Combo · CHAIN · 8 points

The Blue Sentinel pays for its own Time Warp — nine points across three uninterrupted turns

6 cards · mind + body · verified

Pieces

• Blue Sentinel ×1 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.)

• Trinity Force ×1 SFD-115 · payoff · body

  [Equip] 1 Body Power (1 Body Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)

  When I hold, score 1 point.

• Applied Researchers ×2 VEN-055 · engine · mind

  [Empower] 3 Energy (3 Energy: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] Your spells cost 1 Energy + 1 Power of any domain less, to a minimum of 1 Energy.

• Time Warp ×2 OGN-122 · payoff · mind

  Take a turn after this one. Banish this.

Payoff

Deck

• Mind + Body. VEN-149 Defender of Tomorrow (Jayce) is the ONLY Mind/Body legend in the pool (103.1.b.2) — the same constraint blue-sentinel-trinity-force-hold names.
• Control one battlefield through all three Beginning Phases. No opponent turn intervenes, so nothing can contest it once the chain starts.

Prerequisites

• THE FEEDER IS THAT THE SENTINEL PAYS FOR THE TIME WARP, and it turns on one paragraph nobody had cited for this. The Sentinel's delayed Add is a hold effect, so it runs 1 + K = 2 times and banks 2 rainbow. 316.2 says the Main Phase Tasks become outstanding 'in the specified order', 316.3 is '1. Each player's Rune Pool empties' and 316.4 is '2. At the start of Main Phase game effects take place' — the Add resolves AFTER the emptying, so 167 never touches it. Two Applied Researchers put Time Warp at E8 + 2 Power, and those 2 Power are exactly what the Sentinel just handed you: the spell costs 8 Energy out of pocket and no Power at all.
• The arithmetic, checked against this entry's own declared quantities. Points per Hold = 1 + T x (1 + K) with T = 1 Trinity Force and K = 1 Sentinel: 1 Score (470-capped) + 2 ability Gains (194.1.c, R2 = A, uncapped) = 3. Turn 1 Scoring Step: 3. Cast Time Warp in that Main Phase. Turn 2 Scoring Step: 6. Cast the second. Turn 3 Scoring Step: 9, which crosses the Victory Score, and 194.2 wins it in the cleanup. Three scoring events, no opponent turn between them — that is CHAIN, not BURST.
• In 2v2 it is short. 489.3 sets the Victory Score at 11 against 194.3's default 8, so this board needs a third Time Warp (nine becomes twelve) and 489.8's separate decks make the team version unrepresentable by matchDeck anyway.
• Why this is not just 'add Time Warp to blue-sentinel-trinity-force-hold'. That entry is a BURST: T=3, K=2 for ten points in ONE Hold, at 20 Energy and 5 Power of board. This is T=1, K=1 — a quarter of the board — and it reaches nine by taking three Holds instead of one. The card list, the class, the Power ledger and the failure mode all differ: that line dies to removal on a Sentinel before the Hold, this one only has to survive to the FIRST Hold, because the opponent never gets a turn afterwards.
• The Ancient Henge is the Body alternative and it is not needed here. SFD-117 converts Energy to rainbow 1:1 with no cap and is legal in this identity, so it could pay the 2 Power instead of the Sentinel — but it costs E2 + 1 Power and an exhaust, and the Sentinel's Add is free and already in the line. Recorded so the next session does not add it as an improvement.
• One Applied Researcher instead of two leaves Time Warp at E9 + 3 Power, which the Sentinel's 2 rainbow cannot cover; three leave it at E7 + 1 Power, which is margin rather than speed. Two is the number that matches the Sentinel exactly.
• Nothing is [Temporary] and nothing is a token, so 816.1.b and 185 never arise. The Trinity Force rides on the Sentinel, so losing the Sentinel loses both halves at once — that is the single point of failure, and it only has to survive until the first of the three Holds.
• SFD-102 Hexdrinker (Body, E2, one-rune [Equip], "[Effect] [Deflect]") answers the single point of failure this line names — lose a Sentinel and K drops: 809.1.c taxes the opponent a rainbow to choose a [Deflect] unit, and being carrier-independent it attaches free under any [Weaponmaster] body. In no entry before this note (#161, 2026-09-06).
• NOTHING IN THIS LINE IS PROTECTED FROM A GEAR KILL, AND THE POOL PRINTS SIXTEEN OF THEM. 718.5.b: 'Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached' - the Equipment's own printed Rules Text is Inactive while attached (718.2) and its [Equip] is unusable (721.2), but the CARD is a legal target for every turn it sits there. Swept with /\bkills?\b[^.]{0,80}\bgear\b/i over text+effect of every deckable base in data/cards.json, the pool has 16 base codes (15 names; Jayce, Man of Progress is printed twice) and EVERY ONE OF THE SIX DOMAINS prints at least one, so there is no identity this line can hide in. The unconditional enemy-facing ones are OGN-022 Thermo Beam, SFD-005 Detonate and VEN-003 Brittle Steel (Fury), OGN-224 Salvage (Order), SFD-032 Disarming Rake (Calm) and SFD-077 Rocket Barrage (Mind). OGN-022 Thermo Beam - Fury, E5 + 2 Fury Power, '[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Kill all gear.' - is the only card in the pool that kills EVERY gear at once, so it answers the whole payoff with one card; it is symmetric, which makes it cheap for a gearless deck and expensive for anyone else (the shape acceptable-losses-ravenbloom-prefect-gearless-gear-hate already records for OGN-179).
