Q3 2026 Rules Update
It’s rules time, fellow Warlords!
We have another quarter of simple updates! There are a few to highlight, though none are particularly impactful. Most are just clarifications brought about by common rules questions.
As always, you can find the Warlord Rules page with the the rules and changelogs here.
510.17. “If you are instructed to rip a card in half as a cost for performing an action, that card is not ripped in half, but is instead banished.”
This first update is the only one this quarter that is a true “change”, though in game play not much is changing.
510.17 has been changed to reflect that cards that instruct you to rip them in half are instead banished. The only cards that this would currently apply to are Limited Wish and Phoenix Feather. As these have been banned in Ancients for a few years now and are only legal in Alliance, the previous wording of rule 510.17 that the card was sent to your collection tended to play out in the same manner as banishing the card would. As we approach a time where we are reprinting cards for Alliance and considering what a more structured multi-game Alliance event might look like, the possibility of removing a card from your deck “for the remainder of an event” is not something that sits well with us or most players and judges. It adds an unnecessary level of complication to events to track a card from a registered decklist not actually being in the deck. As “banish” is essentially a cleaner version of sending a card to your collection, the adjustment felt natural to the team.
302.7.4 “If a character has a special ability that allows it to equip more than one item with a certain equip location (such as Dual Wield, allowing a character to equip two Weapons), and the already have the maximum number of items they are allowed in that equip location, then equipping a new item only causes one of the equipped items with that equip location to be destroyed, with the destroyed item being chosen by the character’s controller. Conversely, if a character is allowed more than one item in a particular equip location (such as through Dual Wield), this is not an option, and there is no opportunity to destroy one of the equipped items if they are not beyond the maximum number in that particular equip location.”
The next adjustment to highlight relates to equipping multiple items in the same equip location, which most often comes up with Dual Wield.
The addition of 302.7.4, pulling some of the text from 302.7, was added to help relay that Dual Wield and other similar effects are not optional. This came up in response to questions related to Nightfire Manacles. If, for example, a character had Revenger equipped, giving them Dual Wield, and no other Weapon or Shield, could the character choose to destroy a Nightfire Manacles if it is equipped to them. The short answer is no. If a character is not beyond the maximum number it can have in a particular equip location there is no opportunity for something, in this case Nightfire Manacles, to be destroyed. The character with the Revenger equipped would be forced to keep the Nightfire Manacles and could not equip any further Weapons due to the Cursed keyword.
401.6.1 "If you have an illegal rank, you must adjust your formation by having characters “fall forward.” Fixing an illegal rank in this way happens as soon as you have one, and interrupts the normal sequence of play. It takes place before any other action or effect, including the next step in a multi-step action, and is not an action itself.”
401.6.1.1 “As an exception, when falling forward triggers a React (see rule 508), you perform the React before fixing any other illegal ranks. Similarly, if falling forward would generate or cause an ongoing or static effect to happen, that ongoing or static effect happens before fixing any other illegal ranks.”
Next we want to highlight a longstanding rule that needed a quick addition in relation to effects that happen alongside movement in conjunction with fixing illegal ranks.
Some players from the before times may recall when a ruling similar to 401.6.1.1 was first made, a direct response to some clever players putting Amulet of Waking on Laird Jon Hawthorne, using something like The Better Part of Valor to move him back millions of ranks, then falling forward and reacting to all of those movements once the illegal ranks were all corrected. As movement triggers have the potential to cause problems in this regard, a rule was needed to account for what would happen in these cases. Enter Rule 401.6.1.1, which makes players react to the movement of falling forward before falling again.
It was recently discovered that 401.6.1.1 had a flaw in that it did not also cover ongoing or static effects which might trigger in response to those movements. In particular, Crushing Weight generates and ongoing effect that causes characters in the rank in front of a character to need to succeed with a DC save or suffer a wound after they move forward. As the first rank of formations are “in front” of each other this means that when a character with Crushing Weight moves into the first rank that characters controller will get to choose a character in an opposing first rank to make the DC 16. Without 401.6.1.1 to clarify that these check need to happen before falling forward again this would mean that a player could use Crushing Weight on their own character, then using something like Blink to move that character back millions of ranks, fall them forward, then start checks on their own characters before eventually falling to their front rank and forcing the remainder of the checks onto their opponent.
As that sort of interaction is what 401.6.1.1 is intended to prevent, we wanted to make sure it included those sorts of ongoing or static effects as well as Reacts.
401.19 “Some actions or effects, such as maneuvering (see rule 507.5), may allow you to move and change your position within a rank. Unless this is an effect to rearrange (see rule 401.17) or the effect states otherwise, this change in position counts as movement. A character may not change positions within their rank if they are the only character in the rank as there is no other position to move to.”
The final update we want to highlight is related to changing positions within a rank.
The base rules of the game have always allowed for a character to move to a different position within their rank through a card effect or maneuver. Likewise, it has always been ruled impossible for the lone character in a rank to move to a different position within their rank, but it was never spelled out before. Now with 401.19 we have something solid to point to in order to clear up questions related to cards like Dupe or Tunnel Worm, when those effects can be used, and how they relate to cards like Alrayn Gaunt.
That brings us to the end of our Q3 2026 Rules Updates!
If you’d like to view those or any of the other changes this quarter please take a look at the Comprehensive Rules Changelog here and Tournament and Events Rules changelog here. As a further reminder, if you have a rules question please reach out using the “Ask a Rules Question” link on the Rules Page.
