Combo · ENGINE

[Deflect] is a tax and 'can't be chosen' is a prohibition — and the Monument's [Temporary] covers exactly the opponent's turn

2 cards · body · verified

Pieces

• Petricite Monument ×1 SFD-104 · engine · body

  [Temporary] (Kill this at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.) Friendly units have [Deflect]. (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose them with a spell or ability.)

• Ruin Runner ×1 SFD-105 · payoff · body

  I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities.

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Body among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 17 names: Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Blind Monk (OGN-257), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), The Boss (OGN-269), Wuju Bladesman - Starter (OGS-019), Might of Demacia - Starter (OGS-023), Purifier (SFD-183), Grandmaster at Arms (SFD-193), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Grand Duelist (SFD-205), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Wuju Master (UNL-191), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Keeper of the Hammer (UNL-203), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141), Defender of Tomorrow (VEN-149), Matriarch of War (VEN-153).
• Play the Monument on the turn you want it: 816.1.b kills it at the start of your NEXT Beginning Phase, so it is a one-round-trip card.

Run play

• the tax is paid, the prohibition is walked around, and one Energy does both

Prerequisites

• TWO PROTECTIONS THAT LOOK ALIKE AND ARE NOT THE SAME KIND OF THING. 809.1.c makes [Deflect] a TAX: '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]', and 809.1.c.1 lets that Power be any Domain. A player with the Power simply pays it. `SFD-105 Ruin Runner`'s 'I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' is a PROHIBITION, and 054.1 — 'Cards that forbid actions or effects, as a broad method of determination, supersede cards that allow or permit that same action or effect' — makes it absolute: no amount of Power buys through it.
• NEITHER STOPS A PROGRAMMATIC EFFECT, WHICH IS WHERE BOTH DECKS DIE. 355.10.d: an object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen' is not a target, with the worked example '"Kill all units at a battlefield" targets a battlefield, but does not target any units'. So a sweeper — `OGN-022 Thermo Beam`, `OGN-127 Cannon Barrage`, `OGN-268 Bullet Time`, `VEN-090 Cataclysmic Duel` — goes through the Monument and through Ruin Runner alike. Build for the removal you expect: single-target answers, or mass ones, not both.
• THE MONUMENT'S [Temporary] IS A WINDOW, NOT A DRAWBACK. 816.1.b is 'At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this' — so a Monument played in your Main Phase covers the rest of your turn AND the whole of the opponent's turn, and dies before your own Scoring Step. It is a two-Energy shield over exactly the window in which the opponent acts, and it cannot get in the way of anything that happens at 315.2.
• 816.1.c is worth knowing beside it: 'The Trigger Condition is the controller of the permanent's Beginning Phase starting', so a Monument that ARRIVES during that same instant is not killed by it — which is why the card is played on your own turn, deliberately, and not left around.
• Ruin Runner is the anchor the Monument cannot replace: at 6 Energy and 5 Might he is a body the opponent's single-target removal simply cannot address, so he holds a battlefield through 469.2's Hold check without needing the gear at all. The Monument is what extends that immunity — as a tax rather than a prohibition — to the rest of the garrison for one round trip.
• The Monument is gear, so 143.4 (units enter exhausted) never applies to it and it is live the moment it lands; and it grants [Deflect] to friendly UNITS, not to itself, so `OGN-022 Thermo Beam` and `SFD-135 Factory Recall` answer the Monument at full price.

Steps

1. Play Ruin Runner (6 Energy) and station him at a battlefield. Enemy single-target spells and abilities cannot choose him at all (054.1).
2. On a turn when you expect targeted removal, play Petricite Monument (2 Energy) in your Main Phase.
3. Every friendly unit now has [Deflect]: the opponent pays one extra Power per choice (809.1.c), in any domain (809.1.c.1).
4. The Monument covers the rest of your turn and the whole of the opponent's turn.
5. At the start of your next Beginning Phase, before scoring, 816.1.b kills it — after the window it was bought for and before your Scoring Step.

How it ends

engine — one unit permanently untargetable and the rest of the garrison taxed for one round trip, for 8 Energy across the two cards; 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

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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