Combo · ENGINE
Portal Rescue re-plays the Watcher inside the showdown — a second board-wide -3, and 356.1.b.3 says the [Accelerate] rider is still payable on a free play
Pieces
- Thousand-Tailed Watcher ×1
OGN-116 · engine · mind
[Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When you play me, give enemy units -3 Might this turn, to a minimum of 1 Might.
- Portal Rescue ×3
OGN-102 · enabler · mind
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Banish a friendly unit, then its owner plays it to their base, ignoring its cost.
Payoff
Deck
- Both cards are mono-Mind, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend with Mind as one of its two domains. Neither is Signature, so 103.2.d.2 imposes nothing.
Prerequisites
- THE SECOND -3 IS THE ENTRY, AND IT SHARPENS A RATE ALREADY IN THE CATALOGUE. `tryndamere-thousand-tailed-watcher-shrink` prices the Watcher at 'one card spent per turn'. Portal Rescue makes it two applications in one turn off the same card, and three times a game (103.2.b).
- THE ARITHMETIC OF TWO FLOORED REDUCTIONS. 477.3.b caps the REDUCTION, not the result, so '-3, to a minimum of 1' sends each enemy body from M to max(1, M - 3). Applied twice: an 8 Might defender goes 8 -> 5 -> 2, and a 4 Might defender goes 4 -> 1 -> 1, where the floor bites. So the pair is worth a full 6 only against bodies of Might 7 or more, and the entry does not claim otherwise.
- WHY IT MATTERS IN A COMBAT: 465.2.c has each player assign damage equal to their SUMMED Might, and 465.2.c.4 forbids assigning a unit more than the minimum needed to kill it. Shrinking every defender cuts the damage coming back AND cuts the price of killing them, and it is the cheap lever compared with growing your own attackers.
- 356.1.b.3 IS THE FACT MOST READERS WILL MISS. Its worked example: 'They ignore Legion Rearguard's Base Cost of 2 Energy, but the optional additional cost of 1 Energy and 1 Fury Power is added to its Total Cost and must be paid.' So the Watcher re-played 'ignoring its cost' can still buy its own [Accelerate] rider for 1 Energy and 1 Mind Power and enter READY, which 143.4 would otherwise forbid.
- THE COST IS THAT HE LEAVES THE FIGHT. Portal Rescue plays him 'to their base', so if he was standing in the combat he is removed from it before 465 resolves and his 7 Might is not in your sum. On the turn you do this he is a spell, not a body.
- AND THE BANISH IS NOT A DEATH. 108.6.b puts him in your Banishment, which 108.6.c describes as "a temporary space to hold cards while effects are being processed", and the same sentence brings him straight back; nothing about it is a kill, so no Deathknell and no 'when a friendly unit dies' trigger fires — the mirror of the 808.1.d.1 shield family, and worth knowing because it also means the Watcher can be saved from lethal damage this way at [Action] speed.
- THE REPLAY IS A PLAY, so any 'when you play a unit' trigger you control fires again; and because it is a play and not a Move, no [Ganking] question and no 144.2 exhaust arises.
- IT DOES NOT SCORE. Nothing in Mind converts Might reduction into points; what this buys is a combat won or survived, and #97's sweep already found that the lens yields ENGINE and never BURST.
Steps
- Play Thousand-Tailed Watcher in your Main Phase (E7 + 1 Mind Power, plus 1 Energy and 1 Mind for [Accelerate] if you want him ready). Every enemy unit takes -3 Might this turn, floored at 1 each.
- Attack, or wait for the opponent's attack. Either way the combat opens and 464.2.c.3 designates the sides.
- In the Closed State, where 312.2.c gives priority, play Portal Rescue (E3 + 1 Mind Power). 806.1.b is the [Action] permission.
- Banish the Watcher. He leaves the battlefield, so his own Might drops out of 465.2.c's sum for this combat.
- The same spell plays him to your base, ignoring his cost. 356.1.b.3 lets you still pay the optional [Accelerate] rider so he enters ready.
- His play trigger fires a second time: every enemy unit takes another -3, floored at 1 each, on the same turn.
- 465.2.c now reads a garrison at max(1, M - 6) for bodies of 7+ Might, and 465.2.c.4 makes each of them correspondingly cheap to kill. 317.2.c expires both reductions at the end-of-turn Cleanup.
How it ends
engine only — a second board-wide -3 in the same turn, three times a game (103.2.b), worth a full 6 only against Might 7 or more because 477.3.b floors each application at 1; 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
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- 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 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 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 #170, from `portal-rescue-replays-a-body` and `moonlight-affliction-might-gate`'s reduction family. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Two things are the content: the second application of a board-wide floored reduction inside one turn, priced honestly against 477.3.b so the '6' is only claimed where the floor does not bite; and 356.1.b.3, which says an optional additional cost survives a free play — the [Accelerate] rider is payable on the re-play. Trap check: the Watcher is explicitly stated to LEAVE the combat, which is the cost the pairing hides; the banish is stated not to be a death, so no Deathknell is claimed either way; 317.2.c is cited so nothing is banked across turns; produces is repeatable-removal because the reduction is what makes the kill affordable, never a kill on its own.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16