Combo · ENGINE

135.2.b.3 and 820.1.d.2: a [Repeat] duplicates only the RESOLUTION instructions, so an as-you-play additional cost is paid ONCE and its upgrade is read TWICE - The Academy turns Ruthless Strike's one discard into ten damage

4 cards · fury · 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.)

• Ruthless Strike ×3 VEN-008 · payoff · fury

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) As an additional cost to play this, you may discard 1. Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If you paid the additional cost, deal 5 to it instead.

Payoff

Deck

• Ruthless Strike is mono-Fury and The Academy is Colorless (no domain), so 103.1.b needs only a legend carrying Fury. Measured over data/cards.json on 2026-09-12 that is sixteen legend NAMES: Daughter of the Void, Relentless Storm, Loose Cannon, Hand of Noxus, Dark Child - Starter, Mechanized Menace, Purifier, Glorious Executioner, Void Burrower, Virtuoso, Pridestalker, Bloodharbor Ripper, Piltover Enforcer, Rogue Assassin, Butcher of the Sands, Master of Shadows. The line constrains the legend by one domain only, which is the cheapest identity price in the catalogue.
• Neither card is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), and neither appears in data/legality.json in any format - checked 2026-09-12, and data/legality.json's only non-banned row is the Wuju Bladesman starter legend, restricted in 2v2, which is Calm/Body and not a legend this line can use.
• Both targets must be units AT A BATTLEFIELD. Ruthless Strike's clause says 'at a battlefield', so neither execution reaches a base - it is not one of the sixteen cards that do.

Prerequisites

• THE RULE, AND IT IS RIOT'S OWN WORKED EXAMPLE OF THIS EXACT ASYMMETRY. 135.2.b.3: 'Instructions will self-describe when they are to be executed. If there is no timing described, they will execute during resolution.' Its example: 'An instruction says “as you play me, kill a unit as an additional cost.” That instruction will execute as the card is being played. If the card is given Repeat and the Repeat cost is paid, this instruction will not execute because the Repeat execution does not happen until resolution of the spell, after this instruction has executed.' The phrase 'if the card is given Repeat' is Riot describing a grant, which in this pool is UNL-216 The Academy and nothing else. 135.2.b.3 and 204.2.a are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project (measured 2026-09-12).
• 820.1.d.2 IS THE GENERAL FORM AND 820.1.d.1 IS THE MODEL THAT MAKES IT UNAMBIGUOUS. 820.1.d.2: 'Any instructions not performed on resolution of the spell or ability are ignored.' And 820.1.d.1's example duplicates the text in place rather than replaying the card - 'the card's instruction to play a Sand Soldier is executed twice, as though the card says “Play a 2 [M] Sand Soldier unit token. Play a 2 [M] Sand Soldier unit token.”' Read that model onto Ruthless Strike and it becomes 'Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If you paid the additional cost, deal 5 to it instead. Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If you paid the additional cost, deal 5 to it instead.' The card is never played a second time, so the payment is never re-asked and never re-made: one discard, two 5s.
• THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES THIS ENTRY DECLARES. Hold The Academy (315.2.b.2) and the grant lands on your next spell this turn. Play Ruthless Strike: base E3, pay the additional cost by discarding 1, pay the granted Repeat cost of E3 (204.2.a and 820.1.c.1 both put it at finalization). Ten damage across up to two bodies at battlefields for 6 Energy and one card. The same card with no Academy is five damage for 3 Energy and one card, so the Academy is worth 5 damage for 3 Energy - and the discard does not double.
• THE PRICE IS THAT BOTH TARGETS ARE LOCKED BEFORE ANYTHING RESOLVES. 820.2: 'When a spell or ability’s effect is performed an additional time with Repeat, choices must be made at the usual time during the Make Relevant Choices step of Playing a Card.' 820.2.a then allows the second execution to choose differently, so the two 5s may be aimed at two bodies - but both choices are made while playing, so you cannot watch the first kill land before aiming the second, and a defender who responds by moving a body home makes that execution mistarget (359.3.f.2).
• THE FAMILY, SWEPT AND NAMED, AND IT SPLITS IN TWO. Exactly EIGHT spells in the pool carry an as-you-play additional cost (swept over data/corpus_flat.txt on 2026-09-12, type Spell only): OGN-048 Meditation (Calm E2), OGN-146 Wallop (Body E2), OGN-207 Call to Glory (Order E3), UNL-140 Conscription (Chaos E5 P2), UNL-142 Heedless Resurrection (Chaos E2 P1), UNL-173 Sacrifice (Order E1), VEN-008 Ruthless Strike (Fury E3), VEN-083 Rampage (Body E3). FOUR of them read the payment back at resolution and so double an upgrade for one payment - Meditation ('If you do, draw 2. Otherwise, draw 1' = four cards for one exhaust), Conscription ('If you paid the additional cost, choose any enemy unit at a battlefield instead' = 5 XP once for TWO steals of unrestricted Might, the biggest swing in the family), Ruthless Strike and Rampage. The other four do not: Wallop and Call to Glory spend the buff to zero the COST rather than to upgrade the effect, and Heedless Resurrection and Sacrifice carry a MANDATORY cost with an unconditioned effect - which is still a real gain, since Heedless Resurrection kills one friendly body and reanimates two, each capped by that one body's cost.
• IT IS NOT THE SAME LINE AS academy-ezreal-gust-double-bounce, AND THE TWO DO NOT COMPETE. That entry uses The Academy for a different mechanism - a discount taking the granted Repeat cost to 0 (356.6, 356.4.f) - and pays for the second execution with Ezreal. This entry pays the Repeat cost in full and profits from the instruction SPLIT instead, which is why it needs no discount and no third card. Both are bounded by the same ceiling: one granted Repeat per turn, and 820.1.c.3 ('Each Repeat Cost can be paid only a single time') forbids paying it twice.
• THE BATTLEFIELD PRICE, WHICH EVERY ACADEMY LINE PAYS. 485.4.a has each player provide three battlefields and 485.5 selects among them RANDOMLY, so The Academy is not certain to be on the table; 103.4.c forbids running two of a name to raise that chance. And you must HOLD it before it grants anything (315.2.b.2), which means controlling it through your opponent's whole turn - 190.6.d would blank the word 'your' in its text if it had no Controller.

