What can you do in your Main Phase?

The Main Phase is the part of a turn in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game where you make almost every decision. It comes after the start of your turn, in which you have readied your cards, scored the battlefields you hold, channeled two runes and drawn a card, and the Ending Phase follows it.

The Core Rules, which Riot publishes on its Rules Hub, give the Main Phase no set structure. You choose what to do and in which order, for as long as your runes and your ready cards allow. The How to Play booklet of Proving Grounds calls the same phase the Action Phase.

What happens as your Main Phase begins?

Two things happen before your first action. Every player's rune pool empties, so any Energy or Power added earlier in the turn and not spent is lost. Then the effects that happen "at the start of your Main Phase" take place.

When Blue Sentinel, a Mind unit from Unleashed, holds a battlefield, it adds one Power of any domain at the start of your next Main Phase, after the pool has emptied. The gear Bottled Constellation from Vendetta lets you kill three other friendly units or gear at that moment to score a point. Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, adds Lady of Clockwork, the Legend of Orianna, which lets you pay 1 Energy at the same moment to turn a friendly gear into a unit with Might equal to its Energy cost.

Which actions can you take in your Main Phase?

Four kinds of action fill the Main Phase, and you may mix them freely.

• Play a card. You play units, spells and gear from your hand, and your chosen champion from the Champion Zone.
• Use an ability. Your units, gear and Legend may have abilities written as a cost, a colon and an effect. Runes have them too: you exhaust a rune to add 1 Energy, or recycle it to add 1 Power of its domain.
• Move units. You exhaust one or more units to move them from your base to a battlefield, or from a battlefield back to your base.
• Hide a card. You pay one Power of any domain to place a card with Hidden facedown at a battlefield you control that holds no other facedown card.

Drawing is not on the list. You draw in your Draw Phase, or when a card such as Progress Day tells you to, but never just because you want to.

When can you play cards and use abilities?

By default, cards are played and abilities are used only in your own Main Phase, while no showdown or combat is going on and nothing waits on the Chain. That is the only time you can normally play a spell without Action or Reaction, such as Vengeance, which kills a unit.

A unit enters play exhausted, either at your base or at a battlefield you already control. A gear enters ready at your base, unless it has Deploy, a keyword of Radiance gear that plays it to a battlefield instead. A spell resolves and then goes to your trash.

The abilities of your units, gear and Legend keep the same timing as a spell like Vengeance unless they have Action or Reaction, so they cannot be used once a showdown has begun. Unforgiven, the Legend of Yasuo, moves a friendly unit to or from its base for 2 Energy and an exhaust of the Legend, even a unit that is exhausted. Herald of the Arcane, the Legend of Viktor, plays a 1 Might Recruit token. Equipment is attached by an ability of this kind, written as Equip with a cost. Eye of Twilight, the Legend of Shen, has Action on its ability, so it can give a friendly unit Tank in the middle of a fight.

What happens when you move units to a battlefield?

A unit's own move costs an exhaust, so each unit normally moves once a turn. That move goes from your base to a battlefield or back, and only a unit with Ganking, such as Vi, Destructive, may use it to go from one battlefield to another. Several units can move in one action if they all go to the same place.

A move does not use the Chain, so your opponent cannot react to the move itself. What follows depends on where the units arrive.

• At a battlefield you already control, nothing more happens.
• At an empty battlefield, a showdown opens. You get the first chance to play a card with Action or Reaction, the players take turns, and if your units are the only ones there when everyone has passed, you take control of the battlefield and conquer it, unless you have already scored it this turn.
• At a battlefield with enemy units, a combat starts, which opens with a showdown of its own.

Showdowns and combats are part of your Main Phase, and when one is over the phase carries on. Because a showdown opens as soon as your units arrive, units you want in the same fight should move in the same action. Spells and abilities can also move units, at other times and without an exhaust, so a card can bring a unit into a fight that a move of its own could not.

Can your opponent do anything during your Main Phase?

Your opponent can answer what you do, but outside a showdown they cannot act first. Each spell you play waits on the Chain before it resolves, and so does each ability you use, apart from those that add Energy or Power. While something waits there, your opponent may reply with a card or ability that has Reaction, which resolves first. Units and gear enter the board as soon as they are played, so your opponent can answer only the abilities they set off, not the card itself. Inside a showdown, both players take turns to play cards with Action or Reaction.

Hiding a card does not use the Chain either, so it cannot be answered. In Magma Chamber, the two-versus-two mode, your teammate may play spells and use abilities in your Main Phase when you invite them to.

In what order should you do things?

The order of your actions often decides how much a turn achieves. Three habits help.

• Move first, then play units. A unit can be played straight to a battlefield you control, so once you have conquered a battlefield, the units you play afterward can go there to help hold it. The Exile, the Legend of Riven from Radiance, makes units you play to battlefields you control enter ready.
• Pay for speed when it counts. A unit you play this turn cannot move until your next turn unless it enters ready. Kai'Sa, Survivor has Accelerate: pay 1 Energy and 1 Fury Power more as you play her, and she enters ready and can move at once.
• Use your abilities before the fight. Abilities without Action or Reaction cannot be used during a showdown. Vi, Destructive can recycle a card from your trash to give herself +1 Might for the turn, so she should do it before she moves in.

How does your Main Phase end?

Your Main Phase ends when you say that you are ending your turn. You may do so once nothing waits on the Chain and no showdown or combat is going on, even with cards in your hand and runes still ready. The Ending Phase then begins: end of turn effects take place, every unit heals, and unspent Energy and Power is lost.

Ending with runes still ready is often wise, because those runes can pay for Reaction cards during your opponent's turn, while Energy and Power you added and did not spend is gone once the Ending Phase empties the rune pool. The units, spells and gear pages list the cards you play in this phase, and the Legends page shows which Legends have abilities to use in it.