Combo · ENGINE

359.3.e.16: a delayed ability whose duration has already ended is never generated - and Targon's Peak's end-of-turn ready is the pool's one free source of off-turn Energy on a battlefield

4 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

Targon's Peak ×1 OGN-289 · enabler
When you conquer here, ready up to 2 runes at the end of this turn.
Defy ×3 OGN-045 · payoff · calm
[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than 1 Power of any domain.

Payoff

Repeatable Energy or Power

Deck

Targon's Peak is Colourless, so it constrains no identity; Defy is mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 needs a 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 is banned or restricted in either format - OGN-289 is not among the five battlefields banned in both formats (OGN-276, OGN-284, OGN-285, OGN-290, OGN-292).
A battlefield is not guaranteed to be in play: 485.4.a has each player provide three and only one is used, 485.5 selects it randomly, and 103.4.c forbids two of the same name - so this is a line the deck can draw into, not one it can assemble.
The Peak pays on a CONQUER, so the deck needs something that takes a battlefield; the entry declares needs: conquer-engine rather than pretending the trigger is free.

Prerequisites

415.3.a IS THE PROBLEM AND A DELAYED TRIGGER IS THE ANSWER. '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, which is why holding up a [Reaction] normally costs you the runes for a full turn cycle. Targon's Peak readies 2 'at the end of this turn', i.e. after 167 has emptied your Rune Pool and after your Main Phase is over, so those two runes are still ready when the opponent acts. It is a refund, not a ramp, and the refund is the part that matters.
THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Two readied runes are 2 Energy on the opponent's turn (164.2.a taps a ready rune for 1 Energy). The Power half is already free: 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE and carries no exhaust, so runes you already tapped this turn still pay Power - the free floor of 2 Power a turn this project measures. Defy at 1 Energy + 1 Power is therefore held up with NOTHING kept back, and one Energy to spare. OGN-064 Wind Wall is the tier above at 3 Energy + 2 Power, which the Peak covers only if you also hold one rune ready through your own turn. CORRECTED 2026-10-25 (#461): the Power half is free of any exhaust, not free. It is a recycled rune, which goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1.b) while 430.1 channels from the top, so before the Rune Deck is empty each Defy is a rune short on every turn until it comes back: T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (161.2.a, 315.3.b, 485.7); each two more recycled push it a turn later, and a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. Nothing kept back still holds, since no rune has to stay ready for it. Held up every round from T3, the board grows one a turn and reaches twelve on T9 instead of T6 going first. Status unchanged.
AND 359.3.e.16 IS THE TRAP, WITH THIS CARD AS RIOT'S OWN EXAMPLE. 'If a Delayed Ability's duration has ended before it was generated, the Delayed Ability is not generated and any instructions related to it are ignored', and the example is 'If Targon's Peak is conquered during the Ending Phase after the beginning of the ending step ... the delayed trigger will not be generated.' So a Conquer bought late - inside the Ending Phase - pays nothing at all. Conquer in the Main Phase or the payoff silently does not exist. 359.3.e.15 and .e.16 are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project.
THE SECOND WORKED EXAMPLE AT 359.3.e.16 IS WORTH CARRYING SEPARATELY. 'Akshan, Mischievous reads in part "When you play me, if you paid the additional cost, move an enemy gear to your base. You control it until I leave the board." If Akshan leaves the board in reaction to his play effect, the delayed passive ability "You control it until I leave the board," will not be generated. You will not gain control of the targeted gear even for a moment.' Removing SFD-109 Akshan in response to his own play trigger denies the theft entirely rather than merely undoing it - a general answer to every 'you control it until I leave' clause.
'UP TO 2' MEANS THE PEAK NEVER MISFIRES. There is no cost and no minimum, so a Conquer with no exhausted runes simply readies fewer. That is what makes it worth a battlefield slot in a deck that was going to conquer anyway.
AND THE OPPONENT CANNOT PLAY AROUND IT THE WAY THEY PLAY AROUND HELD RUNES. Runes readied at end of turn are indistinguishable from runes never tapped, but you spent them in your own Main Phase - so the Peak buys the tempo of using your mana AND the option of answering with it.
IT IS A NEEDS ENTRY, NOT A SELF-CONTAINED ONE. 469.1 defines Conquer on a battlefield not yet Scored this turn and 470 caps Scoring at one per battlefield per turn, so the Peak fires at most once a turn and only when something of yours takes it. The catalogue's conquer engines are what feed it; this entry prices the payoff.
355.5.b`s SECOND WORKED EXAMPLE IS THIS CARD BY NAME (upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 7). 355.5 puts choices at the Make Relevant Choices step; 355.5.b exempts a permanent`s own Triggered Abilities *"generated by the item being finalized, even if those abilities trigger when the chain item is played"*, ending *"The target will be chosen when the ability triggers."* So the choice of WHICH runes to ready is made when the DELAYED trigger finalizes at end of turn, not when the card is played - which is why an opponent reacting to the play is acting before the choice exists.

