Leaves Play

When a card that is in play leaves play (is returned to hand or deck, destroyed, discarded, archived, or purged), all non-Æmber tokens and status cards on the card are removed, all upgrades on the card are discarded, and all lasting effects applied to the card expire.

When a card moves from an in–play zone to an out-of-play zone in which the identities of cards are hidden from the opponent (such as a player’s hand, deck, or archives), any pending effects that are currently or about to interact with that card no longer do so, unless a card effect explicitly states that it interacts with that zone.

When a creature with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is placed in the opponent’s Æmber pool. If a non-creature card with Æmber on it leaves play, the Æmber is returned to the general token pool.

When a card leaves play it is always put into its owner’s appropriate out-of-play zone, unless a card effect explicitly states that it interacts with that zone.

If cards leave play while resolving an ability, later instructions in the same ability refer to the cards as they were immediately prior to leaving play.

Example: Code Monkey (WC 147) has the text: "Play: Archive each neighboring creature. If those creatures share a house, gain 2 ." If one of the archived cards was affected by an effect that changed which house it belonged to, then the second part of Code Monkey's ability refers to the houses to which those cards belonged immediately before being archived.

Related Topics: Out-of-Play Zones

—KeyForge Master Rulebook v17.3 March 2024

Rulings

• I have Gebuk (WC 373) in my battleline. On my opponent’s turn, Gebuk is destroyed. Gebuk’s “Destroyed:” ability is resolved and I discard Spartasaur (WC 231), a creature. Are “After Gebuk Leaves Play” and “After a friendly creature is destroyed” in the same window of the Timing Chart? If so, does Spartasaur’s ability resolve when Gebuk leaves play or can the active player order it so that Spartasaur’s ability will not resolve?
  Spartasaur’s ability and Gebuk’s ability resolve in the same timing window, the “after a creature is destroyed” window. However, Spartasaur is not in play at the time Gebuk leaves play, and therefore Spartasaur’s ability will not resolve due to Gebuk being destroyed.

  Source: Rulebook

I have Gebuk (WC 373) in my battleline. On my opponent’s turn, Gebuk is destroyed. Gebuk’s “Destroyed:” ability is resolved and I discard Spartasaur (WC 231), a creature. Are “After Gebuk Leaves Play” and “After a friendly creature is destroyed” in the same window of the Timing Chart? If so, does Spartasaur’s ability resolve when Gebuk leaves play or can the active player order it so that Spartasaur’s ability will not resolve?

Spartasaur’s ability and Gebuk’s ability resolve in the same timing window, the “after a creature is destroyed” window. However, Spartasaur is not in play at the time Gebuk leaves play, and therefore Spartasaur’s ability will not resolve due to Gebuk being destroyed.

Source: Rulebook