Empowered — Riftbound Rules

828.1.

Empowered is a Dependent Keyword.

828.1.a.

It is formatted as “[Empowered][>] [Text].”

828.1.b.

Starting from the keyword to the end of the clause, the entire statement is the Empowered Ability.

828.1.b.1.

It is functionally short for “While I have the Empowered status, this card gains ‘[Text]’.”

828.1.b.2.

The [Text] here is the Dependent Ability.

828.1.c.

As long as the Game Object has the Empowered status, then the Dependent Ability will be active.

828.1.d.

If the Dependent Ability is a Triggered Ability whose condition is “When I become Empowered,” or a permutation thereof, it will be active and trigger when its source becomes Empowered.

828.2.

Empowered and whether or not a card has an Empowered Ability is a characteristic of the card that may be checked or referenced by other Game Effects.

Related FAQ (10)

What happens when I play Moonfall choosing an enemy unit while I control an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened?

The chosen unit is given -3 Might; all other enemy units at the battlefield get -2 Might. Mel's empowered ability is a replacement effect that applies only to the event of a unit your spell or ability chooses being given -Might. Moonfall chooses only one unit, so only that unit's event is replaced.

What about casting Stupefy while I have an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened?

The chosen unit is given -2 Might, to a minimum of 1 Might. A replacement effect that replaces an event inherits any modifications the generating effect put on that event — Stupefy's "to a minimum of 1 [M]" carries over to the replaced -2 Might event.

Can my opponent play Abandon on my spell while I control an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened? What happens?

They can play it, but on resolution they Predict and nothing else happens. Mel says your spells and abilities can't be countered, so Abandon's counter fails; the event of the spell going to the Trash never occurs, so Abandon's replacement (return it to hand) has nothing to replace. The replacement only functions during Abandon's resolution, so when the spell resolves later it goes to the Trash as normal.

If I cast a spell while having an empowered Mel, Newly Awakened, can my opponent still Rebuttal it?

Yes. Gaining control of a spell is not countering it — effects that prevent spells from being countered don't prevent their controller from changing. If they pay the additional cost on Rebuttal's resolution, they gain control of your spell.

What happens if I choose to copy an empowered unit when I equip an unempowered unit with Shady Spectacles?

The equipped unit remains unempowered. Copy effects copy printed (or already-copied) traits; empowered is a status — a temporary modification — and isn't copyable. Temporary modifications already on the equipped unit (Might changes, buffs, statuses, attacker/defender, etc.) also remain in place.

If I disempower a Kayle, Justified who has been empowered 3 times, does she lose all of her empowered statuses?

No — she loses one. For every card other than Kayle, empowered is binary, but Kayle's text supersedes the rules and lets her stack up to 3 empowered statuses; disempower removes one at a time. Her empower ability can also be activated while she's already empowered — at 3 statuses it can still be activated, it just does nothing on resolution.

What happens when my opponent plays Switcheroo on their 2 Might unit and my empowered Gangplank, Naval?

A swap calculates the Might difference first, then generates an increase and a decrease. Gangplank's replacement effect replaces the event of him being given -Might with +3 Might this turn instead; the other unit's increase is unaffected. With a 2 Might unit and a 6 Might Gangplank, the results are 2 → 6 and 6 → 9. The same logic applies to Mel, Newly Awakened and Switcheroo.

Does Blast Cone stun my empowered Gangplank, Naval? What if I then play Back Off choosing him?

Blast Cone stuns him — its stun trigger doesn't choose units, so Gangplank's replacement effect can't apply. Back Off on an already-stunned Gangplank doesn't perform the stun game action at all (the instruction is negated), so there's no event for his replacement effect to replace and he doesn't get +3 Might. Likewise, under a "friendly units can't be stunned" effect, a stun choosing Gangplank generates no event to replace.

What happens if I play Stupefy on my 1 Might empowered Gangplank, Naval? Will he get +3 Might this turn?

He will not. Stupefy on a 1 Might unit gives -0 Might — the amount is snapshotted — so the event of him being given -Might never occurs, and Gangplank's replacement effect has nothing to replace.

Can an empowered Heimerdinger, Inventor use Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow's exhaust ability if Jayce isn't empowered?

Yes, as long as Heimerdinger himself is empowered. A dependent keyword like [Empowered][>] is one whole ability including its condition, and a dependent ability still exists and can be referenced while its condition isn't met (rule 727.1.b.1). Heimerdinger gains the entire line — condition and all — and what matters when activating it is whether its new source, Heimerdinger, is empowered.