Bodies no card supplies

Have UNL-216 The Academy on the board and control it through the opponent's turn

Steps

1. Have UNL-216 The Academy on the board and control it through the opponent's turn. It grants nothing until you Hold it.
2. At 315.2.b.2 in your Beginning Phase you Hold The Academy; its trigger gives your NEXT spell this turn [Repeat] equal to that spell's base cost. For VEN-008 Ruthless Strike that is E3 (204.1 reads the printed cost; 204.2 keeps the additional cost out of it).
3. In your Main Phase play Ruthless Strike. At the Make Relevant Choices step (820.2) choose BOTH targets now - they may be two different units at battlefields (820.2.a).
4. Pay to finalize: the base E3, the as-you-play additional cost of discarding 1 (204.2.a), and the granted Repeat cost of E3 (820.1.c.1, also an Additional Cost). Six Energy and one card in total.
5. The spell resolves. 820.1.d.1's model duplicates only the resolution instructions, so the text reads as 'Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If you paid the additional cost, deal 5 to it instead.' twice.
6. 135.2.b.3 and 820.1.d.2: the as-you-play discard instruction is NOT performed again - it is not a resolution instruction. Nothing un-pays it either, so 'if you paid the additional cost' is true both times.
7. Ten damage, over one or two bodies at battlefields, for 6 Energy and one card. 143.2.a kills a body whose marked damage reaches its Might, and 466.1.a.1 wipes marked damage at a Combat Cleanup, so this is Main-Phase removal and not a setup for a later attack.
8. Three copies of Ruthless Strike (103.2.b) and one Academy per game (103.4.c). The Academy grants once per Hold, so this is one doubled spell a turn and nothing here loops.

Per iteration

one additional-cost payment bought twice: 10 damage for 6 Energy and one discarded card, against 5 damage for 3 Energy and one discarded card without the grant

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores. One granted [Repeat] per Hold of The Academy, 820.1.b gives exactly one extra execution and 820.1.c.3 forbids paying the same Repeat cost twice, so the ceiling is one doubled spell per turn

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 135.2.b.3 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 135.2.b.3 worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 204.2 and 204.2.a 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 820.1.d.2 and 820.1.d.1 worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 820.2 and 820.2.a 2026-07-16
• Card text, data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API by scripts/build-cards.mjs) 2026-09-12

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-12 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncited-rules-blocks.md), batch 17 2026-09-12 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue