Sequencing & Timing

The Kinkou four-to-five stack, Legion ordering, ready-effect ordering, what Thrill does and does not carry over, and Brynhir’s reaction window.

Best value line

Kinkou at four other Might

⚠ Positional warningDo not put the +1 on Kinkou. It checks your other units.

01Play Kinkou with four Might across your other unitsOne four-Might unit, or two two-Might units. Either shape works.

02Put Kinkou’s draw trigger on the chain firstBoth triggers are yours, so you choose the order they go on.

03Put the Legend trigger above itAbove means it resolves first.

04Resolve the Legend and give +1 to one of the other unitsTheir total is now five.

05Kinkou resolves and checks the current totalThe condition is part of the effect, not the trigger, so it reads the board as it is now.

Rules noteKinkou checks on resolution, not on trigger. That one ordering turns a three-Might body into a three-Might body and a card.

Strategic purposeA replacement card the deck would otherwise not get, from Might it already had.

Failure conditionsGiving the bonus to Kinkou itself does nothing for a condition about your other units.

From the guide . §10 Sequencing & Timing

Kinkou Initiate: the four-to-five stack

Kinkou draws if your other units total at least five Might. Suppose they currently total four. When Kinkou is played, its play ability triggers and the Legend triggers, you control both, and you choose the order they go on the chain.^◆src

Put Kinkou’s draw trigger on the chain first.
Put the Legend’s +1 above it.
The Legend resolves first.
Give the +1 to one of the other units, taking their total to five.
Kinkou resolves, checks the current total, and draws.

⚠ WarningDo not give the bonus to Kinkou itself. Kinkou checks your other units.

This matters most when you have one four-Might unit, when you have two two-Might units, when a temporary reduction has dropped the board below five, or when you want to save a permanent buff for another battlefield.

Noxus Hopeful

Legion applies once another card has been played that turn. Play the cheapest useful card first, resolve its triggers, then play Hopeful for two less. If the first card was a unit, that is two Legend triggers over the sequence, and both bonuses should be allocated only after the contested battlefield is clear.^◆src

Lead on Hopeful at full price only when the four-Might body is immediately necessary, when there is nothing else to do, when keeping the cheaper card as a reaction is worth more than the two Energy, or when the enabling card would be punished.

First Mate

Play it after the target has exhausted. Attack, move or activate with the valuable unit, then play , ready it, and use it again or keep it back. Playing First Mate while everything is still ready throws the ability away, and you will exhaust the intended unit a moment later.

Twilight Reveler

Twilight has to attack to trigger. Use the high-value unit first, attack with Twilight, ready the used unit, then reassign that body. Do not attack before you have identified the target: the trigger cannot be banked.^◆src

Thrill of the Hunt

Thrill banishes the unit before replaying it. Moving through a non-board zone makes it a new game object, so damage, temporary Might, Stunned status and other object-specific modifications do not carry over unless something explicitly says so.^◆src

It can heal a damaged unit by replaying it fresh.
It removes negative temporary modifications, and clears Stun.
It reuses a play ability and generates another Legend trigger.
It repositions the unit to any battlefield.

The costs are symmetrical: temporary positive bonuses are lost, buffs on that unit are lost, the unit leaves its battlefield during resolution, a Showdown can change completely, and the opponent can react before Thrill resolves.

Rules noteAccelerate is an optional additional cost. Ignoring a unit’s normal cost does not grant it. Pay Accelerate during finalisation and the unit enters ready; skip it and it enters exhausted.^◆src

Falling Star

The current wording is two sequential instructions, each dealing three damage to a unit, with all targets chosen up front. The same or different units may be chosen.^◆src

So it can deal six to one unit or three to each of two, damage prevention may affect one or both instances, and choosing the same Deflect unit twice means paying the Deflect additional cost for each time it is chosen. The opponent reacts before either instruction resolves.^◆src

⚠ WarningDo not represent as a flexible reaction if you cannot pay all the relevant Power and Deflect costs.

Brynhir Thundersong

Brynhir’s play ability stops opponents playing cards for the rest of the turn, and the protection does not exist merely because Brynhir has been announced. Play Brynhir, let them react, resolve the ability, and only then execute the protected sequence.^◆src

Pilot noteBrynhir is the first completed action of a decisive turn, not the last unit played after all the relevant interaction has already happened.