Combo · ENGINE

'Can't be chosen' is a prohibition and [Deflect] is a tax - and Akali's is switched off by the one thing that usually protects a body

6 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Akali, Silent ×3 VEN-038 · payoff · calm

  I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities unless I'm in combat. When I move to a battlefield, give me +2 Might this turn.

• Twilight Shroud ×3 VEN-031 · engine · calm

  Give a friendly unit +1 Might this turn. It can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities this turn. [Flow] 2 Energy (You may play this from your trash for its Flow cost. Then banish it.)

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Calm in its pair.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• Nothing else. Twilight Shroud has no condition, and Akali's own clause needs only that she is not in combat.

Run play

• Akali's Shroud goes on before she moves, and on their turn she is a plain 4

Prerequisites

• A PROHIBITION IS NOT A TAX, AND THE POOL PRINTS BOTH. 809.1.c makes [Deflect] 'an additional cost ... for each time they choose' - a player with the Power simply pays. 'I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' is absolute under 054.1: 'Cards that forbid actions or effects, as a broad method of determination, supersede cards that allow or permit that same action or effect.' No amount of Power gets through. This project has treated the two as interchangeable in notables before; they are different in kind.
• AND BOTH HAVE THE SAME HOLE. 355.10.d: an object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen by the spell or ability' is not a target, and 355.10.e adds a set 'chosen in whole or in part by other players'. Neither clause here says anything about those, so every sweeper in the pool goes straight through both cards. Protection from CHOOSING is protection from targeted removal and from nothing else. ADDED 2026-10-14 (#349): a sweeper is not the only answer that never chooses her. SFD-001 Against the Odds is a Fury [Reaction] at E2: 'Give a friendly unit at a battlefield +2 :rb_might: this turn for each enemy unit there.' It chooses THEIR unit, which neither clause forbids, so it lands on your turn with the Shroud on. Against Akali alone it is +2, and her 7 dies only to defenders that already sum 5 or more. The run play (docs/plays/2026-10-14-akalis-shroud-goes-on-before-she-moves.md) read the 36 Fury/Chaos [Action]/[Reaction] spells by hand and found no board-wide damage spell among them; that census is the play's and was not re-run here.
• AKALI'S CONDITION IS THE INVERSE OF EVERY OTHER PROTECTION IN THE DOMAIN. 'Unless I'm in combat' - and 740.2.c defines that term: 'A unit is in combat if it is occupying a battlefield where combat is ongoing and has a combat designation.' So she is untouchable while she develops, walks and holds, and becomes a legal target the moment she is worth removing. That is exactly backwards from a [Tank] or a [Shield], which do nothing until the fight starts, and it is why she needs a second layer rather than a bigger one.
• WHICH IS WHAT TWILIGHT SHROUD IS FOR, AND IT COSTS ONE ENERGY. Its clause carries no 'unless', so it covers the window Akali's does not, and it is a spell rather than a permanent - so it can be held until the turn she moves - but no later than the move itself (CORRECTED 2026-10-14, #349: this sentence said 'until the combat is staged', and the Cleanup that stages the combat comes after the move with no window for this spell; see the ordering notable). 829.1.b makes it playable a second time from the trash for 2 Energy ('You may play this from your trash for its flow cost. Then banish it'), with 829.1.b.1 making the banish a delayed replacement and 108.6.c keeping it gone afterwards: three copies are SIX protections in a game.
• AKALI'S OWN RIDER PAYS FOR THE MOVE SHE WAS MAKING ANYWAY. 'When I move to a battlefield, give me +2 :rb_might: this turn' fires on the Standard Move whose cost is her exhaust (144.2, 420.3.a), so she is a 6 Might attacker for 4 Energy + 1 Power on the turn she walks in - and 465.2.c reads Might at assignment, so the +2 is real damage.
• THE ONE ORDERING THAT MATTERS: THE SHROUD GOES ON BEFORE THE MOVE - CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#349, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-akalis-shroud-goes-on-before-she-moves.md). Until 2026-10-14 this notable and steps 2-3 said to move Akali first and play Twilight Shroud 'before the combat opens'. That order cannot be played. The move ends in a Cleanup (319.8, 'After a Move is completed'), and that Cleanup stages the combat (323.9). Akali's own +2 trigger is then on the Chain: 309.1, 'If a Chain exists, the turn is in a Closed State.', and 309.1.a, 'Only cards and abilities with the Reaction keyword can be played or activated in a Closed State.' When the trigger leaves the Chain, the next Cleanup (319.5) begins the combat (460; 323.13, 'If the current state is a Neutral Open State and one or more Combats are Staged at Battlefields, the Turn Player chooses one of those Battlefields. Combat begins there.'). Without the trigger the same holds one step sooner, since 323.13 is a later task of the very Cleanup that ran 323.9. The combat includes a Showdown (316.7.f), and this spell has no keyword at all: 155, 'A spell can be played during an Open State outside of Showdowns on its controller's turn.' So there is no window between the move and the combat. Cast it on her in base, then move: the Might is the same, 4 + 1 + 2 = 7. In base its protection only duplicates her own clause, since base is not a battlefield and she cannot be in combat there (740.2.c). Everything it buys is the combat on your turn, plus the +1. The protection has to be bought in advance, which is the same shape as the [Deflect] rule that granting it in response taxes nothing.
• ON THE OPPONENT'S TURN SHE IS A PLAIN 4 WITH NEITHER CLAUSE - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#349, from the same run play). When they attack the battlefield she holds, she takes the Defender designation and is in combat (740.2.c), so her own clause is off. The Shroud cannot be cast there, because 155 is 'on its controller's turn', and her +2 and the Shroud's +1 both lasted 'this turn', which was yours. VEN-015 Decree of Rage is Fury, E1 + 1 Power: '[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) This can't be countered. Deal 4 to an enemy Calm (:rb_rune_calm:) unit.' Four on her 4 is lethal (142.4.b, 'Lethal Damage for a Unit is a non-zero amount greater than or equal to that Unit’s Might.'). OGN-045 Defy ('Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:.') covers its cost and still cannot answer it. The play walks the price: one rune takes Akali and the battlefield back. Against Fury, do not leave her alone at a battlefield on their turn, or count her as a 4 there.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold.

Steps

1. Play Akali, Silent (4 Energy + 1 Power). Until she is in combat (740.2.c), 054.1 makes her untargetable by enemy spells and abilities outright.
2. While she is still in base, in your Main Phase, play Twilight Shroud (1 Energy) on her: +1 Might, and she cannot be chosen at all this turn. 155 is why it must come now: the move below leaves no window for a spell without [Action] or [Reaction] before the combat (CORRECTED 2026-10-14, #349; this step used to come after the move).
3. Then move her to a battlefield: the Standard Move costs her exhaust (144.2) and her rider gives +2 Might this turn, so she arrives as a 7 (4 + 1 + 2).
4. Once the combat opens she is in combat (740.2.c) and her own clause is off. The Shroud's clause has no 'unless' and lasts the turn, so she still cannot be chosen.
5. Later, replay Twilight Shroud from the trash for its [Flow] cost of 2 Energy; 829.1.b banishes it afterwards, so each copy is two protections.
6. Expect a sweeper to kill her anyway: 355.10.d means a programmatically selected object is never chosen.

Per iteration

one turn of absolute protection per Twilight Shroud (two per copy with [Flow]), on a body that is already untargetable outside combat

How it ends

engine only - six Twilight Shroud plays a game (103.2.b with [Flow]), and neither card stops a sweeper (355.10.d); 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
• Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API) 2026-09-07

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-calm-mind-order.md, batch 5) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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