Combo · ENGINE
Azir, Sovereign — the only card that empties your base onto a battlefield
Pieces
- Azir, Sovereign ×1
SFD-177 · engine · order
[Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Order Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When I attack, you may move any number of your token units to this battlefield.
Payoff
Deck
- Legend domains cover Order. Azir is mono-Order, so any legend with Order runs him.
Prerequisites
- THIS IS THE ANSWER TO THE BOTTLENECK OF THE WHOLE TOKEN LENS. Issue #48 read all 49 cards that create unit tokens: 18 say 'at your base' outright and can never reach a battlefield on their own, and points are scored at battlefields. Azir moves any number of them in one action.
- THE MOVE IS AN EFFECT MOVE, WHICH IS WHY IT WORKS ON TOKENS THAT CANNOT WALK. 420.1 and 420.2.a make an effect move the primary kind of Move; 144.4 restricts destinations only 'with their Standard Move' and 420.3.a puts the exhaust cost only there. So the tokens move EXHAUSTED and they move battlefield-to-battlefield without [Ganking] (810.1.c.3: Ganking 'does not give additional abilities or activations of Movement, only new options for the Standard Move').
- THE TRAP HOLDS AND IT SHAPES THE ENTRY. 'When I attack' is an Attack Trigger (383.4.e: it fires 'when a Unit or Player gains the Attacker designation for the first time during a combat'), 807.1.d defines being an attacker as having gained that designation during Combat, and 461 makes a Combat exist only when units of two opposing players are at a battlefield. Walking into an EMPTY enemy battlefield is not an attack and the ability never exists.
- AND THE DESTINATION IS ALWAYS SOMEBODY ELSE'S BATTLEFIELD, SO THE RESULT IS A CONQUER, NOT A HOLD. 464.2.c.1: 'The Attacker is the player whose unit(s) applied the Contested status to the Battlefield', and 190.3.a.1 applies Contested only when the mover does not already control it. Winning gives Control and 466.5.d makes that a Conquer.
- THE REINFORCEMENTS DO JOIN THE FIGHT. 464.2.c.3.a: 'If a Unit controlled by the Attacker or Defender becomes present at this Battlefield after this moment, it will gain the Attacker or Defender designation during the Cleanup phase following the action that caused it to become present.' So the tokens Azir drags in are Attackers by the damage step.
- FOR A GRAND PLAZA FINISH IT IS A TWO-TURN ROUTE, NOT A REMATE. The Plaza has to be in the opponent's hands WITH a garrison; you conquer it with the swarm, and only at your next Beginning Phase does 315.2.b.2 Hold it with 7+ present — so the swarm must survive the opponent's whole turn (383.2.a.1 measures the count when the trigger is placed).
- 'You may' makes it optional (383.3.a), and it is once per combat: 383.4.e says the trigger fires when the designation is gained 'for the first time during a combat'.
Steps
- Bank token units anywhere — at your base is fine, and 18 of the 49 token makers leave them nowhere else.
- Play Azir, Sovereign (4 Energy), paying [Accelerate]'s 1 Energy + 1 Order Power if you want him to move the same turn (143.4, 144.2).
- Standard-Move Azir into a battlefield you do not control that HAS enemy units. 190.3.a.1 applies Contested and 464.2.c.1 makes you the Attacker.
- His attack trigger resolves: move any number of your token units there. They arrive exhausted and it costs nothing (420.3.a binds only the Standard Move).
- 464.2.c.3.a gives them the Attacker designation at the following Cleanup, so they fight; winning establishes Control, which 466.5.d makes a Conquer.
Per iteration
every banked token, moved onto one contested battlefield, for 0 Energy and 0 Power
How it ends
engine only — it relocates bodies and conquers; the win comes from what the bodies then do, e.g. a Grand Plaza hold on the following turn
Sources
Published elsewhere
- YouTube — AliEldrazi Riftbound, "The Emperor of Shurima Rises - Azir Deck Tech" 2026-02-16
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- Token lens — issue #48 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 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 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-token-lens-candidates.md), issue #48 candidate 6. The candidate's own framing survives intact and the walk adds the rule that makes it worth an entry: 464.2.c.3.a, which gives the late-arriving tokens the Attacker designation, so the drag is reinforcement and not just relocation. Trap 1 of the project's authoring traps is applied in full rather than worked around. Depends on no unruled reading. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16