Combo · ENGINE
355.14.h.1 stops a shrunken split from being concentrated - pump one body and shrink the source, and the attacker must still spread 1 damage per target
Pieces
- Feral Strength ×3
SFD-034 · payoff · calm
[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.) Give a unit +2 Might this turn.
- Frigid Touch ×3
SFD-066 · engine · mind
[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.) Give a unit -2 Might this turn.
Payoff
Deck
- Feral Strength is mono-Calm and Frigid Touch is mono-Mind, so the identity is Calm/Mind and 103.1.b.2 needs a legend covering both. Measured over data/cards.json those are OGN-255 / OGN-303 Nine-Tailed Fox, SFD-189 / SFD-244 Fire Below the Mountain, UNL-189 / UNL-230 Bashful Bloom and VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands.
- Neither is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), so 103.2.d.2 imposes no legend, and neither is banned or restricted in either format.
- Both say 'a unit' with no further condition, so both are unconditionally castable - there is no board on which either is a dead card.
Prerequisites
- THE SHAPE OF A SPLIT, AND EVERY STEP OF IT IS UNCITED. 355.14.b: 'The Targets are chosen when the spell or ability is finalized on the chain.' 355.14.c caps the number of targets at the damage available WHEN PLAYED. 355.14.e: 'The choice of how much damage is divided across the split is not decided until the resolution of the spell or ability.' 355.14.f and 355.14.g: every target must receive a positive integer, at least 1. So the targets are locked early and the arithmetic is settled late - which is the window this entry buys.
- AND 355.14.h.1 IS THE PARAGRAPH THAT MAKES IT AN ANSWER. 355.14.h lets the controller drop targets when the damage has shrunk below the target count, but 355.14.h.1 says 'That player cannot choose to have fewer Targets than they have damage to split when choosing which Targets cease being Targets.' They may not concentrate the remainder on the body that matters - if 3 damage is left, at least 3 targets survive the cull and each gets at least 1.
- RIOT WORKS THIS EXACT PAIR OF CARDS, ON THIS SIDE OF THE TABLE. 355.14.h.1's example: a 5 Might source splitting among five 1-Might Recruits, answered by 'Feral Strength targeting one of their recruits, and Frigid Touch targeting the 5 [M] unit. When Alpha Strike resolves, they have 3 damage to split ... They can only choose at most 2 of the targets to cease being targets.' Two 2-Energy [Reaction] spells blank a 3-Energy Signature spell that was going to clear five bodies.
- THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Frigid Touch takes the source from 5 to 3, so the pool is 3. Feral Strength takes one body from 1 to 3, so 1 damage no longer kills it. At resolution the attacker has 3 damage and 5 targets: 355.14.h.1 forces at least 3 targets to remain, each receiving at least 1 (355.14.g), so no body takes more than 1 and the pumped body survives at 3 Might with 1 marked. Four Energy, at [Reaction] speed, after they have committed.
- SHRINKING THE SOURCE IS WORTH MORE THAN PUMPING A BODY, AND BOTH ARE WORTH BUYING. Each -2 on the source removes 2 damage from the pool; each +2 on a body removes it from the kill list only if the split would have reached it. Frigid Touch is the primary and Feral Strength the finisher, and both carry [Repeat] - 820.1.b gives exactly one extra execution and 820.2.a lets it choose a different target, so one card is -4 on the source or -2 on two sources.
- 355.14.i IS THE CONSOLATION THE ATTACKER KEEPS: 'Any costs that were paid, or effects that were triggered as a result of those Game Objects being chosen as Targets remain in effect, paid, or otherwise triggered.' A [Deflect] tax already paid for choosing your bodies is not refunded when they cease being targets, and a Targeting Effect that already fired stays fired. Dropping a target is not un-targeting it.
- AND THE TIMING IS THE WHOLE POINT. Both spells are [Reaction] (813.1.c.1: playable in any Closed State on any player's turn), so they are bought AFTER the split is finalized and its targets are locked (355.14.b) but BEFORE the division is decided (355.14.e). A pump or a shrink played earlier would only change which targets they picked.
Steps
- Hold SFD-034 Feral Strength and SFD-066 Frigid Touch, both [Reaction], with 4 Energy available on the opponent's turn - 415.3.a readies runes only at your own Awakening, so the Energy must be banked.
- The opponent plays a split-damage spell and finalizes it, locking its targets (355.14.b) and capping their number at the damage available then (355.14.c).
- In response, play SFD-066 Frigid Touch on the SOURCE unit: -2 Might, unfloored. The damage pool for the split shrinks by 2.
- In response, play SFD-034 Feral Strength on the friendly body you most want alive: +2 Might, so a single point of the thinned split no longer kills it.
- At resolution 355.14.e settles the division. With fewer damage than targets, 355.14.h lets the attacker drop targets - but 355.14.h.1 stops them dropping more than the damage allows, so the remainder is spread at 355.14.g's minimum of 1 apiece.
- The pumped body survives. 355.14.i keeps any cost the attacker already paid for targeting it paid.
- Three copies of each (103.2.b), and each carries a [Repeat] worth exactly one extra execution (820.1.b) that may pick a different target (820.2.a).
Per iteration
a split that was clearing a board is reduced to one damage per surviving target, for 4 Energy at Reaction speed
How it ends
engine only - nothing here scores. Three copies of each spell (103.2.b), both expire at the end-of-turn Cleanup (317.2.c), and the answer only exists against effects that SPLIT damage rather than dealing it in fixed amounts
Sources
Published elsewhere
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 355.14.h.1 2026-07-16
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 355.14.h.1 worked example 2026-07-16
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 355.14.e 2026-07-16
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-07 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.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07 (issue #187, sub-rule lane 100-499; found by the filtered probe for uncited sub-rules whose worked example names a pool card). 355.14.a through 355.14.i are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project, and 355.14.h.1's worked example names SFD-034 Feral Strength, SFD-066 Frigid Touch and UNL-192 Alpha Strike. SFD-034 Feral Strength was in ZERO entries and is one of the three cards the rules-named-card vein had left. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened: 103.1.b.2, 103.2.b, 103.2.d.2, 317.2.c, 355.14.b, 355.14.c, 355.14.e, 355.14.f, 355.14.g, 355.14.h, 355.14.h.1, 355.14.i, 415.3.a, 813.1.c.1, 820.1.b, 820.2.a. UNL-192 Alpha Strike is deliberately NOT in uses[]: it is the opponent's card, and this entry prices only the answer. Distinct from foxfire-unfloored-reduction-sweep, sivir-ambitious-frigid-touch-excess and bellows-breath-frigid-touch-shrink-into-damage, none of which touches splitting. Trap check: both spells are unconditionally castable; the Energy must be banked because 415.3.a refunds exhausts only at your own Awakening; 355.14.i keeps the attacker's already-paid costs paid and the entry says so; no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16