Elder Dragon
Unofficial Riftbound rulings for Elder Dragon, with rules explanations, examples, and Core Rules citations.
Does damage from earlier in the turn become lethal when Elder Dragon enters, and can I react?
Damage still marked by Elder Dragon's controller becomes lethal to enemy units when Elder Dragon enters, and opponents cannot react after it enters before those units are killed in the resulting cleanup. Elder Dragon's "your damage" means damage marked by its controller. Its first ability is a passive statement that changes the lethal-damage value for those enemy units while Elder Dragon is on the board.
Finalizing a unit does not pass priority, and the unit resolves immediately. After Elder Dragon enters, a cleanup happens without passing or awarding priority, and every unit with lethal damage is killed. Elder Dragon's separate "When you play me" ability is a triggered play effect, but it does not create a response window before this lethal-damage check.
Example
You play Flurry of Blades during your turn, and its 1 damage remains marked on enemy units at battlefields. When you later play Elder Dragon directly, each of those units is killed in the cleanup caused by Elder Dragon entering before your opponents can react.
The same result occurs if Dazzling Aurora plays Elder Dragon at the end of your turn. End-of-turn abilities happen in the Ending Step, before the Expiration Step's special cleanup heals all units, so reaching the end of the turn has not itself healed Flurry of Blades' damage yet. Opponents may react while Dazzling Aurora's triggered ability waits to resolve. Once that ability begins resolving and reveals Elder Dragon, no new priority window opens before Elder Dragon enters and the affected units are killed.
Does Elder Dragon's play effect finalize if its passive leaves no enemy units to target?
Yes. The words "up to" allow Elder Dragon's controller to choose zero targets. Because the ability does not begin with "you may," its controller cannot decline to perform it, so the play effect finalizes even when no enemy units remain.
After Elder Dragon enters, its play effect is added to the chain before the resulting cleanup. Elder Dragon's passive ability makes its controller's marked damage on enemy units lethal, so that cleanup may kill an opponent's last units. The pending play effect remains on the chain throughout the cleanup, so the opponent retains control of their empty battlefields and their Hidden cards remain there. After the play effect finalizes with zero targets, the opponent may play an eligible card from Hidden as a Reaction before the effect resolves. When the effect resolves with no targets, it simply does nothing.
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Written by Christian “Near” Ivicevic.
Last updated on .