Combo · ENGINE
A programmatic sweep never consults [Deflect], so the Bird the Roost hands the opponent is free to kill and their Deflect body is not free to touch
Pieces
- Firestorm ×1
OGS-002 · payoff · fury
Deal 3 to all enemy units at a battlefield.
- Walking Roost ×1
UNL-130 · engine · chaos
[Deflect] (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) When you play me, choose an opponent. They play a 1 Might Bird unit token with [Deflect].
Payoff
Deck
- Chaos + Fury, so five legend names (103.1.b.2): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
Prerequisites
- [DEFLECT] IS A TAX AND A SWEEP DOES NOT PAY IT. 809.1.c prices Deflect as extra Power 'for each time they choose' the unit, but 355.10.d exempts an object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen by the spell or ability's controller' — with 'Kill all units at a battlefield' as its own worked example. Firestorm's 'all enemy units at a battlefield' is exactly that shape, so it kills a [Deflect] body without paying a rainbow, and 054.1's absolute 'can't be chosen' clauses never engage either.
- WHICH IS WHY THE ROOST'S DRAWBACK IS CHEAP IN THIS LIST AND EXPENSIVE IN OTHERS. The Bird it hands the opponent is 1 Might with [Deflect] (187.7: 'A 1 [M] Bird token is a domainless unit token with 1 Might, the Bird tag, and the Deflect keyword'). A deck whose removal CHOOSES pays a rainbow to answer it; a deck holding Firestorm deletes it as collateral for nothing. The drawback is not a fixed cost — it is a cost your own removal suite decides.
- AND YOU DO NOT GET TO PLACE IT. 355.2.a: a play goes to 'the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls' — THEIR choice — so the Bird cannot be manufactured onto a battlefield you want it at. Any line that counts on the Bird arriving somewhere specific, to feed an 'enemy units here' count or a Might scaler, is refused by this paragraph.
- THE ROOST'S OWN [DEFLECT] IS THE HALF THAT PAYS. It is a 6-Might body for 5 Energy that taxes every CHOOSING removal spell they hold — and the asymmetry is the point of the pairing: their answer to it costs a Power, your answer to the Bird costs nothing.
- THREE DAMAGE IS THE SIZE, AND IT IS AN HONEST SIZE. 143.2.a kills on marked damage equalling or exceeding Might, so Firestorm clears 1-, 2- and 3-Might bodies and merely marks anything bigger — and 466.1.a.1's combat cleanup ('Insert "3c. Heal all Units."') wipes those marks, so a partial sweep buys nothing across a combat.
- IT IS NOT AN [ACTION] OR A [REACTION]: 155 keeps Firestorm in your own Main Phase in an Open State, which means it cannot be used as a defensive answer to their attack. Six Energy and one Power is also most of a turn — price the board, not the trick.
Steps
- Play Walking Roost (5 Energy). Its ETB makes the opponent play a 1-Might Bird token with [Deflect], to their base or a battlefield they control — their choice (355.2.a).
- The Roost stands as a 6-Might [Deflect] body: every choosing removal spell they aim at it costs them an extra Power (809.1.c).
- When their garrison is worth it, play Firestorm (6 Energy + 1 Fury Power) in your Main Phase: 3 damage to all enemy units at that battlefield.
- 355.10.d makes none of them chosen, so no [Deflect] is paid — the Bird and any other Deflect body die for free.
- 143.2.a resolves the kills; anything above 3 Might is only marked, and 466.1.a.1 will heal it at the next combat cleanup.
Per iteration
every enemy unit of 3 Might or less at one battlefield killed for 6 Energy + 1 Power, with no [Deflect] tax paid
How it ends
engine — a 6-Might body that taxes their removal, and a sweep that ignores theirs; three Firestorms a game (103.2.b). 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 / Chaos cards 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.
OGS-002 Firestorm and UNL-130 Walking Roost were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 054.1, 103.1.b.2, 103.2.b, 143.2.a, 155, 187.7, 355.2.a, 355.10.d, 466.1.a.1, 809.1.c, 809.1.c.1 opened in the Core Rules file. The Roost was REFUSED in §10 of this walk as a way to MANUFACTURE an enemy body at a battlefield of your choosing (355.2.a leaves the placement to them); that refusal stands and is restated in the third notable. What this entry uses is the other half — that a programmatic sweeper makes the Bird's [Deflect], and the Bird itself, cost nothing to answer.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16