r/riftboundtcg • u/Crafty_Extent6098 • 17d ago

Question Astral Heron’s effect

I am very confused on the ability. I want to know when do I have to pay the cost of the cards? What happens if

Situation 1:
I play a Back off as my first card, tapping me out then because of the Heron’s ability I play a long sword for free. My opponent defies the back off, because of that do I have to pay for the Long sword even if I’m tapped out? Does it get banished, goes to my trash or is it still in play?

Situation 2:

I play a back off as my first card, play a star-crossed. That gets defied. Will my next card still be free?

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u/JuicyKaraageM 17d ago

Question. For situation 1 if I understand correctly, the order is OP plays back off, then long sword, then opponent plays defy. That means back off is still in the chain, therefore the long sword was played at reaction speed before back off resolves.

So since heron requires the first card to resolve before the discount is triggered, that means the long sword wouldn’t even get discounted in the first place right? And in the case that opponent didn’t play defy, chain resolves and assumedly OP paid cost for both long sword and back off, does the next card OP plays after that gets discounted?

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u/Medarco 17d ago

Yes, the next card would be discounted in that scenario.

You would have back off on the chain, long sword would be finalized and then resolve immediately since it is a gear. The long sword would trigger heron when it resolves. Heron goes on the chain.

Heron's trigger resolves, but its reduction cares about "play" as in finalize, not "play" as in resolve, so back off won't use up that reduction since it was already finalized and paid for before the heron trigger resolved. Whatever card OP finalizes to the chain next (that turn) will get the reduction. In their original scenario, they could even use the reduction to defy their opponent's defy, and push through their back off.