Evelynn Riftbound Legend Guide | Hextech Analytics

Evelynn’s Field Guide

Agony's Embrace costs nothing and has nothing to activate: it triggers when a card you hid on an earlier turn is played from face down. It never hides cards for you, and hiding a card with Hidden costs one Power of any domain on your turn at a battlefield you control with no card hidden there. Any card counts, but a second face-down play that turn gets no second draw. The opening is about taking a battlefield and getting a card under it, so units that can contest early usually matter more than Hidden cards. The mistake is playing a hidden card on the opponent's turn only to trigger the Legend. The draw then ends in a discard, while the same play on your turn would have replaced the card.

How Evelynn wins

Evelynn scores by holding battlefields with hidden cards and turning face-down plays into cards or combat swings. When In Control holds where you kept a facedown card, that Hold earns two points. For fights, Consuming fits better, since each face-down play can tip a combat she is in. A third Champion option, Evelynn, Entrancing, costs two Energy, has Hidden, and leans toward conquests: when you play Entrancing from face down on your turn, you may move an enemy unit from another location to Entrancing's battlefield, which can leave a battlefield the opponent controls empty. Near the finish, count what each hidden card protects before spending it: a card that keeps the battlefield you need is usually worth more than a draw.

Key interactions

Keep In Control's card hidden through the Hold

Evelynn, In Control · Agony's Embrace · Bushwhack Trap

In Control scores a point when she holds only if you control a facedown card at her battlefield. Hide a card there after she takes the battlefield, keep it through the opponent's turn, and your next Hold earns two points. In your Main Phase, play that card from face down to draw, then hide another. A Bushwhack Trap there lets you hide an additional card, so one can defend while the other waits. If the opponent attacks there, keep the card when your units win without it and play it when it turns a losing fight, since losing takes the Hold, her point and the card with the battlefield.

Count where Consuming's extra Might can come from

Evelynn, Consuming

Every face-down play readies Consuming and gives her +1 Might this turn. To attack at six, play a card hidden at your other battlefield during your Main Phase, then move her: the ready lets her move even on the turn she enters. If you save that card for the combat instead, leave a unit where it is hidden, since the card is trashed if you lose control of that battlefield. If six Might will not win, keep the card hidden: on defense, Ambush lets you play her as a Reaction where you have units, and if you have a playable hidden card at each of your battlefields, she reaches seven.

Last Caress lets a hidden unit defend elsewhere

Last Caress

A hidden unit normally must be played where it was hidden. Last Caress costs two Energy, has Reaction, and lets the next unit you play this turn, even from face down, go to any battlefield and gain a Buff. When the opponent attacks where you have no hidden card, play Last Caress, then the unit hidden at your other battlefield: it arrives as a defender with a +1 Might buff. Play Last Caress right before that unit, since any unit you play first takes its effect. Count whether that extra body changes the result, because you are spending your Signature and the card that was guarding your other battlefield.

Strengths

Making Entrancing your Chosen Champion starts every game with a Hidden card in the Champion Zone, so you have a card to hide when your hand has none.
Face-down plays ignore base cost: a hidden six-Energy Elnuk Herd gives a friendly unit at its battlefield +3 Might this turn for one Power, then recycles itself.
Because a hidden card has Reaction, you choose how to defend after the opponent commits to an attack, and they cannot see which card is waiting.

Weaknesses

A hidden card cannot be played the turn you hide it, and Hidden cards with no battlefield to hide them at give the Legend nothing to trigger on.
On the opponent's turn the Legend only exchanges a card, and with an empty hand you discard the card you just drew. Save those plays for fights they change.
Losing a battlefield removes the card hidden there in the next cleanup, so an attack that takes the battlefield also takes the setup you paid for.