Combo · ENGINE
Eager Apprentice into Sky Splitter — the Core Rules' own worked example, ordered the right way
Pieces
- Eager Apprentice ×1
OGN-084 · engine · mind
While I'm at a battlefield, the Energy costs for spells you play is reduced by 1 Energy, to a minimum of 1 Energy.
- Sky Splitter ×3
OGN-014 · payoff · fury
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) This spell's Energy cost is reduced by the highest Might among units you control. Deal 5 to a unit at a battlefield.
- Thousand-Tailed Watcher ×1
OGN-116 · engine · mind
[Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When you play me, give enemy units -3 Might this turn, to a minimum of 1 Might.
Payoff
Deck
- Mind + Fury: OGN-247 Daughter of the Void (Kai'Sa) is the legend (103.1.b.2).
- Eager Apprentice must be standing AT a battlefield, not at your base.
Prerequisites
- THE CORE RULES USE THESE TWO CARDS AS THEIR OWN WORKED EXAMPLE, and the example is about the order. 356.4.e: 'If a discount applies a minimum cost, that minimum applies only to that discount.' Its example: with Eager Apprentice and a 7-Might unit, applying the Apprentice first takes Sky Splitter from E8 to E7 and then its own discount takes it to E0 — 'If they applied these discounts in the other order, Sky Splitter's Energy cost would be 1.' 356.4.c.1 is the permission: 'Discounts that apply to a given component of a spell's cost may be applied in any order to that component.'
- So the Apprentice is worth exactly one Energy on Sky Splitter and ONLY at Might 7. At Might 8 or more, Sky Splitter's own discount already reaches E0 in either order and the Apprentice adds nothing to it — the floor at E1 is not a floor on the total, it is a floor on how far THAT discount may reduce. Thousand-Tailed Watcher is in the line precisely because he is Might 7.
- Neither discount touches the Power. Sky Splitter always costs its 1 Fury Power, so 'free' means free of Energy only.
- The Watcher's ETB is the second half of the removal, and 477.3.b is why it is worth naming: '-3 Might this turn, to a minimum of 1 Might' is snapshotted when it applies, so a 4-Might body becomes 1 and Sky Splitter's 5 damage is lethal on anything the reduction touched (143.2.a needs damage equal to or exceeding Might).
- Three Sky Splitters (103.2.b) and nothing returns them, so this is three castings a game, not a loop.
Steps
- Play Eager Apprentice and, on a later turn, standard-move him to a battlefield (144.4.a; 144.2 takes his exhaust). His discount is live from then on.
- Have a unit at exactly Might 7 on the board — Thousand-Tailed Watcher is one, and his own ETB gives enemy units -3 Might this turn to a minimum of 1.
- Play Sky Splitter and apply Eager Apprentice's discount FIRST: E8 becomes E7 (the E1 floor is not reached).
- Then apply Sky Splitter's own: E7 minus the highest Might you control, 7, is E0. 356.4.c.1 allows exactly this ordering and 356.4.e is why the floor does not follow the cost down.
- Pay the 1 Fury Power and deal 5 to a unit at a battlefield, which is lethal on anything the Watcher shrank (143.2.a).
How it ends
engine only — three castings of a 5-damage [Action] removal for 1 Power each, and one Energy a turn off every other spell. 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
- 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 §16), issue #153, from the orphan rule eager-apprentice-sky-splitter. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened: 103.1.b.2, 103.2.b, 143.2.a, 144.2, 144.4.a, 356.4.c.1, 356.4.d, 356.4.e, 477.3.b. The entry narrows its own rule: the pairing is worth ONE Energy and only at Might exactly 7, which is why the Core Rules chose 7 for the example — at Might 8 or more the Apprentice adds nothing to Sky Splitter. No uniqueness claim is made; the sweep behind the Might-7 body was over base codes, per the correction recorded in the walk document §11a. Trap check: no attack and no Attacker designation; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no token; no recall; 167 is not touched, since the spell is cast in the Main Phase it is paid in. Depends on no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16