Combo · ENGINE
Direwing off a second Dragon — the third card in the pool that beats 143.4
Pieces
- Direwing ×1
SFD-094 · payoff · body
I enter ready if you control another Dragon.
- Dune Drake ×1
OGN-131 · engine · body
When I attack, give me +2 Might this turn if there is a ready enemy unit here.
- Herald of Scales ×1
OGN-140 · engine · body
Your Dragons' Energy costs are reduced by 2 Energy, to a minimum of 1 Energy.
Payoff
Deck
- All three mono-Body (103.1.b.3), so any legend carrying Body runs them.
- A second Dragon must already be on the board when Direwing enters — his condition is checked as he enters, not later.
Prerequisites
- 143.4 is 'Units enter the Board exhausted' and 143.4.a says 'This can be altered by Accelerate or similar game effects.' Swept over all 935 base codes, TWO print the conditional tribal form 'I enter ready if you control another X': SFD-071 Breakneck Mech and SFD-094 Direwing. They join OGN-011 Magma Wurm and SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist as the pool's ways past that default — this is a small family and it is worth counting rather than assuming.
- What entering ready buys is one turn: 144.2 prices the Standard Move at the unit's own exhaust, so an ordinary unit is played on turn N and attacks on turn N+1. Direwing walks in and attacks on turn N.
- Herald of Scales is the reason the curve works. E7 and E5 are two turns apart on their own; at E5 and E3 both Dragons land in one turn of a twelve-rune board, which is what the 'if you control another Dragon' condition needs.
- Dune Drake's own trigger reads 'if there is a ready enemy unit here'. 143.4 means a body the opponent played this turn is exhausted, so the +2 is not free — it wants a garrison that has been standing, which is exactly the garrison Direwing is being played to break.
- Nothing here scores. The Conquer does (466.5.d), and the entry claims no more than that.
Steps
- Play Herald of Scales (E4). Your Dragons now cost E2 less, floored at E1 by 356.4.e's per-discount minimum.
- Play Dune Drake for E3. He enters exhausted (143.4) and is next turn's attacker.
- Play Direwing for E5. His own text sees another Dragon and he enters READY (143.4.a).
- Standard-move Direwing to an occupied enemy battlefield the same turn: 144.4.a allows it, 144.2 takes his exhaust, 190.3.a.1 applies Contested and 464.2.c.1 makes you the Attacker.
- 465.2.c assigns each side damage equal to its summed Might; at M7 he clears most single garrisons alone. 466.5 establishes Control and 466.5.d makes it a Conquer.
How it ends
engine only — a 7 Might attacker one full turn earlier than 143.4 allows, once per Direwing (three copies, 103.2.b). Nothing here scores beyond the Conquer.
Sources
Published elsewhere
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- Issue #153 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-06, issue #153 — the 55 synergy rules no catalogued entry stands on 2026-09-06 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 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-orphan-synergy-rules.md §22), issue #153, from the orphan rule direwing-dragon-ready. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened: 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 143.4, 143.4.a, 144.2, 144.4.a, 190.3.a.1, 356.4.e, 464.2.c.1, 465.2.c, 466.5, 466.5.d. The 'two base codes print this form' count was swept over all 935 BASE codes, per walk document §11a; it is a count, not a uniqueness claim. Trap check: the attack is against a real garrison, so the empty-battlefield trap is respected; 'enters ready' is not a ready (#56) and the entry never asks it to give an exhaust back — it only lets the unit pay 144.2's own cost; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no token; no recall; 167 is not touched. Depends on no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16