Combo · ENGINE

An exhausted rune is Power now and Energy next turn - and it still counts as a rune you control

6 cards · body + mind · verified

Pieces

• Mobilize ×3 OGN-134 · engine · body

  Channel 1 rune exhausted. If you can't, draw 1.

• Grumpy Rockbear ×3 VEN-050 · payoff · mind

  [Empower] 12 Energy. This ability costs 1 Energy less for each rune you control. (Pay the cost: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] I have [Deflect] and [Shield 3]. (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.+3 Might while I'm a defender.)

Payoff

Deck

• Body + Mind. Mobilize is mono-Body and Grumpy Rockbear mono-Mind (103.1.b.3), so 103.1.b.2 needs a legend covering both - and the census prints exactly ONE such name: VEN-149 / VEN-194 Defender of Tomorrow. There is no second Body/Mind legend in the pool, so this is a forced shell.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• 12 runes is the ceiling: 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards'.

Prerequisites

• WHY A RUNE CHANNELLED EXHAUSTED IS NOT A DEAD RUNE. 164.2 gives every Basic Rune two abilities and only 164.2.a costs the rune's own exhaust; 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE, so an already-exhausted rune still pays 1 Power of its domain at [Reaction] speed the moment it arrives. 415.3.a then readies it in your own Awakening Phase, which is where its ENERGY shows up. 430.2.a is the default the card overrides - 'runes are channeled readied' unless the effect says exhausted.
• AND WHY THE PAYOFF DOES NOT CARE. Grumpy Rockbear reads 'for each rune you control', not each rune you can tap. An exhausted rune is a rune you control, so Mobilize's channel lands the full 1 Energy of discount the same turn it is cast - which is exactly the reasoning that reopened OGN-288 Startipped Peak in the sibling walk on issue #170 after two sessions had refused it on mana grounds.
• A CHANNEL PAYOFF IS A REFILL, NOT A RAMP - AND THIS ONE HAS A FALLBACK. 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at exactly 12; 315.3.b channels 2 free every Channel Phase; 430.3 channels 'as many as possible' when the deck is short; 161.2.b sends a recycled rune back to the Rune Deck rather than the Main Deck. So Mobilize moves you along the curve by one rune and stops paying once twelve are out - at which point 'If you can't, draw 1' makes it a cantrip instead of a blank. It is the only channel card in the pool that writes its own failure case.
• THE ARITHMETIC. The Rockbear's [Empower] starts at 12 Energy and 356.6 floors it at 0, so twelve runes controlled make it free and each rune short costs 1 Energy. A deck that channels its two per turn (315.3.b) reaches 12 around turn 6; three Mobilizes (103.2.b) bring that forward by three turns' worth of a single rune each, and every one of those runes is also 1 Power immediately (164.2.b) and 1 Energy from your next Awakening.
• WHAT THE EMPOWER BUYS. [Deflect] and [Shield 3] on a 4 Might body: 809.1.c taxes any spell or ability that chooses him by a rainbow, 814.1.c makes the [Shield] '+3 :rb_might: while I am a defender' (so he is a 7 on defence and a 4 on your own turn - the same designation-conditional Might this walk records twice elsewhere), and 441.2 makes the state permanent.
• THE SIBLING ENTRY, NAMED. startipped-peak-rune-count-empower reaches the same payoff through a battlefield's Hold trigger, which is free but slow and subject to 485.5's random selection of one of your three battlefields. This is the active version: 2 Energy from hand, on the turn you choose, with a cantrip when it is no longer needed.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold and neither card touches either.

Steps

1. Play Mobilize (2 Energy). It channels 1 rune exhausted - 430.2.a's default is readied, and this card overrides it.
2. That rune is immediately worth 1 Power of its domain at [Reaction] speed, because 164.2.b's cost is the recycle and not an exhaust; from your next Awakening (415.3.a) it is also 1 Energy.
3. It counts toward 'runes you control' at once, so Grumpy Rockbear's [Empower] is 1 Energy cheaper from this moment.
4. Repeat with the second and third copies (103.2.b), and let 315.3.b's two per Channel Phase do the rest.
5. Once twelve runes are out (161.2.a) the channel cannot happen and Mobilize draws 1 instead - the only channel card in the pool that says so on itself.
6. Empower the Rockbear when the discount has caught up: 356.6 floors the cost at 0 and 441.2 makes [Deflect] and [Shield 3] permanent.

Per iteration

one rune ahead of the curve per Mobilize, worth 1 Power immediately, 1 Energy from the next Awakening, and 1 Energy off the Rockbear's Empower

How it ends

engine only - three Mobilizes by 103.2.b against a Rune Deck of exactly 12 (161.2.a), after which the card is a 2-Energy cantrip; 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
• Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API) 2026-09-07

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-body.md, batch 3) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue