Combo · ENGINE
Glowstone is a liability until you give it away — and the player it kills five units for is whoever controls it at the end of their turn
Pieces
- Glowstone ×3
VEN-133 · payoff · order
[Empower] 2 Power of any domain (2 Power of any domain: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) Disempower this, Exhaust: Choose a player. They gain control of this and recall it. (Send it to their base.) At the end of your turn, kill this and deal 5 to all units you control.
- Hextech Formula ×3
VEN-062 · enabler · mind
This enters exhausted. Exhaust: Empower another gear. (It becomes Empowered if it's not already.)
Payoff
Deck
- Glowstone is mono-Order and Hextech Formula is mono-Mind, so 103.1.b.2 fixes the identity at exactly Mind/Order: SFD-201/SFD-249 Chem-Baroness, UNL-199/UNL-235 Deceiver, OGN-265/OGN-308 Herald of the Arcane, OGS-021 Lady of Luminosity. Dropping the Formula and paying the two rainbow yourself makes it mono-Order and opens the legend list to all seventeen with Order in the pair.
Prerequisites
- THE CARD IS A HOT POTATO AND THAT IS THE DESIGN, NOT A DRAWBACK TO PLAY AROUND. Its last sentence is unconditional: at the end of ITS CONTROLLER'S turn it kills itself and deals 5 to all units that controller has. Left alone it sweeps YOUR board at the end of your own turn. The activated ability is the only exit, and it is the whole card.
- THE HANDOFF IS NOT A TARGET, SO [DEFLECT] NEVER CHARGES. 'Choose a player' — 809.1.c prices spells and abilities that choose a PERMANENT, and a player is not one; nothing in the pool taxes choosing a player.
- AND THE SWEEP IS NOT A TARGET EITHER: 'deal 5 to all units you control' selects programmatically, which 355.10.d excludes from being a target ('programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen'), so no Deflect Value is paid on any of the five and every [Deflect] body they own dies exactly as cheaply as the rest.
- FIVE IS A REAL SWEEP. 143.2.a kills on 'nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might', so this clears every body of 5 Might or less that the opponent controls ANYWHERE — the clause says 'all units you control', not 'here', so it reaches their base as well as both battlefields.
- IT COSTS TWO POWER AND A TURN OF PATIENCE. You must Empower it before you can Disempower it (the ability's cost is 'Disempower this', and 441.1.b makes Empowering possible only once per object), and the damage lands at the end of THEIR turn — after they have attacked with the units it is about to kill. It is a sweeper, not an answer to a specific threat.
- 441.2 IS WHY THE FORMULA'S HELP IS PERMANENT AND ONE-SHOT AT ONCE: 'Empowered' is a state of a Game Object on the board, so the Formula's exhaust buys it once and the Disempower immediately spends it. Each Glowstone needs its own Empower, and the Formula readies every Awaken (315.1.b), so one Formula services one Glowstone a turn.
- IT IS ALSO ONE OF THE POOL'S NINE DISEMPOWERERS, and the project's list of them is short by two. Swept: VEN-035 Sanction, VEN-037 Tomb-Raider Barbara, VEN-054 Questionable Tome, VEN-082 Profiteer, VEN-087 Hextech Disc, VEN-099 Tornado Warrior, VEN-127 Lacerate, VEN-133 Glowstone, plus the legends that read the event. The recorded set named neither Lacerate nor Glowstone, both of which are Order.
Steps
- Play Glowstone (E2). From this moment it is a liability: at the end of your turn it would kill itself and deal 5 to all units YOU control.
- Empower it before that happens — either by paying its printed [Empower] of two rainbow Power, or by exhausting Hextech Formula, which performs the act directly under 441.1 and never determines the printed cost.
- Activate the ability: pay 'Disempower this' and its exhaust, and choose the opponent. They gain control of it and it is recalled to their base (455: a Recall relocates a Permanent from anywhere to its Base, and 456 makes it not a Move).
- Your turn ends with the Glowstone on their side, so its delayed clause does nothing to you.
- At the end of THEIR turn the clause reads its new controller: the Glowstone kills itself and deals 5 to all units they control, anywhere on the board. 143.2.a kills every one of them at 5 Might or less, and 355.10.d means no [Deflect] Value is paid on any of it.
- Repeat with the second and third copy; 103.2.b caps it at three.
Per iteration
every enemy unit of 5 Might or less, anywhere, for E2 plus one Empower — three times a game
How it ends
engine only — three sweeps a game (103.2.b), each landing at the end of the opponent's turn; it scores nothing and the Glowstone destroys itself each time
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 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-order.md), issue #180 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 #180 — the first entry to use VEN-133. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. The load-bearing reading is that the delayed clause follows the card rather than its original controller, which stands on 191.1 (playing establishes the Controller) plus the ability's own 'They gain control of this' — the card is worded as a hot potato and is unplayable on any other reading, which is the R28 argument. Trap check: 441.1 and 441.2 are cited so the Formula's help is priced as one-per-Glowstone rather than assumed repeatable, and 441.1.b so the Empower is not claimed twice; 355.10.d and 809.1.c are cited so neither half of the card is imagined to pay a Deflect tax; 455 and 456 are cited for the recall; the sweep's reach is stated as 'anywhere' because the clause says 'all units you control' and not 'here'. The disempowerer sweep in the last notable corrects a counted set the project had recorded short by two.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16