Combo · ENGINE

Moonlight Affliction into Tricksy Tentacles — one spell opens a whole garrison to evacuation

2 cards · mind + calm · verified

Pieces

• Moonlight Affliction ×1 UNL-066 · enabler · mind

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Give a unit -10 Might this turn.

• Tricksy Tentacles ×1 UNL-054 · payoff · calm

  Move any number of enemy units with the same controller and a total Might of 8 or less to a single location.

Payoff

Deck

• Legend domains must cover Mind and Calm — OGN-255 Nine-Tailed Fox, SFD-189 Fire Below the Mountain, UNL-189 Bashful Bloom, VEN-145 Curator of the Sands.

Run play

• the garrison goes home on turn six, and four bodies come back

Prerequisites

• THE GATE IS A SUM, SO ONE AFFLICTION IS WORTH THE BIGGEST BODY'S WHOLE MIGHT. Tricksy Tentacles reads "a total Might of 8 or less", not a per-unit cap, and 143.2.b treats a negative Might as 0 when a spell references it — so casting the Affliction on the largest defender removes exactly that unit's contribution from the sum. A two-body garrison at 6 and 5 totals 11 and is out of reach; Affliction the 6 and the total is 5. In general the reachable total becomes 8 plus the afflicted body's own Might, which against the pool's largest printed unit (12 Might: UNL-059 Master Yi, Unstoppable, UNL-147 Baron Nashor) is 20.
• 143.2.b.1 is why a second Affliction is NOT worth another 10: 'Although the unit's Might is treated as 0, it is not 0.' The sum already counts the afflicted body as 0, so a second copy aimed at the same unit adds nothing to the total. Aim each copy at a DIFFERENT defender; three copies (103.2.b) zero three bodies.
• AND EVACUATING A GARRISON IS NOT YET A CONQUER, which is the correction the #102 walk had to make. 323.6 only STRIPS the opponent's Control when their last body leaves — 'Players lose control of any controlled Battlefields without their Units occupying them if the turn is in an Open State and there is no Showdown or Combat ongoing there' — and 170.11.c then makes it open, 'unoccupied and uncontrolled', both conditions. The point still needs a body of yours walking in during the Main Phase (144.4.a) → Contested (190.3.a.1) → Showdown (344.2) → 348.2.a → 348.2.a.1, and it does score that same turn.
• 'To a single location' means you choose where they go, so send them to the opponent's OTHER battlefield or to their base — sending them to a battlefield of yours would make them the Attackers of a Combat on your own turn (190.3.a.1 keys Contested on the moved unit's controller, 464.2.c.1), which is a different line entirely (see faefolk-challenger-forced-attacker and svellsongur-faefolk-mass-evacuation).
• Eleven Energy and 1 Calm Power for a bloodless Conquer, plus whatever body walks in. Compare svellsongur-faefolk-mass-evacuation, which does the same job for 14 Energy + 6 Calm Power ONCE and then repeats every turn for free: this is two cards out of hand, capped at three uses a game by 103.2.b.
• Nothing here needs an attack, which is the whole reason the lens is worth walking: 807.1.d, 383.4.e and 461 make an empty enemy battlefield no attack at all, and this line never wants one.
• 355.11.b IS A TOTAL FAILURE MODE FOR AN EVACUATION, NOT PARTIAL CREDIT, AND THIS ENTRY DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-09 by the #187 lane split). 355.11.b: "If the group of targets no longer collectively fulfill the targeting restriction as the spell or ability resolves, that spell or ability`s controller can choose a subset of the original targets that fulfills the targeting requirement for the spell or ability to affect." For a REMOVAL that subset is partial credit - fewer bodies die. For an EVACUATION it is worth nothing at all, because 323.6 strips Control only from a player "without their Units occupying" the battlefield: one body left behind and the whole line buys zero. Price the shrink before casting.
• A BLOODLESS CONQUER IS NOT A FAIT ACCOMPLI, AND 46 OF THE 47 ENTRIES CITING 344.2 DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-12, #187 batch 25). **316.8.b.1.a**: during a Non-Combat Showdown *"units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is"*, which converts it to a COMBAT Showdown in the following cleanup - so the opponent can turn your uncontested walk-in into a fight. 316.8.c is the permission (a Showdown is a Window of Opportunity for [Action] and [Reaction] cards). **The answer set is THREE CARDS, swept on the ACTOR rather than on the destination**: `OGN-173 Ride the Wind` (Chaos, E2+1), `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` (Calm/Order, E3+2) and `SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit` (Fury/Body, E2+1) - twelve printings move a friendly unit, and nine of them send it to base or need a body already there. They span three identities, so **no identity is safe**; and `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` is the worst to walk into, because it STUNS your body on the way in, and 423.1.b removes a stunned unit`s contribution to the damage step while 423.1.c keeps its full Might as the price to kill it - one 3-Energy card takes the unit and the battlefield. **[Ambush] is not a fourth answer**: 822.1.b needs a battlefield where the player already has units, and the defining feature of that board is that they have none there. **THE REMEDY IS A COUNTERSPELL, AND A FIRST VERSION OF THIS NOTABLE SAID SOMETHING FALSE THAT IS WITHDRAWN HERE (corrected within the hour, 2026-09-12).** It said that because all three answers are [Action] and 358.4 admits an Action card only as the card that CLOSES the state, the attacker - who holds Focus by 345 and priority by 335.1 - could shut them out by playing any cheap Action card first. Every step is true and the conclusion is false, because **a Showdown is a LOOP, not a single window**: 346 - *"When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority"* - with 347.1.b and 347.2.a. Closing the state buys a lock-out lasting exactly that CHAIN; when it resolves the Showdown reopens, Focus passes TO THE DEFENDER, and they play their answer into an open Showdown after all. **The real sequence**: walk in, take Focus, **PASS** (acting first gains nothing); they play the answer, which closes the state as it is played; **you COUNTER it**, since 358.4`s other half now admits only [Reaction] and all eleven of the pool`s counters are Reaction, and 425.1.c refunds them nothing; all players then pass in sequence, 347.2.a ends the Showdown, and 348.2.a with 348.2.a.1 give you Control and the Conquer. The cheap counter is `OGN-045 Defy` (Calm, E1 + 1 Power, *"counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than one rainbow"*), which covers all three answers; `OGN-064 Wind Wall` is the unconditional one. **So the protection narrows to pairs containing CALM** - it is not the one-Energy insurance any deck can buy.

Steps

1. Pick the battlefield you intend to take and read its garrison's total Might.
2. Cast Moonlight Affliction (7 Energy) on the largest defender there. 813.1.b lets a [Reaction] be played wherever an [Action] could be, so it simply resolves first on your own Main Phase.
3. That unit's Might is now negative and 143.2.b makes the sum read it as 0. If the remaining total is 8 or less, the whole garrison is in range.
4. Cast Tricksy Tentacles (4 Energy + 1 Calm Power), moving every one of those units to a single location that is NOT a battlefield of yours.
5. The battlefield now has no units of its controller on it: at the Cleanup 323.6 strips their Control and 170.11.c makes it open.
6. Walk a friendly unit in the same Main Phase (144.4.a). 190.3.a.1 Contests it, 344.2 opens the Showdown at the next Cleanup, 348.2.a establishes Control and 348.2.a.1 makes it a Conquer — no combat, no damage, no Attacker designation.

How it ends

engine — a bloodless Conquer against a garrison whose total Might is 8 plus the afflicted body, three times a game

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Walk of the unwalked partners of the 66 proven synergy rules, rule moonlight-affliction-might-gate 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue