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Card Interactions

Release notes, Rules Reprise articles and rules updates, newest first. When two of them conflict, the newer one wins. Check the date before you trust an older article. Release notes are rarely updated after a set releases. Click a card name to see the card and its current text.

Themes that keep coming up

These six ideas explain most release-note rulings. Learn the rule behind each one, and new cards get much easier to rule.

  1. No priority while something is resolving (CR 1.11.5). You can't step in partway through a card's effects, partway through playing a card, or in the start phase, end phase or close step. Example: Starflow Robes can't be used between the two damage instructions of one card.
  2. Nothing is retroactive. If a condition is met after a trigger moment, the trigger doesn't go back and fire. The static bonus still applies, though (CR 6.6.5a). Example: Tempestuous Kiss given go again after it's attacking gets +1 power, but not its "when this attacks a hero" damage. Pillar of Unity misses its Unity bonus if the card from hand is a defense reaction played later.
  3. Last known information. If a card leaves, its chain link or effect uses its last known state, and that state can't change (CR 1.2.3). Example: Endless Arrow returns to hand on hit, and its chain link still gives the action point if it had go again.
  4. Triggers wait for the next priority window. A trigger caused while applying prevention, like destroying a Ward card, goes on the stack afterward. It can't affect the damage event that caused it. Example: Flicker Reality.
  5. Optional means you have to be able to do all of it (CR 1.8.3b). An optional targeted trigger can also be put on the stack with no target, and then none of it happens. Example: Magmatic Carapace needs you to be able to tap it and pay. Sigil of Silphidae's trigger can go on the stack with no target.
  6. "When this defends" triggers however the card became a defender. That includes an opponent's effect adding it. Example: Scowling Flesh Bag's "when this defends, intimidate" still triggers if an opponent's effect made it a defender.

Rules updates and articles

September 21, 2026 — Rules Reprise: Usurp the Shadow Throne (Constructed)

Rulings for the newest set in Constructed. The new keywords are in Usurp the Shadow Throne below.

September 17, 2026 — Rules Update
  • Start of game: arena-cards are now chosen and revealed before the deck is chosen. It started as a trial and is now in CR 4.1 and TRP 3.3.
  • Randomization aides: when picking a random card from the graveyard by shuffling face down, a player can use a placeholder card that shows only the real card's English name and pitch (TRP 5.12).
June 11, 2026 — Draft Procedure Rules Guide

Covers zone drafts and called drafts, and what counts as a minor or major Draft Procedure Violation (PPG 3.6).

May 28, 2026 — Rules Reprise: Omens of the Third Age (Constructed)

Rulings for quickstrike, starfall, fragment and Lightning Flow interactions. See Omens of the Third Age.

May 19, 2026 — Rules Update
  • Attack queue: when an attack would resolve, it goes into a queue and enters the combat chain from there (CR 5.3.1a, 7.1).
  • Attack-layers: "attack with" effects (Beckon Steel, And Again…) make a layer that isn't an attack. Effects on that layer don't carry over to the attack it creates (CR 1.4.4b). If Mage Master Boots gives And Again… go again, the sword attack doesn't get it. Beckon Steel works the same way.
February 5, 2026 — Rules Reprise: Compendium of Rathe

Rulings for the set's Brute, Guardian and returning cards, including sharpen. Predatory Plating is the one most often brought up. See Compendium of Rathe.

January 30, 2026 — Rules Update
  • An attacking ally's controller is the attacking hero.
  • An attacked ally's controller is the defending hero, but still can't declare defenders or play defense reactions for the ally unless an effect allows it (CR 7.3.2a, 7.4.2b).
  • Targeted layers still resolve. If all of a layer's targets are gone, only the targeted effect fails, and the rest still happens. An attack that has lost its target is still removed (CR 7.2.2c).
  • Pummel got a functional erratum. Click it for the current text.
May 29, 2025 — Back Alley Oracle #17
  • Basic rarity was added.
  • Choosing objects is limited to the arena and the stack unless the effect says otherwise.
  • Spectra no longer closes the combat chain.
  • Attack reactions can be played for ally attacks.
  • Continuous effects with no stated duration last until end of turn.
  • Players may reorder their own graveyards.
January 24, 2025 — Back Alley Oracle #16
  • Combat steps were merged into the current seven.
  • Rules for naming any card.
  • The play-off tiebreaker procedure (TRP 3.4).
October 25, 2024 — Back Alley Oracle #15

The note-taking philosophy. Ask yourself: would I be penalized if I forgot this? If yes, you may keep a marker for it, like life or floating resources. If no, you can't, like a turn count or pitch order.

Set release notes

Usurp the Shadow Throne

Legal September 25, 2026.

  • New keywords: bind, decay, incarnate, Shadow Resist, traverse, unique, usurp. See the Rules keyword table.
  • Soul of Existence is the first purple card, with pitch 4.
  • Unique is a game state action. If you control two permanents with the same name and one has unique, you clear down to one (CR 8.3.48a). Example: Blasmophet, the Insatiable Hunger.
  • Incarnate cards can't start in your deck. Removing one this way isn't "dying" (CR 8.3.46). Example: Corrupted Corpse.
  • Bind: a binding card that loses its bound card is cleared as a game state action (CR 8.3.44b).
  • Chains of Consecration on Corrupted Corpse: go again still applies through last known information.

Mastery Pack: Warrior

Legal August 7, 2026. Reprints only, with no new rulings.

Omens of the Third Age

Legal June 5, 2026. Keywords: fragment, quickstrike, starfall.

  • Quickstrike isn't retroactive. An attack that gains go again after it becomes attacking gets the static bonus, like +1 power. Its "when this attacks a hero" trigger doesn't fire, because that moment has passed (Tempestuous Kiss, Dashing Flashfoot and others).
  • Quick Succession: if an attack gets go again from an on-hit trigger, the +1 only applies after that trigger resolves. That's too late for the damage already dealt.
  • Starfall is checked when the card resolves. Astral Bridge can turn on its own starfall by milling an instant first.
  • Prevention between effects: Starflow Robes, Glide Through Starlight and the Astral Sanctuary set can't be used between two damage instructions on the same card. The card resolves completely before anyone gets priority.
  • Prevention doesn't stop life loss. Constella Tiara and the others prevent physical, arcane and untyped damage, but not loss of life.
  • Ward destroyed, holo counter too late: destroying Flicker Reality for its Ward creates a trigger. That trigger can't power up another card's Ward in time for the same damage event.
  • The "Duality" cards (Cosmic Duality and others): discarding one to pay for its ability is activating an instant ability, not playing an instant. If the target hero is gone, you still create the Lightning Flow token.
  • Oscilio: discarding a card with an instant ability isn't discarding an instant card.
  • Tokens that leave the arena cease to exist. A banished Lightning aura token never comes back (Blink of an Eye, Flicker Reality).

Compendium of Rathe

Legal February 13, 2026. Keyword: sharpen: put a +1 power counter on it, then remove them at the beginning of the end phase (CR 8.5.58). Example: Sharpening Sparks.

Predatory Plating

Predatory Plating: Instant — Destroy this: gain resources. Activate this only if you control a card with 6 or more power.

You can't activate it to help pay for the 6-power card you're in the middle of playing. During the nine steps of playing a card no one has priority (CR 1.11.5). Activating an instant ability needs priority (CR 5.2.2). "Control" means a card in the arena or on the stack. A 6-power card in your hand doesn't count. A 6-power attack already on the stack or chain does count, so you can activate Plating after it's played, to pay for something else.

  • Touch of Reality with X = 0 gets Ward 0. Using it to prevent damage still destroys it.
  • Graven Gaslight / Spellvoid: you can't use Spellvoid 1, then re-equip and use Spellvoid again on the same arcane damage event. There's no priority in the middle of an event.
  • Magmatic Carapace: its optional effect needs you to be able to both tap it and pay. If you can't do both, you can't choose it.
  • Sigil of Silphidae, Runic Fellingsong, Weeping Battleground: you can put the trigger or card on the stack without a target. If you do, none of it happens.
  • Bond (Earth/Lightning/Ice): you have to pitch a matching card while paying for this card. Resources from an earlier pitch don't count. Example: Strong Wood.
  • Contract (Mist Hunter, Excessive Bloodloss): you have to be the one banishing the opponent's card. If the opponent banishes their own card, it doesn't count.
  • Lay Down the Challenge: you can intimidate yourself, but then you won't draw.
  • Rip Off the Top: pitching a random card still gives you resources and still triggers pitch effects.
  • Scuttle Toes: untapping an ally that's already untapped fails. The ally is still destroyed at the end phase.

Super Slam

Legal September 26, 2025. Introduced suspense (CR 8.3.42) and the crowd cheers / boos mechanics. Examples: To Be Continued... (suspense), Overturn the Results (boos).

High Seas

Legal June 6, 2025. Introduced tap/untap, give, steal, companion, perched, unlimited, watery grave, high tide and go fish. Tapping a permanent that's already tapped fails (CR 8.5.55a). Give and steal both change who controls the object. Examples: Entangling Shot (tap), Money or Your Life? (give).

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