Combo · ENGINE

383.3.a.3: a "you may" later in a trigger's effect is decided ON RESOLUTION and the ability is always finalized - so Ornn looks at four cards before choosing, and a leading "you may" never does

6 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Ornn, Blacksmith ×3 SFD-058 · payoff · calm

  When you play me or when I hold, look at the top 4 cards of your Main Deck. You may reveal a gear from among them and draw it. Then recycle the rest.

• Doran's Shield ×3 SFD-033 · engine · calm

  [Equip] 1 Calm Power (1 Calm Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)

  [Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits them under any legend with Calm among its two domains - measured over data/cards.json those include OGN-255 / OGN-303 Nine-Tailed Fox (calm/mind), OGN-257 / OGN-304 Blind Monk (calm/body), OGN-261 / OGN-306 Radiant Dawn (calm/order), SFD-189 / SFD-244 Fire Below the Mountain (calm/mind), SFD-197 / SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands (calm/order), UNL-189 / UNL-230 Bashful Bloom (calm/mind), UNL-195 / UNL-233 Green Father (calm/order), VEN-139 / VEN-189 Rogue Assassin (calm/fury), VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands (calm/mind) and VEN-147 / VEN-193 Eye of Twilight (calm/order).
• Neither is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), so 103.2.d.2 imposes no legend, and neither is banned or restricted in either format.
• The Hold half needs Ornn alive at a battlefield you control at 315.2.b.2, which is why the [Tank] from Doran's Shield is worth more on him than on anything else in the deck.

Prerequisites

• THE SPLIT, AND IT IS DECIDED BY WHERE THE WORDS SIT. 383.3.a: 'If a Triggered Ability says "you may" or "they may" as the first part of its Effect, the controller of its source will choose whether or not to perform the Triggered Ability during finalization', and 383.3.a.2 makes declining severe - 'it is removed from the chain and considered to have not triggered.' Against that, 383.3.a.3: 'If "you may" or "they may" appears in any later part of the Effect of a triggered ability, it is decided on resolution', with Ornn as the example and the sentence that matters: 'The ability is always finalized to the chain.' 383.3.a, .a.1, .a.2 and .a.3 are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project.
• SO A LATE "YOU MAY" IS FREE INFORMATION AND A LEADING ONE IS A BLIND COMMITMENT. Ornn looks at four cards and THEN decides whether to reveal a gear and draw it. A card whose 'you may' opens the effect - OGN-199 Tideturner is Riot's example at 383.3.a - has to be committed at finalization, before anyone responds and before anything is seen. When comparing two triggers that read alike, find the 'you may' first.
• AND 383.3.a.2 IS THE HALF WITH TEETH. 'Considered to have not triggered' is stronger than merely leaving the chain: nothing that watches triggers sees it, and a 'once each turn' clause on such an ability is not spent. This is the same window 383.3.b puts a base cost in - a cost written right after a leading 'you may' is paid to finalize - so a leading 'you may' is one decision about both the cost and the effect, taken blind.
• THE ENGINE IS THE HOLD, NOT THE PLAY. 'When you play me or when I hold' - 315.2.b.2 Holds every battlefield you control, and 485.4 puts two on a Duel table, so Ornn digs four cards deep EVERY Beginning Phase he survives at a battlefield you hold, and each dig is a fresh 383.3.a.3 decision. That is what makes a 5-Energy body a card-advantage engine rather than a one-shot.
• AND THE DIG IS FREE OF BURN OUT, WHICH MATTERS IN A THIN DECK. 431.1.c is explicit that looking and revealing never Burn Out, and 431.1.c.1 extends that to the zone change that follows - so 'look at the top 4 ... reveal ... and draw it. Then recycle the rest' is safe with the deck nearly empty, where a plain draw would be 431.1.a and a point for the opponent (194.1.d). The DRAW itself is the one part that is not free, and it is the part 383.3.a.3 lets you decline after looking.
• 416.5 IS THE PRICE OF THE RECYCLE. 'If 2 or more cards are Recycled to the Main Deck simultaneously, they are placed on the bottom of that deck in a random order' - so the three or four cards Ornn puts back go to the bottom unordered. The dig never sets up a future draw; it only converts this turn's top four into one card of your choice.
• DORAN'S SHIELD IS IN uses[] FOR TWO REASONS AND BOTH ARE ARITHMETIC. It is the cheapest gear in Calm at 1 Energy, so the reveal has a target the turn can actually cast; and its [Effect] [Tank] on Ornn makes 815.1.c.2 forbid assigning combat damage to any other body of yours until he has lethal, which is what keeps the Hold engine alive to dig again.
• 204.3.a IS THE FIRST AND CLEANER SOURCE FOR THIS, AND IT CARRIES THE WORKED EXAMPLE: "When Costs within Instructions appear as the first part of the effect in triggered abilities, the cost is taken to be the base cost of the triggered ability. It must be paid to finalize the triggered ability", with Riot's example being Overzealous Fan - "When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base" - and the note that "in order to finalize the ability to the chain, its controller must kill Overzealous Fan". 383.3.b says the same thing later in the book. The companion is 204.3.b: a cost appearing in a SPELL, in an ACTIVATED ability, or in a LATER part of a trigger's effect is paid on resolution instead, which is the 205 "pay X. If you do, Y" family and the reason the two look alike on the card and behave differently on the chain.
• 424.1.a.2 is the MECHANISM under the 431.1.c protection this entry already cites, and the entry carries the consequence without it: "Cards remain in the zone they are being Revealed from." Riot's own example is that a card Revealed from the top of the Main Deck "is still the top card of that player's Main Deck." So revealing can never Burn Out because NOTHING LEAVES THE DECK, which 424.1.a states as the general fact: "Revealed is a temporary state and is not a zone." Same shape this file records for 355.7 against 355.10.d and 811.6 against the tail of 811.1.b.

Steps

1. Play SFD-058 Ornn, Blacksmith (5 Energy + 1 Power) to a battlefield you control. His play trigger fires: look at the top 4 cards of your Main Deck.
2. 383.3.a.3 puts the decision at RESOLUTION, after you have seen all four - reveal a gear from among them and draw it, or decline. The ability was finalized either way.
3. Recycle the rest; 416.5 puts them on the bottom in random order, so nothing is set up for later.
4. Attach SFD-033 Doran's Shield to Ornn for one Calm rune: +1 Might Bonus (137.3, 477.3.d) and [Tank], so 815.1.c.2 makes every other friendly body an invalid combat-damage assignment until he has lethal.
5. At each of your Beginning Phases, 315.2.b.2 Holds every battlefield you control and Ornn's Hold trigger digs four again - a fresh decision each time, and 431.1.c keeps the look and the recycle free of any Burn Out.
6. Three copies of each (103.2.b). Compare against any trigger whose 'you may' opens its effect - 383.3.a makes that one a blind commitment at finalization, and 383.3.a.2 treats a decline as never having triggered.

Per iteration

one card of your choice out of the top four, every Beginning Phase Ornn survives a battlefield you hold, decided after you have looked

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores. One dig per Ornn per Hold, three copies (103.2.b), and 416.5 makes the recycle random so it never compounds

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.3.a.3 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.3.a.3 worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.3.a.2 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