• THE TIMING CUTS BOTH WAYS, AND NO [Reaction] GEAR KILL EXISTS. Swept over all sixteen gear kills: none carries [Reaction]. Thermo Beam and Salvage are [Action], which 806.1.c.1 makes short for 'This can be played during showdowns on any player's turn'; Detonate and Brittle Steel are plain spells, and 155 confines a spell to 'an Open State outside of Showdowns on its controller's turn'. The Score this line pays on happens at 315.2.b.2 inside your own Beginning Phase, where the opponent holds no priority in a Neutral Open State (312.2.a) and the Closed State the trigger opens admits only a [Reaction] (813.1.c.1). So the opponent can NEVER strip the gear in the window that pays - every answer has to be cast on their own turn, one full turn before. That is what keeps the line alive, and it is also the window in which to defend it: the removal spell on the Chain is a Closed State, 312.2.c hands out priority there and 813.1.c.1 admits a [Reaction] in response.
• 7 ENERGY ANSWERS THE GARRISON THIS LINE NEEDS. OGN-123 Unchecked Power is mind, 7 Energy + 2 Power: "Exhaust all friendly units, then deal 12 to ALL units at battlefields.". 143.2.a kills on marked damage at or above Might, so it kills every body at or below Might 12 SIMULTANEOUSLY however many there are: the binding constraint is MIGHT PER BODY, not the number of bodies, so going wider answers nothing. A CHEAPER ANSWER EXISTS AND IT IS NOT AVAILABLE TO EVERY OPPONENT: OGN-268 Bullet Time costs 1 Energy + 4 Power here (it pays per point of damage, so it scales to any garrison) and is [Action], so 806.1.c.1 puts it inside any showdown on any player's turn - but it is a SIGNATURE card tagged Miss Fortune, and 103.2.d.2 requires every Signature card to carry the Chosen Champion Legend's tag, so only a Miss Fortune legend can run it. Count it as a matchup, not as the field. THE IDENTITY DOES HOLD AN ANSWER: OGN-294 Trifarian War Camp +1 (that battlefield only), SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper +1 (Mech bodies only), UNL-077 Soul Shepherd +1 (token bodies only) - a permanent, garrison-wide +Might is the only thing that lifts every body at once, since a single-target pump is useless against a sweep that hits all of them. (A battlefield protection is a 1-in-3: 485.5 has each player "randomly select one (1) of their three (3) Battlefields", so it is not a card you can count on drawing.) WHEN THE ANSWER LANDS, AND IT IS NOT INSIDE THE HOLD. A Hold resolves at 315.2.b.2, which Holds "all Battlefields they Control", inside YOUR Beginning Phase - and 312.2.a gives a player priority only "When the turn is in a Neutral Open State during their Main Phase", i.e. their own. So the opponent cannot answer in the Hold window itself; they answer on THEIR turn, which is the turn immediately before it. The cost of that is yours, not theirs: your own Main Phase comes AFTER your Beginning Phase (315 then 316), so there is no window in which to rebuild the garrison. Holding up a [Reaction] on their turn is the only response this line has.
• A SPELL PAYOFF IS ANSWERED IN A WINDOW THE RULES CREATE FOR IT, AFTER EVERY COST IS ALREADY SPENT (added 2026-09-13, #200). **359.3.c**: *"Other players have an opportunity to play Reactions before the resolution of spells."* A UNIT or GEAR payoff never gets that window — 337.2 sends it straight to Step 4 Resolve — and a BATTLEFIELD payoff is not removable at all (170.3, 170.4). A SPELL is the one payoff class the process stops for, and **425.1.c** with **425.1.c.1** refunds nothing: *"Countering does not refund any costs paid to play a card… This includes additional costs."* `OGN-122 Time Warp` at **E10 + 4 Power is the largest single cost in any finishing turn this catalogue prices**, and all of it is spent before the counter resolves. Swept on the bare word *counter*: 14 printings, three of which are not counters (`SFD-194 Counter Strike` is a PREVENT carrying the word in its name; `VEN-015` and `VEN-069` GRANT can’t-be-countered), leaving **ELEVEN — and CALM prints five of them**. Seven reach Time Warp and FOUR cannot, each for a printed reason: `OGN-045 Defy` and `VEN-152 Rebuttal` are priced out by its own cost, and `SFD-045 Not So Fast` and `UNL-106 Repulse` both need the spell to CHOOSE a friendly unit or gear, which Time Warp does not — **so the pool’s only two ABILITY-counters are exactly the two that cannot answer this spell.** Cheapest that reaches: `VEN-039 Crumbling Sands`, Calm, E1 + 1 Power, conditional on you having cast anything else that turn. Most punishing: `UNL-190 Lilting Lullaby`, Calm/Mind, E2 + 2 Power — *"Counter a spell. Its controller can't play spells this turn"* — which ends the finishing TURN rather than taking one card. And `VEN-152 Rebuttal` is not a counter at all against a cheap spell payoff: it *"gain[s] control of it and you may make new choices for it"*, so at 4 Energy or less it does not deny the line, **it takes it.**

Steps

1. Set up over earlier turns: Blue Sentinel at a battlefield you control (E4 + 1 Mind Power), Trinity Force attached to it (E4 + 1 Body Power), two Applied Researchers played and Empowered (E4 + E3 each).
2. Turn 1, Scoring Step (315.2.b.2): you Hold. 1 point from the Score, and the Trinity Force's 'When I hold, score 1 point' — appended to the Sentinel by 718.3 and made a Hold Ability of a Unit by 383.4.d.2.a — runs 1 + 1 = 2 times for 2 ability Gains. Three points. The Sentinel's own hold effect also runs twice, banking 2 rainbow for the next Main Phase.
3. Turn 1, Main Phase: 316.3 empties the Rune Pool, then 316.4 delivers the 2 rainbow. Cast Time Warp for E8 + 2 Power — the Energy from runes, the Power from the Sentinel.
4. Turn 2 arrives with no opponent turn in between. Its Scoring Step Holds the same battlefield (470's cap is per turn and this is a new turn): three more points, total six, and 2 more rainbow banked.
5. Turn 2 Main Phase: cast the second Time Warp on the same terms.
6. Turn 3 Scoring Step: three more points, total nine. 194.2 wins the game in the cleanup, at or above the Victory Score with more points than any other player.

How it ends

nine points across three uninterrupted turns, crossing 8 on the third Hold — each Time Warp paid for in Energy alone, because the Sentinel banks the Power

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Issue #161 (GitHub) 2026-09-06

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06, issue #161 — uncatalogued feeders of the 36 finishers 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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