Combo · ENGINE

Thrill of the Hunt on the opponent's turn is your first card, and the unit it replays is your second

2 cards · fury + body · verified

Pieces

• Darius, Trifarian ×1 OGN-027 · payoff · fury

  When you play your second card in a turn, give me +2 Might this turn and ready me.

• Thrill of the Hunt ×1 UNL-184 · engine · fury/body

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Banish a friendly unit, then its owner plays it to any battlefield, ignoring its cost.

Payoff

Deck

• UNL-184 Thrill of the Hunt is a SIGNATURE card tagged Rengar, so 103.2.d.2 forces a Rengar legend that also covers fury + body: UNL-183 Pridestalker — the only one. Domain-legal legends without the Rengar tag cannot run the list. (Rebuilt from the census by test/legend-lines.test.ts, 2026-09-07; an earlier line named legends that cannot hold a Rengar Signature card.)

Run play

• Darius is an eight only where they attack, and his ready pays on your turn

Prerequisites

• THE TRIGGER COUNTS CARDS AND THE SPELL PLAYS TWO OF THEM. Thrill of the Hunt is card one; the unit it makes its owner play, ignoring its cost, is card two - so on a turn where you have played nothing, one spell fires Darius. 'When you play your second card in a turn' names no turn player, which is why the [Reaction] timing works.
• 8 MIGHT IS THREE SOURCES, NOT TWO. Darius is 5 printed, +2 from his own trigger, +1 from Pridestalker's 'when you play a unit' off the replayed body - which is exactly the figure the source gives. Without the legend it is 7. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#361, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-darius-is-an-eight-only-where-they-attack-and-his-ready-pays-on-your-turn.md): Pridestalker reads 'When you play a unit, give a unit +1 :rb_might: this turn.' 'A unit' is a choice, not Darius by default: the 8 needs the +1 put on him, and the replayed body is the other candidate.
• DO NOT REPLAY DARIUS HIMSELF WITH IT. His trigger has to be on the board when the second card is played, and a Darius who IS that second card is arriving as it resolves - the same timing knot R26 was opened over. Banish and replay a different friendly unit and the question never comes up. That is also what the source describes.
• THE MIGHT IS 'THIS TURN'. On the opponent's turn the payoff is a defender, and only the +2 counts there; nothing carries over except the repositioning, since Thrill of the Hunt plays the banished unit 'to any battlefield'. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#361, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-darius-is-an-eight-only-where-they-attack-and-his-ready-pays-on-your-turn.md): this notable said the ready 'is what makes the body available at all'. It is not. 464.2.c.3 designates every unit at the battlefield, ready or not: 'Units at the Contested Battlefield controlled by the Attacker or Defender gain the Attacker or Defender designation now, as appropriate.' The combat paragraphs (460-466) never mention exhausted or ready. He cannot move on their turn either: 410.1.a, 'A Discretionary Action is a Game Action that may be performed at any time during a player's turn during a Neutral Open State.', in which only they hold priority (312.2.a), and 144.1.b and 144.1.c bar a move in a Closed State and in a Showdown. And your Awaken readies him anyway (315.1.b). On their turn the ready buys nothing; on yours it is a second move - the walk is his exhaust (144.2), the second card readies him, and he walks again.
• One Thrill of the Hunt is one firing. 103.2.b allows three copies and there is no recursion here.
• THE 8 STANDS AT ONE BATTLEFIELD, IN A WINDOW THEY OPEN - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#361, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-darius-is-an-eight-only-where-they-attack-and-his-ready-pays-on-your-turn.md). Step 5 and the net used to read 'one 8 Might ready Darius on the opponent's turn' with no location. The 8 counts only in a combat at Darius's battlefield, so the cheapest answer is attacking the other battlefield, with no card and no rune: in the play their four bodies into the other battlefield scored the same 4 to 3 with Thrill as without it. And on their turn you act only in a window they open: a chain of theirs, where a [Reaction] card plays (813.1.c.1, 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn.') and priority reaches you when they pass (312.2.d), or their Showdown (308.1.a), where Focus reaches you when they pass (347.2.b). If they open neither, there is no window.
• THE SOURCE'S 'SWING IN FOR EIGHT' IS NOT ON THEIR TURN - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#361, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-darius-is-an-eight-only-where-they-attack-and-his-ready-pays-on-your-turn.md). Darius cannot move on their turn (410.1.a, 144.1.b, 144.1.c), so there he only defends. On your turn his half needs no Thrill: any second card readies him and gives the +2, and each unit you play is another Pridestalker +1. In the play two 2-drops on T4 made him a 9 (5 + 2 + 1 + 1) after he had walked home, and he walked again into their battlefield and conquered it.
• WHAT ANSWERS THE TRICK - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#361, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-darius-is-an-eight-only-where-they-attack-and-his-ready-pays-on-your-turn.md). They get priority while Thrill is on the chain (312.2.d) and Focus back when your chain closes (347.1.b, 'When that Chain closes, Focus passes to the next Player in Turn Order.'), so they always answer after it. In Body/Chaos, measured in the play's combat (their four bodies, 10 Might, against Darius with 1 marked and a replayed Pouty Poro): OGN-169 Gust (Chaos, E1, [Reaction], 'Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less to its owner's hand.') bounces the replayed body for one rune even through [Deflect] - E1 and the rainbow tax from one rune exhausted then recycled (164.2.a, 164.2.b). Eight cards do it for two runes: UNL-131 Abandon (counters Thrill, so nothing is replayed and nothing triggers, 419.4.a.1), SFD-136 Hard Bargain (the same when you cannot pay its E2), VEN-072 Guttural Roar, UNL-095 Grim Resolve, SFD-097 Punch First, OGN-127 Cannon Barrage, OGN-172 Rebuke and SFD-145 Switcheroo. Banish a unit from your base: spells that reach 'a unit at a battlefield' cannot touch it while Thrill is on the chain.

Steps

1. Darius on a battlefield, ready or not; Thrill of the Hunt in hand; nothing played yet this turn.
2. On the opponent's turn, play Thrill of the Hunt as a [Reaction] (2 Energy + 1 Power). That is your first card.
3. It banishes a friendly unit and its owner plays it to any battlefield ignoring its cost. That play is your second card.
4. Darius triggers: +2 Might this turn and ready me. Pridestalker's 'when you play a unit' adds another +1.
5. Darius is an 8 Might body in the middle of the opponent's turn, at his own battlefield - the 8 counts only in a combat there - and the banished unit has been relocated for free.

Per iteration

one 8 Might Darius in a combat at his own battlefield on the opponent's turn, plus a free relocation, for 2 Energy and 1 Power

How it ends

a single [Reaction] trick per copy - three a game, no recursion

Sources

Published elsewhere

• YouTube — Hazmatt (Riftbound), "Guide to Rengar in the Unleashed Meta [hazmatt.gg]" 2026-06-02
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Minería por leyenda — issue #62 (GitHub) 2026-09-06

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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