Combo · ENGINE
One of them strips a card and the other swaps it — and the Investigator's price is XP, which 824.1.d then reads
Pieces
- Mindsplitter ×1
OGN-192 · payoff · chaos
When you play me, choose an opponent. They reveal their hand. Choose a card from it, and they discard that card.
- Insightful Investigator ×1
UNL-135 · engine · chaos
When you play me, choose an opponent. They reveal their hand. You may pay 2 XP to choose a card from their hand. If you do, they discard that card and draw 1.
Payoff
Banish the opponent's hand
Deck
- Any legend with Chaos among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Unforgiven (OGN-259), Swift Scout (OGN-263), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Prodigal Explorer (SFD-199), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Gloomist (UNL-193), Scorn of the Moon (UNL-197), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Master of Shadows (VEN-143), Soul's Reflection (VEN-151), Heart of the Tempest (VEN-155).
- 2 XP banked before the Investigator is played, if you intend to use his second half at all. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md): the prerequisite named no source. Of the Chaos cards that gain XP (UNL-127 Mister Root, UNL-129 Vicious Snapjaws, UNL-136 Scryer's Bloom, UNL-143 Kha'Zix, Mutating Horror, and the Body/Chaos legend Voidreaver, UNL-201/UNL-236), UNL-127 Mister Root (Chaos, E2, M1: "[Accelerate] (You may pay :rb_energy_1::rb_rune_chaos: as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When I move to a battlefield, gain 2 XP.") is the only one that banks 2 before a T2 Investigator going first: played on T1 with the two runes you have (315.3.b: "1. The Turn Player channels 2 runes from their Rune Deck."), so without its [Accelerate], it enters exhausted (143.4) and moves on T2. The others gain 1, or need a combat or a dying unit, or cost five. Mister Root dies in base on their T1 for two runes to VEN-131 Decree of Unity (Order, E2 + 1 Order Power: "Kill an enemy Chaos (:rb_rune_chaos:) unit or gear."), VEN-127 Lacerate (Order, E2 + 1 Order Power: "Choose a unit. If it's [Empowered], disempower it. Then kill it if it has 3 :rb_might: or less."), or OGN-209 Cull the Weak (Order, E2 + 1 Order Power: "Each player kills one of their units.") when it is your only unit.
Run play
Prerequisites
- THEY LOOK LIKE THE SAME CARD AT TWO PRICES AND THEY ARE NOT. Mindsplitter's 'they discard that card' is card advantage: their hand shrinks by one. The Investigator's 'they discard that card and draw 1' is a swap — their hand size is unchanged and they trade a known card for an unknown one. Against a specific answer that is still worth doing; as a way to run them out of cards it does nothing at all, and the entry exists to keep those two effects apart.
- THE XP IS PAID OUT OF THE SAME POOL EVERY LEVEL ABILITY READS. 730.2: 'To Spend XP, reduce the value of XP marked on the Player spending it', and 824.1.d makes a [Level N] ability 'Inactive as soon as the controlling player has less than [N] XP'. So spending 2 XP on the Investigator can switch off a Level ability you already had online — the Body XP package is full of them — which makes his mode expensive in exactly the decks most able to afford it. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md): not in the Body XP package. Swept: every [Level N] card in the corpus. No Chaos card carries [Level] at all, and the four Body ones start at [Level 6] (UNL-091 Concentrate, UNL-094 Gemhand Hunter, UNL-113 Master Yi, Tempered; UNL-098 Targonian Visionary at [Level 11]), so under a Body/Chaos legend the 2 XP switches nothing off until you have passed 6 XP. The cost is real under the other Chaos pairings: Calm, Fury, Mind and Order each have a [Level 3] card (UNL-047 Mosstomper and UNL-059 Master Yi, Unstoppable; UNL-016 Scorchclaw; UNL-075 Gustwalker; UNL-151 Bandle Soldier).
- THE REVEAL IS FREE AND HAPPENS EITHER WAY. 424.1: 'Revealing is the act of presenting a card to all players from a zone that one or more players do not have access to the information of', and 424.1.a makes Revealed 'a temporary state and is not a zone' — so declining the Investigator's paid half still buys you their whole hand as information, for a 3-Energy 3-Might body. That is the half of the card worth building around. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md): it buys their hand, which is not all of their answers. Their Chosen Champion is outside it from the start (103.2.a.1: "This will be placed in the Champion Zone at the start of the game."), and a card with [Hidden] can sit facedown at a battlefield they control, neither revealed nor choosable (811.1.b: "It is functionally short for "While this card is in your hand or in your Champion Zone on your turn during an Open State, you may pay [A] to hide this facedown at a battlefield you control that doesn't already have a facedown card hidden there for as long as you control that battlefield. Beginning on the next turn, this gains [Reaction] and you may play this, ignoring its base cost.""). Seven Body/Order cards carry [Hidden], the identity of the play's opponent: OGN-135 Pakaa Cub, OGN-213 Hidden Blade, OGN-220 Facebreaker, SFD-111 Here to Help, SFD-154 Guards!, VEN-117 Disciple of Shen, VEN-135 Kennen, Keeper of Balance.
- AND THE STRIPPED CARD LANDS IN THEIR TRASH, NOT YOURS. 056 with 056.2 keeps every card in its owner's zones, so a discard feeds THEIR recursion — `OGN-165 Cemetery Attendant`, `OGN-170 Morbid Return`, `OGN-198 The Harrowing` and the whole [Flow] family all read the trash. Against a Chaos or Fury opponent a hand attack can be a favour; 422.1.b is worse still, since a 'when I am discarded' ability executes after the discard has occurred.
- Mindsplitter at 7 Energy + 2 Chaos Power is a late-game card that also leaves a 7-Might body, which is what justifies the price; the Investigator at 3 Energy is the one you actually cast on curve.
- Neither is repeatable: both triggers are 'when you play me', so the ceiling is three of each (103.2.b) and the hand attack is a tempo plan rather than an engine.
- NOT THE ONLY HAND ATTACK - ADDED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md). Swept: every card whose text makes an opponent reveal their hand, five besides these two. OGN-156 Sabotage (Body, E1 + 1 Body Power, not a Signature card, legal under the Body/Chaos legends Bounty Hunter OGN-267, Battle Mistress SFD-203 and Voidreaver UNL-201): "Choose an opponent. They reveal their hand. Choose a non-unit card from it, and recycle that card." On your T1 it takes a spell from their opening four with no XP and no replacement draw, though going first it competes with the T1 Mister Root for your two runes (see the second prerequisite). So against a spell the Investigator's 2 XP buys nothing Sabotage cannot; what only the Investigator reaches before their T2 is a unit card. The other hand attacks open to a Chaos legend: UNL-139 Bone Skewer (Chaos, [Hidden]; they play the chosen unit to a battlefield, stunned, rather than losing it), UNL-169 Ashe, Focused (Order, E5 + 1 Order Power; banishes a card until they hold), VEN-085 Decree of Strength (Body, E1; recycles a Mind card only) and UNL-053 Scuttle Crab (Calm; reveals on [Deathknell], takes nothing). Blind discards, where they pick the card, are a different effect and not counted: UNL-121 Bewitching Spirit, VEN-111 Minah Swiftfoot, OGN-201 Invert Timelines.
- NO ANSWER WAS NAMED - ADDED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md). VEN-131 Decree of Unity (Order, E2 + 1 Order Power: "Kill an enemy Chaos (:rb_rune_chaos:) unit or gear.") kills Mindsplitter and Insightful Investigator, both Chaos, wherever they are; it has no location clause.
Steps
- Play Insightful Investigator (3 Energy). His trigger makes an opponent reveal their hand — free information whatever you do next.
- If a specific card must go and you can spare it, pay 2 XP (730.2) to make them discard it. They draw 1, so this is a swap.
- Check what the 2 XP costs you first: 824.1.d switches off any [Level N] ability the moment you drop below N.
- Later, play Mindsplitter (7 Energy + 2 Chaos Power) for the true strip: they reveal, you choose, they discard, and nothing replaces it. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#396, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-two-xp-on-t2-kept-khazix-alive-and-moved-no-point-and-t2-is-the-last-turn-their-answers-are-all-in-hand.md): going first that is T4 at the earliest: seven runes, two of them Chaos runes exhausted and then recycled, at two a turn (315.3.b) are first there on T4. By then the opponent has had their T2 and T3 to hide a card at a battlefield they control (811.1.b), out of the strip's reach. A T2 Investigator comes before they can control a battlefield unless a unit of theirs entered ready on their T1 (805.6: "Accelerate generates a delayed replacement effect that replaces a unit entering the board exhausted with it entering ready. It does not enter exhausted and then become ready."), since units enter exhausted (143.4) and the standard move costs exhausting (144.2: "Exhausting the Unit is the Cost for this action.").
- Remember where the card went: 056.2 puts it in THEIR trash, so a recursion deck may thank you for it.
Per iteration
one opponent hand revealed; -1 card from their hand (Mindsplitter) or a known card swapped for an unknown one (Investigator, 2 XP)
How it ends
engine — their whole hand as information twice, one card genuinely stripped and one swapped, plus two bodies; 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 / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record
- Run play 2026-10-18, issue #393 2026-10-18 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.
AUTHORED 2026-09-07, issue #173. OGN-192 Mindsplitter and UNL-135 Insightful Investigator were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 056, 056.2, 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 422.1.b, 424.1, 424.1.a, 730.2, 824.1.d opened in the Core Rules file. Both cards legal in both formats; neither is Signature. No unruled reading. The entry is a distinction rather than a combo: 'discard that card' and 'discard that card and draw 1' are printed three words apart and are different effects, and the second one's XP price is paid out of the pool every Level ability reads.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16