What are Battlefields, how they work and how they affect gameplay

Riftbound's gameplay fully revolves around Battlefields, as this is the game's core mechanic. Therefore, in this piece, I will explain exactly what battlefields are, how they relate to your entire deck, and why choosing a specific Battlefield matters.

What are Battlefields?

At the start of a game of Riftbound, you and your opponent present a single Battlefield each. You do so from the pool of three Battlefields that you've brought as part of deck registration. You have to bring 3 unique Battlefields and present a different one every game in a single match.

The moment you start, there will be your and your opponent's battlefield.

Now, the core mechanic of Riftbound is that Battlefields are where points are scored with units. In short, it works as follows:

• If you walk into an empty Battlefield, you conquer it and get 1 point
• If you walk into an occupied Battlefield, there is a combat showdown, and if you win, you get 1 point
• If you start your turn with your units at a Battlefield, you hold it and get 1 point per Battlefield held

The same, naturally, applies to your opponent. The goal of the game is to go from 0 to 8 points, and the 8th point wins the game!

There is a small caveat to the winning 8th point, though. In order to score the winning point, you have to have held any Battlefield or double-conquered both Battlefields in a single turn. In other words, what you cannot do is start the turn with no Battlefields but 7 points and try to conquer one Battlefield to get the 8th point. However, while a single conquer at 7 points won't get you the win, the game will reward you with an extra card drawn for the effort.

Battlefield Abilities

Every Battlefield will have an ability, be it passive, triggered, or activated. While you are going to be well familiar with your own, you alwasy have to double-check the one presented by the opponent!

The abilities vary widely. Let's go through some examples.

Zaun Warrens has a very modest ability to filter cards. You discard and draw. This won't be very synergistic with the deck you play, but it's generically beneficial.

Targon's Peak benefits the player who conquers it by giving them an untap of two Runes at the end of the turn. This is going to benefit the player who will want to hold up some interaction for the opponent's turn. 

Grove of the God-Willow benefits, but not for conquering it, but for holding it, and the payoff is huge, as you get a full free card.

Abandoned Hall doesn't benefit either from conquering or holding. It's a triggered ability that simply affects units there. You can use the ability when fighting for control over this Battlefield by unleashing a flurry of spells and making your unit much bigger than the opponent's.

As you can see, Battlefields have a wide range of when the effects happen, but also what those effects actually are.

How do specific Battlefields affect gameplay?

The presence of a specific Battlefield, or a combination of the two present, is going to affect gameplay greatly. It's going to dictate which units you want to deploy, conquer which battlefields, or potentially focus more on denying the opponent more than you'd normally do. Let's take a look at a specific example of Seat of Power.

Seat of Power allows you to draw a card if you already control the other Battlefield while conquering this one. In other words, you'll typically want to commit to double-conquering in a turn to get the Seat's ability. This promotes potentially a bit more aggressive and dynamic gameplay and less of a holding pattern. On the flip side, though, the opponent is thinking the same thing, so while you want to double-conquer, the opponent might want to deny that by trying to hold one Battlefield, so you never get to double-score. Since, you're drawing a card if you succeed, there are incentives to proactively use your cards, even if at a disadvantage. 

As you can see, the sheer presence of Seat of Power is going to change how you think about the game.

There is one more key aspect of Battlefields, namely choosing one for going first or second

Default, First, and Second Battlefield

When you come with your deck to a Riftbound tournament, you should have a plan not only for which Battlefields you are going to play, but also which is going to be presented game one as your default, which when you go first, and which for going second. This is a big part of both deckbuilding and gameplay, and let's quickly explore why.

Default Battlefields are typically going to be the ones that have a rather minimal impact on the game, benefit a random opponent the least, or benefit you specifically the most. For instance, let's say you play a Lillia - deck based on Temporary units.

The ability allows the controller to kill their own unit to draw a card. Since you play a deck with specifically Temporary units, which are going to die themselves at the start of the turn anyways, you can cash them in for a card before they'd die to their own effect. This benefits you greatly. It also is unlikely to be of particular use to any random opposing deck, since killing your own units is not in the typical range of what one would want to do. Excellent, we've got a very good game one Battlefield!

Go-First Battlefields are supposed to give you the edge when you are the first to conquer it. A good example if the previously mentioned Targon's Peak that lets you untap two and then fight with more Energy available or Seat of Power to be the first one to draw off it.

Go-Second Battlefields are the ones you use when you're going to be a bit on the back foot. These could be Battlefields that promote defensive gameplay or ones that punish the opponent for conquering first and somewhat leave them vulnerable.

If we again go back to the deck based on Temporary units, Black Flame Altar is double-great for you. Not only does it likely benefit you alone, but it also makes your units better in defense.

You could also use Forbidden Wastes, since if the opponent conquers it first, you will have a much easier job re-conquering it thereafter.

When to choose your best Battlefield?

There is one last topic I'd like to delve deeper into and that's when to choose a Battlefield when it's clearly your best one.

Let's imagine a deck based on spells that feels like it could almost not lose when on Abandoned Hall.

The thought process could be as follows:

• I can choose it as the default to have the highest chance of winning the first game and then adjust post-sideboard
• I can choose it as the go-first to have both the advantage of the best Battlefield and going first - in such a configuration, I almost cannot lose
• I can choose it as the go-second as a mitigation tool. Even though the opponent is the one who's starting, I am going to have such a strong Battlefield that it might offset the tempo difference

Depending on how you approach the game and how you want to play around with risk mitigation, you could reasonably decide any of the above! This is a super curious yet delicate dance. You might also change the order of the Battlefields you present based on your specific opponent!

Conclusion

Battlefields are a core part of the gameplay not only because they provide the locations to score points, but also how their abilities affect deckbuilding and in-game decisions. This is a fascinating part of the game of Riftbound!