Cruel Patron
Cruel Patron is a common-rarity unit card from Riftbound's Origins set. It costs 4 Energy and has 6 Might. It belongs to the Order domain. It has the Noxus tag. It appears in 2.5% of tracked tournament decks whose legend can run it.
4 Energy | 6 Might | Unit | Order | common | Origins
Rules Text
As an additional cost to play me, kill a friendly unit.
Domain: Order
Meta Statistics
Inclusion rate 2.5%. Win rate 40.6% across 27 decks with results.
100% of its tournament decks are Viktor (Herald of the Arcane) decks, so the win rate mostly reflects that legend.
Price
Market price $0.04 on TCGPlayer, updated Sep 15, 2026.
Related FAQ (3)
So what exactly happens when someone plays Promising Future?
Start with the player whose turn it is—probably Promising Future's controller. That player looks at their top 5 cards, banishes one of them, and recycles the other 4. Then each other player in turn order repeats this process. Each player can see which cards the players before them have chosen. Then, starting with the next player in turn order this time, those players put the cards they chose onto the chain as pending items, with the player whose turn it is putting their item on the chain last. Then Promising Future finishes resolving, and the players finish adding their pending items to the chain in the same order they were put there, ignoring Energy costs but still paying Power costs. They must pay mandatory additional costs (like the cost of Cruel Patron), and may choose to pay optional additional costs (like Accelerate). Each card that's a unit or gear resolves immediately, which may cause other things (such as play effects) to be added to the top of the chain as pending items. Any cards that can't be played for any reason remain banished. Once this process is done, any units or gear that were successfully played this way will be on the board, while spells chosen this way will all be on the chain in the same order they were put onto it. (This may result in spells that don't have Action or Reaction being on the chain above other items, which is usually not possible. That's fine.) Then, resolve the chain as normal.
If I play Cruel Patron and kill one of my units for its additional cost, but one of these cards replaces that unit's death, does the cost still count as paid?
Yes. You made the decision to pay the cost and took the action to pay it. What happened after that doesn't matter.
You mentioned rule 187.4.c. earlier and it says "open state", I don't remember that in the old rules. What gives?
Control cannot be lost while items are on the chain per rule 187.4.c. This enables spells and abilities that kill or banish units then play others to the same battlefield. Examples include Cruel Patron killing a Recruit to pay costs, Baited Hook killing units before playing new ones, and Arcane Shift banishing and replaying units.
Tournament Decks
- Viktor — Jon Shircliffe (7W-2L), Riftbound $25,000 Cash Tournament @ Pro-Play Summit: Pittsburgh
Related Cards
- Noxus Hopeful — 4 Energy, Unit
- Darius, Trifarian — 5 Energy, Unit
- Ravenbloom Student — 2 Energy, Unit
- Draven, Vanquisher — 4 Energy, Unit
- Overzealous Fan — 2 Energy, Unit
- Annie, Stubborn — 4 Energy, Unit
- LeBlanc, Fragmented — 3 Energy, Unit
- Black Rose Dignitary — 3 Energy, Unit