Combo · ENGINE

206's own third worked example: a Reflection carries the COPIED cost, so a token that was going to die anyway pays Atakhan's whole discount

7 cards · mind + order · verified

Pieces

• Mirror Image ×3 UNL-200 · engine · mind/order

  Choose a unit. Play a ready Reflection unit token to your base. Then do this: It becomes a copy of that unit. Give it [Temporary]. (Kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)

• Atakhan ×3 UNL-170 · payoff · order

  You may kill a friendly unit as an additional cost to play me. If you do, I cost 1 Energy less for each Energy it costs and 1 Order Power less for each Power it costs. [Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.) When I attack, the defender must kill one of their units here.

• Plaza Guardian ×1 VEN-064 · enabler · mind

  I cost 1 Energy less for each gear you control. [Deflect] (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.)

Payoff

Deck

• UNL-200 Mirror Image is a Signature card tagged LeBlanc, so 103.2.d.2 forces a LeBlanc legend. Measured over data/cards.json there is exactly ONE name and two base codes: UNL-199 / UNL-235 Deceiver (Mind/Order). This is a one-legend field.
• That legend's domains are Mind and Order, and every card here is inside them: Mirror Image is Mind/Order, Atakhan is mono-Order, Plaza Guardian is mono-Mind. 103.1.b.2 is satisfied.
• None of the three is banned or restricted in either format. 103.2.d.1 leaves room: Mirror Image is one of the at most three Signature cards.
• Plaza Guardian is the fallback fodder and is not needed when the opponent already has an expensive body on the board - Mirror Image chooses any unit, and 103.1.b constrains your DECK, never what you may choose on the table.

Prerequisites

• RIOT WORKS THIS EXACT LINE AT 206, AND NO ENTRY CITES THAT EXAMPLE. 206: 'Effects that need to determine a card's cost for any purpose always use its printed or copied cost, even if that cost is increased, decreased, or ignored as the card is played.' Its third worked example: 'Atakhan is a unit that reads in part "You may kill a friendly unit as an additional cost to play me. If you do, I cost [1] less for each Energy it costs and [Y] less for each Power it costs." If a player plays Atakhan and chooses to kill a Reflection token that is currently a copy of Noxus Hopeful, Atakhan will cost [4] less.' The word doing the work is COPIED.
• SO A REFLECTION IS FODDER WORTH ITS ORIGINAL'S PRICE. 477.1.b.1.a lists Cost among the copyable traits, and 185.3.a.2's worked example appends 'all copyable traits, including the cost'. R27 = A keeps the copy at 0 Might - Might is not copyable - but the COST rides along, which is the only trait this line needs. Copy a Might 8 body printed at 10 Energy and the token is a 0-Might body with a 10-Energy cost.
• AND 185.2.d IS WHY THE TOKEN IS LEGAL PAYMENT. 'Tokens have a type. They follow all rules for their type unless otherwise specified' - so a Reflection unit token IS a friendly unit for 'kill a friendly unit as an additional cost', and 203.3 never bites. This is the positive half of the token rule; the negative half (185, 416.1: a token is not a card and can never be Recycled) is untouched here because nothing recycles.
• THE FODDER WAS ALREADY CONDEMNED, SO THE KILL COSTS NOTHING. Mirror Image gives the Reflection [Temporary], and 816.1.b kills it 'At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring'. Spending it in your Main Phase the same turn it was made costs you a body you were going to lose at 315.2 anyway - the cheapest possible payment for a kill-as-cost hook.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Mirror Image is 3 Energy + 2 Power. Copy a body printed at 10 Energy and 0 Power - Plaza Guardian is the in-domain one - and Atakhan's discount is 10 Energy and 0 Order Power, so 356.6 ('Energy and Power costs can't be reduced below 0') floors him at 0 Energy and leaves his full 3 Order Power. The pair is 3 Energy + 5 Power for a Might 7 [Ganking] body that forces a kill on every attack, against Atakhan's own 10 Energy + 3 Power. Copy something with printed Power instead and the Power half comes down too.
• 206 CUTS THE OTHER WAY ON PLAZA GUARDIAN AND THAT IS WHY HE IS THE RIGHT FODDER. His own text is 'I cost :rb_energy_1: less for each gear you control', and 206 says a cost determination uses the printed cost 'even if that cost is increased, decreased, or ignored as the card is played'. So however cheaply you actually put him on the board, the Reflection copying him is worth the full 10 to Atakhan.
• THE COPY IS A SEPARATE CHAIN ITEM AND THERE IS A WINDOW. Mirror Image's second sentence is a Reflexive Trigger (387.1, 388.1: 'A new ability is created and added to the chain as a Pending Item'), so the token sits at your base as a 0-Might Reflection with no text while 337.4 hands out Priority. The opponent can kill it there. Play Atakhan in the same Main Phase, not across turns.
• WHAT ATAKHAN BUYS AFTERWARDS. 'When I attack, the defender must kill one of their units here' is a 355.10.f instruction a player 'must' complete, so it does not target and 809.1.c's [Deflect] tax never applies - but the CHOICE is theirs, which is a limit and not a hidden upside. And 807.1.d needs the Attacker designation, so on an empty battlefield 323.9 stages no Combat and the clause does nothing.

Steps

1. Run UNL-199 (or UNL-235) Deceiver as your legend - forced by Mirror Image's LeBlanc tag under 103.2.d.2.
2. Have an expensive body on the board to copy: the opponent's biggest, or your own VEN-064 Plaza Guardian, whose printed Energy cost is 10 (206 reads printed, not the discount his own text gives him).
3. In your Main Phase, play UNL-200 Mirror Image (3 Energy + 2 Power) choosing that unit. A ready Reflection token enters your base; 387.1 / 388.1 put the copy clause on the Chain as a separate Pending Item and 337.4 opens a priority window before it resolves.
4. The reflexive item resolves: the token becomes a copy of the chosen unit and gains [Temporary]. By 477.1.b.1.a and 185.3.a.2 it now carries the copied COST; by R27 = A its Might is 0.
5. Still in the same Main Phase, play UNL-170 Atakhan and take its optional additional cost, killing the Reflection (185.2.d makes the token a legal friendly unit; 816.1.b was going to kill it at your next Beginning Phase anyway).
6. 206 reads the killed unit's COPIED cost: 10 Energy and 0 Power. Atakhan's 10 Energy is reduced to 0 (356.6 floors it there) and his 3 Order Power is paid in full.
7. Atakhan is on the board with [Ganking] and a forced kill on every attack. Three copies of each (103.2.b).

Per iteration

a Might 7 [Ganking] body with a forced-kill attack trigger for 3 Energy and 5 Power instead of 10 Energy and 3 Power, paid with a token that was dying at your next Beginning Phase

How it ends

engine only - one forced kill per attack and one attack per body per turn (144.2, 315.1.b); three copies of each card (103.2.b) and nothing here scores

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 206 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 206 third worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 356.6 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue