Combo · ENGINE

The Academy grants [Repeat] to a spell that has none — Ezreal makes it free, and a doubled Gust empties a garrison

5 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• The Academy ×1 UNL-216 · battlefield

  When you hold here, give your next spell this turn [Repeat] equal to its base cost. (You may pay the additional cost to repeat the spell's effect.)

• Ezreal, Prodigy ×1 SFD-149 · enabler · chaos

  When you play me, discard 1, then draw 2. Optional additional costs you pay cost 1 Energy or 1 Power of any domain less.

• Gust ×3 OGN-169 · payoff · chaos

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 Might or less to its owner's hand.

Payoff

Deck

• The line is mono-Chaos (Ezreal and Gust; The Academy is Colorless), so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Chaos in its pair — sixteen names, among them SFD-195/SFD-246 Blade Dancer, UNL-185/UNL-228 Bloodharbor Ripper, OGN-267/OGN-309 Bounty Hunter, UNL-193/UNL-232 Gloomist, SFD-185/SFD-242 Glorious Executioner, VEN-155/VEN-197 Heart of the Tempest, OGN-251/OGN-301 Loose Cannon, VEN-143/VEN-191 Master of Shadows, SFD-199/SFD-248 Prodigal Explorer, UNL-197/UNL-234 Scorn of the Moon, VEN-151/VEN-195 Soul's Reflection, OGN-263/OGN-307 Swift Scout, OGN-259/OGN-305 Unforgiven, UNL-201/UNL-236 Voidreaver.

Prerequisites

• IT IS THE TWIN OF ezreal-marai-spire-free-repeat AND THE TWO CANNOT SHARE A BOARD. Both stand on Ezreal and on 356.4.c's worked example, but 485.4.a puts exactly one of your three battlefields into a Duel and 103.4.c forbids two of a name, so Marai Spire and The Academy are alternatives, never a stack. Marai Spire is the better card in a deck built around the fourteen printed [Repeat] spells; The Academy is the better card in a deck whose best spell has no [Repeat] at all, which is most of the pool.
• THE REPEAT COST REACHES EXACTLY 0 AND STILL COUNTS AS PAID. 356.6 floors a cost at 0, 356.4.f allows a cost of 0 and 356.4.f.1 keeps it 'paid' because the decision to pay it was made, so 820.1.d.1 executes the spell's instructions a second time. This is the same mechanism the Marai Spire entry walked, on a spell that never printed the keyword.
• ORDER MATTERS INSIDE THE TURN: the Academy says 'your next spell this turn', so the doubled spell has to be the first one you play after the Hold. Playing anything else first spends the grant.
• ONE EXTRA EXECUTION, NEVER TWO. 820.1.b gives exactly one, and 820.1.c.3 — 'Each Repeat Cost can be paid only a single time' — closes the loop. This is an engine, not an INFINITE.
• TWO BOUNCES IS AN EVACUATION, WHICH IS WHY THE CLASS IS worth more than the card text suggests: a garrison of two bodies at 3 Might or less leaves the battlefield entirely, and with no units of opposing players present 323.9 marks no Combat, so the walk-in that follows is the bloodless 344.2 route rather than an attack. Cast Gust BEFORE the entering move, never after — 323.13 needs a Neutral Open State and after a plain move the very next Cleanup stages and opens the Combat with no gap.
• THE ACADEMY MUST BE HELD, WHICH MEANS CONTROLLED. 'When you hold here' is the wording 190.6.d governs; a battlefield you provide starts uncontrolled (190.1) and 315.2.b.2 Holds only battlefields you Control, so a body has to be standing there every Beginning Phase. And 485.5 picks one of your three at random in a Duel; 486.5 lets you choose in 1v1 Match play.
• A BLOODLESS CONQUER IS NOT A FAIT ACCOMPLI, AND 46 OF THE 47 ENTRIES CITING 344.2 DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-12, #187 batch 25). **316.8.b.1.a**: during a Non-Combat Showdown *"units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is"*, which converts it to a COMBAT Showdown in the following cleanup - so the opponent can turn your uncontested walk-in into a fight. 316.8.c is the permission (a Showdown is a Window of Opportunity for [Action] and [Reaction] cards). **The answer set is THREE CARDS, swept on the ACTOR rather than on the destination**: `OGN-173 Ride the Wind` (Chaos, E2+1), `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` (Calm/Order, E3+2) and `SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit` (Fury/Body, E2+1) - twelve printings move a friendly unit, and nine of them send it to base or need a body already there. They span three identities, so **no identity is safe**; and `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` is the worst to walk into, because it STUNS your body on the way in, and 423.1.b removes a stunned unit`s contribution to the damage step while 423.1.c keeps its full Might as the price to kill it - one 3-Energy card takes the unit and the battlefield. **[Ambush] is not a fourth answer**: 822.1.b needs a battlefield where the player already has units, and the defining feature of that board is that they have none there. **THE REMEDY IS A COUNTERSPELL, AND A FIRST VERSION OF THIS NOTABLE SAID SOMETHING FALSE THAT IS WITHDRAWN HERE (corrected within the hour, 2026-09-12).** It said that because all three answers are [Action] and 358.4 admits an Action card only as the card that CLOSES the state, the attacker - who holds Focus by 345 and priority by 335.1 - could shut them out by playing any cheap Action card first. Every step is true and the conclusion is false, because **a Showdown is a LOOP, not a single window**: 346 - *"When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority"* - with 347.1.b and 347.2.a. Closing the state buys a lock-out lasting exactly that CHAIN; when it resolves the Showdown reopens, Focus passes TO THE DEFENDER, and they play their answer into an open Showdown after all. **The real sequence**: walk in, take Focus, **PASS** (acting first gains nothing); they play the answer, which closes the state as it is played; **you COUNTER it**, since 358.4`s other half now admits only [Reaction] and all eleven of the pool`s counters are Reaction, and 425.1.c refunds them nothing; all players then pass in sequence, 347.2.a ends the Showdown, and 348.2.a with 348.2.a.1 give you Control and the Conquer. The cheap counter is `OGN-045 Defy` (Calm, E1 + 1 Power, *"counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than one rainbow"*), which covers all three answers; `OGN-064 Wind Wall` is the unconditional one. **So the protection narrows to pairs containing CALM** - it is not the one-Energy insurance any deck can buy.

Steps

1. Take The Academy and keep a body on it. 315.2.b.2 Holds only battlefields you Control and 323.6 takes Control back at the next Cleanup if the battlefield is empty.
2. Play Ezreal, Prodigy (E3 + 1 Chaos Power). His play effect discards 1 and draws 2, so he costs no cards.
3. Your Beginning Phase, Scoring Step (315.2.b.2): you Hold The Academy and it gives your next spell this turn [Repeat] equal to its base cost.
4. Main Phase: play Gust (E1) as the first spell of the turn and choose to pay the additional cost at step 2 of playing (356.2.b.1). The [Repeat] cost is 1 Energy; Ezreal's discount is applied to the additional cost as soon as it is added (356.4.c), taking it to 0, and 356.6 floors it there.
5. 820.1.d.1 executes Gust's instructions a second time and 820.2.a lets the second execution pick a different unit: two bodies of 3 Might or less at battlefields return to their owners' hands for one Energy.
6. Repeat next turn — the Hold is free and recurs every Beginning Phase for as long as you keep the battlefield.

Per iteration

one free extra execution of the turn's first spell — with Gust, a second bounce for 0 additional cost

How it ends

engine only — one doubled spell per turn for as long as you hold The Academy; 820.1.b gives exactly one extra execution and 820.1.c.3 forbids paying the same Repeat cost twice, so nothing here loops and nothing here scores

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-cards.md), issue #171 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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