Combo · ENGINE

The pool's only [Level 16] — Gardens of Becoming buys a four-step cost ladder that ends in a Might 12 body no spell can choose

3 cards · calm + body · verified

Pieces

Gardens of Becoming ×1 UNL-213 · battlefield
Units here have "Exhaust: Gain 1 XP."
Master Yi, Unstoppable ×1 UNL-059 · payoff · calm
[Level 3][>] I cost 2 Energy + 1 Calm Power less. (While you have 3+ XP, get the effect.) [Level 6][>] I cost 4 Energy + 2 Calm Power less instead. [Level 11][>] I cost 6 Energy + 3 Calm Power less instead. [Level 16][>] I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities.
Wuju Master ×1 UNL-191 · legend · calm/body
[Level 6][>] Your units have +1 Might. (While you have 6+ XP, get the effect.) [Level 11][>] Your units enter ready.

Payoff

Repeatable Energy or Power

Deck

Master Yi, Unstoppable is mono-Calm and Gardens of Becoming is Colorless, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend with Calm as one of its two domains; UNL-191 / UNL-231 Wuju Master (Calm/Body) is named because it reads the same XP. Neither UNL-059 nor UNL-213 is Signature, so 103.2.d.2 imposes nothing and the legend is a real choice.
The battlefield is not guaranteed: 485.4.a has each player provide three battlefields and 485.5 randomly selects one of them, and 103.4.c forbids running duplicates of a name, so the Gardens arrives one time in three.

Prerequisites

THE LADDER, IN NUMBERS. Printed E12 + 3 Calm Power. At 3 XP: E10 + 2 Calm. At 6 XP: E8 + 1 Calm. At 11 XP: E6 + 0 Calm — a Might 12 body for six Energy and no Power. At 16 XP the rungs stop moving and he gains 'I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities', which is the ONLY [Level 16] clause printed in the whole pool (swept: 6 × [Level 3], 9 × [Level 6], 4 × [Level 11], 1 × [Level 16]).
'INSTEAD' IS LOAD-BEARING. The 6 and 11 rungs say 'less instead', so they REPLACE the previous reduction rather than adding to it; a reader who stacks them gets E12 − 2 − 4 − 6 = 0 and is wrong by six Energy.
THE FAUCET'S RATE IS THE GARRISON, AND ITS PRICE IS MOBILITY. Gardens of Becoming grants each body there ':rb_exhaust:: Gain 1 XP', and 144.2 charges the Standard Move that same exhaust — so N XP a turn costs the whole garrison's movement that turn. 315.1.b readies them at each Awakening, so the rate is N per turn, forever, and reaching 16 from zero with a garrison of four takes four turns.
AND IT ARMS THE OPPONENT TOO. The battlefield says 'Units HERE', not 'your units' and not 'you', so 190.6.d never blanks it and an opposing garrison at the Gardens gains XP at the same rate. That is a real cost of bringing it, and it is why the entry is written around a body you play once you are already ahead on the ladder.
XP IS A RATCHET ONLY IF YOU NEVER SPEND. 824.1.d makes the Dependent Ability of a [Level N] clause 'Inactive as soon as the controlling player has less than [N] XP' and 730.2 defines spending XP as reducing your own marked value — so a single 'Spend 2 XP' cost anywhere in the deck can knock Master Yi back a rung mid-turn and re-price a card already in hand. This deck runs NO XP sinks.
381 IS WHY THE FAUCET IS A YOUR-TURN ENGINE. The granted ability is an Activated Ability with no [Action] and no [Reaction], so it can 'only be activated on the Controlling Player's Turn and during an Open State'.
THE SAME BALANCE PAYS TWO OTHER CARDS THAT ARE IN NO ENTRY. `UNL-091 Concentrate` (Body, E5, 'Draw 2') falls to E1 at [Level 11], and `UNL-098 Targonian Visionary` (Body, E6 M6) becomes Might 10 at the same threshold; both are Body, which is why the Wuju Master pair is the natural shell. They are leads, not part of this line's cost.
IT DOES NOT SCORE. XP is not a point, and 194.1 lists no XP route; what the ladder buys is a body on the board several turns early and, at the top, one that removal cannot choose.

Steps

Bring Gardens of Becoming as one of your three battlefields and take Control of it, then garrison it.
Each Main Phase, exhaust each body there for 1 XP. 381 permits it on your turn in an Open State; 144.2 is the cost you are giving up, since an exhausted body cannot Standard Move.
315.1.b readies the whole garrison at your next Awakening, so the faucet runs again at the same rate.
At 6 XP, Wuju Master's first rung gives your units +1 Might, and Master Yi, Unstoppable is priced at E8 + 1 Calm Power.
At 11 XP, Wuju Master's second rung — 'Your units enter ready' — means a body played to the Gardens can exhaust for XP the same turn, and Master Yi is priced at E6 with no Power at all. Cast him.
Keep climbing to 16 without spending any XP; at that point 'I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' switches on and stays on for as long as the balance holds (824.1.d).

How it ends

engine only — one XP per body at the Gardens per turn, converted into a four-rung cost ladder that tops out at a Might 12 body for six Energy and no Power, plus untargetability at 16; the balance falls the instant anything spends XP, and 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
Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
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-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 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 #170, from `gardens-of-becoming-xp`; UNL-059 Master Yi, Unstoppable was in ZERO entries and carries the pool's ONLY [Level 16] clause (measured: grep for '[Level N]' over data/corpus_flat.txt returns 6 / 9 / 4 / 1 at thresholds 3 / 6 / 11 / 16). Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Trap check: 'instead' is read as replacement and the wrong stacked figure is named so the next reader does not repeat it; the faucet's price is stated as 144.2's exhaust, i.e. the garrison's mobility, rather than as free; the battlefield is declared random per 485.5 and 103.4.c; the 'Units here' wording is checked against 190.6.d and shown to arm the opponent as well; 824.1.d + 730.2 are cited as the reason this deck runs no XP sink, which is the opposite of `enthralling-protector-call-to-glory-xp-buff-spend`.

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue