Combo · ENGINE

The cheapest [Empower] cost in the pool is an exhaust, and a discount that reads 'something Empowered' does not care which thing

6 cards · mind · verified

Pieces

• Shock Blast ×3 VEN-059 · payoff · mind

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) This costs 2 Energy less if you control something that's [Empowered]. Deal 4 to a unit at a battlefield.

• Questionable Tome ×3 VEN-054 · engine · mind

  [Empower] — Exhaust (Pay the cost: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) Disempower this, 1 Energy, Exhaust: Draw 1.

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Mind, so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Mind in its pair.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• The Tome left EMPOWERED. Its own draw ability begins 'Disempower this', so using it switches the discount off until you re-Empower - which its exhaust cost lets you do, but only once per turn.

Prerequisites

• THE CONDITION READS 'SOMETHING', NOT 'A UNIT'. Shock Blast asks only that you control something that is [Empowered], and 441.2 makes Empowered 'a state for Game Objects on the board' - so a gear satisfies it exactly as a unit does. That is why the cheapest Empower in the pool is the right enabler rather than the biggest one.
• AND THE CHEAPEST IS AN EXHAUST. The Questionable Tome's [Empower] cost is ':rb_exhaust:' with no Energy and no Power at all, and 441.1 makes Empowering 'the act of rendering one or more Game Objects Empowered' with 441.2 making the state permanent once reached. So 3 Energy for the gear, then one exhaust, and every Shock Blast afterwards costs 1 Energy + 1 Power for Deal 4 - which 356.4.b prices as it is played and 356.6 floors at zero.
• THE TENSION IS ON THE TOME ITSELF, AND IT IS THE ENTRY'S REAL CONTENT. Its draw ability is 'DISEMPOWER this, 1 Energy, exhaust: Draw 1' - so cashing the card switches the discount off, and 441.1.b ('An Empowered Game Object can not be Empowered') means re-Empowering needs the exhaust back, which 415.3.a only returns at your own Awakening. One turn you draw, the next you discount; you cannot do both with one Tome. Three copies (103.2.b) are how a deck has it both ways, and that is a deckbuilding answer rather than a play one.
• WHAT THE DISCOUNTED SPELL ACTUALLY KILLS. 143.2.a kills on marked damage at or above Might, so Deal 4 removes any body of 4 Might or less for 1 Energy + 1 Power - and it is [Action] (806.1.c.1: 'This can be played during showdowns on any player's turn'), so it can be held until a combat has opened and the board is known.
• AND THE DAMAGE IS ABILITY DAMAGE, NOT UNIT DAMAGE. 417.6.b.3's Challenge exception applies only where a spell names a UNIT as the source; here the spell deals it, so a blanket 'prevent all spell and ability damage' answer stops it and a [Tank] does not order it (815.1.b is scoped to the combat damage step). The mutual-damage family walked in the Body lane is the opposite case.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold. And the discount is Energy-only - 356.6 never touches the 1 Power, so the floor of this spell is 1 Energy + 1 Power and not free.

Steps

1. Play Questionable Tome (3 Energy). 143.4 exhausts units and not gear, so it is live at once.
2. Activate its [Empower] by exhausting it - no Energy, no Power - and 441.2 makes the state permanent until something disempowers it.
3. Every Shock Blast from now on costs 1 Energy + 1 Power (356.4.b, floored by 356.6) for Deal 4, at [Action] speed.
4. If you want the Tome's card instead, pay 'Disempower this, 1 Energy, exhaust' - and accept that the discount is off until your next Awakening lets you re-Empower (441.1.b, 415.3.a).
5. Against a body above 4 Might, spend an unfloored reduction first: Frostcoat Cub at -2 or Icevale Archer at -1.

Per iteration

Deal 4 for 1 Energy + 1 Power, for as long as one Tome is left Empowered

How it ends

engine only - three Shock Blasts by 103.2.b, and a single Tome cannot both draw and hold the discount in the same turn; 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 9) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue