Combo · ENGINE

191.3.d: the unit you drag out of their hand is THEIRS as it enters, so THEY get its 'when you play me' - and the same rule makes Bone Skewer the pool's only way to fire a 'when an opponent plays a unit' punisher on YOUR turn

6 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Bone Skewer ×3 UNL-139 · engine · chaos

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) Choose a battlefield. An opponent reveals their hand. You may choose a unit from it. They play that unit to that battlefield, ignoring any and all costs. If they do, then do this: [Stun] it. (It doesn't deal combat damage this turn.)

• Vex, Apathetic ×3 UNL-150 · payoff · chaos

  [Deflect] (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) When an opponent plays a unit while I'm at a battlefield, [Stun] it. They can't move it this turn. (It doesn't deal combat damage this turn.)

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Chaos, so 103.1.b needs only a legend carrying Chaos. Measured over data/cards.json on 2026-09-12 that is sixteen legend NAMES: Loose Cannon, Unforgiven, Swift Scout, Bounty Hunter, Dark Child - Starter, Glorious Executioner, Blade Dancer, Prodigal Explorer, Battle Mistress, Bloodharbor Ripper, Gloomist, Scorn of the Moon, Voidreaver, Master of Shadows, Soul's Reflection, Heart of the Tempest.
• Neither 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.
• Vex has to be standing at a battlefield when the play happens - her clause says 'while I'm at a battlefield' - but NOT at the battlefield Bone Skewer names. That is the one thing about the pairing that is wider than it looks.
• The opponent must actually hold a unit in hand. Bone Skewer reveals the hand first and the choice is 'you may choose a unit from it', so against an empty or unit-less hand the card is a look and nothing else, and Vex never fires.

Prerequisites

• THE COST NOBODY HAS WRITTEN DOWN, AND IT INVERTS THE OBVIOUS PLAY. 191.1: 'When a player Plays, Hides, or Creates a Card or other Game Object, they are established as that Game Object's Controller.' 191.3: 'For Permanents and Runes, when they Enter the Board, that player is assigned as that Game Object's Controller.' And 191.3.d: 'That player may make decisions about any game effects created from "When you play me" effects of Permanents.' Bone Skewer says THEY play the unit, so the opponent is its Controller, the unit's own 'when you play me' fires for them, and THEY choose its targets. Dragging out their biggest body can hand them a free enters-the-board effect aimed at you - the right pick is the unit whose ETB is worst for them or empty, not the biggest Might. 191.3.d and 191.3.c are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project (measured 2026-09-12).
• THE CONSTRUCTIVE HALF: THIS IS THE ONLY SCHEDULER IN THE POOL FOR AN OPPONENT-PLAY PUNISHER. Swept over data/corpus_flat.txt on 2026-09-12, exactly TWO cards watch an opponent playing something - UNL-150 Vex, Apathetic (a unit) and VEN-102 Ravenbloom Prefect (a gear) - and exactly THREE cards make an opponent play something: UNL-139 Bone Skewer (a unit out of their HAND, on your turn), UNL-130 Walking Roost (a 1 Might Bird unit TOKEN, which still fires Vex because 185.2.b makes a token unit a unit) and SFD-081 Card Sharp (a Gold gear token each). Without one of those three, Vex only ever fires when the opponent chooses to act; with Bone Skewer she fires when YOU choose.
• THE TWO STUNS ARE REDUNDANT AND THE MOVE LOCK IS NOT. 423.1.a.1: 'A Stunned Unit can not be Stunned again.' Bone Skewer's own 'then do this: [Stun] it' is a Reflexive Trigger (387.1) and Vex's stun is a Triggered Ability; both are yours, so 383.3.d lets you order them, but whichever resolves second finds the body already Stunned and does nothing. What is NOT duplicated is Vex's second sentence, 'They can't move it this turn' - Bone Skewer has no such clause - and that is the whole marginal value of running them together. The rule prints this in its own worked example, on Eclipse Herald: 'They may choose a unit that's already stunned, but if they do, Eclipse Herald will not trigger.'
• AND THE STUN EXPIRES BEFORE THEIR TURN EITHER WAY. 423.1.a.2: 'Stunned Units lose the Stunned status during step 3d of the end of turn cleanup.' Applied on YOUR turn, it is gone at YOUR cleanup, so 423.1.b's loss of combat Might only matters inside the turn you played Bone Skewer - which is the combat the dragged body was pulled into. The move lock has the same one-turn life ('this turn'), so neither half of this pairing is a lasting lock; it is a tempo play priced in one card.
• THE BODY ARRIVES AS AN ATTACKER ON YOUR OWN TURN. 190.3.a.1 applies Contested status to units 'moving to or being played to' a battlefield, and 464.2.c.1 makes the Attacker 'the player whose unit(s) applied the Contested status' - so a body played to a battlefield YOU control makes THEM the attacker during your turn, which is why this is a defensive payoff and not a point: 466.5 establishes Control only for a player who did not already have it.
• THE HIDDEN MODE IS THE CHEAP ONE AND IT NARROWS THE TARGET. 811.1.b hides a card 'at a battlefield you control that doesn't already have a facedown card hidden there for as long as you control that battlefield', and 811.1.d.2 confines a hidden spell's targets to that battlefield 'unless the ability explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible'. The unit is chosen out of their HAND, which no battlefield restriction can reach, so that half is free; the battlefield Bone Skewer names is the constrained one, and it is one you control - which is exactly the board this pairing wants. The tail of 811.1.b is also its price: lose that battlefield and the facedown card is lost with it.
• ONE PAIRING IN THE CENSUS IS A REFUSAL, RECORDED SO IT IS NOT WALKED. SFD-081 Card Sharp makes each opponent play a Gold gear token, which does satisfy VEN-102 Ravenbloom Prefect's 'When an opponent plays a gear' - but the Prefect's cost is 'you may banish me to banish it', so a 3-Energy 3-Might body of yours is spent to remove a token that 186.1 would have annihilated the moment it left the board anyway. It is a losing exchange by arithmetic, not by rule, and the domains are split (Card Sharp is Mind, the Prefect is Chaos) on top of it.
• 312.1.b.1 IS THE PARAGRAPH THIS ENTRY DERIVES WITHOUT CITING (upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 6). The opponent playing a unit on YOUR turn looks impossible against 312.2.a, which is why this entry reasons it out card by card - the rule says it outright: *"Players can always take and make choices for Limited Actions when instructed, regardless of Priority."* With 410.2.a that is the general licence behind every instructed play in the pool, and 312.1 is what makes the distinction legible: *"Priority is the singular exclusive right to take Discretionary Actions"*, which 419.2 says playing a card normally is - **priority governs what you may do AT WILL and never what you are INSTRUCTED to do.**

Steps

1. Have UNL-150 Vex, Apathetic standing at a battlefield - either one, her clause does not name Bone Skewer's.
2. Play UNL-139 Bone Skewer, from hand for E2 + 1 Chaos Power, or for 0 Energy from face down from the turn after the hide (811.1.b).
3. Name a battlefield. If Bone Skewer was hidden, 811.1.d.2 confines that choice to the battlefield it was hidden at, which 811.1.b guarantees is one you control.
4. The opponent reveals their hand. Choose the unit whose 'when you play me' is worst for them or absent - 191.3.d gives THEM that trigger and its decisions, and that is the real cost of the card.
5. They play it to the named battlefield, ignoring any and all costs. 191.1 and 191.3 make them its Controller.
6. That play satisfies Vex's Trigger Condition ('when an opponent plays a unit while I'm at a battlefield'), and Bone Skewer's own '[Stun] it' becomes a Reflexive Trigger on the Chain (387.1, 388.1). Both are yours; order them under 383.3.d.
7. One stun lands and the other does nothing (423.1.a.1). Vex's move lock lands regardless: they cannot move that body this turn.
8. Inside your turn the body is a stunned Attacker at a battlefield you control (190.3.a.1, 464.2.c.1) that contributes no Might to combat damage (423.1.b) and cannot walk away. At your end-of-turn cleanup step 3d both the stun and the 'this turn' lock expire (423.1.a.2).
9. Three copies of each (103.2.b). Nothing here repeats within a turn and nothing here scores.

Per iteration

one enemy body pulled out of hand onto a battlefield you control, stunned and move-locked for the rest of your turn, at the price of handing the opponent that unit's own enters-the-board trigger

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores, and 466.5 gives Control only to a player who does not already have it, so the forced attack cannot Conquer for you. Three Bone Skewer and three Vex (103.2.b); the stun and the move lock both end at step 3d of your own cleanup (423.1.a.2)

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 191.1 and 191.3 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 191.3.c and 191.3.d 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 423.1.a.1 and its worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 423.1.a.2 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 811.1.b 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

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