Combo · CHAIN · 8 points

Shen's fragility is free inside a Time Warp — nine points across three uninterrupted turns

4 cards · order + mind · verified

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.

• 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.)

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

  Take a turn after this one. Banish this.

Payoff

Deck

• Mind + Order: OGN-265 Herald of the Arcane, OGS-021 Lady of Luminosity, SFD-201 Chem-Baroness and UNL-199 Deceiver all hold it (103.1.b.2).
• Control one battlefield with EXACTLY Shen and the Blue Sentinel on it, and nothing else.

Run play

• the elegance is the slowness, and the clock is right by the wrong road

Prerequisites

• THE ENTRY EXISTS BECAUSE THE TIME WARP CANCELS SHEN'S ONLY WEAKNESS. shen-kinkou-sentinel-hold is 3 points a turn and its own notes say the garrison 'is two units and cannot be three' — one token landing there, or one removal spell, takes the line to zero. Inside a Time Warp chain the opponent NEVER TAKES A TURN, so they cannot add a body to your battlefield (which needs a move, and a move needs their turn) and cannot remove one. The fragility that makes it a bad engine makes no difference at all to the chain.
• The arithmetic against this entry's own quantities. Per Hold: 1 Score (469.2, capped by 470 at one per battlefield per turn) + Shen x (1 + K) with K = 1, which is 2 ability Gains (194.1.c, R2 = A, uncapped) = 3. Turn 1 Scoring Step: 3. Turn 2: 6. Turn 3: 9, which crosses the Victory Score, and 194.2 wins it in the cleanup. Three scoring events, no opponent turn between them.
• THE SENTINEL PAYS FOR THE TIME WARP AND 316.2 IS WHY. Its 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' — so the Add resolves AFTER the emptying and 167 never touches it. Two Applied Researchers put Time Warp at E8 + 2 Power, and those 2 Power are exactly what was just banked: the spell costs 8 Energy out of pocket and no Power at all.
• K CANNOT BE RAISED HERE, AND THAT IS THE POINT OF PAIRING SHEN WITH EXACTLY ONE SENTINEL. A second Blue Sentinel would make two 'other units' at Shen's battlefield and 383.2.a.1 would keep his ability off the Chain — the line would score 1 a turn instead of 3. Shen is the only hold payoff in the pool whose multiplier occupies the single companion slot his own condition allows.
• The sole-garrison trap is checked and does not bite: nothing in this line kills a friendly body, so 323.6 and 190.4.c never hand the battlefield back mid-chain. The two units simply stand there through all three Beginning Phases.
• Against sentinel-trinity-time-warp-chain, which is the same shape in Mind/Body: that line pays E4 + a 1-Body [Equip] for a Trinity Force on the Sentinel and lives under VEN-149 Defender of Tomorrow, the pool's ONLY Mind/Body legend. This one pays E6 + 2 Order Power for Shen, needs no [Equip] at all, and runs under any of four Mind/Order legends. Same nine points, same two Time Warps; the difference is the identity and the [Equip].
• In 2v2 it is two points short: 489.3 sets the Victory Score at 11 against 194.3's 8, so the board needs a third Time Warp there — which 103.2.b allows, since Time Warp banishes itself rather than recycling.
• THE LEDGER CLOSES ON THREE CARDS, NOT FOUR (corrected 2026-09-07). An earlier version of this entry ran two Empowered VEN-055 Applied Researchers to discount Time Warp from E10 + 4 Power to E8 + 2 Power, and priced them into uses[]. They are not needed: 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at twelve, 164.2.a taps a rune for 1 Energy, and 164.2.b prints 'Recycle this: [Reaction] - Add [C]' with the RECYCLE as its whole cost - no exhaust - so an already-exhausted rune still pays Power. Twelve runes are therefore E12 + 2 Power in one Main Phase, and the doubled Sentinel adds 2 rainbow at 316.4, for E12 + 4 Power against a cost of E10 + 4 Power. 161.2.b returns the recycled runes to the Rune Deck and 315.3.b channels two back each Channel Phase, so the second Time Warp turn has the same sum. Two Applied Researchers remain a legitimate accelerant (E4 + E3 each, and 356.4.e keeps each floor local to its own discount) - but they are a deckbuilding CHOICE and an optional card must never sit in uses[], which is what the matcher and planDeck price.
• 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), OGS-013 Garen, Commander +1, SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper +1 (Mech 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: Shen, Leader of the Kinkou Order (E6 + 2 Order Power) and one Blue Sentinel (E4 + 1 Mind Power) at a battlefield you control, with nothing else there. No third card is needed - the rune economy pays for the Time Warps by itself, see the ledger below.
2. Turn 1, Scoring Step (315.2.b.2): you Hold. 1 point from the Score. Shen's trigger is placed and 383.2.a.1 finds exactly one other unit you control here — the Sentinel — so it resolves, doubled to two executions: 2 ability Gains. Three points. The Sentinel's own hold effect also runs twice and banks 2 rainbow.
3. Turn 1, Main Phase: 316.3 empties the Rune Pool, then 316.4 delivers the 2 rainbow the doubled Sentinel banked. Tap your twelve runes for 12 Energy (164.2.a), then recycle two of those ALREADY EXHAUSTED runes for 2 Power (164.2.b, whose cost is the Recycle and carries no exhaust). That is E12 + 4 Power against Time Warp at E10 + 4 Power, so it casts with 2 Energy to spare.
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: the same sum is available again. 161.2.b sent the two recycled runes to the Rune DECK, and 315.3.b channels 2 back every Channel Phase, so the board is twelve runes again; 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.

How it ends

nine points across three uninterrupted turns, crossing 8 on the third Hold — and the two-unit garrison Shen requires is safe for exactly as long as the opponent has no turn

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 finishers 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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