Combo · ENGINE
Power Nexus × Blue Sentinel — pay Power for points every Hold
Pieces
- Power Nexus ×1
SFD-214 · payoff
When you hold here, you may pay 4 Power of any domain to score 1 point.
- Blue Sentinel ×2
UNL-087 · engine · mind
[Shield 2] (+2 Might while I'm a defender.) Your hold effects for holding here trigger an additional time. When I hold, [Add] 1 Power of any domain at the start of your next Main Phase. (Abilities that add resources can't be reacted to.)
Payoff
Deck
- Any legend that can play Blue Sentinel (Mind) — Power Nexus is colorless.
Prerequisites
- Power Nexus must be the battlefield in play, and a deck may not carry two of it (Core Rules 103.4.c, Tournament Rules 402.1): random 1 of 3 in Duel (485.5) and Skirmish (487.5), chosen in Match (486.5).
- Hold the Nexus with K Sentinels there: the trigger fires 1+K times, each may pay 4 Power for a point, plus the Hold's own point (470). K=2: 4 points per Beginning Phase for 12 Power. Hold-gated: once per turn.
- The Power must exist in the Beginning Phase — rune recycles are Reaction-speed Adds (429.3), so it is legal to make it then.
- THE FOUR RAINBOW DOES NOT HAVE TO BE BANKED, AND THIS ENTRY`S FUNDER IS AN OPTIMISATION RATHER THAN A REQUIREMENT (citation upgrade 2026-09-12, #200). 383.3.b makes the cost a BASE COST paid at finalization and 312.2.c withholds priority until every pending chain item finishes finalizing, which is why this catalogue concluded the Power had to be on the board already and reached for an Add-on-trigger card. **Priority is not payment.** 444.2.c: *"Players may activate abilities that Add resources with the Reaction keyword at any time that they are instructed to Pay resources. Those abilities finalize and resolve immediately, ignoring normal restrictions."* 164.2 gives every Basic Rune TWO abilities and both carry [Reaction], so 444.2.c reaches them; 164.2.b`s cost is the RECYCLE and not an exhaust, so a rune already tapped for Energy still pays; 164.2.b.1 Adds Power of that rune`s DOMAIN, which 135.2.e.5.a then makes legal against a rainbow cost (*"When required as a cost, [A] can be paid by Power of any Domain"*). So the Nexus is fundable out of runes in EVERY identity at four runes a point, and the Gold or Sentinel Add this entry uses is simply CHEAPER - see `power-nexus-rune-recycle-any-identity`, which walks the bare version.
- 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.
Steps
- Control Power Nexus through your Beginning Phase with two Blue Sentinels on it.
- Hold: score 1; the Nexus trigger resolves three times; pay 4 Power each for +3.
How it ends
engine — 1+K points per turn; with Time Warp it becomes a burst
Sources
Published elsewhere
- RiftJudge Q10155 — Blue Sentinel multiplies its own hold trigger (fan judge database, not official) 2026-05-08
Walked here, in this project
- Hunt v2 lens L4, entry L4-04 2026-09-02 record
- REFUTE pass 2026-09-03 2026-09-03 record
- Hand walk 2026-09-04 2026-09-04 record
How this entry was audited
REFUTE = a refutation pass, with its date and verdict · WOUNDED = the pass found a flaw and the entry was rewritten · BUDGETED = the pass checked the recycle-and-draw ledger · lens = the hunt that proposed it.
Battlefield-dependent (yours is 1 of 3 in Duel, chosen in Match). CORRECTED 2026-09-04 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-04-zed-zilean-and-r27.md): its notes blamed the Blue Sentinel reading, which is R1 and was ruled A on 2026-09-03, and R2 = A covers the Nexus's 'score 1 point' as an ability Gain. The real and only blocker WAS R8 - Power Nexus is a BATTLEFIELD, and Blue Sentinel multiplies 'YOUR hold effects', so this needs a battlefield's own Hold trigger to count as one of yours. 190.6.a is suggestive (its Controller controls its Abilities, adds them to the Chain and makes their choices) and 383.4.d.2.b puts a 'references the player Holding' ability on the Chain for the player who Held, and at the time no verified entry stood on that scoping: world-atlas-sentinel-gold multiplies a GEAR's Effect Text, which 136.2.c/718.3 make the unit's own. R8 was ruled A later the same day - the four referents are worked through at the end of this note - and nasus-ascended-sentinel-arena-hold now stands on the same scoping with Reckoner's Arena, so the blocker is closed. REFUTE 2026-09-03: WOUNDED — the Power is paid in the Beginning Phase with the Rune Pool empty (167), i.e. by recycling 12 runes, and rune income is about 2 per turn; sustainably that is one extra point a turn. World Atlas Gold (world-atlas-sentinel-gold) is the fix: exhausted Gold readies for the next Beginning Phase, 8 Gold = two Nexus payments. HAND-WALKED 2026-09-04 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-04-power-nexus-r8.md) once R8 was ruled A. No official Riot ruling exists - all four set FAQs are silent, including Spiritforged where Power Nexus was printed and Unleashed where Blue Sentinel was - but 190.6.d is the rule nobody had cited: "You in a battlefield abilities refers to the battlefield Controller", so for its controller Power Nexus literally reads "when I hold here, I may pay 4 to score 1 point". With 190.6.a (the controller controls its abilities), 190.6.c (control follows the battlefield unless the ability names another player, and this one names none) and 383.4.d.2 (Hold Effects include abilities referencing the player who Held), all four referents land on the same player. The ownership objection does not reach this entry either: 127.1 makes the owner whoever brought the card as one of their Battlefields and 485.4.a gives each player their own in a Duel, so controlling the Nexus normally means owning it.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16