If Kayn uses Ride the Wind to move to an opposing battlefield and becomes ready, but cannot conquer the battlefield and is automatically sent back to base (because it can't take damage after moving twice), does Kayn retain its ready status when recalled to base?

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Accepted Answer

Kayn keeps the Ready state when returned to base by Ride The Wind, unless the

Most defensible ruling based on the provided rules: Yes — if Kayn was Readied by Ride The Wind and then is automatically sent back to base, Kayn remains Ready when it is at base, because nothing in the described sequence instructs that its Ready state changes. Ready is a state that persists on the Game Object unless an effect or rule specifically changes it [415.2] [415.1.c].

You play Ride The Wind and it moves a friendly unit (Kayn) and then instructs to Ready it, so Kayn becomes Ready as a result of that instruction [415.1]. Later, Kayn is automatically sent back to base because of the described movement/damage limitation. The provided rules treat Ready as a state on the Game Object while it is on the board [415.2]. Because no provided rule or the described effect says that being returned to base changes the unit's readiness (for example, "return exhausted" or "destroy and re-play"), the unit's Ready state remains unchanged. If an effect later instructs to Ready the unit while it is already Ready, nothing additional happens [415.1.c].

If the send-back-to-base effect actually causes the unit to leave the board and then re-enter (creating a zone change that resets state), the unit may re-enter in a different readiness state. The provided rules do not define that behavior, so you would need the specific effect or additional rules to decide. If the send-back effect explicitly says the unit returns Exhausted, or 'return exhausted,' that text would override the default and the unit would be Exhausted on return (not covered in the provided excerpts). If there is a replacement effect tied to the move or recall that changes readiness when the move happens, that replacement effect would determine the final readiness state (not included in the provided excerpts).

Ready is a state of Game Objects on the board that persists until an effect changes it [415.2]. Ride The Wind's text instructs you to move a friendly unit and Ready it, so when the spell resolves Kayn becomes Ready by that instruction [415.1]. The scenario you describe then has Kayn sent back to base automatically because it can't take damage after moving twice; in the provided rules there is no rule that says moving a unit between locations on the board or returning it to base automatically changes its Ready/Exhausted state. Therefore, absent any explicit instruction that the return makes the unit Exhausted or causes it to leave and re-enter as a different object, the Ready state remains on the same Game Object at base [415.2]. Note that if the return-to-base effect is worded to remove or change readiness (for example, "return exhausted"), or if it causes the unit to leave the board and re-enter (which can reset state), those specifics would govern the result; those specifics are not present in the provided Core Rules excerpt and so are listed as assumptions above.