Combo · ENGINE
Untargetability is checked at RESOLUTION, so a 2-Energy cantrip played in response makes an enemy removal spell mistarget - and 758.2.a works this exact pair
Pieces
- Alpha Wildclaw ×3
UNL-057 · payoff · calm
[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.) Your units here with less Might than me can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities.
- Discipline ×3
OGN-058 · engine · calm
[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Give a unit +2 Might this turn. Draw 1.
Payoff
Deck
- Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits them under any legend with Calm among its two domains - measured over data/cards.json those include OGN-255 / OGN-303 Nine-Tailed Fox (calm/mind), OGN-257 / OGN-304 Blind Monk (calm/body), OGN-261 / OGN-306 Radiant Dawn (calm/order), SFD-189 / SFD-244 Fire Below the Mountain (calm/mind), SFD-197 / SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands (calm/order), UNL-189 / UNL-230 Bashful Bloom (calm/mind), UNL-195 / UNL-233 Green Father (calm/order), VEN-139 / VEN-189 Rogue Assassin (calm/fury), VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands (calm/mind) and VEN-147 / VEN-193 Eye of Twilight (calm/order).
- Neither is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), so 103.2.d.2 imposes no legend, and neither is banned or restricted in either format.
- Alpha Wildclaw protects only units at HIS battlefield and only those with strictly less Might than him, so the body you want covered must stand there and must be under his number after the pump.
Prerequisites
- THE FINDING: UNTARGETABILITY IS A RESOLUTION-TIME CHECK. 758.1, cited by no entry in this project: 'If a Game Object becomes untargetable for a spell or ability after becoming its target and before it resolves, the spell or ability will mistarget on resolution. Any instructions related to that Game Object will be ignored as the spell resolves.' So the question is not whether the unit was a legal target when the spell was cast - it is whether it is still targetable when the spell resolves.
- AND RIOT WORKS THIS EXACT PAIR AT 758.2.a. 'Alpha Wildclaw and Vilemaw are controlled by the same player and located at a battlefield. An opponent targets Vilemaw with Rebuke. Before Rebuke resolves, Vilemaw's controller plays Discipline targeting Alpha Wildclaw, making Vilemaw no longer a legal target.' Vilemaw is Might 8 and the Wildclaw Might 7, so Vilemaw is NOT covered; Discipline's +2 takes the Wildclaw to 9 and Vilemaw slides under his umbrella while the removal is still on the Chain. Two Calm cards, both in the pool, named in the rules.
- SO THE THRESHOLD IS THE POINT, NOT THE GRANT. Every other untargetability card in the pool is a fixed statement - SFD-105 Ruin Runner, UNL-147 Baron Nashor, UNL-059 Master Yi, Unstoppable at [Level 16], VEN-038 Akali, Silent (unless in combat) and VEN-031 Twilight Shroud (one unit, this turn). Alpha Wildclaw is the only one whose protected SET is defined by a number you can move at [Reaction] speed, which is the whole reason a 2-Energy cantrip can save a Might 8 body from a spell already on the Chain.
- IT IS A PROHIBITION, NOT A TAX, AND THAT IS WHY IT BEATS PAYING. 054.1 makes a card that forbids beat a card that permits, so this is the SFD-105 Ruin Runner family and not the 809.1.c [Deflect] family: the opponent cannot buy through it with a rainbow. 355.10.d is the leak to know about - a Game Object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen' is not a target at all, so a sweeper such as OGN-133 Flurry of Blades goes straight through both.
- THE COUNTERPLAY IS PRINTED IN THE SAME EXAMPLE, AND IT IS WORTH STATING. 758.2.a continues: 'Rebuke's controller then targets Alpha Wildclaw with Star-Crossed. When Star-Crossed resolves, Alpha Wildclaw's passive ability no longer applies to Vilemaw, making it a legal target for Rebuke.' Removing or bouncing the Wildclaw in response re-opens every body he was covering, because the same 758.1 check runs the other way. He is a single point of failure and the entry says so.
- AND HE NEVER COVERS HIMSELF. 'Your units here with less Might than me' excludes him by arithmetic, so the Wildclaw is always a legal target - which is exactly what Star-Crossed exploits. His own [Tank] is the compensation: 815.1.c.2 makes every other body of yours an invalid combat-damage assignment until he has lethal, so he is hard to remove IN COMBAT and easy to remove with a spell.
- THE CANTRIP IS WHY THIS IS AN ENGINE. Discipline draws 1, so answering a removal spell costs 2 Energy and no card; three copies (103.2.b) are three answers a game and three cards back. 813.1.c.1 puts it in any Closed State on any player's turn, which is where the enemy spell will be sitting.
Steps
- Play UNL-057 Alpha Wildclaw (6 Energy + 2 Power) to the battlefield your important bodies stand on. Every friendly unit there with less than 7 Might is now untargetable by enemy spells and abilities.
- The opponent targets a friendly body of 7 or more Might - one the Wildclaw does not yet cover - with a removal spell.
- In response, play OGN-058 Discipline (2 Energy) on ALPHA WILDCLAW, not on the threatened body: +2 Might takes him to 9, so anything up to Might 8 at that battlefield is now covered. Draw 1.
- 758.1 checks targetability again as the enemy spell resolves: the body is untargetable now, so the spell mistargets and 'Any instructions related to that Game Object will be ignored as the spell resolves.'
- Watch for the printed counterplay: an answer aimed at the Wildclaw himself - he is never among the units he covers - re-opens everything he was protecting under the same rule.
- Three copies of each (103.2.b). The pump lasts the turn (317.2.c), so the umbrella narrows again at the end-of-turn Cleanup.
Per iteration
one enemy removal spell blanked for 2 Energy and no card, at [Reaction] speed, after it is already on the Chain
How it ends
engine only - nothing here scores. Three Discipline (103.2.b) are three answers a game, the pump expires at the end-of-turn Cleanup (317.2.c), and the Wildclaw himself is always a legal target
Sources
Published elsewhere
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 758.1 2026-07-16
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 758.2.a worked example 2026-07-16
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 757.1 worked example 2026-07-16
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-07 2026-09-07 record
How this entry was audited
REFUTE = a refutation pass, with its date and verdict · WOUNDED = the pass found a flaw and the entry was rewritten · BUDGETED = the pass checked the recycle-and-draw ledger · lens = the hunt that proposed it.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07 (issue #187, uncited-rules-blocks slice: 756-758 Untargetability). 756, 757 and 758 are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project, and 758.2.a's worked example names UNL-057 Alpha Wildclaw, UNL-060 Vilemaw, OGN-058 Discipline, OGN-172 Rebuke and UNL-128 Star-Crossed - all five in the pool. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened: 054.1, 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 103.2.d.2, 317.2.c, 355.10.d, 757.1, 758.1, 758.2, 758.2.a, 809.1.c, 813.1.c.1, 815.1.c.2. MEMBERS NAMED: the pool's untargetability cards, swept on the corpus for "can't be chosen by enemy spells", are SFD-105 Ruin Runner, UNL-057 Alpha Wildclaw, UNL-059 Master Yi Unstoppable ([Level 16]), UNL-147 Baron Nashor, VEN-031 Twilight Shroud and VEN-038 Akali Silent - and Alpha Wildclaw is the ONLY one whose protected set is defined by a number that can be moved at [Reaction] speed. Distinct from tianna-wildclaw-point-lock (SFD-060 + UNL-057 + UNL-171, a scoring lock that never mentions targeting) and from akali-silent-twilight-shroud-cant-be-chosen. Trap check: 758.2's FIRST worked example describes a card the pool does not print ("can't be chosen by enemy spells or abilities with Energy cost less than my Might"), so only the second example is load-bearing here; the Wildclaw never covers himself; a programmatic sweeper ignores the whole family (355.10.d); no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16