Combo · ENGINE

The same token engine buying the opposite thing: one static point of Might is the whole difference between a swarm and a sweep

5 cards · mind + chaos · verified

Pieces

• Soul Shepherd ×1 UNL-077 · engine · mind

  Your token units have +1 Might.

• Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken ×1 VEN-109 · payoff · chaos

  When you play me or when I score, play a 1 Energy Might Tentacle unit token from Bilgewater. I have +1 Might for each token unit you control.

• Up from the Deep ×3 VEN-100 · engine · chaos

  Play two 1 Might Tentacle unit tokens from Bilgewater. [Flow] 3 Energy (You may play this from your trash for its Flow cost. Then banish it.)

Payoff

Deck

• Mind + Chaos. Computed over the 94 legend base codes in cards.json, that is four legend names: OGN-263 / OGN-307 Swift Scout (Teemo), SFD-199 / SFD-248 Prodigal Explorer (Ezreal), UNL-197 / UNL-234 Scorn of the Moon (Diana), VEN-151 / VEN-195 Soul's Reflection (Mel). Nothing here is Signature (103.2.d.2).
• Nothing on the board first. Soul Shepherd's grant is a static that reads tokens as they enter, so the order of play does not matter.

Run play

• the wall stands only where the sweep reaches, so the Shepherd stays home

Prerequisites

• ONE POINT OF MIGHT IS THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE, AND IT IS MEASURED AGAINST A NAMED CARD. 143.2.a kills a unit on 'nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might'. OGN-133 Flurry of Blades is a 1-Energy Body [Reaction] reading 'Deal 1 to all units at battlefields' — it kills EVERY 1-Might token simultaneously, for any number of them, which is why the project's #159 Azir refusal concluded that the binding constraint on a token line is Might PER BODY and not the number of bodies. Soul Shepherd's static takes every Tentacle to 2 and the sweeper does nothing at all.
• IT IS A CONTINUOUS MODIFIER, NOT A BUFF, WHICH IS WHY IT NEVER COLLIDES WITH ANYTHING. 702.3 ('There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time') and 702.3.a govern the 702 counter; 703 fixes each Buff at +1. Soul Shepherd places no counter, so her +1 stacks on top of a real buff, applies to every token at once, and cannot be spent away by any of the buff-spenders in the pool.
• AND IT MAKES ILLAOI BIGGER TWICE OVER. 'I have +1 Might for each token unit you control' counts BODIES, not Might, so Soul Shepherd does not change that number — but 185.1 and 185.2.b make a token unit a full unit with a Might, so each Tentacle contributes 2 to the summed Might that 465.2.c assigns. Five Tentacles beside Illaoi are 10 from the tokens plus her own 9: nineteen, where the same board without the Shepherd is fourteen.
• THE DELIBERATE CONTRAST WITH magma-wurm-illaoi-ready-tentacles. That entry runs the SAME token engine under OGN-011 Magma Wurm in Fury/Chaos and buys SPEED — every token can walk the turn it is minted (143.4.a), which is the #48 bottleneck. This one buys SURVIVAL. They cannot be combined: Soul Shepherd is Mind and Magma Wurm is Fury, and 103.1.b caps a deck at the legend's two domains, so Mind + Chaos + Fury is one domain too many. A deck picks the problem it has.
• THE COST OF PICKING SURVIVAL IS THE WALK, AND IT IS REAL. Without Magma Wurm, 143.4 puts every Tentacle on the board exhausted and 315.1.b readies it only in your next Awakening, so a batch minted this turn sits at your base for a full turn — through the opponent's whole turn, which is exactly when a sweeper is cast. The Shepherd protects them there; she does not move them.
• COST, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Soul Shepherd E5, Illaoi E6, Up from the Deep E3 a casting with a [Flow] cost of 3 Energy for the second (829.1.b, banished after by 829.1.b.1). Three copies are six castings and twelve Tentacles over a game, each a 2-Might body.
• WHAT REFUTES IT. (a) 2 Might is out of range of a 1-damage sweeper and squarely inside a 2-damage one; nothing here scales further. (b) Soul Shepherd is herself M3 and mono-Mind with no protection — remove her and every token drops back to 1 at once, since her grant is continuous and not a counter. (c) Tokens are not cards (185) and never reach the trash (186.1), so no part of this rebuilds itself from the graveyard.

Steps

1. Play Soul Shepherd (E5) at any point; her grant is a static that reads tokens as they enter, so she may come before or after them.
2. Play Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken (E6). Her play trigger mints a Tentacle, which enters as a 2-Might body under the Shepherd's static.
3. Play Up from the Deep (E3): two more 2-Might Tentacles.
4. They enter exhausted (143.4) and are readied in your next Awakening (315.1.b) — they wait at your base through the opponent's turn, which is when a sweeper comes.
5. OGN-133 Flurry of Blades and every other 1-damage effect now does nothing to them (143.2.a).
6. Later, replay Up from the Deep from your trash for its [Flow] cost of 3 Energy (829.1.b; banished afterwards by 829.1.b.1) for two more, and take another Tentacle every time Illaoi scores (469, capped by 470 and 485.4).

Per iteration

every Tentacle a 2-Might body instead of a 1, which puts the whole swarm outside the range of the pool's cheapest sweeper, plus 2 of summed Might apiece in a combat

How it ends

engine only — the static is a flat +1 and nothing here scales it; twelve Tentacles a game from three [Flow] copies plus one per Illaoi score

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

• Synergy rule soul-shepherd-token-buff (data/synergies.json) 2026-09-06
• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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