Combo · ENGINE
Trifarian War Camp is the Colorless answer to the 1-Might problem, and Illaoi's tokens are born at the battlefield rather than walked to it
Pieces
- Trifarian War Camp ×1
OGN-294 · battlefield
Units here have +1 Might. (This includes attackers.)
- Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken ×3
VEN-109 · engine · 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 · resource · 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
- Illaoi and Up from the Deep are both mono-Chaos and the War Camp is Colorless, so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Chaos in its pair: SFD-195/SFD-246 Blade Dancer, UNL-185/UNL-228 Bloodharbor Ripper, OGN-267/OGN-309 Bounty Hunter, SFD-203/SFD-250 Battle Mistress, OGS-017 Dark Child - Starter, UNL-193/UNL-232 Gloomist, SFD-185/SFD-242 Glorious Executioner, VEN-155/VEN-197 Heart of the Tempest, OGN-251/OGN-301 Loose Cannon, VEN-143/VEN-191 Master of Shadows, SFD-199/SFD-248 Prodigal Explorer, UNL-197/UNL-234 Scorn of the Moon, VEN-151/VEN-195 Soul's Reflection, OGN-263/OGN-307 Swift Scout, OGN-259/OGN-305 Unforgiven, UNL-201/UNL-236 Voidreaver.
Prerequisites
- STAND ILLAOI AT THE WAR CAMP AND SCORE THE WAR CAMP, WHICH MAKES A READING UNNECESSARY. 'When I score' is unusual wording — 469 defines Scoring as something a PLAYER does — and 471.2 says 'Trigger Score abilities at the Battlefield that Scored', with 471.2.b for Hold abilities. Both readings of the clause (the controller scores anywhere, or the battlefield she stands at scores) are satisfied when she is standing at the battlefield you hold, so the line files no reading and needs none.
- THE TOKENS ARE BORN WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED. Neither Illaoi's clause nor Up from the Deep names a destination, so 355.2.a applies — 'the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls' — and the tokens can be played straight to the War Camp. That is the difference between this and every token line the project has priced as bottlenecked on the walk.
- AND AT THE WAR CAMP A TENTACLE IS 2 MIGHT, WHICH IS THE WHOLE POINT. 143.2.a kills on nonzero damage equalling or exceeding Might, so a 1-Might body dies to a single point — OGN-133 Flurry of Blades ('Deal 1 to all units at battlefields', E1, [Reaction]) clears any number of them simultaneously. At 2 Might none of them does.
- ILLAOI GROWS WITH THE SWARM AND THE COUNT IS NOT LOCATION-BOUND: '+1 :rb_might: for each token unit you control', so tokens standing anywhere count. With T tokens she is Might 4 + T, and 5 + T while she stands at the War Camp. 185.1 + 185.2.b are the pair that make a token unit a unit for that count.
- TWO SCORES A TURN IS THE CEILING ON THE ILLAOI HALF. 470 caps Scoring at once per battlefield per turn and 485.4 puts two battlefields on a Duel table, so her trigger pays at most twice a turn however the deck is built.
- IT CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH THE GRAND PLAZA, AND THAT IS WORTH SAYING BECAUSE THE PLAZA IS THE OBVIOUS PAYOFF FOR A SWARM: 485.4.a puts exactly one of your three battlefields into a Duel and 103.4.c forbids two of a name, so a deck brings the War Camp or the Plaza, never both.
- THE TOKENS ARE TOKENS: 185 keeps them out of every 'cards' count, 186.1 makes them cease to exist on entering any Non-Board Zone, 416.1 can never recycle one, and 143.4 has them enter exhausted so the first move is after your next Awakening.
Steps
- Bring Trifarian War Camp as one of your three battlefields and take it. Its own text needs no Control, but 355.2.a does: the tokens can only be played there while you control it.
- Play Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken (E6) to the War Camp. Her play trigger makes the first 1-Might Tentacle, which 355.2.a lets you put at the War Camp beside her — 2 Might there.
- Play Up from the Deep (E3) for two more Tentacles, again straight to the War Camp. 829.1.b will let each copy be replayed once from the trash for its Flow cost before banishing it.
- At your Beginning Phase, 315.2.b.2 Holds the War Camp: that is a Score, so Illaoi's trigger fires and makes another Tentacle. 471.2 / 471.2.b put Score abilities at the battlefield that Scored, and she is standing there.
- Illaoi reads +1 Might for each token unit you control, so she is Might 5 + T at the War Camp. Every Tentacle stands at 2, above the single point of damage that every sweeper in the pool deals.
- Repeat every turn. 470 and 485.4 cap the Illaoi half at two Scores a turn.
Per iteration
one Tentacle per Score, born at the battlefield rather than walked to it, each standing at 2 Might, with Illaoi growing +1 per token
How it ends
engine only — a swarm that grows by one body per Score (two a turn at most, 470 + 485.4) plus twelve from six castings of Up from the Deep (103.2.b + 829.1.b); nothing here scores by itself
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 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-cards.md), issue #171 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 #171 — the first entry to use OGN-294, VEN-109 or VEN-100. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Illaoi's 'when I score' is unusual wording and the line is deliberately built so that BOTH readings of it give the same answer, rather than filing a reading — the same discipline used for prodigal-explorer-two-choices-draw earlier in this walk. Trap check: 355.2.a is cited so the tokens' birthplace is a rule and not an assumption, which is the whole reason this beats a walked swarm; 143.2.a and Flurry of Blades are named so the 2-Might threshold is justified rather than asserted; the Grand Plaza exclusion is stated with 485.4.a + 103.4.c because a swarm's obvious payoff is a battlefield this one displaces; 185 / 185.1 / 185.2.b / 186.1 / 416.1 / 143.4 are all cited so the tokens are counted, and limited, correctly.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16