Official Riftbound ruling
What happens if I choose to copy an empowered unit when I equip an unempowered unit with Shady Spectacles?
Being empowered is a status and is not copyable, thus the equipped unit will remain unempowered.
Shady Spectacles applies a copy effect to the equipped unit. Copy effects copy the printed (or copied, if another copy effect has already been applied) traits of the unit being copied. empowered is a status, a temporary modification, and not part of the printed traits of the card, so it will not be copied by Shady Spectacles. Whatever temporary modifications are applied to the unit as the copy effect is executed on that unit will be unaffected by the copy effect. If the unit has Might increases or decreases, a buff, the empowered status, Temporary, attacker, defender, etc those will remain in place.
Riot's question and answer, word for word, from theVendetta Rules FAQ and ClarificationsCore Rules 477.1.b.1.b (as numbered in August 2026)
The card
Shady SpectaclesGear
Equip
1 Energy
Order Rune (1 EnergyOrder Rune: Attach this to a unit you control.)As this is attached to a unit, choose another friendly unit. The equipped unit becomes a copy of that unit for as long as this is attached to it.
More rulings on this card
- What happens when my opponent’s Akshan, Mischievous steals my equipped Shady Spectacles? What happens if they want to copy Aphelios?
- My Sand Soldier has Shady Spectacles equipped and is a copy of Azir, Ascendent. What happens if I activate the copied Azir’s activatedability before detaching the Shady Spectacles and then attach them to the same Sand Soldier as a copy of the same Azir, Ascendent? Can I use the activated ability again?