Combo · ENGINE
Nami, Headstrong is the pool's one Hold-triggered ready that is not a no-op — because it is delayed into the Main Phase
Pieces
- Eclipse Herald ×1
OGN-059 · payoff · calm
When you stun an enemy unit, ready me and give me +1 Might this turn.
- Nami, Headstrong ×1
UNL-052 · engine · calm
You may pay 1 Calm Power as an additional cost to play me. When you play me, if you paid the additional cost, [Stun] an enemy unit. (It doesn't deal combat damage this turn.) When I hold, the next time you play a unit this turn, ready it and [Buff] it.
Payoff
Deck
- Any legend with Calm among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: Nine-Tailed Fox (OGN-255), Blind Monk (OGN-257), Unforgiven (OGN-259), Radiant Dawn (OGN-261), Wuju Bladesman - Starter (OGS-019), Fire Below the Mountain (SFD-189), Grandmaster at Arms (SFD-193), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Emperor of the Sands (SFD-197), Bashful Bloom (UNL-189), Wuju Master (UNL-191), Gloomist (UNL-193), Green Father (UNL-195), Rogue Assassin (VEN-139), Curator of the Sands (VEN-145), Eye of Twilight (VEN-147).
- A battlefield you control at your Scoring Step, so Nami Holds (315.2.b.2, 469.2).
- 1 Calm Power spare when Nami is played, for the optional additional cost that carries the stun.
Prerequisites
- THIS IS THE EXCEPTION TO A STANDING RULE OF THIS PROJECT, AND IT IS SWEPT. The rule is that a Hold-triggered ready is worth nothing, because 315.1 is the Awaken Phase and 315.1.b has 'The Turn Player readies all Game Objects they control that are able to be readied' BEFORE 315.2's Scoring Step ever fires the Hold. Nami escapes it because her Hold does not ready anything at the Hold: it arms a DELAYED effect, 'the next time you play a unit this turn, ready it and [Buff] it', and a unit is played in the Main Phase, which is 316 — after 315.2. Sweeping data/corpus_flat.txt for 'hold' intersected with 'ready' returns five rows and this is the only one that produces an actual ready: SFD-027 Dunebreaker and UNL-016 Scorchclaw say 'I enter ready' (a play-time property, never a ready — 415.1 marks a Game Object already on the Board), and UNL-048 Trevor Snoozebottom and UNL-199 Deceiver play tokens that are printed ready.
- WHAT THAT BUYS: A UNIT THAT ACTS THE TURN IT LANDS. 143.4 — 'Units enter the Board exhausted' — is what normally costs a big body a turn. Play the Eclipse Herald to your base (355.2.a), let Nami's delayed effect ready him, and 144.2's exhaust cost is available again the same turn, so he Standard-Moves to a battlefield and is in the combat immediately. That is [Accelerate] on one unit a turn, for no card and no Energy.
- AND THE BUFF IS A REAL 702 COUNTER, NOT A MODIFIER. 702.2.a: 'To Buff a Unit, a player chooses a Unit and then places a buff on it.' 702.3 caps it at one per unit ('There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time', 702.3.a: a second is not placed), so Nami's buff is +1 Might permanently on one body a turn and cannot be stacked — but unlike a 'this turn' modifier it can be SPENT by the pool's buff-spenders (702.2.b).
- THE STUN IS THE CHEAP HALF, AND IT IS ONCE PER COPY. 'You may pay :rb_rune_calm: as an additional cost' is paid during the playing steps, so it lands with the body: one stun, one Eclipse Herald trigger (ready + 1 Might), on the turn Nami arrives. Three copies (103.2.b) is three stuns a game. Her Hold half, by contrast, repeats every turn she keeps a battlefield.
- The Herald's ready is worth something HERE, unlike in eclipse-herald-thwonk-repeat-two-stuns: this all happens in your own Main Phase, so 144.1.b does not bite and the ready is one more Standard Move (144.2).
- Order of operations on the turn Nami Holds: 315.1 Awaken readies everything you control; 315.2.b.2 'The Turn Player Holds all Battlefields they Control' and Nami's delayed effect arms; 316 Main Phase — play the Herald, and the delayed effect readies and buffs him as he enters.
Steps
- Play Nami, Headstrong (3 Energy) and pay the optional additional cost of 1 Calm Power. Her play trigger stuns an enemy unit; Eclipse Herald readies and takes +1 Might this turn.
- Keep a battlefield with Nami on it through the opponent's turn.
- Your Awakening (315.1) readies everything; your Scoring Step (315.2.b.2) Holds the battlefield and fires Nami's Hold trigger, which arms 'the next time you play a unit this turn'.
- In your Main Phase (316), play Eclipse Herald (7 Energy + 1 Calm Power) to your base. 143.4 has him enter exhausted.
- Nami's delayed effect readies him and places a +1 Might buff (702.2.a).
- Standard-Move the Herald to a battlefield the same turn (144.2, 144.4): a 8-Might body attacking on the turn it was cast.
Per iteration
one unit played each turn enters usable (readied) and carries a +1 Might buff, for 0 Energy
How it ends
engine — one free ready-and-buff on a unit played each turn Nami Holds, plus one stun per copy of Nami; 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 #169 — matrix families rows 6-18, second pass 2026-09-07 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.
AUTHORED 2026-09-07, issue #169, second pass over matrix row 7. UNL-052 Nami, Headstrong was in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 143.4, 143.4.a, 144.1.b, 144.2, 144.4, 315.1.b, 315.2.b.2, 355.2.a, 415.1, 423.1.b, 469.2, 702.2.a, 702.2.b, 702.3 opened in the Core Rules file. Both cards legal in both formats. Card set OGN-059 + UNL-052 is not an existing uses[] set. No unruled reading. The finding is a REFINEMENT of the project's standing 'a Hold-triggered ready is a no-op' line, not a contradiction of it: the no-op argument is about a ready that resolves inside 315.2, and Nami's resolves inside 316. The sweep behind the uniqueness claim is stated in the first notable so the next session does not have to redo it.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16