Combo · ENGINE

Two runes handed back is exactly the base cost and not a penny more — so the [Repeat] that doubles the tax is the deck's problem, not the legend's

4 cards · fury + chaos · verified

Pieces

• Dark Child - Starter ×1 OGS-017 · legend · fury/chaos

  At the end of your turn, ready up to 2 runes.

• Hard Bargain ×3 SFD-136 · payoff · chaos

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) [Repeat] 2 Energy (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.) Counter a spell unless its controller pays 2 Energy.

Payoff

Deck

• OGS-017 Dark Child - Starter IS the legend and IS the requirement; Hard Bargain is mono-Chaos, so 103.1.b.3 admits it. Nothing here is Signature (103.2.d.2).
• Two runes left unexhausted going into the end of your turn — the legend readies 'up to 2', so the ceiling is what she gives, not what you saved.

Run play

• the Repeat counters only into two or three spare Energy

Prerequisites

• WHY OFF-TURN ENERGY IS SCARCE AT ALL, WHICH IS THE PREMISE. 415.3.a: 'A player Readies all non-spell Game Objects they Control during the Awakening Phase on their turn.' So a rune you exhausted on your own turn is dead for the whole of the opponent's, and 167 empties the POOL rather than the runes, so nothing carries over either. Dark Child's end-of-turn ready is the one card in Fury/Chaos that fixes it, and 164.2.a's '[exhaust]: [Reaction] — [Add] 1 Energy' is what turns each readied rune into a resource at the right speed. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#469): 'dead for the whole of the opponent's' is true of ENERGY only (164.2.a is an exhaust ability) and false of Power: 164.2.b, "Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]", has no exhaust in its cost and is [Reaction] speed, so a rune exhausted on your own turn can still be recycled for Power on theirs (813.2: the keyword's permission is not restricted to Closed States or Showdowns; 167 empties the Rune Pool, not the board, and 415.3.a only stops the rune READYING, which 164.2.b does not need). It costs the rune off the board (161.2.b, 416.1.b), so it is Power at a rune's price, and it is domain-bound (164.2.b.1). No conclusion changes: this entry's arithmetic is Energy-only (Hard Bargain E2, Repeat E2), and status stays verified. Same correction as chemtech-cask-renata-off-turn-power (#468).
• AND THE ARITHMETIC IS EXACT, WHICH IS THE ENTRY. Two runes are two Energy. Hard Bargain's base cost is two Energy. The legend pays for the spell and for nothing else — the [Repeat] cost of a further 2 Energy has to come from runes you deliberately did not spend on your own turn. `dark-child-abandon-guaranteed-counter` already banks the exact-fit half of this with a hard counter; what this entry adds is the case where the deck brings MORE than the legend gives, and what that extra 2 Energy buys.
• WHAT THE [Repeat] ACTUALLY BUYS, READ CAREFULLY. 820.1.b: 'Repeat is an optional cost that a player may pay to execute the effect of their spells and abilities a second time', 820.1.c.1 makes the cost an Additional Cost paid while playing, and 820.2.a lets the second execution make different choices. Against ONE spell, two executions ask the controller for 2 Energy twice — they keep it only by paying FOUR, on a turn they have already committed their mana. Against two spells on the chain, it is two soft counters from one card. Either way it is one card and 4 Energy.
• IT IS A [Reaction], AND THAT IS THE ONLY WINDOW THAT EXISTS. 813.1.c.1 makes a [Reaction] card playable 'during Closed States on any player's turn' and 312.2.c hands out priority there; 312.2.a gives the opponent no priority in a Neutral Open State on your turn, so the mirror of this never happens to you in your own Main Phase.
• A SOFT COUNTER IS NOT A DEAD CARD AGAINST A RICH OPPONENT, AND THE ENTRY SAYS SO. 'Unless its controller pays 2 Energy' means a player holding mana simply pays. What the card does then is TAX — it converts your 2 Energy into their 2, at Reaction speed, on a turn when their Rune Pool is already committed and 167 will empty whatever is left. That is a real effect, and it is the honest description; calling it a counterspell overstates it.
• COST, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Legend free. Hard Bargain 2 Energy base and 2 more for the [Repeat], three copies (103.2.b), all of it paid on the opponent's turn out of runes the legend readied at the end of yours. A turn in which you cast the base spell only is exactly the legend's two runes and nothing of your own.
• WHAT REFUTES IT. (a) 'Ready UP TO 2 runes' means the legend never gives more, so scaling the [Repeat] is entirely on the rune deck — every Power you paid on your own turn is a rune 161.2.b sent back to the Rune Deck and cannot be readied. (b) Countering is not removal: nothing here touches a permanent already on the board. (c) 820.1.b gives exactly ONE extra execution — there is no third.

Steps

1. During your own turn, deliberately leave runes unexhausted, or accept that the legend's two are all you will have.
2. At the end of your turn, Dark Child readies up to 2 runes. 167 empties the Rune Pool at the end of your turn, but the RUNES themselves stay ready (161.2 keeps them on the board).
3. On the opponent's turn, they play a spell. That opens a Closed State and 312.2.c gives you priority.
4. Play Hard Bargain as a [Reaction] (813.1.c.1) for 2 Energy, tapping the runes the legend handed back (164.2.a).
5. Pay the [Repeat] cost of 2 more Energy as an Additional Cost while playing it (820.1.c.1) if you have it.
6. First execution: counter their spell unless they pay 2. Second execution (820.1.b): the same spell again, or a different one (820.2.a). To keep one spell through both, they must find 4 Energy on a turn they have already spent.

Per iteration

one soft counter a turn paid entirely by the legend, and a second execution that doubles the tax if the rune deck brought 2 more Energy of its own

How it ends

engine only — the legend readies up to 2 runes and no more, 820.1.b allows exactly one extra execution, and three copies is three turns of interaction (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 dark-child-off-turn-reactions (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

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue