Combo · ENGINE

Repulse counters the removal aimed at Jae and he draws the card that pays for it

2 cards · chaos + body · verified

Pieces

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

  When you choose me with a spell, draw 1.

• Repulse ×1 UNL-106 · engine · body

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a friendly unit at a battlefield. Counter an enemy spell or ability that chooses it and no other friendly unit.

Payoff

Deck

• Body + Chaos, so three legend names (103.1.b.2): Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Voidreaver (UNL-201).
• Jae standing at a BATTLEFIELD, not at your base — Repulse's own wording requires it.
• 1 Energy and 1 Body Power off runes held ready, since the answer is played on the opponent's turn.

Run play

• Repulse pays for itself, and the next spell kills Jae

Prerequisites

• THE COUNTER IS FREE BECAUSE THE THING IT PROTECTS PAYS FOR IT. Repulse chooses Jae, so 'When you choose me with a spell, draw 1' fires and replaces the card you just spent. Net cost of countering a removal spell: 1 Energy and 1 Body Power, no cards.
• THE ORDER WORKS, AND IT IS WORTH SPELLING OUT. Targets are chosen while a spell is played (355.6, 355.7: 'When a card Chooses one or more specific Game Objects to affect, it is Targeted'), so Jae's trigger fires at that moment and is Finalized above Repulse itself. 340.1 resolves the newest first — you draw, and then Repulse resolves and counters. The draw is banked before the counter is even attempted, so it happens whether or not the counter ends up mattering.
• 'And no other friendly unit' IS A REAL RESTRICTION. Repulse answers single-target removal only; a sweeper, or any spell that chooses two of your bodies, is outside it. That is the whole cost of the card being 1 Energy.
• 813.1.c.1 is the permission: on cards, [Reaction] is 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn' — which is where an enemy removal spell lives. And the Energy is not free on their turn: 167 empties every Rune Pool at the start of each player's Main Phase and 415.3.a readies your runes only in your own Awakening, so 1 Energy plus 1 Body Power means two runes deliberately held ready (164.2.a, 164.2.b).
• Jae at E5 + 2 Chaos Power is exactly the kind of body that draws removal, which is what makes this pairing tighter than the generic 'a spell that chooses him': the opponent's answer is the trigger.
• The false positive to keep out of this row: Jae fires only on a SPELL. UNL-106 is a spell; SFD-195 Blade Dancer, SFD-144 Spirit Wheel, OGN-279 Fortified Position and VEN-137 Shady Spectacles all choose friendly units and none of them is one.

Steps

1. Have Jae Medarda at a battlefield and two runes still ready when you pass the turn.
2. The opponent plays a spell or ability that chooses Jae and no other friendly unit.
3. In that Closed State (813.1.c.1), tap two ready runes and play Repulse for 1 Energy + 1 Body Power.
4. Repulse chooses Jae as it is played (355.6, 355.7). His trigger fires and is Finalized above it.
5. 340.1 resolves the newest item first: draw 1.
6. Repulse resolves and counters the enemy spell or ability.

Per iteration

-1 Energy -1 Body Power, one enemy single-target spell or ability countered, card-neutral

How it ends

engine — a hard counter to single-target removal that replaces its own card, three times a game (103.2.b), for 1 Energy and 1 Power each; 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 #169 — matrix families rows 6-18, second pass 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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