Combo · ENGINE

383.2.a.1: "if I'm at a battlefield" sits immediately after the Condition, so it is TRIGGER CONDITION - removing Sona in response does not stop the four runes

6 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Sona, Harmonious ×3 OGN-073 · engine · calm

  At the end of your turn, if I'm at a battlefield, ready up to 4 friendly runes.

• Wind Wall ×3 OGN-064 · payoff · calm

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Counter a spell.

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits them under any legend with Calm among its two domains - measured over data/cards.json those include OGN-255 / OGN-303 Nine-Tailed Fox (calm/mind), OGN-257 / OGN-304 Blind Monk (calm/body), OGN-261 / OGN-306 Radiant Dawn (calm/order), SFD-189 / SFD-244 Fire Below the Mountain (calm/mind), SFD-197 / SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands (calm/order), UNL-189 / UNL-230 Bashful Bloom (calm/mind), UNL-195 / UNL-233 Green Father (calm/order), VEN-139 / VEN-189 Rogue Assassin (calm/fury), VEN-145 / VEN-192 Curator of the Sands (calm/mind) and VEN-147 / VEN-193 Eye of Twilight (calm/order).
• Neither is a Signature card (checked against data/cards.json), and neither OGN-073, VEN-SP2 nor OGN-064 appears in data/legality.json in any format - checked 2026-09-09, no ban and no restriction.
• Sona must be at a battlefield when her Condition is fulfilled at the end of your turn, and the four runes must be exhausted for there to be anything to ready - which is automatic on a turn you actually spent your mana.

Run play

• Sona holds the wall up, and the board stops growing

Prerequisites

• THE FINDING IS A WORD-ORDER TEST, AND RIOT GIVES BOTH SIDES OF IT. 383.2.a.1: 'Any additional conditional statement immediately after the Condition must be true in order for the Condition to be fulfilled. Such a conditional statement is part of the Trigger Condition and not the Effect.' Its first example is this card: 'Sona, Harmonious reads "At the end of your turn, if I'm at a battlefield, ready up to 4 friendly runes." Her Trigger Ability's Condition will be fulfilled in the Ending Step, but the Triggered Ability will only be placed on the chain if she is located at a battlefield when the Condition is fulfilled. If she is removed in reaction to the triggered ability, it will still resolve.'
• AND THE COUNTER-CASE IS THE SAME CLAUSE MOVED. 'Loose Cannon reads "At the start of your Beginning Phase, draw 1 if you have one or fewer cards in your hand." The "if you have one or fewer cards in your hand" conditional statement is not immediately after the trigger condition, so it is part of the effect and not the condition.' Same kind of if-clause, opposite classification, decided purely by where in the sentence it sits - and that decides whether it is checked when the trigger is PLACED or when it RESOLVES. 383.2 and 383.2.b are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project.
• SO THE ENGINE IS REMOVAL-PROOF ONCE THE TRIGGER IS ON THE CHAIN, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE REASON IT IS WORTH FOUR ENERGY. Killing Sona at the end of your turn in response to her trigger does nothing - the Condition was already fulfilled with her at a battlefield. The only window that beats her is removal BEFORE the Ending Step, on your own turn, where 312.2.a gives the opponent no priority in your Neutral Open State and they need a [Reaction].
• 415.3.a IS THE PROBLEM SHE SOLVES. 'A player Readies all non-spell Game Objects they Control during the Awakening Phase on their turn' - so a rune tapped on your turn is dead for the whole of the opponent's, and holding up a counter normally means not spending that mana at all. Sona readies up to FOUR at the end of your turn, after 167 has emptied your Rune Pool and after the Main Phase, so you spend your whole turn AND answer on theirs. That is double what OGN-289 Targon's Peak returns, it needs no Conquer, and it repeats every turn.
• THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Four readied runes are 4 Energy on the opponent's turn (164.2.a taps a ready rune for 1 Energy). The Power is already free: 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE and carries no exhaust, so runes you tapped earlier still pay Power - this project's measured floor of 2 Power a turn. Wind Wall at 3 Energy + 2 Power is therefore held up with an Energy to spare, every turn, having spent your own turn normally. CORRECTED 2026-10-25 (#461): the Power is free of any exhaust, not free (the first Lead of docs/plays/2026-10-07-sona-holds-the-wall-up-and-the-board-stops-growing.md). Its two Power are two recycled runes, which go to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b) while 430.1 channels from the top, and two a round is the Channel Phase's whole two: before the Rune Deck is empty the board does not grow on a round the wall is used, and used every round from T3 it stays at six runes for the rest of the game going first (seven going second) instead of reaching twelve on T6. The play's walk sits at five runes on T4 and T5. An Energy to spare still holds for the round; every turn for free holds only once the twelfth rune is out. Status unchanged.
• WIND WALL RATHER THAN DEFY, AND THE REASON IS 206. OGN-045 Defy counters 'a spell that costs no more than [4] and no more than [A]', and 206 makes that check read the PRINTED cost - so it cannot touch the expensive spells a four-Energy answer is being held up for. Wind Wall's 'Counter a spell' has no cap at all. Sona's four Energy is what makes the uncapped one affordable rather than the capped one.
• THE CEILING IS THE RUNE DECK AND THE WORD 'UP TO'. 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at exactly 12 rune cards, so four readied runes is a third of your mana returned each turn; and 'up to 4' means the trigger never misfires when fewer are exhausted. 315.1.b would have readied them at your next Awakening anyway - what Sona buys is the turn in between.

Steps

1. Play OGN-073 Sona, Harmonious (4 Energy + 1 Power) and move her to a battlefield. Reprint VEN-SP2 is the same card for matching purposes (CardIndex.equivalents folds by name and type).
2. Spend your turn normally - tap runes for Energy, recycle spent ones for Power. Sona's payoff does not ask you to hold anything back.
3. At the end of your turn her Condition is fulfilled. 383.2.a.1 checks 'if I'm at a battlefield' AT THAT MOMENT, as part of the Trigger Condition; if she is there, the ability goes on the chain.
4. If the opponent removes her in response, the ability still resolves - Riot says so in the worked example. Up to 4 friendly runes are readied.
5. 167 has already emptied your Rune Pool; the RUNES are ready. On the opponent's turn tap them for 4 Energy (164.2.a) and recycle already-exhausted runes for Power (164.2.b, no exhaust in its cost).
6. Play OGN-064 Wind Wall (3 Energy + 2 Power) in reaction to counter any spell, with an Energy to spare. 206 is why this is Wind Wall and not Defy: a 'costs no more than' check reads the printed cost.
7. Repeat every turn Sona survives to the Ending Step. Three copies of each (103.2.b).

Per iteration

four Energy on the opponent's turn, every turn, from runes you already spent - and the trigger survives removal aimed at Sona once it is on the chain

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores. Bounded by 161.2.a's twelve-card Rune Deck, by how many runes were exhausted to ready, and by Sona having to reach the Ending Step at a battlefield

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.2.a.1 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.2.a.1 first worked example 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 383.2.a.1 second worked example 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-09 2026-09-09 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue