Combo · ENGINE

357.2.a: a cost replaced by a Replacement Effect is STILL CONSIDERED PAID - so Cruel Patron's kill buys a 6-Might body without anything dying, and Riot works this exact pair

6 cards · order + calm · verified

Pieces

• Cruel Patron ×3 OGN-208 · payoff · order

  As an additional cost to play me, kill a friendly unit.

• Zhonya's Hourglass ×3 OGN-077 · engine · calm

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) If a friendly unit would die, kill this instead. Heal that unit, exhaust it, and recall it. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

Payoff

Deck

• Cruel Patron is mono-Order and Zhonya's Hourglass is mono-Calm, so the identity is Calm/Order and 103.1.b.2 needs a legend covering both. Measured over data/cards.json those are OGN-261 / OGN-306 Radiant Dawn, SFD-197 / SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands, UNL-195 / UNL-233 Green Father and VEN-147 / VEN-193 Eye of Twilight.
• Neither is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), and neither appears in data/legality.json in any format - checked 2026-09-09, no ban and no restriction.
• The Hourglass must already be on the board when Cruel Patron's cost is paid; its [Hidden] mode makes that 0 Energy from the turn after the hide (811.1.b), and it needs a friendly unit to nominate as the one being killed.

Prerequisites

• THE RULE, AND IT READS AGAINST INTUITION. 357.2.a: 'Costs that are replaced with other events by replacement effects are still considered paid.' Riot's worked example is these two cards by name: 'A player plays Cruel Patron, which says "As an additional cost to play me, kill a friendly unit." They also control Zhonya's Hourglass ... They choose to kill a friendly unit during step 3, but as they pay the cost in step 4, Zhonya's Hourglass replaces that unit's death. The cost is considered paid, and the player can continue playing Cruel Patron.' 357.1.a, 357.2, 357.2.a and 357.3 are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project.
• AND 370.1.a.1 SAYS THE KILL GENUINELY DID NOT HAPPEN, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES THE PAIR STRANGE AND WORTH WRITING DOWN. 'Modifying or replacing an event is the same as modifying or replacing that Game Action or change in state that generated that event', with 'A unit's death being replaced by Zhonya's Hourglass is the same as the kill action that caused that death not occurring.' So no kill occurred - and the cost is still paid. Both paragraphs are uncited and they have to be read together or the interaction looks like a mistake.
• WHAT THAT BUYS, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Cruel Patron is 4 Energy for a Might 6 body; the Hourglass is 2 Energy, or 0 from face down (811.1.b plays a hidden card 'ignoring its base cost'). The nominated unit is healed, exhausted and recalled instead of dying, so the board goes from N bodies to N+1 with a Might 6 addition, for 4 Energy and one Hourglass. Without the Hourglass the same play is N bodies to N, since one dies to pay for the other.
• THE COSTS ARE PAID IN ANY ORDER, WHICH MATTERS ON CARDS WITH TWO. 357.2: 'In addition, pay any non-standard Cost summed in step 3 in any order', with Riot's example of a card whose cost is 'kill a friendly unit and discard a unit' - either first. And 357.3 is the limit: you may not pay costs that 'will deterministically result in illegal choices or actions later in this process unless they have no choice', which is why you cannot nominate the very unit a later part of the same card needs.
• THE PRICE IS THE HOURGLASS AND THE POSITION. It kills itself doing this, so each copy is one use and 103.2.b caps it at three. And 455 makes the save a Recall to the BASE without a Move, so the rescued body leaves whatever battlefield it was holding - 323.6 strips that battlefield at the next Cleanup if it was your last unit there - and 458.1 leaves it exhausted until 315.1.b readies it at your next Awakening.
• AND THE COMPANION TRAP, WHICH IS THE SAME MECHANISM CUTTING THE OTHER WAY. A COST that is replaced is still paid (357.2.a), but an EFFECT that references the kill action is not: 359.3.e.14.b makes an 'if you do' rider fail when the game action it names was replaced, and 808.1.d.1 removes a Deathknell from a body that never reaches the Trash. Cruel Patron works here precisely because its additional cost is a COST and it has no rider - SFD-163 Deathgrip, whose 'If you do' is Riot's own contrast case, would give nothing.
• 428.1.a.1 IS WHY THE KILL WAS A KILL INSTRUCTION IN THE FIRST PLACE: 'Active Kill is when the action is taken when instructed by a game effect or as a cost for a card or ability.' That is what puts it in front of the Hourglass's replacement at all - a body dying to lethal damage (428.1.a.2) is a Passive Kill and is a different event.
• 203.2 IS THE GENERAL STATEMENT AND THIS ENTRY STOOD ONLY ON THE WORKED EXAMPLE (citation upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 17). 357.2.a is the paragraph whose Example names Cruel Patron and Zhonya`s Hourglass by name, but the rule itself is one sentence higher in the book and carries no card: 203.2, "The Cost is still considered paid even if the associated game action is replaced." Cite the general rule beside the example, because the example is what makes this entry legible and the rule is what makes it true of every cost in the pool, not only this pair. Its neighbour 203.3 is the other half and is already the citation this catalogue uses for a cost that cannot be paid at all.

Bodies no card supplies

With the Hourglass on the board and at least one friendly unit standing, play OGN-208 Cruel Patron (4 Energy)

Steps

1. Hide OGN-077 Zhonya's Hourglass face down at a battlefield you control for one rainbow (811.1.b), or play it from hand for 2 Energy. From the turn after the hide it is 0 Energy.
2. With the Hourglass on the board and at least one friendly unit standing, play OGN-208 Cruel Patron (4 Energy).
3. At step 3 of playing, nominate the friendly unit for the additional cost. 357.3 forbids a nomination that would deterministically make a later choice illegal.
4. At step 4, pay the costs (357.2 allows non-standard costs in any order). The kill is an Active Kill under 428.1.a.1, because it is taken as a COST.
5. The Hourglass replaces the death: it kills itself instead and heals, exhausts and recalls the nominated unit. 370.1.a.1 means the kill action did not occur at all.
6. 357.2.a: the cost is still considered paid, so Cruel Patron resolves. You have a Might 6 body AND the unit you nominated, at your base and exhausted (455, 458.1); 315.1.b readies it at your next Awakening.
7. Do not try this with a card whose effect carries an 'if you do' rider on the same kill - 359.3.e.14.b withholds it - and expect no Deathknell from the saved body (808.1.d.1).
8. Three copies of each (103.2.b); each Hourglass is consumed by the save.

Per iteration

a Might 6 body added for 4 Energy with no body lost, at the price of one Zhonya's Hourglass and one turn of the rescued unit's position

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores. Three Cruel Patron and three Hourglass (103.2.b), each Hourglass consumed on use, and the rescued body is recalled to base so any battlefield it held is stripped at the next Cleanup (323.6)

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 357.2.a 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 357.2.a worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 370.1.a.1 worked example 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-09 2026-09-09 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue