Combo · ENGINE

Ruthless Strike pays twice for one Mask Mother — +2 damage from the spell and +2 Might from the trash

2 cards · chaos + fury · verified

Pieces

• Mask Mother ×1 VEN-094 · payoff · chaos

  When you discard me, you may pay 1 Energy to give a friendly unit +2 Might this turn.

• Ruthless Strike ×1 VEN-008 · engine · fury

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) As an additional cost to play this, you may discard 1. Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If you paid the additional cost, deal 5 to it instead.

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).
• A friendly unit already on the board to take the +2 Might; the spell's own target is an enemy unit at a battlefield.

Run play

• The Mother's +2 kept the attacker alive, and one rune answers the Strike eight ways

Prerequisites

• ONE CARD, TWO PAYMENTS. The discard is an optional additional cost that raises Ruthless Strike from 3 damage to 5, and the card discarded is a Mask Mother whose own trigger then buys +2 Might for 1 Energy. So a single card out of hand is worth +2 damage AND +2 Might — no other partner in her row of twenty-three converts the discard into removal. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-mothers-plus-two-kept-the-attacker-alive-and-one-rune-answers-the-strike-eight-ways.md): the 5 is bought by the discard, not by the Mother. Any card in hand pays Ruthless Strike's optional cost ('As an additional cost to play this, you may discard 1.', 356.2.b.1), so a dead card discarded gets the same 5. What only the Mother adds is the +2 Might for 1 Energy, and that is worth something only if the unit's Might matters that turn: in a combat, against damage aimed at it (143.2.a), or against an effect gated on its Might, such as OGN-169 Gust ('Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less to its owner's hand.'), which a 1- or 2-Might unit given +2 is out of for the rest of the turn. In the play, the T3 Strike paid with a dead card kills one defender and the fight is lost.
• [Action] IS A NARROWER WINDOW THAN [Reaction], AND THE DIFFERENCE IS THE POINT AGAINST mask-mother-lunar-boon-reaction-trick. 806.1.b: 'Action grants the corresponding card or effect permission to be played or activated during Showdowns, even when it is not the Controlling player's turn.' So Ruthless Strike reaches the opponent's turn only inside a Showdown — their attack's Combat Showdown — while Lunar Boon's [Reaction] (813.1.c.1) reaches any Closed State. On your own turn Ruthless Strike is simply a Main Phase spell.
• THE ORDERING WORKS HERE, UNLIKE THE BUCCANEER. In mask-mother-brazen-buccaneer-cost-discount the +2 cannot land on the body being paid for, because 340.1 resolves the Mother's trigger before the pending card. Here the spell's target is an ENEMY unit and the +2 goes on a friendly body already in play, so the two halves never contend: her trigger resolves first (+2 Might on your unit), then Ruthless Strike resolves (5 damage on theirs).
• 5 damage is the whole removal range that matters: 143.2.a needs damage at least equal to a unit's Might to kill it, so 5 clears every body up to 5 Might outright, and against a defender the +2 Might you just added is +2 more assigned damage in the same combat (465.2.b, 465.2.c). CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-mothers-plus-two-kept-the-attacker-alive-and-one-rune-answers-the-strike-eight-ways.md): the citation fits only a combat on their turn. On your own turn the unit you pump is an attacker, and its Might is summed by 465.2.a ('Sum the Might of all Attacking Units.'); 465.2.b ('Sum the Might of all Defending Units.') sums the other side. The +2 is also +2 to the damage that kills it, 143.2.a: 'If a Unit ever has nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might, it is Killed.' In the play that was the half that paid: a 5-Might Shipyard Skulker took the Poro's 4 and lived.
• 203.3 is the gate on the optional cost — no card in hand, no discard, and the spell deals 3 instead of 5. 383.3.b.1 is the gate on hers: the 1 Energy is a base cost paid to finalize the trigger, so bank it before you cast.
• Priced whole: 3 Energy for the spell plus 1 for her trigger, one card, for 5 damage and +2 Might. Three copies of each (103.2.b). CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-mothers-plus-two-kept-the-attacker-alive-and-one-rune-answers-the-strike-eight-ways.md): it is two cards, not one. The Strike is played from hand and the Mother is discarded from hand. SFD-185 Glorious Executioner, one of the five legends listed above, gives one back when the combat is won ('When you win a combat, draw 1.'), and 466.3.a says when that is: 'A Player has won a combat if they received either the attacker or defender designation and are the only Player that has units remaining at this battlefield during this step.' The Strike alone wins no combat.
• 204.3.a IS THE FIRST AND CLEANER SOURCE FOR THIS, AND IT CARRIES THE WORKED EXAMPLE: "When Costs within Instructions appear as the first part of the effect in triggered abilities, the cost is taken to be the base cost of the triggered ability. It must be paid to finalize the triggered ability", with Riot's example being Overzealous Fan - "When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base" - and the note that "in order to finalize the ability to the chain, its controller must kill Overzealous Fan". 383.3.b says the same thing later in the book. The companion is 204.3.b: a cost appearing in a SPELL, in an ACTIVATED ability, or in a LATER part of a trigger's effect is paid on resolution instead, which is the 205 "pay X. If you do, Y" family and the reason the two look alike on the card and behave differently on the chain.
• NO STEP NAMED AN ANSWER, AND ONE RUNE IS ENOUGH - ADDED 2026-10-14 (#374, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-mothers-plus-two-kept-the-attacker-alive-and-one-rune-answers-the-strike-eight-ways.md). VEN-040 Decree of Focus (Calm, E1, [Reaction]): 'Choose a friendly unit that's in combat with an enemy Fury (:rb_rune_fury:) unit or that's being chosen by an enemy Fury spell. Give it +4 :rb_might: this turn.' Ruthless Strike is a Fury spell and it always chooses its target, since 355.5.a's example counts 'Stun a unit at a battlefield' as a Choice. On the chain the +4 resolves first (340.1), so any target of 2 Might or more survives the 5. The play's census of a Calm/Body opponent (its section 5, not re-counted here) finds that 8 of the 11 one-rune cards stop its T3 Conquer.

Bodies no card supplies

Have a friendly unit in play to receive the +2 Might, and 4 Energy available (3 for the spell, 1 for her trigger)

Steps

1. Have a friendly unit in play to receive the +2 Might, and 4 Energy available (3 for the spell, 1 for her trigger).
2. Play Ruthless Strike, on your turn or inside a Showdown on theirs (806.1.b), and pay the optional additional cost by discarding Mask Mother. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-14-the-mothers-plus-two-kept-the-attacker-alive-and-one-rune-answers-the-strike-eight-ways.md): the step does not say when the first target exists. The Strike needs a unit at a battlefield, and going first your T2 usually has none: their T1 units enter the board exhausted (143.4: 'Units enter the Board exhausted.'), and a Standard Move costs an exhaust (144.2: 'Exhausting the Unit is the Cost for this action.'), so a T1 unit is still in their base unless it entered ready. Against the play's Calm/Body opponent that takes a second card, since the play found no single Calm/Body card that does it for three runes (its section 2). A Fury or Chaos opponent needs only one: going second they channel three runes on their T1 (315.3.b, plus 485.7's extra rune), and three cards enter ready at base for three runes and can then move to a battlefield (144.4.a) - OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (Fury, E2 M2, [Accelerate] for E1 + 1 Fury Power), SFD-006 Eager Drakehound (Fury, E3 P1 M3, 'I enter ready.') and UNL-127 Mister Root (Chaos, E2 M1, [Accelerate] for E1 + 1 Chaos Power). One rune of that domain among the three dealt is enough: 1 - C(6,3)/C(12,3) = 90.9% on a 6/6 rune deck. This entry's legends are Fury/Chaos, so the mirror is the likely opponent. Cast on their turn, the Strike and the Mother's trigger need four runes left ready through yours, since the Rune Pool empties at the end of each turn (317.2.d).
3. Her trigger fires from the trash (422.1.b, 385.2); pay 1 Energy to finalize it (383.3.b.1).
4. It resolves first (340.1): give the friendly unit +2 Might this turn.
5. Ruthless Strike resolves: 5 damage to an enemy unit at a battlefield instead of 3 (143.2.a kills anything up to 5 Might).

Per iteration

-2 cards from hand (the Strike and the Mother; one comes back if a combat is won that turn under SFD-185 Glorious Executioner, 466.3.a), -4 Energy, 5 damage to one enemy unit, +2 Might on one friendly unit this turn. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374): this said -1 card.

How it ends

engine — 5 damage and +2 Might for two cards and 4 Energy, three times a game (103.2.b); nothing here scores. CORRECTED 2026-10-14 (#374): this said one card.

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
• Run play 2026-10-14, issue #370 2026-10-14 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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