Combo · ENGINE
A would-die replacement erases the Deathknell, a Burn Out recycles the trash, and banishment is the only answer that stays answered
Pieces
- Smite ×1
UNL-007 · payoff · fury
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield. If it would die this turn, banish it instead.
- Gust Monk ×1
VEN-101 · engine · chaos
You may pay 1 Energy as an additional cost to play me. When you play me, if you paid the additional cost, banish a card from any trash to give a unit [Assault 2] this turn. (+2 Might while it's an attacker.)
Payoff
Deck
- Chaos + Fury, so five legend names (103.1.b.2): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Master of Shadows (VEN-143). Note that VEN-143 Master of Shadows is himself a discard outlet, so the mirror of this package sits in your own identity. NOTE 2026-10-23 (#436): only once he is Empowered. His discard costs 'Disempower me', which 203.3 with 442.1.a makes unpayable while he is not (finding in docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md, #436), and he Empowers only 'When you banish a card you own': Gust Monk banishing from YOUR trash, or Smite on your own unit, arms him; banishing from their trash does not.
Prerequisites
- THE REPLACEMENT ERASES THE DEATHKNELL, AND 808.1.d.1 SAYS SO IN THE SAME BREATH AS THE RECALL CASE: 'If the Permanent with the effect is not sent to the Trash, for example because its "killed" event was replaced with a recall, the triggered ability will be removed from the chain.' Smite's 'banish it instead' is that replacement — the body never reaches the Trash, so its [Deathknell] never resolves, and it is not there afterwards for [Flow] (829.1.b needs the card in the trash), for a reanimator, or for any 'from your trash' clause.
- AND THE CLAUSE IS WIDER THAN THE THREE DAMAGE. 'If it would die this turn, banish it instead' applies to any death of that unit for the rest of the turn — combat damage, another spell, a sacrifice cost. Aiming Smite at a body you intend to kill in combat is a legitimate use with none of the 3 wasted.
- BANISHING IS THE ONLY PERMANENT ANSWER, BECAUSE RECYCLING IS NOT ONE. 431.2.b: a Burn Out 'Recycles their trash into their Main Deck' — so a trash that has been emptied by damage comes straight back the first time somebody over-draws, while 108.6.c keeps a banished card out for good. `VEN-101 Gust Monk` banishes 'a card from ANY trash', so it reaches the opponent's, and the [Assault 2] is a rider on a 2-Might body rather than the reason to run it.
- THE MONK'S COST IS OPTIONAL AND THAT MATTERS ON A FREE PLAY. 'You may pay :rb_energy_1: as an additional cost to play me' — 356.1.b.3 makes an optional additional cost payable even when a card is played ignoring its base cost, with Legion Rearguard as its worked example, so a Monk cheated into play still buys its banish for 1 Energy.
- AND 807.2 SUMS THE RIDER: 'the Assault Value of all granted Assault keywords is summed', so the Monk's [Assault 2] stacks with any other grant on the chosen body; 807.1.c scopes it to being an attacker, so it is worth nothing on defence.
- TWO CARDS IN THE POOL SAY 'CAN'T BE COUNTERED', AND NEITHER IS THIS ONE. Swept: `VEN-015 Decree of Rage` (Fury) and `VEN-069 Mel, Newly Awakened` (Mind) are the whole set — so Smite is answerable in the ordinary way and the entry does not claim otherwise. Its protection is against what happens AFTER the kill, not against the kill being stopped.
- IT IS AN [ACTION], so 806.1.b lets it be played inside a Showdown, which is where a 'would die this turn' replacement wants to be: applied before the damage step, not after it.
Steps
- Hold Smite. It is an [Action], so it can be played on your turn or inside any Showdown (806.1.b).
- When a body with a [Deathknell], a trash payoff or a reanimation target is about to die, play Smite (2 Energy + 1 Fury Power) on it: 3 damage now, and 'banish it instead' covering any death of it this turn.
- 808.1.d.1 removes its Deathknell from the chain, and 108.6.c keeps the card out of every 'from your trash' clause for the rest of the game.
- For what is already in a trash, play Gust Monk (2 Energy) and pay its optional additional 1 Energy: banish a card from any trash, and give a unit [Assault 2] this turn.
- Repeat with the other copies (103.2.b).
Per iteration
one unit removed with its Deathknell and its trash value cancelled, for 2 Energy + 1 Power; one card permanently out of any trash for 3 Energy on a 2-Might body
How it ends
engine — up to three bodies banished rather than killed and three cards banished out of trashes, which between them switch off a recursion deck; 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
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 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.
UNL-007 Smite and VEN-101 Gust Monk were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.2, 103.2.b, 108.6.c, 356.1.b.3, 431.2.b, 806.1.b, 807.1.c, 807.2, 808.1.d.1, 829.1.b opened in the Core Rules file. The 'can't be countered' sweep was run over the whole corpus and returns exactly two rows, neither of them Smite — recorded so the entry cannot be read as claiming protection it does not have. No unruled reading. NOTE 2026-10-23 (#436): the Master of Shadows prerequisite now says he is a discard outlet only once Empowered, and which banishes in this package Empower him (finding in docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md, #436). Citations added: 203.3, 442.1.a.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16