Combo · ENGINE
Three Seals pay for each other — one rune buys a permanent Power faucet
Pieces
- Seal of Insight ×3
OGN-120 · engine · mind
Exhaust: [Reaction] — [Add] 1 Mind Power. (Abilities that add resources can't be reacted to.)
Payoff
Deck
- Legend domains cover the Seal's domain. Play the Seal your deck already runs - the line is identical in all six: OGN-040 Rage (Fury), OGN-081 Focus (Calm), OGN-120 Insight (Mind), OGN-163 Strength (Body), OGN-204 Discord (Chaos), OGN-245 Unity (Order). Mind is anchored here only because it is the domain the catalogue touches most (37 of 91 entries).
Prerequisites
- The floor this is measured against, which the repo had never written down: every deck already gets 2 Power per turn for free, forever, with no card spent. 164.2.b's "Recycle this: [Reaction] - Add [C]" carries no exhaust in its cost, so a rune already exhausted for its Energy can still be recycled for its Power - it is worth 1 Energy AND THEN 1 Power. 161.2.b returns the recycled rune to the RUNE DECK, and 315.3.b / 430.4.a channel 2 runes back every Channel Phase, which sits before the Main Phase (315.1 -> 315.2 -> 315.3 -> 315.4 -> 316). Recycling two exhausted runes a turn is therefore free and repaid; recycling three erodes the board, because only two come back. So the sustainable rune rate is exactly 2 Power per turn, and there is no 12-Power lifetime cap of any kind. CORRECTED 2026-10-24 (#456): not at the next Channel Phase. 416.1 puts a recycled rune on the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b) and 430.1 channels from the top, so 315.3.b's two a turn are the runes above it, which the board gets whether or not anything was recycled. With only those two a turn (161.2.a, 315.3.b, 485.7), a rune recycled on any of T1 to T6 is back on T7 going first; going second the first one recycled by T5 is back on T6 and the second on T7; each two more recycled push it a turn later, and a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. Only once the Rune Deck is empty (all twelve out, T6 at the earliest from either seat) does the next Channel Phase give a recycled rune back; before that a recycle is a rune short on every turn until the deck runs dry, and two recycled every turn hold the board flat at two going first. So the 2 Power a turn is the rate that keeps the board from shrinking, not a free one: it is free only from the turn the Rune Deck is empty, and before that each of those Power is a rune of the curve short on every turn until the deck runs dry. There is still no 12-Power lifetime cap, because the runes do come back, later. The Seals' case gets stronger, not weaker: their Power costs no rune at all. Status unchanged.
- What the Seals buy is the rate above that 2, without shrinking the rune board - and they buy it for one rune. Bootstrap, in one Main Phase: exhaust a Mind rune for 1 Energy, recycle that same rune for 1 Mind Power (164.2.b), play Seal #1; it enters READY (149.1, 359.2.d), exhaust it for 1 Mind Power, play Seal #2; exhaust that for 1 Mind Power, play Seal #3; exhaust that and 1 Mind Power is still floating. Total cost of three Seals: ONE recycled rune, which the next Channel Phase gives back, and zero Energy. From the following turn 315.1.b readies all three: +3 Mind Power per turn on top of the 2 from runes. 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. So the bootstrap's one rune is short on every turn until it is back (T7 at the earliest going first if the Seals land on T1 to T6, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn), not for one turn. Still one rune for three Seals; status unchanged.
- The bootstrap does not depend on whether a Seal's printed Power symbol is its own domain or rainbow, because the Add feeding it and the cost it pays are the same card. 163.2 and 135.2.e.6 make the ordinary case the card's own domain.
- This is why it is not part of any loop, and it has to be said rather than hidden: a Seal readies once per turn (415.3.a) and the catalogue's loops spend Power PER PASS, where a pass takes an instant. Three Seal of Insight are 3 Mind Power for the whole turn, not 3 per pass. They feed a normal deck. The 9-Energy-per-Power exchange rate of the #21 ledger is untouched by them.
