to another card for a time, or leave one behind that waits for a later moment. Dominus, a signature spell of Renekton, doubles a unit's Might this turn and gives it an ability that readies it for two Power of any domain. Noxian Guillotine, a signature spell of Darius, chooses a unit and kills it the next time it takes damage this turn.

The kill that Noxian Guillotine sets up is a delayed ability, and it does its work when its moment comes, even if the card that made it has left the board. Ravenborn Tome makes the next spell you play this turn deal 1 Bonus Damage when you exhaust it, and that spell gets the bonus even if the gear is killed in between.

Abilities of every kind are on the units, gear, Legends and battlefields pages. When abilities meet, the Chain sets the order in which they resolve, newest first, and Action and Reaction decide which cards and abilities a player can use outside their own Main Phase. A battlefield carries abilities of its own, and the player who controls the battlefield controls them.