Combo · ENGINE

Lillia and Smoke and Mirrors — four Sprites out of one unit and three spells

4 cards · mind · verified

Pieces

• Lillia, Fae Fawn ×1 UNL-082 · engine · mind

  [Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When I move from a location, play a 3 Might Sprite unit token with [Temporary] there. (Kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

• Smoke and Mirrors ×3 UNL-083 · enabler · mind

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Choose a unit you control and another unit you control at a different location. If at least one of them has [Temporary], move each to the other's location. Draw 1.

Payoff

Deck

• Legend domains cover Mind. Both cards are mono-Mind. UNL-189 Bashful Bloom (Calm/Mind, Lillia's own legend) is the one that pays the most — see the notable.
• A battlefield you control, because 355.2.a limits where the Sprites can be played.

Prerequisites

• EVERY SWAP IS A MOVE AND THEREFORE FIRES HER. 446.1: 'A Permanent changing its position from any space on the Board to another space on the Board is a Move, unless it is caused by a corrective Recall or an Attached Permanent changing locations to or with its Top-Most Card.' 420.1 says the same from the other side, and 456 / 456.1 exclude only recalls ('Recalls are not Moves… They do not cause Triggered Abilities to trigger that are triggered by Move actions'). 'There' is the ORIGIN, read on execution (359.3.f.2), and 355.2.a makes it legal only because the origin is your base or a battlefield you control.
• THE ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED — FOUR SPRITES, BUT NOT TWELVE MIGHT IN ONE PLACE, WHICH IS THIS ENTRY'S CORRECTION TO ISSUE #58. Tracked position by position with 1 Lillia and the 3 copies 103.2.b allows: after her Standard Move base->B the board is base {S1} / B {Lillia}; after swap 1, base {Lillia} / B {S1,S2}; after swap 2, base {S1,S3} / B {S2,Lillia}; after swap 3, base {S3,Lillia} / B {S1,S2,S4}. Four Sprites and 12 Might in total, but every swap moves Lillia the other way, so after an odd number of swaps she is back at the base and AT MOST THREE SPRITES (9 Might) stand at the battlefield. Stop at two swaps and it is Lillia plus one Sprite there.
• COSTS, WITH THE [Hidden] DISCOUNT PRICED ON THE RIGHT RULE (CORRECTED 2026-09-06). 3 Energy for Lillia, 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power for [Accelerate] (805.1.a), 2 Energy per copy: 10 Energy + 1 Power at base cost, and cards net minus one (three spent, three drawn). This entry used to say the discount was unavailable because the spell is defined by choosing two units at DIFFERENT locations, so one choice is necessarily off the battlefield it was hidden at. That is the opposite of what the rule says. 811.1.d.2 IS SETTLED BY THE RULE'S OWN WORKED EXAMPLES, WHICH NAME THESE CARDS. The clause is "If a hidden spell or a play effect of a hidden permanent chooses any targets, those targets must be chosen from among options at that battlefield, unless the ability explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible", and 811.1.d.2.a adds "Each target is treated separately and individually when processing this rule." The exception is therefore PER TARGET, not per card, and the reglamento works both of these cards by name: Tideturner — "Because its play effect has a targeting restriction that can never be fulfilled by a unit at its battlefield, its target may be chosen freely from among the available options"; Smoke and Mirrors — "the first unit chosen can be chosen at the battlefield Smoke and Mirrors was played from, so it must be. The second unit chosen explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible, so it can be chosen from any location." So a hidden copy is LEGAL: its first chosen unit must be at that battlefield — satisfiable at every step of this relay, since one of the two swap partners is always standing there — and the second may be anywhere. The headline price stays at base cost anyway, for three reasons that are real: 811.1.b only lets you play it 'beginning on the next turn', it lets you hide one facedown per battlefield you control ('that doesn't already have a facedown card hidden there') and 485.4 puts only two battlefields on the board in a Duel, and 323.7 trashes a hidden card at a battlefield you stop controlling. ONE copy hidden a turn ahead makes the relay 8 Energy + 2 Power instead of 10 Energy + 1 Power.
• TRAP 4 BITES IN FULL AND IS DECLARED, NOT WORKED AROUND. 816.1 makes [Temporary] a Triggered Ability keyword and 816.1.b is 'At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this.' The Sprites NEVER Hold, so they never count for OGN-293 The Grand Plaza, whose condition 383.2.a.1 measures at the Scoring Step that 315.2.b.2 places in the Beginning Phase. They are one turn cycle of combat bodies and that is all this entry claims.
• THE LEGEND THAT BELONGS WITH IT. UNL-189 Bashful Bloom (Calm/Mind): '4 Energy, exhaust: Play a ready 3 Might Sprite unit token with [Temporary]. This ability costs 1 Energy less for each friendly unit with [Temporary].' With four Sprites out it costs 0, and its Sprite enters READY — the only ready body in the line. It also starts the relay without spending Lillia's Standard Move: play its Sprite at a battlefield you control and Lillia at the base is already 'at a different location'.
• [Action] IS WHY THE BODIES CAN APPEAR INSIDE A SHOWDOWN (806.1.c.1: 'This can be played during showdowns on any player's turn'), which is the difference between a relay and a sorcery-speed trick.
• THE CEILING IS THE COPY LIMIT. 103.2.b caps Smoke and Mirrors at 3 and there is no recycle route in this line that brings one back, so the relay is three swaps long and stops.

Steps

1. Play Lillia for 3 Energy, paying [Accelerate]'s 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power so she enters ready (805.1.a against 143.4).
2. Standard-Move her from base to a battlefield you control (144.4.a; cost 144.2). She moved FROM the base, so Sprite #1 is played at the base (355.2.a).
3. Play Smoke and Mirrors (2 Energy): choose Lillia and a Sprite at a different location. They swap; Lillia moved from her location, so a new Sprite is played there. Draw 1.
4. Repeat with the second and third copies, alternating base and battlefield. Each one adds a Sprite and replaces the card it spent.
5. Four Sprites, 12 Might; at most three of them (9 Might) end at the battlefield, with Lillia at the base after an odd number of swaps.
6. 816.1.b kills every Sprite at the start of your next Beginning Phase, before scoring — they defend for one turn cycle and never Hold.

Per iteration

one 3 Might [Temporary] body and one card drawn per copy of Smoke and Mirrors, for 2 Energy

How it ends

engine only — four bodies for one turn cycle and three cards; they die before scoring, so they never convert to points

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Movement lens — issue #58 (GitHub) 2026-09-06

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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