Prevent — Riftbound Rules

437.1.

Preventing damage is the act of reducing the Damage a set of game objects would take.

437.1.a.

Prevent is an action that interacts with Damage.

437.1.b.

Prevent appears in statements that define an amount of damage and the source of the damage it will affect, as well as the timespan it will be relevant for.

437.1.b.1.

Prevent actions are usually formatted as “Prevent the next X [source] damage that would be dealt to a [unit] this turn.”

437.1.b.1.a.

The X is referred to as the Prevent Value.

437.1.b.1.b.

X can be “All,” which specifies an infinite amount of damage.

437.1.b.2.

Prevent will always apply to the next damage that would be dealt to a unit affected by the Prevent action.

437.2.

When damage is Prevented, it is replaced with an event where it deals that much damage reduced by the Prevent Value tracked on the Unit specifically.

437.2.a.

The damage being dealt as a result of Preventing can never be less than 0, but can be 0. This is equivalent to not dealing damage.

437.3.

When damage is dealt this way, reduce the Prevent Value being tracked on the Unit affected by the Prevent action by the prevented amount.

437.3.a.

If the Prevent Value is 0 or less, then Prevent is no longer being tracked on the Unit in question, and the effect expires.

437.3.b.

The reduced value is the newly tracked Prevent Value.

437.3.c.

If the Prevent Value is “All” then it remains “All.”

437.4.

Damage dealt to a Unit that has that all of that damage Prevented is not considered to have been dealt to it at all.

437.5.

Damage can still be assigned to Units in combat that are affected by Prevent. The damage dealt as a result of that assignment will be affected by the Prevent action.

437.5.a.

Damage can be assigned to a Unit up to a value that would be Lethal considering the Prevent Value of all Prevent Actions on a Unit. Example: A unit with 2 [M] is being assigned damage in the combat damage step. The unit has “prevent the first 3 damage I would take each combat.” The unit would need to be assigned 5 damage in order to have lethal damage assigned to it.

437.5.b.

No amount of damage is ever considered lethal if the Prevent Value is “All.”

437.6.

Prevent is a Limited Action.

437.6.a.

Players may only Prevent Damage when directed to by Game Effects.

437.7.

Prevent is a Delayed Replacement Effect. See rule 367. Replacement Effects for more information. See rule 389. Delayed Abilities for more information.

Related FAQ (1)

What happens if I use an effect like Unlicensed Armory to prevent the death of the friendly unit I chose to kill with Baited Hook?

Baited Hook kills a unit, then uses information about “the killed unit." If you prevent that unit's death, there's no killed unit, so Baited Hook can't evaluate its Might. As a result, the check for the Might of the “killed unit" returns a null value, and you're not able to play any unit. If the unit is killed before the ability of Baited Hook resolves, the outcome is the same.