Combo · ENGINE

Four damage and a body for zero Energy, inside the opponent's combat — 811.1.b gives every hidden card [Reaction]

2 cards · fury · verified

Pieces

• Katarina, Reckless ×1 UNL-023 · payoff · fury

  When you hide a card, ready me. When you play a card from face down, deal 2 to an enemy unit.

• Mischievous Marai ×1 UNL-003 · engine · fury

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) When you play me to a battlefield, deal 2 to an enemy unit here.

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Fury among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: Daughter of the Void (OGN-247), Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Hand of Noxus (OGN-253), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Mechanized Menace (SFD-181), Purifier (SFD-183), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Void Burrower (SFD-187), Virtuoso (UNL-181), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Piltover Enforcer (UNL-187), Rogue Assassin (VEN-139), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
• A battlefield you control with no facedown card already on it, one turn before you want the Marai (811.1.b).
• Katarina on the board when the facedown card is played — her trigger, not the Marai's, is the second 2 damage.

Prerequisites

• THE TAIL OF 811.1.b IS WHY THIS HAPPENS ON THE OPPONENT'S TURN. The keyword ends '...Beginning on the next turn, this gains [Reaction] and you may play this, ignoring its base cost', and 813.1.c.1 makes [Reaction] on a card 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn.' So a 2-Energy body enters mid-combat for nothing, and Katarina's trigger fires there.
• FOUR DAMAGE, FROM TWO DIFFERENT SOURCES WITH DIFFERENT RESTRICTIONS — and that asymmetry is the entry. The Marai's own 'deal 2 to an enemy unit here' is a PLAY EFFECT of a hidden permanent, so 811.1.d.2 confines it to the battlefield the card was hidden at, and 811.1.d.1 puts the Marai itself there ('A hidden permanent must be played to that battlefield'). Katarina's 'deal 2 to an enemy unit' is HER OWN Triggered Ability watching an event, not a play effect of the hidden card, so nothing in 811.1.d touches it: that 2 may be aimed at any enemy unit on the board.
• The restriction is a feature on the defensive turn. You hide at a battlefield you control (811.1.b), so on the opponent's turn the enemy units 'here' are their attackers — exactly what you want the Marai's 2 pointed at. It is the same clause that makes a hidden removal useless on the ATTACKING side, where the battlefield is by definition not one you control.
• AND THE BODY IS IN THE COMBAT. 464.2.c.3.a defers the designation of a unit that 'becomes present at this Battlefield after this moment' to 'the Cleanup phase following the action that caused it to become present'; 319.6 makes a Cleanup Outstanding 'After any number of Game Objects enter or leave the Board' and 323.2.a hands out the designation there. So the Marai defends in the same damage step it arrived for.
• 143.2.a is the yardstick: 'If a Unit ever has nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might, it is Killed.' Four damage from one free play kills any attacker up to 4 Might outright, or splits 2 + 2 across two of them.
• Katarina's OTHER trigger is paid on your own turn: hiding costs 1 rainbow, and 'When you hide a card, ready me' fires in an Open State on your turn (811.1.b), so that ready is live and buys one Standard Move (144.2) — unlike the ready in the facedown-play half, which lands in a Closed State where 144.1.b forbids moving.
• The ceiling is the board, not the deck: 811.1.b allows one facedown card per battlefield you control, and 485.4 puts two battlefields on a Duel table. Three Marai (103.2.b) do not raise it.

Steps

1. Have Katarina, Reckless on the board and a battlefield you control with no facedown card on it.
2. On your turn, in an Open State, pay 1 rainbow to hide Mischievous Marai there (811.1.b). Katarina's first trigger readies her; spend it on a Standard Move (144.2).
3. On the opponent's turn they attack that battlefield and a Combat Showdown opens.
4. Play the Marai from face down for 0 Energy (811.1.b's [Reaction] grant, 813.1.c.1). 811.1.d.1 puts him at that battlefield.
5. His play trigger deals 2 to an enemy unit there (811.1.d.2 confines it to that battlefield — which is where their attackers are).
6. Katarina's trigger deals a further 2 to any enemy unit on the board, unrestricted. 143.2.a kills a 4-Might attacker outright if both are pointed at it.
7. The Marai gains the Defender designation at the Cleanup that follows his arrival (464.2.c.3.a, 319.6, 323.2.a) and fights in the damage step.

Per iteration

-1 card, -1 rainbow, 4 damage split as you like, +1 body at 2 Might in the combat

How it ends

engine — 4 damage and a 2-Might defender delivered inside the opponent's combat for 1 rainbow banked a turn earlier and no Energy; capped at one facedown card per battlefield (811.1.b). 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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