Combo · ENGINE

The rune tax on every off-turn play, paid by a body instead — and 164.2.b lets an exhausted rune still pay the Power half, at the price of a rune

3 cards · body · verified

Pieces

• Dragonsoul Sage ×2 UNL-093 · resource · body

  [Reaction][>] Exhaust: [Add] 1 Energy. (Abilities that add resources can't be reacted to.)

• Cannon Barrage ×1 OGN-127 · payoff · body

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Deal 2 to all enemy units in combat.

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Body among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 17 names: Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Blind Monk (OGN-257), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), The Boss (OGN-269), Wuju Bladesman - Starter (OGS-019), Might of Demacia - Starter (OGS-023), Purifier (SFD-183), Grandmaster at Arms (SFD-193), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Grand Duelist (SFD-205), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Wuju Master (UNL-191), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Keeper of the Hammer (UNL-203), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141), Defender of Tomorrow (VEN-149), Matriarch of War (VEN-153).
• The two Sages must be READY when you pass the turn — 415.3.a readies them only in your own Awakening, so an activation on their turn is an activation you did not spend on yours.

Prerequisites

• THIS IS THE TAX EVERY OFF-TURN LINE IN THE CATALOGUE PAYS, AND THE SAGE IS THE WAY OUT. 167 empties every Rune Pool 'at the start of each player's Main Phase and the end of each player's turn', and 415.3.a readies your runes only 'during the Awakening Phase on their turn' — yours. So a [Reaction] card on the opponent's turn is normally funded by runes you deliberately left unexhausted on your own, which is Energy you did not spend. `UNL-093 Dragonsoul Sage` moves that cost onto a 2-Energy body: '[Reaction][>] exhaust: [Add] 1 Energy', and 813.1.c.2 is the permission — 'On Activated Abilities: "This can be activated during Closed States on any player's turn."'
• AND THE POWER HALF IS FREE EVEN OFF A SPENT RUNE. 164.2.b is 'Recycle this: [Reaction] — [Add] [C]' with NO exhaust in its cost, so a rune already tapped for Energy on your own turn still pays one Power of its domain on theirs; 161.2.b sends it to the Rune Deck rather than the Main Deck, and 161.2.a caps the deck at twelve, so the real price is one rune off the board. Two Sages plus one rune recycle therefore pay Cannon Barrage's full 2 Energy + 1 Body Power with NOTHING held ready. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#469): 'FREE' in the heading above means free of an EXHAUST, not free. 164.2.b costs the recycle, and after #456/#460 a recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b) while 430.1 channels from the top, so the Power half is paid in a rune: until the Rune Deck is empty each recycle leaves the board a rune short (it is back on T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn, 161.2.a, 315.3.b, 485.7; each two more recycled push it a turn later, and a card that channels more, 430.2, brings it back sooner). 'With NOTHING held ready' stays true, since no Sage or rune is kept unexhausted, and the Energy half stays the Sages' exhausts alone. Nothing but the word changes: the mechanism and the arithmetic are untouched, the price line above already said 'one rune off the board', and STATUS KEPT verified.
• 'All enemy units in combat' TARGETS NOTHING. 355.10.d makes an object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen' a non-target, with the worked example '"Kill all units at a battlefield" targets a battlefield, but does not target any units'. So [Deflect] never charges (809.1.c, 809.1.d) and no 'can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' clause protects an attacker from it. 740.2.c is the scope: 'A unit is in combat if it is occupying a battlefield where combat is ongoing and has a combat designation' — so your own defenders are NOT hit, because the spell says ENEMY units.
• TWO DAMAGE IS A TOKEN SWEEPER AND THE ENTRY SAYS SO. 143.2.a kills at Might, so this clears 1- and 2-Might bodies and merely marks anything larger. Against the Recruit, Sprite, Bird and Tentacle engines in this catalogue it is a whole attack erased for 2 Energy; against a garrison of real bodies it is a rounding error.
• The Sages are 1-Might bodies, so they die to exactly the sweeper they are paying for. Keep them at your base: 355.2.a lets a unit be played there, they need no battlefield to activate, and 740.2.c keeps them out of combat entirely.
• 429.2 is why the Add resolves cleanly mid-chain: an ability that Adds resolves as soon as it is finalized, before any other outstanding chain item — which is also what the reminder text on the card ('Abilities that add resources can't be reacted to') is telling you.
• ONE ENERGY AT REACTION SPEED ANSWERS THE BODY THIS ENGINE STANDS ON (Dragonsoul Sage (M1 x2)). OGN-133 Flurry of Blades is Body, 1 Energy: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Deal 1 to all units at battlefields." 143.2.a kills a unit whose marked damage equals or exceeds its Might and 142.4.b defines Lethal Damage as "a non-zero amount greater than or equal to that Unit's Might", so one damage is lethal to every body of Might 1 or less. RUNNING MORE COPIES IS NOT A DEFENCE: 370.1.a.2 makes events simultaneous when they "are all the result of the same Game Action", so the sweep kills every copy at once. And because it carries [Reaction], 813.1.c.1 lets it be played "during Closed States on any player's turn" - it never has to be cast a turn early the way the base-reaching removals do, and it can land in response to the very trigger this engine exists to fire. WHAT PROTECTS IT: this entry's cards are body, so the second domain is still free and CHOOSING IT DECIDES WHICH PROTECTION YOU GET - 103.1.b allows exactly one partner, so these are alternatives and not a list you can run together. only if the second domain is FURY: VEN-018 Rage Amplifier (gear, 'Your units have +1 Might' - the only UNCONDITIONAL board-wide one, +2 while Empowered) | only if the second domain is ORDER: OGN-243 Darius, Executioner ('Other friendly units have +1 Might HERE' - his battlefield only, and never himself); OGS-013 Garen, Commander (same clause as Darius, same limits) | only if the second domain is MIND: UNL-077 Soul Shepherd ('Your TOKEN units have +1 Might' - tokens only, nothing for a printed body); SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper ('Your MECHS have +1 Might' - Mech tag only) | colourless, so legal whatever the second domain is: OGN-294 Trifarian War Camp (colourless battlefield, 'Units here have +1 Might') - but 485.5 makes a battlefield you bring a 1-in-3, and 103.4.c forbids two of the same name. A single-target pump is no use against a sweep that hits every body at once, which is why only permanent, board-wide sources are listed.

Steps

1. Play two Dragonsoul Sages (2 Energy each) and leave them at your base.
2. Pass the turn with both Sages ready. No runes need to be held.
3. The opponent attacks; a combat opens and their units gain the Attacker designation (464.2.c.3, 740.2.c).
4. In that Closed State, exhaust both Sages for 1 Energy each (813.1.c.2, 429.2), and recycle any rune — even one already exhausted — for 1 Body Power (164.2.b).
5. Play Cannon Barrage (813.1.c.1): 2 damage to all enemy units in combat, targeting nothing (355.10.d).
6. 143.2.a kills every attacker of 2 Might or less outright.

Per iteration

-1 card, two Sage activations and one rune recycled, 2 damage to every enemy unit in combat

How it ends

engine — a 2-damage sweep of the attacking garrison every turn you can spare the card, funded entirely off-board so no runes are held ready; nothing here scores

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

• Hand walk 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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