Combo · ENGINE

Only a [Repeat] pays Jae twice from one casting — a spell that chooses TWO friendly units cannot choose him twice

5 cards · chaos + order · candidate

Pieces

• Jae Medarda ×1 SFD-142 · payoff · chaos

  When you choose me with a spell, draw 1.

• Bonds of Strength ×3 SFD-151 · engine · order

  [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 two friendly units each +1 Might this turn.

• Daring Poro ×1 OGN-210 · enabler · order

  [Assault] (+1 Might while I'm an attacker.)

Payoff

Deck

• Order + Chaos, and the census makes that a ONE-NAME field: VEN-155 / VEN-197 Heart of the Tempest is the only Order/Chaos legend among the 94 legend base codes in cards.json. Neither card is Signature (103.2.d.2), so the constraint is the domains alone (103.1.b.2).
• A second friendly unit for the spell's other half, since it gives 'two friendly units each +1 Might' and they cannot be the same body.

Run play

• The second Bonds is the +1 Jae lives on, and Falling Star kills him the turn before

Prerequisites

• THE TRAP FIRST, BECAUSE IT IS THE ENTRY'S CONTENT. 'Give TWO friendly units each +1 Might this turn' looks like two choosings and therefore two draws off one casting. It is not: the two are distinct Game Objects, so Jae is chosen once per execution however the plural is filled. The doubling has to come from somewhere else, and the only somewhere in his whole partner list is [Repeat] — 820.1.b, 'Repeat is an optional cost that a player may pay to execute the effect of their spells and abilities a second time', with 820.1.c.1 making the cost an Additional Cost paid while playing the spell and 820.2.a allowing different choices on the second execution. Two executions, two choosings of Jae, two cards. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): the last step has no paragraph. 820.3.a: "Regardless of the number of times a spell or ability's instructions are executed with this keyword, it is only Played once." 820.2 makes a second set of choices, so the spell is one play with two choice-sets, and the #187 bullet in docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md records that any payoff distinguishing them has no paragraph. Jae's trigger is such a payoff. 383.4.b.3 ("Although these abilities say “choose” in their Condition, they trigger specifically when an appropriate Game Object is Targeted.") and 809.1.c, which charges Deflect "for each time they choose [me/this]", point to two draws; read once, it is one. That is why the entry is a candidate (see notes).
• TWO CARDS PER DECK SLOT, WHICH IS WHAT SEPARATES THIS FROM jae-medarda-choose-draw. That entry runs OGN-095 Stupefy at 1 Energy a card, which is cheaper per card and cannot be beaten on price. What it cannot do is draw twice off one copy: three Stupefies are three cards, three Bonds of Strength with their [Repeat] paid are SIX. In a deck where the 103.2.b limit of three copies is the binding constraint rather than Energy, the [Repeat] spell is the better slot. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): the comparison crosses identities. OGN-095 Stupefy is Mind, and an Order/Chaos deck cannot run it (103.1.b.1: "Cards included in your deck must abide by your Domain Identity."). Inside the identity the two-draws-per-copy card is VEN-116 Dragon Form (Order, E3, "Choose a unit. Its base Might becomes 5 this turn. [Flow] :rb_energy_3: (You may play this from your trash for its Flow cost. Then banish it.)"), as jae-medarda-dragon-form-flow-double-draw has it: two separate plays, so two choosings with no unruled reading, at E3 and E3 over two casts against Bonds' E2 + E2 in one. Three copies of either are six draws, so the [Repeat] spell is not the better slot on the 103.2.b count; it is the cheaper one, and the one that needs the reading.
• EXACTLY TWO CARDS IN HIS PARTNER LIST CAN DO IT, AND THEY SIT IN DIFFERENT IDENTITIES. Reading the rule's 34-partner list end to end as of 2026-09-07, the [Repeat] spells that choose a friendly unit are SFD-151 Bonds of Strength (Order, E2 + [Repeat] 2 Energy, two units for +1 each) and SFD-034 Feral Strength (Calm, E2 + [Repeat] 2 Energy, one unit for +2). Bonds sends the deck to Order/Chaos, which is a one-legend identity; Feral Strength sends it to Calm/Chaos, which the census gives three names (Unforgiven, Blade Dancer, Gloomist) — the same arithmetic, a wider legend field and a narrower spell, so it is a note here rather than a second entry. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): it is one short on its own scope. The rule's printed list still has 34 partners, and three of them are [Repeat] spells that choose a friendly unit: SFD-151 Bonds of Strength, SFD-034 Feral Strength, and SFD-114 Marching Orders (Body, E3 + [Repeat] 3 Energy, "Choose a friendly unit anywhere and an enemy unit at a battlefield. They deal damage equal to their Mights to each other."), which jae-medarda-marching-orders-repeat-two-draws uses for exactly this. Inside Order/Chaos, Bonds is the only one. cards.json holds five Order or Chaos [Repeat] spells and none is Order/Chaos; the other four cannot choose Jae: SFD-122 Called Shot (banned in both formats, and it chooses nothing), SFD-129 Temptation and UNL-134 Existential Dread (an enemy unit), SFD-136 Hard Bargain (a spell). From outside the list, UNL-146 Syndra, Transcendent (Chaos unit, E6 + 1 Power, M6) grants one: "While I'm in a showdown, your spells have [Repeat] :rb_energy_2::rb_rune_chaos:. (You may pay the additional cost to repeat the spell's effect.)"
• IT DRAWS ON THE OPPONENT'S TURN. Bonds of Strength is a [Reaction], and 813.1.c.1 lets a [Reaction] card be played 'during Closed States on any player's turn' with 312.2.c handing out priority there. So the two cards arrive when the opponent commits removal or opens a Combat — and the +1 Might they carry is a real combat trick rather than a tax you paid for the draws.
• THE MIGHT IS NOT A BUFF. '+1 Might this turn' is a continuous modifier applied in 477.3.e.1's increase step, not a 702 Buff counter, so 702.3's one-per-unit cap is silent and both executions apply to the same body if you want them to.
• COST, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Jae is E5 and TWO Chaos Power, which is the real price of the package — above the free floor of 2 Power a turn that 315.3.b and 164.2.b give every deck, so he is a turn of your rune deck. Each Bonds with its Repeat is 4 Energy for 2 cards and +1 Might on four unit-slots. Three copies is six cards over a game (103.2.b).
• WHAT REFUTES IT. (a) Jae has to be on the board and alive: he is M5 with no protection, and every draw depends on him. (b) 203.3 makes an unpayable cost unpayable — with only one friendly unit on the board, 'two friendly units' cannot be completed, so the spell needs a second body. (c) The trigger reads SPELLS: an ability that buffs him, a battlefield's Hold trigger, and an Equipment's [Effect] all pay nothing. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): (a) names no card. The cheapest answer is OGN-029 Falling Star (Fury, E2 + 2 Power, "Deal 3 to a unit. Deal 3 to a unit."), aimed at him in your base on the turn after he lands; OGN-105 Singularity (Mind, E6 + 2 Power, "Deal 6 to each of up to two units.") does the same for six runes. Going first you cannot leave four runes ready beside a freshly played Jae before T5: he exhausts five and recycles two Chaos, and you channel 2 a turn (315.3.b). With four ready, Bonds with its [Repeat] in answer resolves first (340.1) and makes him a 7, and Falling Star's 6 do not kill him (143.2.a). (b) cites 203.3, which is about Costs; the gate is 355.8 (see the OGN-210 note).

Steps

1. Earlier turn: play Jae Medarda (E5 + 2 Chaos Power). 143.4 makes him enter exhausted; nothing in this line asks him to move. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): in the play Jae did move, to B, and that is where the line paid; see the last step.
2. At any Closed State on either player's turn — the opponent's removal spell, an opening Combat — play Bonds of Strength as a [Reaction] (813.1.c.1, 312.2.c) and pay its [Repeat] cost of 2 Energy as an Additional Cost (820.1.c.1).
3. First execution: choose Jae and one other friendly unit, each +1 Might this turn. 355.7 makes both choices targets, so Jae's trigger fires: draw 1.
4. Second execution (820.1.b), which may make different choices (820.2.a): choose Jae again and any friendly unit. His trigger fires again: draw 1.
5. Two cards and +1 Might on four unit-slots, from one card and 4 Energy, at a moment you chose rather than one you committed to in your Main Phase. CORRECTED 2026-10-16 (#379, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-second-bonds-is-the-plus-one-jae-lives-on-and-falling-star-kills-him-first.md): this leaves out where the line paid. In the play the two +1s on Jae, not the draws, decided the turn: attacking B, a 5 against a 6 became a 7 that killed both defenders and lived. With the [Repeat] not paid he is a 6 against 6, all three die, B is left empty, and Jae is gone.

Per iteration

two cards and four points of Might, at Reaction speed, from a single deck slot

How it ends

engine only — 820.1.b gives exactly one extra execution, 103.2.b caps the spell at three copies, and 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

• Synergy rule jae-medarda-chosen-by-spell (data/synergies.json) 2026-09-06
• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 2026-09-07 record
• Run play 2026-10-14, issue #373 2026-10-14 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue