Combo · ENGINE
A 'channel N runes' card is a refill, not a ramp — and 430.3 is what turns Catalyst of Aeons into a cantrip instead
Pieces
- Catalyst of Aeons ×1
OGN-138 · engine · body
Channel 2 runes exhausted. If you couldn't channel 2 runes this way, draw 1.
- Stormclaw Ursine ×1
OGN-137 · payoff · body
[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.) When you play me, channel 1 rune exhausted.
Payoff
Deck
- Any legend with Body among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 17 names: Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Blind Monk (OGN-257), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), The Boss (OGN-269), Wuju Bladesman - Starter (OGS-019), Might of Demacia - Starter (OGS-023), Purifier (SFD-183), Grandmaster at Arms (SFD-193), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Grand Duelist (SFD-205), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Wuju Master (UNL-191), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Keeper of the Hammer (UNL-203), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141), Defender of Tomorrow (VEN-149), Matriarch of War (VEN-153).
- Runes still in the Rune Deck — 430.3 is what decides which half of Catalyst of Aeons you get.
Prerequisites
- AN EXHAUSTED RUNE IS POWER NOW AND ENERGY NEXT TURN, AND THE TWO HALVES ARE DIFFERENT RULES. 430.2.a: 'By default, runes are channeled readied' — both these cards override it and channel exhausted. 164.2.a's Energy ability costs the rune's exhaust, so an exhausted rune gives no Energy until 415.3.a readies it in your next Awakening. But 164.2.b — 'Recycle this: [Reaction] — [Add] [C]' — has NO exhaust in its cost, so the same rune pays one Power of its domain immediately, at Reaction speed, on either player's turn. A 'channel N exhausted' card is therefore N Power now and N Energy from your next turn.
- AND IT IS A REFILL, NOT A RAMP. 161.2.a caps the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards chosen during Deck Construction', 315.3.b channels two free every Channel Phase, and 161.2.b returns every recycled rune to the Rune Deck rather than the Main Deck. So by the time a 4-Energy spell is castable the deck is mostly on the board already, and what these cards do is put back what recycling took — which is exactly why the Power half above is the real payoff and the Energy half is usually a wash.
- 430.3 IS THE CLAUSE THAT MAKES THE CARD PLAYABLE ANYWAY. 'If there aren't sufficient runes in the Rune Deck, channel as many as possible' — so Catalyst of Aeons does not fizzle; it channels what it can, and its own second sentence pays you a card when it could not channel two. A ramp card with a printed late-game mode, and 430.3 is the rule that decides which mode you get.
- THE URSINE STAPLES THE SAME EFFECT ONTO A BODY. 'When you play me, channel 1 rune exhausted' rides on a 6-Might [Tank] — 815.1.c.2 makes every other unit of yours an invalid damage assignment until he has lethal — so the rune is free on a card you were playing for the board anyway. That is the honest reason to run the pair: the Catalyst is the flexible half and the Ursine is the half that costs nothing extra.
- 167 is the discipline the Power half needs: 'Every player's Rune Pool empties at the start of each player's Main Phase and the end of each player's turn', so the Power from a 164.2.b recycle has to be spent in the window you take it, and recycling the rune costs you the rune (161.2.b sends it back to the Rune Deck, off the board).
- Neither card is a Power source in the way a Seal is: a Seal (`OGN-163`, `OGN-204`, `OGN-040`) pays every turn for one exhaust, whereas a recycled rune pays once and leaves the board. Do not price these as mana rocks.
Steps
- Play Stormclaw Ursine (7 Energy). His play trigger channels 1 rune exhausted (430.2 overriding 430.2.a's default).
- That rune gives no Energy this turn — 164.2.a needs its exhaust, which is already spent — but it will after your next Awakening (415.3.a).
- It does pay 1 Power of its domain immediately if you recycle it (164.2.b, no exhaust in the cost), at Reaction speed on either turn.
- Cast Catalyst of Aeons (4 Energy) when you want two more: 430.3 channels as many as the Rune Deck holds.
- If it could not channel two, its own second sentence draws you a card instead — the printed late-game mode.
Per iteration
+N runes on the board exhausted: N Power available at once through 164.2.b, N Energy from your next Awakening
How it ends
engine — up to three runes back on the board as immediate Power and next turn's Energy, with a cantrip mode once the Rune Deck runs dry; 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
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.
AUTHORED 2026-09-07, issue #173. OGN-138 Catalyst of Aeons and OGN-137 Stormclaw Ursine were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.3, 161.2.a, 161.2.b, 164.2.a, 164.2.b, 167, 315.3.b, 415.3.a, 430.2, 430.2.a, 430.3, 815.1.c.2 opened in the Core Rules file. Both cards legal in both formats; neither is Signature. No unruled reading. CLAUDE.md already records that a 'channel N runes' payoff is a refill rather than a ramp (#153); what this entry adds is the split inside 'exhausted' — Power immediately through 164.2.b, Energy only from the next Awakening — and 430.3 as the rule behind the printed cantrip mode.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16