Riftbound Radiance rules FAQ: Gravity Field, Baron Nashor, Kharox and every ruling explained /

By Ron Cruz · Published October 27, 2026

Riot posted its Radiance Rules FAQ and Clarifications on October 26, a set of official rulings on Radiance interactions. Where the FAQ and the Core Rules disagree, the FAQ wins until Riot releases a new Core Rules document.

The big ones: you can’t start a Standard Move you can’t pay for, Gravity Field’s tax depends on who is told to move the unit, and Baron Nashor enters ready if you play him while Riven’s Legend is out. Here’s every ruling, card by card.

Gravity Field’s tax depends on who moves the unit

Gravity Field

Gear · Mind · 5 energy and 1 power · Rare · RAD 062/167

Gravity Field is a Deploy gear, so you play it to a battlefield instead of your base. While it’s there, opponents must pay 1 energy and 1 power of any domain to move one or more units to that battlefield.

You can’t start a Standard Move you won’t pay for. A Standard Move is the normal way to move a unit: you exhaust it to move it. If you start one to a battlefield with your opponent’s Gravity Field and then decline the tax, the whole move is undone, so your unit isn’t exhausted. Riot spelled out the rule for every Standard Move: you can’t start one if the move isn’t possible or you can’t pay its costs, and if a cost goes unpaid, everything you did as part of it is undone.

Charm doesn’t trigger the tax on your own Gravity Field. Charm says “Move an enemy unit.” When you Charm an enemy unit to a battlefield where you control Gravity Field, nobody pays, because you’re the one moving it, not your opponent. Flip it around: if your opponent controls the Gravity Field, you pay the 1 energy and 1 power to Charm their unit there.

Angler Wyrm makes your opponent move, and pay

Angler Wyrm

Unit · Chaos · 8 energy · 8 Might · Epic · RAD 113/167

Angler Wyrm’s ability reads: “Exhaust: Choose an opponent. They must move a unit they control to my battlefield.”

Gravity Field: your opponent is the one moving, so if the Wyrm’s battlefield has a Gravity Field that taxes them, they have to pay. If they choose not to pay or can’t, the unit doesn’t move.

Hunker Down: Hunker Down readies a friendly unit, and that unit can’t move this turn. If your opponent plays it on one of their units in response to the Wyrm, they can’t name that unit to satisfy the Wyrm. When they have units that can move, they have to move one of those. Only if none of their units can move does the Wyrm’s instruction do nothing.

Baron Nashor costs less at Hunters’ Circle and enters ready with Riven’s Legend

Baron Nashor

Unit · Chaos · 10 energy and 3 power · 12 Might · Epic · UNL 147/219

When you play Baron Nashor and there’s no Baron Pit on the board, he adds the Baron Pit, a battlefield token, and enters there instead of where you played him.

Hunters’ Circle still takes 1 energy off. Hunters’ Circle is a battlefield that makes the first unit or gear each player plays there on their turn cost 1 energy less. If you control it and play Baron Nashor there with no Baron Pit on the board, he costs 9 energy and 3 Chaos power. The discount applies when you choose where to play him and add up his cost. Moving him to the Baron Pit happens later, as he enters, after the cost is paid.

Riven’s Legend makes him enter ready. With The Exile, Riven’s Legend, units you play to a battlefield you control enter ready. If you play Baron Nashor to a battlefield you control with no Baron Pit on the board, both effects apply: he enters ready, at the Baron Pit. The order they apply in doesn’t matter.

Riven, Broken Blade spends her buff when the ability resolves

Riven, Broken Blade

Champion Unit · Calm · 4 energy · 4 Might · Rare · RAD 043/167

When Riven, Broken Blade becomes exhausted, you choose one option that hasn’t been chosen this turn: buff her (a +1 Might buff if she doesn’t have one), spend her buff to stun an enemy unit, or spend her buff to ready her. You spend the buff when the ability resolves, not when it goes on the chain, so the buff has to still be there at that point. The ability starts with “choose one,” not a cost, so spending the buff is part of its effect.

If you Standard Move Riven and a Stellacorn Herder together, Riven’s exhaust trigger goes on the chain before the Herder’s “When I move, draw 1” trigger, because exhausting is the cost of the move and happens first.

Iron Revenant can pay for Meticulous Restorationist, but not with Atakhan’s kill

Iron Revenant

Legend · Fury and Order · Rare · RAD 143/167

Mordekaiser’s Legend has an ability: banish a unit or gear from your trash and exhaust the Legend to add 1 power of any domain. That power can only be spent to play units or gear.

Meticulous Restorationist: yes. Meticulous Restorationist can be played from your trash for 1 Order power when you play a card that costs 7 energy or more. That’s an alternate cost replacing its normal one, and it’s still a unit, so Iron Revenant’s power can pay it.

Atakhan’s kill: no. Atakhan lets you kill a friendly unit as an extra cost to make him cheaper. You can’t banish that unit with Iron Revenant to help pay Atakhan’s power cost. You pay energy and power before “non-standard” costs like Atakhan’s kill, so while you’re paying the power, that unit isn’t dead yet and isn’t in your trash.

Runeblade Anvil’s card stays playable until your next Ending Phase begins

Runeblade Anvil

Gear · Fury · 1 energy · Uncommon · RAD 012/167

When you play Runeblade Anvil or it leaves the board, you banish the top card of your Main Deck and can play it “until your next Ending Phase.” Riot says the permission lasts until that Ending Phase begins. Its examples are about killing the Anvil:

• Killed on your opponent’s turn: you can play the card until the Ending Phase of your next turn begins.
• Killed on your own turn: you can play it for the rest of that turn, up to the start of that turn’s Ending Phase, but not during it.
• Killed during your own Ending Phase: you can play it until the Ending Phase of your next turn begins.

Seraphic Wyvern’s extra rune doesn’t make Mobilize draw

Seraphic Wyvern

Unit · Body · 7 energy · 7 Might · Epic · RAD 092/167

Seraphic Wyvern reads: “If you would channel runes, channel that many runes plus 1 exhausted rune instead.”

Mobilize says “Channel 1 rune exhausted. If you can’t, draw 1.” If you play it with one rune left in your Rune Deck while you control the Wyvern, you channel that rune and don’t draw. The Wyvern’s extra rune can’t be channeled, but that doesn’t count as Mobilize failing to channel. Mobilize only checks its own rune, and that one was channeled.

Catalyst of Aeons (“Channel 2 runes exhausted. If you couldn’t channel 2 runes this way, draw 1.”) works the same way. With two runes left, you channel both and don’t draw.

Kharox can’t hand your opponent your Neeko’s Legends

Kharox

Unit · Chaos · 6 energy · 5 Might · Epic · VEN 114/166

When Kharox becomes Empowered, its controller chooses an opponent, who Burns 3 (puts the top 3 cards of their Main Deck into their trash). Then Kharox’s controller may play a unit from that opponent’s trash, ignoring its cost.

Neeko, Blending In lets you choose up to three extra Legends when you build your deck. When you play her, you add one of them to your Legend Zone. If your opponent’s Kharox plays your Neeko from your trash, they don’t get any of the Legends you chose. If their own deck has a Neeko, in the Main Deck or the sideboard, they can add one of the Legends they chose when they built their deck. If it doesn’t, that part of Neeko does nothing.

Possession can take Ekko, and he comes back under your control

Ekko, Revolutionary

Champion Unit · Fury · 5 energy and 1 power · 4 Might · Epic · RAD 021/167

Possession takes control of an enemy unit at a battlefield and sends it to your base. If you take your opponent’s Ekko, Revolutionary this way, you can use his ability: discard 1 and pay 1 energy and 1 Fury power to banish him, then play him to your base, ignoring his cost. He comes back under your control.