Riftbound Radiance New Mechanics: Deploy, Disarm, and Show Off
Radiance introduces three new mechanics: Deploy, Disarm, and Show Off. Let's dive into what they do, what rules govern them, and which exemplary cards depict them.
Deploy
Deploy is a keyword that you'll find on Gears, or on other card types that will create Deploy gears. As per the official patch notes:
'Gear with Deploy can be played to any battlefield; enemy occupied, friendly, or uncontrolled. However, when an opponent holds a battlefield where you have gear with Deploy, those gear will be killed.'
Therefore, the gist of it is that you want to play some piece of Gear that alters how a certain battlefield plays out and as long as you prevent your opponent from holding, the effect will remain. However, should the opponent hold, you're not only in a bad spot strategically, but you also lose a card you'd spent resources on.
As an example, you can play Blossoming Dreamroot to a battlefield where the opponent is currently at, get into combat, overwhelm the opponent's forces, conquer - and draw a card from Dreamroot while you're at it. Now the opponent has to re-conquer and then hold to get rid of the Dreamroot.
There is also a unique effect in Command: Attack, whose one of the modes allows you to move a friendly gear with Deploy to a different battlefield! Bear in mind though that it's slow speed, so it won't allow you any mid-showdown shenanigans.
Disarm
Disarm is an attack trigger that will appear on cards in the form of either Disarm or Disarm N. The first time a unit with Disarm attacks each combat, they will give an enemy unit at their battlefield -1 Might this turn. If a unit has Disarm N, they’ll give an enemy unit -N Might this turn. In Radiance, cards have either Disarm or Disarm 2. There are 9 total cards with the keyword in the set: five blue, three purple, and just one green.
It's worth mentioning that multiple instances of Disarm will add up to the sum of their values. For instance, if you have three Clanging Sentries, each Mech will now have Disarm 3, one for each Sentry. The fact that it's the total sum of values rather than individual instances matters a lot in practice. Disarm 3 means that a single opponent's unit will get -3 Might. However, if it were three separate instances of Disarm, you could choose a different creature every time for the -1, or still the same one to get -1 three times. Therefore, it's a bit inflexible and it's crucial to remember.
Show Off
Show Off is a keyword appearing on units and spells, and there is exactly one card per colour, totalling 6. As the rules state:
'When you Show Off something, you reveal a card from your hand that matches the requirement, or pick a friendly game object (card or token) on the board with the appropriate characteristics'
Sometimes the card with Show Off would meet its own requirement, like Gutter Guardian and cards with Hidden. However, the reminder text in the brackets will inform you on this and other Show Off cards that you will have to pick another card that matches the required characteristics.
Conclusion
This concludes this mechanics piece. If you want to stay up to date with the news from the Riftbound world, make sure to check out the blog regularly!