Combo · ENGINE
Mageseeker Investigator is the only card in the pool that prices 144.3 — the simultaneous move a swarm uses to arrive as one action
Pieces
- Mageseeker Investigator ×3
UNL-163 · engine · order
Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain for each unit beyond the first to move multiple units to my battlefield at the same time.
- Horns of the Dragon ×3
VEN-118 · payoff · order
[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)
Payoff
Deck
- Both cards are mono-Order, so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Order in its pair: SFD-201/SFD-249 Chem-Baroness, UNL-199/UNL-235 Deceiver, SFD-197/SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands, VEN-147/VEN-193 Eye of Twilight, SFD-205/SFD-251 Grand Duelist, UNL-195/UNL-233 Green Father, OGN-253/OGN-302 Hand of Noxus, VEN-155/VEN-197 Heart of the Tempest, OGN-265/OGN-308 Herald of the Arcane, UNL-203/UNL-237 Keeper of the Hammer, OGS-021 Lady of Luminosity, VEN-153/VEN-196 Matriarch of War, OGS-023 Might of Demacia - Starter, UNL-187/UNL-229 Piltover Enforcer, OGN-261/OGN-306 Radiant Dawn, OGN-269/OGN-310 The Boss, SFD-187/SFD-243 Void Burrower.
Run play
Prerequisites
- IT TAXES THE EXACT ACTION A SWARM NEEDS, AND THERE IS NO WAY ROUND IT WITHIN ONE MAIN PHASE. 144.3 is what lets any number of bodies arrive as ONE game action, and 144.4.a.1's cap counts OTHER PLAYERS rather than units (447.2.a opens 'In Modes of Play with more than two players'), so in a Duel a swarm is otherwise free to walk in whole. Against the Investigator, six bodies cost five rainbow Power.
- SPLITTING THE MOVE DOES NOT DODGE IT, IT DELAYS IT: each unit's Standard Move costs its own exhaust (144.2) and 315.1.b readies it only at the attacker's next Awakening, so moving them one at a time means one body per turn, which is the whole point of 144.3 in the first place.
- IT ONLY GUARDS THE BATTLEFIELD IT STANDS AT — 'to MY battlefield' — so it is a fortress piece and not a global lock, and it does nothing against a single unit arriving alone, against a unit PLAYED to the battlefield (190.3.a.1 covers 'moving to or being played to', but the Investigator's clause says move), or against 355.2.b's 'play me to an open battlefield' cards.
- THE TOLL IS POWER AND POWER IS THE SCARCE CURRENCY, which is what makes a rainbow per body a real price rather than a speed bump; 809.1.c.1's principle applies here too in that the payment is not domain-locked, so any Power they hold will do.
- THREE INVESTIGATORS DO NOT STACK USEFULLY ON ONE BATTLEFIELD — the clause is a cost added by each of them, so in principle it doubles, but 465.2.c makes three 4-Might bodies a better wall than one, and 103.2.b caps them at three anyway. The entry prices one.
- IT DOES NOT SCORE AND IT DOES NOT LOCK: an opponent with the Power pays and walks in, and 054.1's 'can't beats can' is not engaged anywhere here.
- CITATION UPGRADE (2026-09-09): the tax is an APPLIED COST, 204.4, whose worked example names this card - so it is not a cost of the move but a cost applied TO the move, and 429.3 is why the opponent can always find the Power if they have a Reaction source, since a resource-adding Reaction ability may be activated at any moment a cost must be paid. The entry does not claim otherwise; these are the paragraphs it should have stood on.
Steps
- Play Mageseeker Investigator (E4) and garrison the battlefield you intend to keep.
- Play Horns of the Dragon (E6) to the same battlefield. Its [Tank] is a static and needs nothing further.
- An opponent who wants to take that battlefield with more than one body at once must use 144.3's simultaneous move, and the Investigator adds a rainbow Power for each unit beyond the first.
- If they pay and attack anyway, 815.1.c.2 makes every unit you control there an invalid damage assignment until Horns of the Dragon has taken lethal — six damage (143.2.a) before the Investigator can be touched.
- If instead they walk bodies in one at a time to dodge the toll, 144.2's exhaust and 315.1.b's once-a-turn ready mean one arrival per turn, and the garrison you are building outpaces it.
How it ends
engine only — a standing Power toll on mass arrivals at one battlefield plus a 6-Might Tank behind it; nothing here scores and an opponent with spare Power still pays and comes in
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 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-order.md), issue #180 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.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07, issue #180 — the first entry to use UNL-163 or VEN-118. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. 144.3 is the paragraph this walk's own might-of-demacia-four-body-conquer-draw is built on, and the Investigator is the only card in the pool that prices it — the two entries are the two sides of one rule and each names the other's shape. Trap check: the entry states what the tax does NOT catch (a single arrival, a unit played rather than moved, 355.2.b's open-battlefield cards) rather than selling it as a lock; 144.2 and 315.1.b are cited so the split-the-move counterplay is priced honestly; 815.1.c.2 is cited for the Tank half; produces is empty, as on the other denial entries the vocabulary does not yet cover (issue #157).
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16