Does Blood Rush's effect stay forever or just for the turn it's played?

Question

Accepted Answer

The provided Core Rules context does not include a general rule that changes the default duration of a “Give a unit …” instruction. Given the card text of Blood Rush (which does not say “this turn” or otherwise limit duration), the most defensible interpretation is that it gives the unit Assault 2 as a lasting change (i.e., it remains on that unit until some later effect removes it or the unit leaves play). Paying Repeat can cause the spell’s instruction to be executed additional times when you play it [820.1.d.1].

Most defensible ruling: Blood Rush gives the chosen unit Assault 2 permanently (until another effect removes that keyword or the unit leaves the board). If you pay its Repeat cost, the “Give a unit Assault 2” instruction is executed again (you make choices for the repeat execution during the Make Relevant Choices step) [820.1.d.1] [820.2] [820.3].

Choose to play Blood Rush on your turn or in a showdown and begin the Play process (see Playing Cards) [820.2] [357]. Pay the base cost of Blood Rush (its Energy cost). You may also pay its Repeat additional cost(s) during the Pay Costs step — each Repeat cost you pay causes the spell’s instruction to be executed one additional time [357] [820.1.d.1] [820.3]. Make choices for the spell (including choices for each paid Repeat) at the usual Make Relevant Choices step; choices for repeated executions need not be identical to earlier choices [820.2] [820.1.d.1] [820.3]. When Blood Rush resolves, execute its instruction: “Give a unit Assault 2.” Apply that instruction to the chosen unit. If you paid Repeat, execute that same instruction again as many times as you paid Repeat [820.1.d.1] [820.3]. Because Blood Rush’s text does not include an explicit duration (for example, it does not say “this turn”), there is no printed time limit on the effect in the supplied context; under the assumptions above, the grant is treated as a lasting change until something else changes it (or the unit leaves play).

If the chosen unit changes to a non-board zone before Blood Rush resolves, the targeting/choice relationship is severed and the spell cannot give that non-existent game object Assault; see the targeting/non-board rule example for analogous behavior [FAQ:unleashed#22]. If you pay Repeat and choose different units for each execution, each chosen unit will receive the instruction (subject to legality) — if the keyword is not meant to stack, the game may treat multiple identical instances as redundant depending on keyword rules not present in the supplied context (the provided FAQ about Temporary says multiple instances of Temporary are redundant for that keyword specifically) [FAQ:unleashed#15]. If another effect later removes keywords or modifies the unit, that later effect determines the unit’s keywords; nothing in the provided context makes the Blood Rush grant immune to being removed later. If the unit dies or leaves the board after receiving Assault 2, the effect no longer applies to that unit because the game object changed zones and is no longer the same object on the board.

The card text of Blood Rush reads: “Give a unit Assault 2.” The Core Rules excerpts you provided do not include any general templating rule that would make an unqualified “Give” instruction time-limited by default. Therefore, with only the supplied context, the most defensible interpretation is that the instruction grants Assault 2 to the chosen unit as a lasting change (i.e., it remains until some later effect removes it or the unit leaves play). If you pay Blood Rush’s Repeat cost when you play it, the instruction is executed an additional time for each Repeat paid; choices for those additional executions are made during the Make Relevant Choices step and need not match earlier choices [820.1.d.1] [820.2] [820.3].

Caveats and supporting notes from the provided rules: paying costs (including Repeat additional costs) happens during the Pay the card’s costs step of Playing Cards [357]. The Repeat rules explicitly say that paying the Repeat cost causes the spell’s effect to be performed an additional time, and that you make choices for those extra executions during the normal choice-making step [820.1.d.1] [820.2] [820.3]. The supplied FAQ about Spinning Axe and Temporary is specific to the Temporary keyword and notes that multiple instances of Temporary are redundant; that FAQ is not a general statement about all keywords, so it cannot definitively tell us whether multiple applications of Assault 2 would stack in this game environment [FAQ:unleashed#15].

If a chosen unit moves to a non-board zone before the spell resolves, the targeting/choice relationship is severed (see the example in [FAQ:unleashed#22] about targets moving to non-board zones), so the spell would not be able to give Assault to that object after it left the board. Beyond that, since the provided Core Rules context lacks a default-duration rule for unqualified “Give” effects, the ruling above relies on the assumption that a printed duration would be present on the card if the intent were a temporary buff.