Combo · ENGINE

Two rune-count clauses, one gameable and one not — and the difference is 315.2.a against the Main Phase

2 cards · fury · verified

Pieces

• Baccai Sandspinner ×1 VEN-001 · payoff · fury

  [Empower] 5 Energy. This ability costs 3 Energy less if you control 4 or fewer runes. (Pay the cost: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have [Deflect] and [Assault 2]. (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability. +2 Might while I'm an attacker.)

• Forsaken Baccai ×1 VEN-005 · engine · fury

  If you control fewer runes than an opponent at the start of your Beginning Phase, give me +1 Might this turn.

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Fury among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: Daughter of the Void (OGN-247), Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Hand of Noxus (OGN-253), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Mechanized Menace (SFD-181), Purifier (SFD-183), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Void Burrower (SFD-187), Virtuoso (UNL-181), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Piltover Enforcer (UNL-187), Rogue Assassin (VEN-139), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
• A turn on which you were going to convert runes into Power anyway — the discount is a rebate, not a reason. See the third notable.

Prerequisites

• THE SANDSPINNER'S CLAUSE IS A TIMING CHOICE AND THE FORSAKEN BACCAI'S IS NOT, WHICH IS THE ENTRY. 'if you control 4 or fewer runes' is checked when the [Empower] cost is determined, in your Main Phase, and 827.1.c.3 makes cost-altering text 'taken into account when determining a card's Empower cost for any reason' — so you can act first and be checked afterwards. 'if you control fewer runes than an opponent at the start of your Beginning Phase' is read at 315.2.a, before 315.3.b's Channel Phase and long before you may do anything, so nothing you do can game it. Same printed idea, two different windows.
• GETTING TO FOUR RUNES COSTS EIGHT RUNES, AND THE RULE THAT LETS YOU IS 164.2.b. 161.2.a caps the Rune Deck at twelve; recycling a rune is 'Recycle this: [Reaction] — [Add] [C]' with no exhaust in the cost, so even runes already tapped for Energy can go, each paying one Power of its domain. Dumping eight leaves you at four and hands you eight Power — but 161.2.b sends all eight to the Rune Deck (off the board), and 315.3.b channels only two back a turn.
• SO THE DISCOUNT IS A REBATE, NOT A PLAN. Three Energy off an [Empower] is not worth eight runes on its own; it is worth taking on a turn you were converting runes into Power for something else, and the Sandspinner is then Empowered for 2 Energy instead of 5. 441.2 makes Empowered a permanent state of the object, so the [Deflect] and [Assault 2] are bought once and kept — and 441.1.b ('An Empowered Game Object can not be Empowered') means there is no second time to be cheap about.
• AND THE SAME TURN SWITCHES THE OTHER CLAUSE ON FOR GOOD. Having dumped to four runes against an opponent's ten or twelve, the Forsaken Baccai's condition is true at the start of every subsequent Beginning Phase until 315.3.b refills you — two runes a turn, so four turns of +1 Might. It is small, it is free, and it is the only card in the pool that pays you for the position the Sandspinner's rebate leaves you in.
• [Deflect] is a tax, not a shield: 809.1.c charges the opponent one extra Power per choice, in any domain (809.1.c.1), and 355.10.d's programmatic effects ignore it entirely. [Assault 2] is 807.1.c's 'While I am an attacker', so it is worth nothing on defence and nothing at all against an empty enemy battlefield (807.1.d, 383.4.e, 461).
• 167 is the discipline on the eight Power: the Rune Pool empties at the start of each player's Main Phase and at the end of each player's turn, so the whole dump has to be spent in the window you take it.

Steps

1. Play Forsaken Baccai (2 Energy) and Baccai Sandspinner (6 Energy) on earlier turns.
2. On a turn you intend to spend a large amount of Power, exhaust your runes for Energy as usual (164.2.a).
3. Recycle eight of them — 164.2.b needs no exhaust, so spent runes still count — taking 1 Power each and leaving you at four runes (161.2.b sends them to the Rune Deck).
4. With four or fewer runes controlled, pay the Sandspinner's [Empower] cost of 5 - 3 = 2 Energy (827.1.c.3). He is Empowered permanently (441.2) with [Deflect] and [Assault 2].
5. Spend the rest of that Power before 167 empties the pool.
6. From your next Beginning Phase on, the Forsaken Baccai's condition is read at 315.2.a and is true while you are behind on runes: +1 Might each turn until 315.3.b refills you.

How it ends

engine — a permanent [Deflect] + [Assault 2] bought for 2 Energy instead of 5, on a turn you were dumping runes anyway, plus a small recurring bonus while you are behind on runes; 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, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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