Combo · ENGINE
A Might gate read at execution that the payoff's own trigger climbs out of, on a mover that pays no exhaust and needs no [Ganking]
Pieces
- Twilight Step ×1
VEN-105 · engine · chaos
Move a unit with 3 Might or less. [Flow] 4 Energy + 1 Chaos Power (You may play this from your trash for its Flow cost. Then banish it.)
- Shadow Order Disciple ×1
VEN-095 · payoff · chaos
When I move, you may [Burn 1] to give me +1 Might this turn. (To Burn 1, put the top card of your Main Deck into your trash.)
Payoff
Deck
- Mono-Chaos, so any of the sixteen legend names carrying Chaos holds it (103.1.b.1): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Unforgiven (OGN-259), Swift Scout (OGN-263), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Prodigal Explorer (SFD-199), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Gloomist (UNL-193), Scorn of the Moon (UNL-197), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Master of Shadows (VEN-143), Soul's Reflection (VEN-151), Heart of the Tempest (VEN-155).
- A Main Deck with cards left in it — every Burn is a mill (431.1.b) and the deck is the clock.
Prerequisites
- THE MOVE IS AN EFFECT MOVE, WHICH IS WHY IT COSTS NOTHING AND GOES ANYWHERE. 449: 'Spells, Abilities, or other effects may cause a Move to occur', and 420.2.b makes the Standard Move merely one thing that 'may ALSO cause Movement'. 420.3.a puts the exhaust on the Standard Move alone (144.2), and 144.4's base-to-battlefield restriction is written for it too — so Twilight Step moves an already-exhausted body, battlefield to battlefield, with no [Ganking].
- THE GATE IS READ AT EXECUTION AND THE PAYOFF CLIMBS OUT OF IT. 359.3.f.2: 'Information referenced in an instruction in this way will be checked on execution of the instruction.' The Disciple is Might 2, so the first Step is legal; his own trigger then puts him at 3, which is still 'or less'; a second Burn puts him at 4 and NO further Twilight Step can move him this turn. The engine has a printed stop at two uses per turn, and it is the payoff that closes it, not the spell.
- 'A UNIT' IS BARE, SO IT REACHES AN ENEMY, AND THE PRECEDENT IS A BANNED CARD. `OGN-168 Fight or Flight` prints the same unqualified 'a unit' in a move instruction and is banned in both formats — evidence that the wording is not read as friendly-only. So Twilight Step doubles as an evacuation of any enemy body at 3 Might or less, which 323.6 then turns into a lost battlefield for them if it was their last unit there.
- THE BURN IS OPTIONAL AND IT IS A REAL MILL. 431.1.b puts '[Burn N]' and every 'put cards from your Main Deck' effect on the Burn Out side of the line, unlike looking and revealing (431.1.c) — so each +1 Might costs a card off the top and, past the last card, a point to the opponent (194.1.d). And 431.2.b is the perverse relief: a Burn Out 'Recycles their trash into their Main Deck', which hands back everything you milled and erases whatever trash payoff you were building.
- SO IT IS A CONTROLLED SELF-MILL, NOT A COST YOU MUST PAY: 'you may [Burn 1]' — decline it whenever the deck matters more than the Might, which is most turns in a list that is not built to use the trash.
- [FLOW] IS SIX PLAYS A GAME, NOT AN ENGINE. 829.1.b: 'You may play this from your trash for its flow cost. Then banish it.' Three copies plus one replay each, and 108.6.c makes each replay final — and the Disciple's own Burn is one of the things that puts a Twilight Step in the trash to be replayed from.
Steps
- Play Shadow Order Disciple (2 Energy).
- Play Twilight Step (2 Energy + 1 Chaos Power) naming the Disciple — Might 2, inside the gate.
- He moves for free: no exhaust (420.3.a), any battlefield including one a Standard Move could not reach (144.4).
- His trigger offers a Burn: put the top card of your Main Deck into your trash for +1 Might this turn. He is now Might 3.
- A second Twilight Step still finds him inside the gate at 3 (359.3.f.2). A second Burn puts him at 4 and closes it for the turn.
- Later, replay a Twilight Step from the trash for its [Flow] cost of 4 Energy + 1 Chaos Power; 829.1.b banishes it.
Per iteration
one free move of any unit at 3 Might or less, friendly or enemy, plus an optional card off your deck for +1 Might
How it ends
engine — two free repositionings a turn and up to +2 Might on the Disciple, at one milled card each; six Twilight Steps a game across three copies and their [Flow] replays. 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
Walked here, in this project
- Hand walk 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards 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.
VEN-105 Twilight Step and VEN-095 Shadow Order Disciple were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.1, 103.2.b, 108.6.c, 144.2, 144.4, 194.1.d, 323.6, 359.3.f.2, 420.2.b, 420.3.a, 431.1.b, 431.1.c, 431.2.b, 449, 829.1.b opened in the Core Rules file. The second notable is the entry's own cap and is stated as such: the payoff's Burn raises it out of the spell's Might gate after two uses in a turn. No unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16