Highlander
Highlander is an epic-rarity spell card from Riftbound's Proving Grounds set. It costs 4 Energy. It belongs to the Calm and Body domains. It has the Master Yi tag. It has the Reaction keyword.
4 Energy | Spell | Calm, Body | epic | Proving Grounds
Rules Text
[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn, heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)
Keywords
Errata
- Errata 2025-10-21 (Origins): the text now reads “[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn, heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)”. It previously read “[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a friendly unit. The next time it dies this turn, recall it exhausted instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)”.
Meta Statistics
Inclusion rate 0.4%.
Price
Market price $0.86 on TCGPlayer, updated Sep 15, 2026.
Related FAQ (2)
When I replace a unit's death with a card like Unlicensed Armory, does damage on the unit stay? If the unit died to lethal damage, doesn't it just die again?
The intent behind these four cards is to save your unit from dying, whether it died due to direct kill like Hidden Blade or due to lethal damage. To better communicate this, these cards will receive updated wordings. Two of them, Highlander (from the Proving Grounds boxed set) and Unlicensed Armory, have straightforward fixes, adding “heal" and listing “exhaust" and “recall" as separate actions. Choose a friendly unit. The next time it dies this turn, heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.) Discard 1, (E) Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn, you may pay (C) to heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.) Zhonya's Hourglass also has a slightly updated wording making it clearer that its ability applies any time a friendly unit dies, not just on the turn you play it. If a friendly unit would die, kill this instead. Heal that unit, exhaust it, and recall it. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.) The Boss was mistakenly worded like a triggered ability. It's receiving updated wording to make it clear that its ability is a replacement effect.
Can I use these cards to save a unit that's already in its base? What about one that's already exhausted? If I can't recall it, do I still exhaust it?
Yes. You can save any unit that meets the description in the replacement ability's condition. For Highlander and Unlicensed Armory, that's any friendly unit. The actions you perform on that unit as a replacement are like the effects of a spell or ability; you'll do as much as you can: heal the unit (if it's damaged), exhaust it (if it's ready), and recall it (if it's somewhere other than its base). And yes, you exhaust the unit even if you don't recall it; as per the above wordings, we've changed the “recall it exhausted" language to make that clearer.
Tournament Decks
- Master Yi — Mehdi Tahiri (1W-4L), Riftbound Remote Showdown #3
Related Cards
- Defy — 1 Energy, Spell
- Discipline — 2 Energy, Spell
- Stupefy — 1 Energy, Spell
- Defiant Dance — 1 Energy, Spell
- En Garde — 1 Energy, Spell
- Gust — 1 Energy, Spell
- Spinning Axe — 2 Energy, Gear
- Thrill of the Hunt — 2 Energy, Spell