Combo · ENGINE

Halving the Channel Phase is symmetric until you are already at twelve - then it costs you nothing and them everything

6 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Sandstone Chimera ×3 VEN-036 · payoff · calm

  While I'm at a battlefield, players only channel 1 rune at the start of their Channel Phase.

• Yi, Meditative ×3 OGS-004 · engine · calm

  While you have 8+ runes, I have +4 Might.

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Calm in its pair.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• Your own rune count at or near twelve BEFORE the Chimera lands. Played early it hurts you as much as them - see the notables.

Prerequisites

• THE ASYMMETRY IS ARITHMETIC AND IT ARRIVES ON A KNOWN TURN. 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards' and 315.3.b channels two free every Channel Phase, so an untouched curve is at twelve around turn six and cannot go higher. From the moment YOUR deck is empty, 430.3 ('If there aren't sufficient runes in the Rune Deck, channel as many as possible') means the Chimera's halving costs you literally nothing, while the opponent's curve is cut in half for the rest of the game. Played on turn three it is a symmetric tax; played on turn six it is a one-sided prison. The entry is about WHEN, not about whether.
• AND THE COUNT IS A BOARD COUNT, NOT A MANA COUNT. 164.2 gives a Basic Rune two abilities and only 164.2.a costs its own exhaust; 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE. So a rune tapped for Energy is still a rune you control for Yi, Meditative's '8+ runes' - but 161.2.b sends a rune RECYCLED for Power back to the Rune Deck, which lowers the count. In this deck, do not cash runes for Power: the whole plan is the count.
• WHICH IS ALSO WHY THIS DECK CANNOT ALSO BE THE SEVEN-RUNE DECK'S OPPOSITE NUMBER. esteemed-hierophant-tomb-raider-seven-runes and siphoning-strike-nasus-guardian-rune-threshold read the same resource at a lower threshold, and their riders CHANNEL more runes - which the Chimera does not stop, because 'channel 1 rune at the start of their Channel Phase' is scoped to 315.3.b's free channel and says nothing about a channel from a card. So a Chimera deck keeps every card-based channel it runs and denies the opponent the free two: those entries and this one are the same shell, and the Chimera is what makes it a prison instead of a race.
• THE BODY IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE PRICE. 7 Energy and 2 Power for an 8 Might unit is the most expensive body in the domain, and it only works 'while I'm at a battlefield' - so it has to walk in (144.4, paying 144.2's exhaust) and survive, and any removal that answers it hands the opponent their curve back. 143.4 enters it exhausted, so the halving does not begin until the turn after it is played unless something readies it.
• AND YI IS WHAT MAKES THE CURVE PAY BEFORE THE CHIMERA LANDS. '+4 :rb_might:' on a 4 Might body at eight runes is an 8 Might unit for 5 Energy + 1 Power - the same size as the Chimera for less than half the cost - and it is live from around turn four, two turns before the prison. It reads a count and not a threshold ability, so 824.1.d has nothing to say about it and nothing can spend it away.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold. And the denial is a tax on their development, not a lock - 167 still empties the pool, and everything they have already channelled stays.

Steps

1. Build the rune curve normally: 315.3.b channels two every Channel Phase against 161.2.a's cap of twelve.
2. At eight, play Yi, Meditative (5 Energy + 1 Power) - an 8 Might body for the price of a five-drop.
3. Do NOT recycle runes for Power: 164.2.b's recycle sends the rune to the Rune Deck (161.2.b) and lowers the count both cards read.
4. Once your own Rune Deck is empty, play Sandstone Chimera (7 Energy + 2 Power) and walk it to a battlefield.
5. From that Channel Phase the opponent gets one rune instead of two, and 430.3 means your own halving costs nothing you were still going to receive.
6. Any card-based channel in your deck is untouched - the Chimera's clause is scoped to the free channel at the start of the Channel Phase.

Per iteration

one rune a turn taken off the opponent's curve for as long as the Chimera stands, at no cost once your own Rune Deck is empty

How it ends

engine only - a development tax, not a lock; it stops the moment the Chimera leaves a battlefield, and 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
• Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API) 2026-09-07

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-calm-mind-order.md, batch 5) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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