Combo · ENGINE
Two Shens, each the other's "exactly one other unit" — a point and a card every Hold
Pieces
- Shen, Leader of the Kinkou Order ×1
VEN-138 · payoff · order
[Shield] (+1 Might while I'm a defender.) When I hold, if there is exactly one other unit you control here, you score 1 point.
- Shen, Scourge of Shadows ×1
VEN-042 · payoff · calm
When I hold, if there is exactly one other unit you control here, draw 1.
Payoff
Deck
- Legend domains are Order and Calm: VEN-147 Eye of Twilight (Shen), which is also the legend the source builds around and whose [Tank] grant protects whichever Shen you want to keep.
Prerequisites
- THE CONDITION IS 'EXACTLY ONE', SO A THIRD BODY TURNS OFF BOTH. 383.2.a.1 makes 'if there is exactly one other unit you control here' part of the Trigger Condition, not the Effect, so an unfulfilled count keeps the ability off the chain entirely. That collides head on with wanting to defend the battlefield, and it is the entry's real price: the garrison is two units and cannot be three. Gear does not count - it is not a unit - and neither does a token you park elsewhere, but any token that lands here does.
- R2 = A IS LOAD-BEARING. VEN-138 says 'you score 1 point', which 194.1.c makes a point gain by ability rather than a 469 Score, so 470's 'only Score once per Battlefield per turn' does not swallow it and it stacks on the battlefield's own Hold. Without R2 this entry is worth zero extra points.
- The two of them are 7 and 6 Might, and the [Shield] puts the Leader at 8 on defence, so the two-body garrison the condition forces is also a garrison that can hold itself. That is why the restriction is survivable at all.
- Both must have held the battlefield into your Beginning Phase: 315.2.b.2, 'The Turn Player Holds all Battlefields they Control', and 469.2 defines the Hold as maintaining Control of a battlefield you did not yet Score this turn.
- THE OTHER PARTNER FOR THE SAME BOARD SHAPE, AND THE CHOICE IS A REAL ONE (2026-09-14, #200). VEN-042 Shen, Scourge of Shadows is not the only body that satisfies VEN-138's "exactly one other unit you control here". VEN-117 Disciple of Shen does it for E2 rather than E5 + 1 Power, is [Hidden] so 811.1.b plays it for nothing from the turn after it is hidden, and reads the same clause back — "I have [Shield 3] while I'm at a battlefield with exactly one other unit you control" — so it defends instead of drawing. The trade is exact and it is about SIZE: 814.1.d makes that Shield exist only inside a combat ("Being a defender means the Unit has gained the Defender designation during Combat"), so the Disciple is printed MIGHT 1 the rest of the time, and OGN-169 Gust at one Energy or OGN-133 Flurry of Blades at one Energy takes it — and with it Shen's point. The Scourge at Might 6 is out of reach of both. Cheap and fragile against expensive and durable, on one board shape: see shen-disciple-hand-hammer-exactly-two, which also shows that a THIRD card, VEN-027 Hand Hammer, reads the same clause.
Steps
- Get both Shens onto the same battlefield you control and end your turn with exactly the two of them there.
- Your Beginning Phase: 315.2.b.2 Holds the battlefield. The Hold itself Scores 1 point (469.2, 471.1).
- Both Shen triggers see 'exactly one other unit you control here' - each other - and both fire (383.2.a.1 satisfied).
- VEN-138: +1 point by ability (194.1.c, R2 = A), so the turn is 2 points off one battlefield. VEN-042: draw 1.
- Repeat every turn the two of them survive alone there.
Per iteration
+2 points and +1 card per turn from one battlefield; 0 Energy, 0 Power, 0 cards spent
How it ends
engine only - 2 points and a card a turn for as long as exactly the two of them hold
Sources
Published elsewhere
- YouTube — Riftlab, "How to Play SHEN | Vendetta Riftbound Guide & Decklist" 2026-07-29
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- Minería por leyenda — issue #62 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
Walked here, in this project
- 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-issue62-legends-without-entries.md), issue #62 section 2.1. VEN-147 Eye of Twilight had NO entry in the catalogue before this. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; every rule opened in data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt. The joke of the pair is that the clause which normally punishes you - 'exactly one other unit you control here' - is satisfied by the OTHER copy, so the restriction becomes the enabler. The walk's addition over the source is the price tag: 383.2.a.1 makes that clause a Trigger Condition, so a third friendly body at that battlefield does not dilute the reward, it deletes both triggers. Trap check: no attack designation anywhere, so 383.4.e/461 never bite; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no recall; no rune recycled for Power; nothing enters ready, so 143.4 only delays the first Hold by a turn. Depends on R2 (ruled A).
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16