Steps

Bring OGN-289 Targon's Peak as one of your three battlefields (485.4.a); 485.5 selects one at random, so this is a line you draw into.
Spend your runes normally in your Main Phase - the Peak's payoff does not require holding any back.
Conquer Targon's Peak during your Main Phase. Its trigger creates a DELAYED ability set to resolve at the end of this turn.
Do not conquer it inside the Ending Phase: 359.3.e.16 means a delayed ability whose duration has already ended is never generated, and Riot's own example is this card.
At the end of your turn the delayed ability resolves and readies up to 2 runes. 167 has already emptied your Rune Pool; the RUNES are ready.
On the opponent's turn, tap those two for 2 Energy (164.2.a) and recycle two already-exhausted runes for 2 Power (164.2.b, no exhaust in its cost).
Play OGN-045 Defy (1 Energy + 1 Power) in reaction, with an Energy to spare. Three copies (103.2.b).

Per iteration

two Energy on the opponent's turn per Conquer, at no cost in tempo, from runes you had already spent

How it ends

engine only - nothing here scores. One firing per turn (469.1 and 470 cap the Conquer), 'up to 2' runes, and 485.5 makes the battlefield itself a draw rather than an assembly

Sources

Published elsewhere

Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 359.3.e.16 2026-07-16
Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 359.3.e.16 worked example 2026-07-16
Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt), 415.3.a 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

Hand walk 2026-09-07 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.

HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07 (issue #187, sub-rule lane 100-499). 359.3.e.15 and 359.3.e.16 are cited by no entry and no synergy rule in this project, and 359.3.e.16's two worked examples name OGN-289 Targon's Peak and SFD-109 Akshan, Mischievous. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened: 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 103.4.c, 164.2.a, 164.2.b, 167, 359.3.e.16, 415.3.a, 469.1, 470, 485.4.a, 485.5. (a) A DELAYED trigger that resolves 'at the end of this turn' is the only way in the pool to have runes ready on the opponent's turn without holding them back through your own, because 415.3.a otherwise readies nothing until your next Awakening - Targon's Peak is a free, Colourless source of it on a Conquer. (b) 359.3.e.16 kills a delayed ability whose duration ended before it was generated, and its second example is the general answer to every 'you control it until I leave the board' clause: remove SFD-109 Akshan in response to his own play trigger and the theft never happens at all, rather than being undone. Distinct from sprite-queen-targon-peak-conquer-cycle, which uses the Peak's Conquer trigger for a cycle and never prices the rune refund, and from hextech-anomaly-wind-wall-off-turn-counter, which buys off-turn mana from a gear. Trap check: the Conquer must be in the Main Phase or the delayed ability is never generated; the battlefield is randomly selected (485.5) and the entry says so; needs: conquer-engine is declared rather than assumed; no unruled reading.

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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