Combo · ENGINE

425.1.c does not refund the [Deflect] tax — Allay makes every removal pay it and Not So Fast is the only card in Calm or Mind that also counters an ABILITY

4 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Not So Fast ×3 SFD-045 · payoff · calm

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Counter an enemy spell or ability that chooses a friendly unit or gear.

• Allay, Eager Admirer ×1 UNL-041 · engine · calm

  [Deflect] (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) While I'm at a battlefield, your other units here have [Deflect].

Payoff

Deck

• Any Calm legend: both cards are mono-Calm (103.1.b.1) and neither is a Signature card, so 103.2.d.2 forces nothing.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format.
• Allay has to be AT the battlefield you are protecting — her grant reads 'While I'm at a battlefield, your other units here'. She never covers your base.

Prerequisites

• THE TWO PARAGRAPHS THAT MAKE THIS A PAIR RATHER THAN TWO CARDS. 809.1.c: [Deflect] 'is functionally short for "Spells and abilities an opponent controls that target [me/this] cost an amount of Power equal to [Deflect Value] more to play as an additional cost for each time they choose [me/this]"' — an additional cost, paid up front, as the card is played. 425.1.c: 'Countering does not refund any costs paid to play a card, activate an ability, or trigger an ability', and 425.1.c.1: 'This includes additional costs.' So the opponent pays a rainbow more for the privilege of aiming at your garrison, and then loses the card anyway. The tax is not a deterrent you hope works; it is a price they have already paid when the counter lands.
• AND 425.1.b TAKES THE REST. 'A card that is Countered is not considered to have been played for abilities that trigger on cards being played.' So a countered spell also fails to feed their own 'when you play a spell' payoffs — the whole card does nothing (425.1.a) and goes to the trash (425.1.a.1).
• NOT SO FAST REACHES AN ABILITY, WHICH ALMOST NOTHING DOES. Swept over the whole corpus for `counter (a|an|enemy|target)`: nine counters exist, and exactly two of them say 'or ability' — SFD-045 Not So Fast and UNL-106 Repulse, which is mono-Body and out of this identity. Every other counter in the pool answers a SPELL only, which means an activated or triggered ability aimed at your board is otherwise unanswerable in Calm or Mind.
• THE LIMIT IS THE SAME CLAUSE ON BOTH CARDS, AND IT IS A REAL HOLE. Not So Fast answers what 'Chooses a friendly unit or gear'; [Deflect] taxes what CHOOSES the Deflecting object. 355.10.d: an object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen' is not targeted, and its own example is 'Kill all units at battlefields'. So a sweeper — OGN-133 Flurry of Blades for 1 Energy, OGN-123 Unchecked Power, a mass damage spell — pays no tax AND cannot be countered by this card. The pair answers aimed removal and nothing else. Say it out loud rather than discovering it in a game.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Allay is 3 Energy for a Might 3 body that gives every other unit at her battlefield [Deflect]; each enemy spell or ability that chooses one of them costs one rainbow Power more (809.1.c.1: that Power may be of any Domain, so the tax is not a colour screw). Not So Fast is 2 Energy + 1 Calm Power at Reaction speed (813.1.c.1). Three copies (103.2.b) is three answers, each of which also burns a rainbow of theirs.
• SHE DOES NOT PROTECT HERSELF TWICE. Allay's grant is for 'your OTHER units here'; her own [Deflect] is printed separately, so it is one instance, not two. 814.2's summing rule is for [Shield] and has no counterpart for Deflect — a second grant of [Deflect] on the same body does nothing.

Steps

1. Play Allay, Eager Admirer (3 Energy) to the battlefield you intend to hold, and garrison it.
2. Every unit you control there now has [Deflect]; an opponent's spell or ability that chooses one of them costs a rainbow Power more as an additional cost (809.1.c).
3. Hold Not So Fast (2 Energy + 1 Calm Power).
4. When they pay the tax and aim a spell — or an activated or triggered ability, which is the half only this card reaches — play Not So Fast at Reaction speed (813.1.c.1) and counter it.
5. 425.1.a clears it from the chain doing nothing, 425.1.a.1 puts it in their trash, 425.1.b denies their play triggers, and 425.1.c keeps the rainbow they paid.
6. Repeat with the remaining copies; three by 103.2.b. Against a sweeper that chooses nothing (355.10.d) neither half of this does anything, so keep a different answer for that.

Per iteration

one aimed spell or ability answered for 2 Energy + 1 Calm Power, with a rainbow of theirs already spent and unrefunded

How it ends

engine only — three Not So Fasts a game, each consumed, and the tax lasts as long as Allay stands there; nothing here scores and neither half touches a sweeper

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 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue