Combo · ENGINE
Two permanent upgrades priced in different currencies
Pieces
- Kinkou Lifeblade ×1
VEN-093 · engine · chaos
[Empower] 2 Energy (2 Energy: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have +1 Might and [Ganking]. (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)
- Shadow Fiend ×1
VEN-014 · payoff · fury
[Empower] 2 Energy + 1 Fury Power (2 Energy + 1 Fury Power: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have [Assault 3]. (+3 Might while I'm an attacker.)
Payoff
Deck
- Chaos + Fury, so five legend names (103.1.b.2): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
Prerequisites
- BOTH ARE BOUGHT ONCE AND KEPT, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES THEM A PACKAGE RATHER THAN A COMBO. 441.1.b: 'An Empowered Game Object can not be Empowered'; 441.1.c: 'If a Game Object is instructed to be Empowered when it is already Empowered, nothing additional happens'; 441.2 makes Empowered 'a state for Game Objects on the board'. So each body pays once and is upgraded for the rest of the game — there is no engine here and the entry does not claim one.
- AND THE CURRENCIES ARE DIFFERENT ON PURPOSE. `VEN-093 Kinkou Lifeblade` asks 2 Energy and NO Power; `VEN-014 Shadow Fiend` asks 2 Energy and a Fury Power. On a turn where the Power is committed elsewhere the Lifeblade is still payable, which is the whole reason to run both — the pool prints very few Empower costs with no Power component at all.
- THE LIFEBLADE BUYS THE KEYWORD THIS DOMAIN KEEPS NEEDING. 144.4 restricts the Standard Move to base-to-battlefield and back; 144.4.c.1 — 'Units with Ganking may use their Standard Move to Move from Battlefield to Battlefield' — is the only way out of that, and 810.1.c.3 keeps it a permission rather than an extra move ('It does not give additional abilities or activations of Movement, only new options for the Standard Move'), with 810.2 making a second grant redundant. A permanently Empowered Lifeblade is a self-contained mover that needs no spell and no other body.
- THE FIEND'S UPGRADE IS OFFENCE ONLY, AND THE ENTRY SAYS SO. 807.1.c: [Assault] 'is functionally short for "While I am an attacker, I have +X [M]"'. So an Empowered Shadow Fiend is Might 5 attacking and Might 2 at every other moment — it dies to two damage on the opponent's turn (143.2.a) and the whole 3 never happens. 807.2 does sum it with any other grant.
- AN ABILITY THAT EMPOWERS SOMETHING PAYS NO [EMPOWER] COST AT ALL. 441.1: 'Empowering is the act of rendering one or more Game Objects Empowered' — so a card that simply Empowers a permanent performs the act and never determines the target's printed cost, which is why 827.1.c.3 (cost-altering text 'is taken into account when determining a card's Empower cost') has nothing to say about that route. Neither of these two can do it to the other, but any future Empower-granting card in the identity makes both of these free.
- AND THE LIFEBLADE'S +1 IS A CONTINUOUS MODIFIER, NOT A BUFF: 702.3's one-Buff cap and 703's fixed +1 are both silent, so it stacks with a real Buff and with any 'give +N Might this turn' effect.
Steps
- Play Kinkou Lifeblade (4 Energy) and Shadow Fiend (2 Energy).
- On a turn with spare Energy but no spare Power, pay the Lifeblade's [Empower] (2 Energy): it is Might 5 with [Ganking], permanently (441.2).
- On a turn with a Fury Power spare, pay the Fiend's [Empower] (2 Energy + 1 Fury Power): it has [Assault 3] permanently.
- The Lifeblade now moves battlefield to battlefield with its own Standard Move (144.4.c.1), paying only its exhaust (144.2).
- The Fiend attacks at Might 5 (807.1.c) and defends at 2 — send it only where the trade is worth it.
Per iteration
one permanent +1 Might and [Ganking] for 2 Energy, and one permanent [Assault 3] for 2 Energy + 1 Fury Power
How it ends
engine — two permanent upgrades, one payable with Energy alone; neither is repeatable, since 441.1.b allows exactly one Empower per body. 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 #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards 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.
VEN-093 Kinkou Lifeblade and VEN-014 Shadow Fiend were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.2, 143.2.a, 144.2, 144.4, 144.4.c.1, 441.1, 441.1.b, 441.1.c, 441.2, 702.3, 703, 807.1.c, 807.2, 810.1.c.3, 810.2, 827.1.c.3 opened in the Core Rules file. The entry is explicit that it is a PACKAGE and not an engine — 441.1.b caps each body at one Empower — which is the honest class for the whole Empower family in this identity. No unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16