Tier 2 · Learn the Table · Lesson 3 of 11
Keywords, part one: the ones that change challenging
Eight of the fourteen keywords in Lorcana change how challenging works. None of them is a new power bolted onto the game. Each one edits a single step of a process you already know, and each one hides a limit.
A keyword is a short name for an ability
A keyword does nothing the rules do not already spell out elsewhere. It is a short name for an ability. There are fourteen, and the list is closed.
The current list of keywords is: Alert, Bodyguard, Boost, Challenger, Evasive, Reckless, Resist, Rush, Shift, Singer, Sing Together, Support, Vanish, Ward.
Comprehensive Rules 8.1.1
In plain terms: nothing else on a card is a keyword. Eight of the fourteen change challenging. Those eight are this lesson.
The italics in brackets under a keyword are a memory aid, not rules text (8.1.1). Where they and the rules disagree, the rules win.
Four of them change who you may choose
You already know the hard limit: you may only challenge an opposing character that is exerted. These four bend it.
Evasive means the character cannot be challenged except by a character that also has Evasive (8.6.1). The limit is only on challenging. An action or an ability that deals damage still reaches it.
Alert is the printed answer to Evasive. The character ignores the challenging limiters of Evasive (8.2.1). The trap is one line down: it does not gain Evasive itself (8.2.2). It goes after them. It is not safe from anyone.
Bodyguard is two abilities in one word. The first is the one people quote.
If an opponent would choose one of your characters to challenge, they must choose this character or another character with Bodyguard if able.
Comprehensive Rules 8.3.3
In plain terms: your opponent must go through the Bodyguard character. Now read the last two words again. They may only choose an exerted character to challenge, so a ready Bodyguard is not a legal choice at all. They are not able, and they walk past it.
That is why Bodyguard also lets the character enter play exerted (8.3.2). Being exerted is how the protection switches on.
Ward is the one most often played as blanket protection.
Ward means "Your opponents can't choose this card when resolving an effect."
Comprehensive Rules 8.15.1
In plain terms: opponents cannot point a card effect at it. Challenging is a turn action, not an effect resolving. Every Ward card says so in its reminder text: opponents cannot choose this character except to challenge. Ward also does nothing against an effect that never asks anyone to choose (8.15.2).
Two of them change when you may challenge, and when you must
Rush means the character can challenge as though it had been in play since the start of your turn (8.9.1). Play it, challenge with it, same turn. The trap is how narrow that is. A character played this turn is drying, and a drying character cannot quest and cannot exert at all (5.1.1.11). Rush lifts that for challenging only, so it still cannot quest and still cannot exert to sing.
Reckless limits you rather than your opponent. The character cannot quest (8.7.2), and it takes away your right to end your turn. That second half is the trap, set out under the table.
Two of them change how much damage lands
Challenger +N gives the character +N Strength while it is challenging, and it stacks with other Challenger effects (8.5.1). A small body can trade up. The trap is the word challenging: the bonus does nothing when your character is the one being challenged (8.5.2). On your opponent's turn the keyword is worth zero.
Resist +N reduces damage dealt to that character or location by N, and it stacks (8.8.1). Damage reduced to 0 is no damage at all (8.8.2). It works against any dealt damage, not only a challenge. The trap gets a full lesson later. Damage counters put on a card or moved onto it are not damage being dealt, and Resist does nothing about them (8.8.3).
Reckless takes a choice away, at the moment you try to finish your turn.
You can't declare the end of your turn if this character is ready and can challenge an opposing character or location.
Comprehensive Rules 8.7.3
In plain terms: while a Reckless character of yours is ready and has anything it may challenge, your turn cannot end. That includes locations, which may be challenged at any time in the Main Phase.
There is a way out, and it is the useful half of the keyword. A Reckless character may still exert to use abilities or sing songs (8.7.4). Exert it for something you wanted anyway and it is no longer ready.
Your opponent controls a ready character with Bodyguard and an exerted character with no keywords. You have a ready character that is not drying. Which may you challenge?
- Only the Bodyguard. That is what the keyword is for. The reading almost everyone starts with. Bodyguard says "if able", and a ready character can never be chosen for a challenge.
- The exerted character. The Bodyguard is ready, so it cannot be chosen. Correct. Bodyguard redirects a challenge only while it is itself a legal choice, so only while it is exerted. That is why the keyword also lets the character enter play exerted.
- Neither. Bodyguard stops challenges while it is in play. Bodyguard never stops a challenge. It changes which character has to be chosen, and only where that character could have been chosen anyway.
Where this way of sorting them breaks
Two of the eight are not really challenging keywords. Ward applies to every effect an opponent resolves, and Resist to every source of damage. Challenging is only where you meet them first.
They are also spread unevenly. Core is the format built from the newer sets rather than every card ever printed. Among uniquely named cards legal in Core, Evasive is on 100 and Alert on 16, counted on 9 August 2026. Alert is the printed answer to Evasive, and there is roughly one answer for every six problems.
- A keyword is a short name for an ability, nothing more.
- Evasive limits who may challenge. Alert ignores that limit.
- A ready Bodyguard protects nobody.
- Ward stops effects choosing it, never challenges.
- Challenger counts only while your character is challenging.
The next time a Bodyguard sits on the board opposite you, check one thing before you challenge: is it exerted? That question is the whole ruling, and it is the one most tables get wrong.
Rules quoted from the Disney Lorcana Comprehensive Rules, version 2.2.0, effective 9 July 2026. Card counts derived from our own card database on 9 August 2026.
Next: Keywords, part two: the ones that change cost and value. It takes the other six, which change what a card costs you rather than who may challenge it.
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