RIFTCOMBO

Combo · ENGINE

Three Fury cards read the same 'four or fewer runes' clause, and 164.2.b lets you meet it on purpose, at the price of the runes recycled

7 cards · fury · verified

Pieces

Payoff

Repeatable card advantage

Deck

Run play

Prerequisites

Steps

  1. Bring Protective Sands as one of your three battlefields in a Fury shell running Eclipse Dragon and Baccai Sandspinner.
  2. In the opening the condition is already true: 315.3.b channels two runes a turn, so you control 2 after turn one and 4 after turn two. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): true going first only. Going second you channel an extra rune on your first turn, 485.7: 'First Turn Process: The player going second channels an extra Rune from their Rune Deck during their first Channel Phase of the game.' So you control 3 after turn one and 5 after turn two, and a unit you play on turn one cannot conquer before turn two, 143.4: 'Units enter the Board exhausted.' Going second, the first Protective Sands draw costs a recycled rune.
  3. Later, in your Main Phase, tap the runes you need for Energy (164.2.a) and spend it; then recycle the surplus down to four with 164.2.b, whose cost is the recycle and not an exhaust, banking a Power for each. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): the banked Power does not last. 167: 'Every player's Rune Pool empties at the start of each player's Main Phase and the end of each player's turn.' 167.1: 'Any unspent Energy or Power are lost.' Nothing in this package costs Power except the Dragon's [Accelerate], so in the walk the four Power the recycle added were lost.
  4. Conquer Protective Sands. Its trigger checks the rune count, you pay 1 Energy and draw 1. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): once per time you take it. In the walk Protective Sands was conquered once, on T2, and held after; a Hold is not a conquer. 469.1: 'Conquer: A player gains Control of a Battlefield they did not yet Score this turn.' 469.2: 'Hold: A player maintains Control of a Battlefield they did not yet Score this turn during their Beginning Phase.' So this step comes again only after they empty it, which the fifth notable already says ('a conquer battlefield taken and kept fires exactly once').
  5. Standard-Move Eclipse Dragon in the same Main Phase for a second card, and pay Baccai Sandspinner's [Empower] at E2 instead of E5 — 441.2 makes that upgrade permanent, so it only has to be bought once while the condition holds. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): Eclipse Dragon costs E8, and a Basic Rune gives one Energy (164.2.a: '[E]: [Reaction] — Add [1].'), so off runes alone it cannot be cast while you control four. Without [Accelerate] it cannot draw on the turn it is cast: it enters exhausted, 143.4: 'Units enter the Board exhausted.', and its Standard Move costs the exhaust, 144.2: 'Exhausting the Unit is the Cost for this action.' So its first draw comes on a later turn, and that turn needs the count at four or fewer: casting it takes 8 runes, so at least four are recycled between the cast and a draw, and five on the turn it lands with [Accelerate] (E9 and one Fury Power from 9 runes, down to 4). In the walk the T4 recycle for the Sandspinner left 6 runes on T5, so the Dragon could not be cast that turn. A Dragon cast on an earlier turn can share one recycle with the conquer and the [Empower]: on a 12-rune turn, all twelve exhausted and eight recycled pay for the Protective Sands draw, the Dragon's move draw and the E2 [Empower]. What the walk shows is narrower: the Dragon cannot be cast on a turn you hold four runes.
  6. 315.3.b channels two back at your next Channel Phase; 430.3 takes as many as the Rune Deck holds, which 161.2.b has been refilling. CORRECTED 2026-10-24 (#456): not at the next Channel Phase. A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b) and 430.1 channels from the top, so it is back on T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (161.2.a, 315.3.b, 485.7); each two more recycled push it a turn later, a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner, and the next Channel Phase gives it back only once the Rune Deck is empty. The two this step channels are the top two, which come whether or not you dumped.

Per iteration

one card per Conquer and one per Eclipse Dragon move, plus a one-off 3 Energy off each Sandspinner's Empower, all off a single rune count CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): the 3 Energy are not free. In the walk the T4 recycle from 8 runes to 4 bought them, so the 3 Energy cost four runes off the board, short until they come back from the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b, 430.1).

How it ends

engine only — free while the rune count is naturally low in the opening, and thereafter costing two Channel Phases per rune dumped; nothing here scores CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): 'two Channel Phases per rune dumped' was withdrawn by the 2026-10-24 correction to the second notable (#456). At two a turn N dumped runes take N/2 Channel Phases to rebuild the count, and against the undumped curve each dumped rune is short on every turn until it comes back from the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b; 430.1 channels from the top): back on T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (161.2.a, 315.3.b, 485.7); each two more recycled push it a turn later, and a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner.

Sources

Published elsewhere

Walked here, in this project

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.

HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07, issue #171 — the first entry to use VEN-162, VEN-016 or VEN-001. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. The three members of the gameable clause and the two members of the ungameable sibling are all NAMED so the family is refutable in one grep, per the #175 correction. The timing-choice reading is the project's own, restated here with the paragraph that carries it (164.2.b's cost is the recycle) and with the cost it glosses over stated explicitly: 315.3.b rebuilds at two a turn, so dumping is not free after the opening. Trap check: VEN-005 / VEN-006's 'at the start of your Beginning Phase' clause is 315.2.a and is excluded with the reason; 441.2 is cited so the Sandspinner rebate is counted once; the needs declaration is stated with 315.2.b.2 + 470 and contrasted with Sunken Temple's Might gate; exactly one battlefield is named, so 485.4.a is respected. CORRECTED 2026-10-24 (#456): dumping costs more than 'rebuilds at two a turn' says. 315.3.b's two come whether or not you dumped, and the dumped runes go to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b; 430.1 channels from the top), so against the undumped curve they are short on every turn until the deck runs dry (see the corrected caveat). Status unchanged. REVISED 2026-10-26 (#473, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-26-protective-sands-draws-once-on-turn-two-the-sandspinners-three-energy-cost-four-runes-and-the-dragon-cannot-be-cast.md): its Leads applied as dated notes on steps 2, 3, 4 and 5, terminatesIn, netPerIteration and the first notable, plus an ADDED notable for the answers. Re-checked against data/corpus_flat.txt and the 2026-07-16 Core Rules (143.4, 144.2, 161.2.a, 164.2.a, 167, 167.1, 315.3.b, 416.1, 416.1.b, 430.1, 430.2, 464.2.c.3.a, 469.1, 469.2, 485.7, 811.1.b). Each correction narrows a claim (one draw per conquer of A, the Dragon's draws need runes recycled, the banked Power is lost, the rebate costs runes); none removes what the entry catalogues (three cards and a battlefield reading one rune count, met on purpose by recycling), and in the walk it drew on T2 and bought the E2 [Empower], so it stays verified. No unruled reading. RENAMED 2026-10-26 (#483): was 'Three Fury cards read the same 'four or fewer runes' clause, and 164.2.b makes emptying the board a profit rather than a cost' (it said emptying the board is a profit). After #456 and #473 it is not: a recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b) and 430.1 channels from the top, and the Power it adds is lost unless spent that turn (the #473 correction to step 3 quotes the rule), so the new name says recycling meets the clause at the price of the runes recycled. REVISED 2026-10-26 (#483): the Thwonk! price in the seventh notable is CORRECTED back to one recycled, because Thwonk! chooses the Empowered Sandspinner and its [Deflect] adds 1 Power of any domain (809.1.b.3, 809.1.c, 809.1.c.1, pasted there; #484 / PR #485 found the play's price right). Status unchanged: verified, because the rename weakens the headline and not the walked mechanism, and the price correction is to an answer, not to the line.

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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