Drakehound Packmaster
Unofficial Riftbound rulings for Drakehound Packmaster, with rules explanations, examples, and Core Rules citations.
Can I decline to play the card chosen from those revealed by Drakehound Packmaster?
Drakehound Packmaster requires you to attempt to play the chosen card: you may stop the play by declining a positive energy or power payment, but you cannot decline a zero resource cost or a non-standard additional cost that is mandatory or that you chose, and if such a non-standard cost cannot be paid, the play fails instead. Declining the resource payment or failing to pay a required cost undoes the play and returns the card to its owner's banishment.
The instruction to play the card is not optional, so you carry it out as far as possible using the normal play process. Drakehound Packmaster sets the card's base energy and power costs to zero, but mandatory additional costs, optional additional costs you choose, and cost increases still apply. You choose whether to pay an optional additional cost before the total cost is determined.
Zero resource cost
If the card's total energy and power cost is zero, that cost is paid without performing the Pay game action and cannot be declined. Zero therefore gives you no way to cancel the play during finalization.
Positive resource cost
If the total includes a positive energy or power cost, you may choose not to pay those resources. This applies whether the resource cost came from a mandatory additional cost or an optional additional cost you chose. Declining does not remove only that additional cost; it undoes the entire play.
Non-standard costs
The choice to decline the Pay game action applies only to energy and power. A mandatory non-standard additional cost, or an optional non-standard additional cost you chose, must be paid if possible. You may omit an optional cost when making that earlier choice, but after choosing it, you cannot decline it during payment.
If the required game action is impossible, the cost cannot be paid. The card then fails its cost check, its play is undone, and it returns to its owner's banishment.
If the total contains both a positive resource cost and a non-standard cost, you may decline the resource payment before performing the non-standard cost because energy and power are paid first.
Examples of cards with mandatory non-standard additional costs include Cruel Patron, Sacrifice, and Ekko, Ingenious.
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Written by Christian “Near” Ivicevic.
Last updated on .