Combo · ENGINE
206 at its widest: a body whose real cost falls to 6 still reads as a 10, so the legend refunds two runes for it
Pieces
- Curator of the Sands ×1
VEN-145 · legend · calm/mind
When you play a unit, gear, or activated ability with Energy cost 7 Energy or more, you may exhaust me to ready up to 2 runes.
- Needlessly Large Yordle ×3
SFD-055 · payoff · calm
[Shield 5] (+5 Might while I'm a defender.) [Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.) I cost 2 Energy + 1 Calm Power less for each point you scored from holding this turn.
Payoff
Deck
- VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands IS the legend and IS the requirement; Needlessly Large Yordle is mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits him. Nothing here is Signature (103.2.d.2).
- At least one Hold this turn for the Yordle's discount to be worth anything — and the discount is what makes the pairing legible, not what makes it legal.
Prerequisites
- 206 IS THE ENTRY, AND THE YORDLE IS ITS WIDEST DEMONSTRATION IN THE POOL. 206 makes a cost-threshold trigger read the PRINTED or BASE cost, and its own worked examples are Lady of Luminosity and this legend's family. Needlessly Large Yordle prints TEN Energy and prices itself at '2 Energy + 1 Calm rune less for each point you scored from holding this turn'. In a Duel the ceiling is two Holds (485.4 puts two battlefields on the table, 470 allows one Score each), so the real cost bottoms out at 6 Energy + 1 Calm Power — and the Curator still reads 10 and still fires. No other card in Calm or Mind moves that far between its printed and its paid cost.
- AND 206.1'S EXCEPTION DOES NOT REACH IT. 206.1 for abilities says 'unless otherwise specified', and the specification that exists is Empower's: 827.1.c.3 makes cost-altering text count 'when determining a card's Empower cost for any reason'. The Yordle's reduction is not an [Empower] cost, so nothing switches the Curator off. This is the same line the project drew in #47 to kill the 'Empower discounted to 0 that still triggers' family — the discount family that SURVIVES is the ordinary one, and this is it.
- WHAT THE REBATE IS ACTUALLY WORTH, IN THE RIGHT CURRENCY. 164.2.a makes Energy the RUNE'S EXHAUST ability, so readying 2 runes is 2 Energy of access — not Power. 164.2.b, the recycle-for-Power ability, carries no exhaust, so an already-exhausted rune pays Power anyway and readying it buys nothing there (the free floor of 2 Power a turn from 315.3.b and 164.2.b is untouched by this line). The rebate is therefore exactly 2 Energy, once a turn, because the Curator's cost is her own exhaust and 315.1.b readies her only in your Awakening.
- NET, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Two Holds this turn: the Yordle costs 6 Energy + 1 Calm Power instead of 10 + 3. Play him, exhaust the Curator, ready 2 runes: 4 Energy net for a M5 body with [Shield 5] and [Tank]. Every other 7+ printed card you play that turn is worth nothing extra — the exhaust is spent.
- WHAT YOU GET FOR THE 4 ENERGY IS A WALL, AND IT IS PRICED IN THE OPPONENT'S DAMAGE. 814.1.b/814.2 make [Shield 5] worth +5 Might while defending, so he defends at 10. 815.1.c.2 is the harder half: 'Units without Tank are invalid assignments until all units with Tank have lethal damage assigned to them' — so the attacker MUST spend 10 of its summed Might on him before 465.2.c may touch anything else of yours. That is the whole garrison bought with one body.
- AND THAT IS ALSO WHY HE IS ANTI-SYNERGIC WITH THE PLAZA FAMILY. The same 815.1.c.2 that protects a garrison forbids the attacker assigning damage anywhere else — which is a defensive gift when your other bodies are the ones that matter, and a liability in any line whose seven 1-Might tokens have to SURVIVE a sweeper rather than a combat, since a sweeper assigns nothing and [Tank] never sees it.
- WHAT REFUTES IT. (a) The Yordle is never free: CLAUDE.md's own count stands — 485.4 caps a Duel at two Holds, so the floor is 6 Energy + 1 Calm Power. (b) The Curator's ready is a 'you may' with an exhaust, so exactly one trigger a turn is cashed however many big cards you play. (c) 3 Calm Power at full price is above the free floor of 2 that every deck has, so the rune deck has to carry the un-discounted case.
- THE TRIGGER FIRES ON RESOLUTION, SO A COUNTERED ABILITY NEVER PAYS HIM (added 2026-09-09, #187 lane). VEN-145 reads "When you play a unit, gear, or activated ability with Energy cost 7 or more", and 377.2 says card text refers to activating Activated Abilities with the word "use" or "play" - with 377.2.a: "If `using` or `playing` an Activated Ability is part of a trigger condition, that condition is fulfilled when the Activated Ability resolves." So the ability half of this legend is answerable in a way the unit and gear halves are not.
Steps
- Hold one or two battlefields at your Beginning Phase (315.2.b.2). Each point scored from Holding cuts the Yordle by 2 Energy and 1 Calm rune.
- Main Phase: play Needlessly Large Yordle. With two Holds he costs 6 Energy + 1 Calm Power instead of his printed 10 + 3.
- The Curator's trigger fires anyway, because 206 reads the PRINTED Energy cost of 10 and not the 6 you paid.
- Exhaust the Curator: ready up to 2 runes. 164.2.a makes each worth 1 Energy of access this turn.
- Spend that Energy in the same Main Phase — 167 empties the Rune Pool at the start of your next one.
- On the opponent's turn the Yordle defends at 10 (814.1.b, 814.2) and 815.1.c.2 forces every point of their assignment onto him before any other body of yours is a legal target.
Per iteration
a 10-Might [Tank] wall for a net 4 Energy and 1 Calm Power, with the legend's rebate paid on a printed cost the card no longer charges
How it ends
engine only — the Curator's exhaust caps the rebate at one trigger a turn and nothing here scores; the Yordle is three copies (103.2.b)
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
- Synergy rule curator-of-the-sands-printed-cost (data/synergies.json) 2026-09-06
- Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 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.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07 (issue #170), from the proven rule curator-of-the-sands-printed-cost (54 partners, 53 uncovered, one entry). SFD-055 Needlessly Large Yordle was in zero entries and is the widest printed-versus-paid gap in the legend's own two domains: printed 10 Energy + 3 Calm Power, floor 6 + 1 after the two Holds a Duel allows. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened and read: 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 103.2.d.2, 164.2.a, 164.2.b, 167, 206, 206.1, 315.1.b, 315.2.b.2, 315.3.b, 465.2.c, 470, 485.4, 814.1.b, 814.2, 815.1.c.2, 827.1.c.3. Ban check: VEN-145 and SFD-055 carry no [BANNED marker. Arithmetic against its own declared quantities: printed 10 read by the trigger, 6 + 1 Calm Power paid, 2 Energy refunded, net 4 Energy. Trap check: the rebate is ENERGY and not Power (164.2.a versus 164.2.b), so it does not widen the free Power floor; the Curator's exhaust caps it at one a turn; [Tank] is named as an anti-synergy with any line whose small bodies must survive a SWEEPER, which assigns no damage and so never sees 815.1.c.2; no token, no [Temporary], no [Repeat], no buff. Depends on no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16