- 167 and 316.3 empty the Rune Pool at the start of each Main Phase and at end of turn, so exhausting a Seal during your Awakening Phase throws the Power away. Exhaust it in the Main Phase or later - and because 429.3 makes it an Add Reaction, "later" includes the middle of an opponent's spell resolving, with no window of priority needed (429.3.a).
- UNL-049 Honeyfruit is the Calm alternative and is deliberately not an ingredient here, because uses is a multiset requirement and listing it would force a deck to carry both. Three copies are 6 Energy, no Power and no runes at all, and they Add rainbow (payable in any domain, 135.2.e.5.a) - but "This enters exhausted" delays the first Power by a turn and breaks the bootstrap, since a Honeyfruit cannot pay for the next one.
- Every printed Add-a-Power card was measured: grep '[Add]' over the corpus filtered to rune symbols returns 20 cards, and the permanent, repeatable, unconditional ones are exactly seven - the six Seals and Honeyfruit. The rest are conditional (OGN-113, UNL-018, UNL-087, UNL-145, UNL-073), single-use (UNL-T05 Gold: "Kill this"), restricted in what they may pay for (OGN-247, SFD-189, VEN-141, UNL-022, UNL-185), or 1:1 converters that produce nothing net (SFD-117 Ancient Henge Energy->rainbow, SFD-083 Hextech Anomaly rainbow->Energy). None of the seven was in the catalogue before this entry.
Steps
- In a Main Phase, exhaust a Mind rune for 1 Energy, then recycle that same exhausted rune (164.2.b, no exhaust in its cost) for 1 Mind Power.
- Play Seal of Insight for 0 Energy + that 1 Power. 149.1 and 359.2.d put it on the board READY.
- Exhaust it: [Add] 1 Mind Power (429.3 - an Add Reaction needs no window of priority). Play the second Seal with it.
- Repeat once more for the third Seal, and exhaust it too - the turn ends with three Seals installed, one rune in the Rune Deck and 1 Mind Power still floating.
- 315.3.b channels the rune back at your next Channel Phase and 315.1.b readies the three Seals every Awakening Phase: +3 Mind Power per turn from here on, on top of the 2 the runes already give for free. 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 Seals' +3 a turn does not depend on it; the 2 'for free' from runes is free only once the Rune Deck is empty.
Per iteration
+1 Mind Power per Seal per turn, on top of the 2 Power per turn every deck already gets from recycling exhausted runes. Not per pass.
How it ends
a permanent per-turn Power rate above the Channel Phase's free 2, at a one-off cost of one recycled rune
Sources
Walked here, in this project
- Reaction/Deflect lens hunt, issue #44 candidate 2 (rc-huntF) 2026-09-05
- Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 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.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-reaction-deflect-candidates.md), issue #44 candidate 2. The conclusion of the hunt's finding C holds and its premise does not. #44 argued from "161.2.a Exactly 12 Rune cards, so a normal deck's Power is capped at 12 recycles for the whole game"; 161.2.b returns the recycled rune to the Rune Deck and 315.3.b / 430.4.a channel two back every turn, so the real ceiling is a sustainable 2 Power per turn and the Seals raise the rate rather than escape a cap. The hunt also priced three Seals at three recycled runes; walked here they cost ONE, because each Seal enters ready and its own Add pays for the next. What does NOT change is the #21 ledger: Seals produce per turn and loops spend per pass, so the ~9 Energy per Power figure stands untouched. Reused wholesale as the resource ingredient inside `curator-printed-cost-rebate`, which spends the same one-recycled-rune, three-Seal bootstrap to shave Energy off Plaza Guardian while still triggering Curator of the Sands off the printed cost (issue #152). 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. #44's 12-recycle cap is still wrong, since the runes do come back, but not every turn: the sustainable 2 Power a turn holds the board flat and is free only once the Rune Deck is empty (see the first caveat). Status unchanged.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16