Card Modifiers
Card modifiers change how a card behaves when drawn, placed, procced, or left in hand. Every card has a modifier (or None as default). Some cards carry multiple modifiers.
This page covers all 15 live modifiers from the card engine.
Active Core Modifiers
Section titled “Active Core Modifiers”These are the primary modifiers used across the live card pool.
Exhaust
Section titled “Exhaust”Card is removed from combat permanently after use.
- Supports burst cards, anti-curse purge, and delayed payoffs that should not loop
- Player-facing meaning: “removed from this combat”
- Used by: Bullet Time, Agni Diksha, Scatter, Betaal’s Wager, and others
Fleeting
Section titled “Fleeting”Card is removed if left unplayed at end of turn.
- Forces tempo and commitment — you play it now or lose it
- Excellent for precision spikes and risky payoff cards
- Used by: Blackened Tongue, Retribution, Prana Siphon, Deluge Protocol
Innate
Section titled “Innate”Card starts in your opening hand.
- Opening-hand guarantee for sustain bridges, setup cards, and identity cards
- Kept rare and deliberate to avoid compressing draw texture
- Used by: Slipping Gaze
Unplayable
Section titled “Unplayable”Prevents manual placement in a slot.
- Core curse/junk modifier — cards clog your hand without acting like normal cards
- Used by: all 8 Dosha curse cards
Locked
Section titled “Locked”Card is committed to its slot and resistant to movement.
- Cannot be overwritten or shuffled out
- Used for Powers that persist on board: Molting Skin, Crimson Bind, Toxic Devotion, Seismic Memory, Terracotta Golem
Dormant
Section titled “Dormant”Setup card that bounces once, then awakens for payoff.
- First time it would proc, the card returns to hand instead
- Second placement delivers the full payoff
- Two visual states: sleeping (dim, muted) and awakened (bright, gold border)
- Used by: Bull Headed, Deceiver’s Bane, Marut’s Decree
Braced
Section titled “Braced”Card grows stronger by surviving turns on the board.
- Accumulates stacking pips each turn it remains slotted
- When it finally procs, the stored value amplifies the effect
- Used by: Steadfast Hold, Naaga’s Patience, Orderly Purge, Venom Ward, Void Anchor
Board & Slot Modifiers
Section titled “Board & Slot Modifiers”These control how cards interact with the slot board.
Rooted
Section titled “Rooted”Success anchors the card on board; failure kills it.
- On successful proc: card stays in its slot
- On failed proc at turn end: card is destroyed
- High-risk, high-reward board commitment
- Used by: Root Network, Aphotic Shield, Quake Stomp
Invade
Section titled “Invade”Card forces itself from hand into a random empty slot.
- Happens automatically at turn start
- Used for generated garbage, curses, and forced-board effects
- Motion should feel coerced, not guided
- Used by: Shell Shock, Vile Blood, Veera Mudra, Undertow Surge
Card intelligently finds the optimal slot.
- Auto-places into the lowest-numbered valid empty slot
- Clean, efficient placement — the card knows where it’s going
- Used by: Tidepool Snare, Monsoon Needles, Naga’s Lash
Populate
Section titled “Populate”Successful proc replicates the card into adjacent empty slots.
- Source card procs normally, then copies fork left and right
- Used by: Meat Grinder, Chakravyuha
Copy & Memory Modifiers
Section titled “Copy & Memory Modifiers”These create card duplication or pattern-matching effects.
Magnetic
Section titled “Magnetic”When drawn, pulls all other Magnetic cards from draw/consumed/exhaust into hand.
- Creates bursty package-draw turns
- Needs deliberate deck-shaping — not sprinkled casually
- Used by: Mark of the Chosen One, Red Maw- Ghost Pepper, Fury Rush, Tremor Sense, Monsoon Pulse
Echoed
Section titled “Echoed”Mirrors the last valid proc pattern in the fight.
- Two states: blank mirror (no source yet) and copied (shows the ProcMode of last proc)
- Updates after each valid proc resolution
- Used by: Tempest Echo, Karmic Retribution
Niche & Legacy Modifiers
Section titled “Niche & Legacy Modifiers”Retain
Section titled “Retain”At end of turn, returns a slotted card to hand.
- Under the rework, the hand already persists by default, so Retain is narrow
- Only used where slot-to-hand recovery is the actual intended signal
- Design-deprecated for new cards; kept for specific recovery postures
- Used by: Despair, Mend, Dharti’s Embrace
Legacy variable-spend modifier.
- No current live cards use it
- Belongs to the pre-rework play-cost model
- Should not be used in new card design unless the energy model is reopened
Modifier Priority
Section titled “Modifier Priority”When a card has multiple modifiers, the highest-priority one dominates the visual read:
- Unplayable
- Dormant
- Locked
- Rooted
- Braced
- Magnetic
- Tuned
- Echoed
- Populate
- Invade
- Fleeting
- Exhaust
- Retain
- Innate
- XCost
Denial and transformed-state modifiers win over utility cues. Stateful board modifiers beat hand-tempo modifiers.
Live Usage Snapshot
Section titled “Live Usage Snapshot”| Modifier | Cards Using |
|---|---|
| Unplayable | 8 (all Dosha curses) |
| Exhaust | 7 |
| Fleeting | 4 |
| Innate | 1 |
| Braced | 5 |
| Locked | 6 |
| Dormant | 3 |
| Rooted | 3 |
| Invade | 4 |
| Tuned | 3 |
| Magnetic | 5 |
| Echoed | 2 |
| Populate | 2 |
| Retain | 3 |
| XCost | 0 |