Combo · ENGINE

Gardens of Becoming is the pool's only free exhaust sink — one XP per body per turn, and at Level 11 the units arrive ready to pay it

3 cards · calm + body · verified

Pieces

• Gardens of Becoming ×1 UNL-213 · battlefield

  Units here have "Exhaust: Gain 1 XP."

• Wuju Master ×1 UNL-191 · legend · calm/body

  [Level 6][>] Your units have +1 Might. (While you have 6+ XP, get the effect.) [Level 11][>] Your units enter ready.

• Blood Rose ×1 UNL-109 · engine · body

  When you play a unit, you may pay 1 Energy to gain 1 XP. Spend 3 XP, Exhaust: Ready a unit.

Payoff

Deck

• Wuju Master (UNL-191) IS the legend and Blood Rose is Body, inside Calm/Body (103.1.b.3). Gardens of Becoming is Colorless and fits any identity.

Run play

• The Gardens buy Level 6 a turn early, and a ready attacker on their T2 takes them first

Prerequisites

• Gardens of Becoming has to be the battlefield in play: random 1 of 3 in Duel (485.5) and Skirmish (487.5), chosen in Match (486.5), and 103.4.c plus Tournament Rules 402.1 forbid two battlefields of the same name. It REPLACES OGN-275 Altar to Unity in the slot rather than adding to it — the two cannot both be brought and drawn.
• THE RATE, AGAINST THE RAMP THE OLDER ENTRY CALLS CHEAPEST. wuju-master-blood-rose-level ends on 'Altar to Unity + Blood Rose: 1 XP for 1 Energy per turn'. Gardens is N XP a turn for ZERO Energy and zero cards, N being your units standing there. With four bodies that is 11 XP in three turns, against eleven turns and eleven Energy through the Altar. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#357, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-gardens-buy-level-6-a-turn-early-and-a-ready-attacker-on-their-t2-takes-them-first.md): that rate holds once four bodies stand there and pay, and it takes turns to get there. In the play the first turn with four bodies on the Gardens was T4, and two of them walked to the opponent's battlefield instead of paying. What the Gardens bought was Level 6 on T3: their 2 XP that turn were the margin, making four bodies a 15 the opponent could not attack where without them they were a 9 their board takes.
• IT ACCELERATES EXACTLY WHEN IT ARRIVES. 143.4 makes a unit enter exhausted, so a body played this turn cannot pay the exhaust — the faucet runs on bodies that were already there. Once [Level 11] is live, 'Your units enter ready' cancels 143.4 and EVERY unit you play to the Gardens is +1 XP the moment it lands (355.2.a permits a battlefield you control as a destination).
• IT ONLY SUMS, WHICH IS WHY IT BEATS BLOOD ROSE'S OWN READY INSIDE THE DANGER BAND. 730.2 reduces the XP marked on you when you Spend, and 824.1.d turns [Level 11] off in the same instant. Gardens never spends. The 11-13 band the older entry defines stops being a tightrope: you ramp through it for free.
• WHO GETS THE XP, AND WHY THE ENTRY DOES NOT DEPEND ON THE ANSWER. Gardens prints no 'you' of its own — it says 'Units here have …', and the granted ability then lives on the unit, whose controller is the only one who can activate it (381) and who is responsible for the action (411.1), so the XP is theirs. The competing read is that 190.6.d rewrites the implied 'you' of 'Gain 1 XP' to the battlefield's Controller. Both give this entry the same number, because it declares that you control the Gardens and the bodies are yours. No new reading is filed.
• IT IS SYMMETRIC AND IT CAN CHANGE HANDS. 'Units here have' names no player, so under 190.6.b the clause stands even while the battlefield is Uncontrolled, and it arms the opponent's units standing there too. 466.5 can hand the Gardens to them outright.
• THE FAUCET STARTS A TURN LATE, EVERY TIME. Getting a body to the Gardens spends its Standard Move, whose cost is its own exhaust (144.2), so it cannot also pay for XP that turn. And 381 keeps the ability to your own turn: there is no XP on the opponent's. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#357, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-gardens-buy-level-6-a-turn-early-and-a-ready-attacker-on-their-t2-takes-them-first.md): this holds only for the body that TAKES the Gardens. Once you control it, 355.2.a: 'By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls.' A unit played straight there enters exhausted (143.4) and pays the next turn, a turn earlier than a body played to base and walked over. In the play Wuju Apprentice was played straight to the Gardens on T2 and exhausted for XP on T3.
• [HUNT] IS A THIRD FAUCET ON THE SAME GROUND - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#357, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-gardens-buy-level-6-a-turn-early-and-a-ready-attacker-on-their-t2-takes-them-first.md). 823.1.c.1: 'Hunt is functionally short for: “When I Conquer or Hold, my controller gains X XP.”' and 823.1.c.2: 'If X is omitted, it is presumed to be 1.' Calm/Body's cheap bodies carry it: UNL-094 Gemhand Hunter (Body, E2, M2), UNL-040 Wuju Apprentice (Calm, E2, M2) and UNL-102 Crowd Favorite (Body, E3, M3). Each one standing on the Gardens pays 1 more XP every time you Hold it, on top of its exhaust. In the play Hunt paid 6 of the 13 XP by T4, the Gardens 4 and Blood Rose 3.
• THE WINDOW BEFORE LEVEL 6 IS THE OPPONENT'S T2 - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#357, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-gardens-buy-level-6-a-turn-early-and-a-ready-attacker-on-their-t2-takes-them-first.md). On their T2 your bodies on the Gardens are 2s. Against UNL-183 Pridestalker (Fury/Body, 'When you play a unit, give a unit +1 :rb_might: this turn.'), the two units a deck plays on its T2 make a ready unit played on T1, such as OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (Fury, E2, M2), a 4. It walks onto two 2s: its 4 kill both, their 4 kill it, and 466.5.b: 'If there are no Units remaining here controlled by any player, the Battlefield becomes Uncontrolled.' That costs them no card beyond the two bodies they play anyway. A second unit that enters ready conquers it instead: a second Legion Rearguard with [Accelerate] (805.1.a, E2 + E1 + 1 Fury Power, three runes with one recycled for the Power under 164.2.a and 164.2.b) makes 3 + 2 against 2 + 2, their 5 kill both and your 4 kill only one; UNL-006 Sharkling (Fury, E3, M1, [Assault 4]) with [Accelerate] does the same for four runes. Either way you have no body left there, 355.2.a sends every unit you play next to your base, and the faucet is off until one walks back.
• Exhausting your bodies for XP does NOT take them out of combat. 461 and 462 define Combat by which players have units at the battlefield, and a grep of the whole rulebook crossing 'exhaust' with attack/defend/combat returns nothing. What they lose is the move.

Steps

1. Establish Control of Gardens of Becoming (190.1) by walking a first body there; the move costs that unit its own exhaust, so it pays nothing that turn. Once you control the Gardens, play later bodies straight there (355.2.a): they enter exhausted (143.4) and pay from the next turn, a turn earlier than walking them over. (CORRECTED 2026-10-14, #357.)
2. From the next turn on, the Awaken readies them (315.1.b) and each one exhausts for 1 XP — N bodies, N XP, no Energy and no cards.
3. Blood Rose's ramp half still applies on top: 1 Energy per unit played, including unit tokens (185.2.a).
4. Climb past 11 XP without ever spending: [Level 6] gives +1 Might along the way and [Level 11] gives 'Your units enter ready'.
5. From 11 XP on, play units straight to the Gardens: they enter ready and exhaust for XP the same turn, so the faucet feeds its own threshold.

Per iteration

one XP per friendly body at the Gardens per turn, for 0 Energy and 0 cards

How it ends

engine — an XP faucet, and XP is not a point; it exists to reach and hold [Level 11], and 824.1.d drops the ability the instant the balance falls

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Hunt lens ready — issue #56 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
• 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 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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