Combo · ENGINE
The Rift Herald's Deathknell twice: two units out of hand for their Power cost only
Pieces
- Karthus, Eternal ×1
OGN-236 · engine · order
Your [Deathknell] effects trigger an additional time.
- Rift Herald ×1
UNL-179 · payoff · order
When I move to a battlefield, look at the top 3 cards of your Main Deck. You may reveal a unit from among them and draw it. Recycle the rest. [Deathknell][>] Play a unit from your hand to your base, ignoring its Energy cost. (When I die, get the effect. You must still pay its Power cost.)
Payoff
Deck
- Both cards are Order, so any legend with Order works; the source's is a LeBlanc legend.
Prerequisites
- TWO UNITS FOR THEIR POWER COST ONLY, WHICH IS THE BIGGEST DEATHKNELL PAYLOAD IN THE POOL. 'Ignoring its Energy cost' and the reminder 'You must still pay its Power cost' - so two 8-Energy bodies cost you two Power, and the source calls this 'the big one' for that reason.
- THE HERALD IS 8 ENERGY AND HAS TO DIE, so the entry is a late-game trade and not a curve play. What makes the cost bearable is its other half: 'When I move to a battlefield, look at the top 3, reveal a unit and draw it, recycle the rest' - a dig that also happens to be safe on an empty deck, because 431.1.c says looking or revealing past the deck 'does not Burn Out'.
- R1 = A, ALREADY RULED: Karthus adds one extra instance of each Deathknell.
- THE FREE UNITS GO TO YOUR BASE, NOT TO A BATTLEFIELD, and they enter exhausted (143.4). Getting them where they matter is the same walk #48 measured, and nothing here shortens it.
- Karthus has to be on the board when the Herald dies (124).
- 424.1.a.2 is the MECHANISM under the 431.1.c protection this entry already cites, and the entry carries the consequence without it: "Cards remain in the zone they are being Revealed from." Riot's own example is that a card Revealed from the top of the Main Deck "is still the top card of that player's Main Deck." So revealing can never Burn Out because NOTHING LEAVES THE DECK, which 424.1.a states as the general fact: "Revealed is a temporary state and is not a zone." Same shape this file records for 355.7 against 355.10.d and 811.6 against the tail of 811.1.b.
Steps
- Karthus, Eternal on the board; Rift Herald played and moved to a battlefield, which digs three deep for a unit.
- Let the Herald die.
- Its [Deathknell] plays a unit from your hand to your base ignoring its Energy cost; you pay only its Power cost.
- Karthus triggers it an additional time: a second unit out of hand, same terms.
- Both arrive exhausted at your base and walk out next turn.
Per iteration
+2 units from hand for their Power cost only, per Rift Herald death
How it ends
engine only - two free bodies per Herald, once each time it dies
Sources
Published elsewhere
- YouTube — GG Haven, "Draw, Deceive and Destroy | LeBlanc Beginner Guide" 2026-04-09
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- Minería por leyenda — issue #62 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 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 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-issue62-section3.md), issue #62 section 3. UNL-179 Rift Herald appeared in no entry before this. One precision the walk adds over the source, which says 'ignoring its cost': the card says 'ignoring its ENERGY cost' and its own reminder text says 'You must still pay its Power cost'. Two 8-Energy units for two Power is still the largest Deathknell payload in the pool, so the correction costs the line nothing and keeps the entry honest. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Trap check: no attack designation; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no token; no recall; the dig is a look-and-reveal, which 431.1.c exempts from Burn Out. Depends on R1 (ruled A).
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16