Combo · ENGINE

One kill channels two runes, and the spell that made it gets bigger at seven

6 cards · calm + mind · verified

Pieces

• Siphoning Strike ×3 VEN-146 · payoff · calm/mind

  Deal 4 to a unit at a battlefield. If you control 7 or more runes, deal 7 to it instead. When it dies this turn, channel 1 rune exhausted.

• Nasus, Guardian of Knowledge ×3 VEN-063 · engine · mind

  Once each turn, when an enemy unit here dies, channel 1 rune exhausted.

Payoff

Deck

• VEN-146 Siphoning Strike is a SIGNATURE card tagged Nasus, so 103.2.d.2 forces a Nasus legend whose two domains cover calm + mind - and the census prints exactly one such name: VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands. No other legend can hold this list.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format. VEN-063 is not a Signature card; VEN-146 is, and it spends one of the three Signature slots 103.2.d.1 allows.
• The target must be AT A BATTLEFIELD, and the second rune only arrives if that battlefield is Nasus's.

Prerequisites

• THE INTERLOCK, AND WHY IT IS TWO RUNES AND NOT ONE. Siphoning Strike's own rider is 'When it dies this turn, channel 1 rune exhausted'; Nasus, Guardian of Knowledge reads 'Once each turn, when an enemy unit here dies, channel 1 rune exhausted.' Both trigger on the same death, so 383.3.d lets their controller order them on the Chain and both resolve. One 4-Energy spell aimed at Nasus's battlefield is a kill plus two runes.
• AND AN EXHAUSTED RUNE STILL COUNTS TOWARD THE THRESHOLD. 164.2 gives a Basic Rune two abilities and only 164.2.a costs the rune's own exhaust; 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE, so a rune channelled exhausted pays 1 Power of its domain at [Reaction] speed immediately, and 415.3.a readies it in your own Awakening Phase for its Energy. Nothing about 'control 7 or more runes' asks whether it is ready - which is what makes a channel-exhausted rider a real step toward the threshold rather than a delayed one.
• THE THRESHOLD FAMILY IS EXACTLY THREE CARDS, AND THIS SPELL IS ONE OF THEM. `grep -in "7 or more runes" data/corpus_flat.txt` returns three rows: VEN-025 Esteemed Hierophant, VEN-037 Tomb-Raider Barbara and VEN-146 Siphoning Strike. All three are Calm or Calm/Mind and all three were uncatalogued before this walk; the other two are walked as esteemed-hierophant-tomb-raider-seven-runes, and the two entries name each other.
• WHAT THE CLOCK ACTUALLY IS. 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards' and 315.3.b channels two free every Channel Phase, so seven arrives on its own around turn four; 430.3 channels 'as many as possible' when the deck is short, and 161.2.b returns a recycled rune to the Rune Deck rather than the Main Deck. Each Strike that kills brings the threshold forward by one turn's worth of channelling, and a Strike that kills at Nasus's battlefield by a full turn.
• BELOW SEVEN IT IS STILL REMOVAL, AND ABOVE SEVEN IT IS DIFFERENT REMOVAL. 4 damage kills a body of Might 4 or less (143.2.a: marked damage at or above Might); 7 kills all but the largest bodies in the pool. The rider fires either way, so the spell is never worse than a 4-Energy kill plus a rune.
• THE LEGEND IS A SHELL REQUIREMENT AND NOT A SYNERGY, WHICH IS WORTH SAYING OUT LOUD. Curator of the Sands reads 'When you play a unit, gear, or activated ability with Energy cost :rb_energy_7: or more, you may exhaust me to ready up to 2 runes.' Two sevens, two different meanings: hers is an Energy COST and the family's is a rune COUNT. Neither card in this entry costs 7, and a SPELL would not trigger her even if it did - her clause names a unit, gear or activated ability. She is forced by 103.2.d.2 and contributes nothing here.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold and neither card touches either.

Steps

1. Play Nasus, Guardian of Knowledge (5 Energy + 1 Power) and move him to a battlefield.
2. Play Siphoning Strike (4 Energy) at an enemy unit standing at THAT battlefield.
3. It takes 4 damage, or 7 if you already control seven or more runes (a rune exhausted for Power still counts).
4. If it dies, both riders trigger on the same death: the Strike channels 1 rune exhausted and Nasus channels another (383.3.d orders them).
5. Each of those runes is 1 Power of its domain immediately (164.2.b, whose cost is the recycle and not an exhaust) and 1 Energy from your next Awakening (415.3.a).
6. Repeat. Nasus's half is once each turn; 161.2.a stops the whole thing at twelve runes.

Per iteration

one enemy unit of up to 4 Might removed (7 past the threshold) and up to two runes channelled, per Strike

How it ends

engine only - three Strikes by 103.2.b, Nasus's half is once each turn, and the Rune Deck holds exactly 12 (161.2.a); 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 3) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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