Hidden
Unofficial answers about the Hidden mechanic in Riftbound, with examples and Core Rules citations.
If an effect lets or instructs me to play a card with Hidden, does that let me hide it instead?
No. Hiding is a separate action, not a type of playing, so permission to play a card does not grant permission to hide it and hiding does not fulfill an instruction to play. The normal Hidden permission allows you to hide a card only from your hand or champion zone. For example, Void Burrower lets you play a card from banishment and Endless Riches lets you play cards from your trash, but neither permission lets you hide those cards from those zones.
What costs do I pay when I play a card from face down?
Playing a card from face down ignores only its base cost, so mandatory additional costs, any optional additional costs you choose, and cost increases still apply. Applicable discounts are applied afterward and can reduce additional costs, including to zero.
Pyke, Dockside Butcher's optional ![[Fury]](/images/symbols/runes/fury.svg)
additional cost still adds to his total cost if you choose to pay it while playing him from face down.
An opponent's Helm of Suppression and Vex, Cheerless instead impose cost increases on spells played from face down.
Helm adds 1, or 1![[Power]](/images/symbols/runes/rainbow.svg)
while Empowered.
Vex adds 1 while she is in combat.
If I play a spell from face down, where can I choose its targets?
Each target must be chosen from among options at the battlefield where the spell was hidden unless the spell's own targeting restriction makes choosing that target there impossible. If the spell cannot make valid choices for every required target under these restrictions, you cannot play it from face down.
If I play a permanent from face down, where can its play effect choose targets?
The play effect must follow Hidden's targeting restriction: you must choose each target from among options at the battlefield the permanent was played to, even if that differs from where it was hidden, unless the ability's own targeting restriction makes choosing that target there impossible.
Bedeviling Stranger targets both the battlefield it tells you to choose and the enemy unit mentioned in its later return instruction. Both targets are chosen during finalization, even though its controller decides whether to return the enemy unit during resolution. For Bedeviling Stranger, both targets must be at the battlefield it was played to, and the battlefield itself is a game object at that location. If no legal enemy unit is there, its pending play effect is removed from the chain without finalizing. When you choose a unit for Kennen, Keeper of Balance or Windsinger, that unit is a target. For Kennen and Windsinger, you can target only eligible units at the battlefield they were played to.
What happens to the targets of a finalized play effect when a Reaction makes its source leave the board after being played from face down?
The finalized play effect still resolves, but each target whose legality depends on Hidden's played-to-battlefield restriction becomes illegal because the missing source can no longer identify that battlefield, so instructions related to those targets are ignored. A finalized ability remains on the chain after its source leaves. A target choice does not change after finalization unless a spell or ability instructs a player to make new choices. Instead, the ability rechecks whether the same targets still meet every targeting restriction when it resolves. A permanent played from face down supplies the battlefield information needed to apply the play effect's targeting restriction. Targets exempt from that restriction because of the ability's own targeting restrictions do not become illegal solely because the source leaves the board.
Example
An opponent responds to Kennen, Keeper of Balance's finalized play effect with Gust. Gust resolves first. It returns Kennen to its owner's hand. Kennen's play effect still resolves, but its Stun instruction is ignored and the chosen unit is not stunned.
If a card I played from face down causes me to play a unit, where can I play that unit?
You must play the unit at the battlefield where the spell was hidden or, for a permanent's play effect, where that permanent was played. For example, when you play Guards! from face down, you must play the Sand Soldier unit token at the battlefield where Guards! was hidden.
What happens to extra hidden cards when Green Father replaces Bandle Tree with a Brush token or Bushwhack Trap is killed?
If the facedown zone contains more cards than it can hold after Green Father replaces Bandle Tree with a Brush token or Bushwhack Trap is killed, the zone's controller puts a number of cards equal to the excess into the trash. If the maximum falls from two cards to one while two cards are there, that player puts one of them into the trash.
If my last unit leaves a battlefield while a chain is in progress, is my hidden card there put into the trash immediately?
No. While an item remains on the chain, cleanup does not make you lose control of the battlefield solely because you have no units there, so the hidden card remains. Removing the final chain item causes another cleanup. If nothing remains on the chain, you still have no units at the battlefield, and no combat or showdown is ongoing there, you lose control during that cleanup and the hidden card is put into its owner's trash.
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Written by Christian “Near” Ivicevic.
Last updated on .