Combo · ENGINE
B.F. Sword makes Unsung Hero Mighty, Sacrifice kills him — four cards off one Energy, and why the Lux loop still cannot use it
Pieces
- Unsung Hero ×3
SFD-167 · payoff · order
[Deathknell] — If I was [Mighty], draw 2. (When I die, get the effect. I'm Mighty while I have 5+ Might.)
- Sacrifice ×3
UNL-173 · engine · order
[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) As an additional cost to play this, kill a friendly [Mighty] unit. (A unit is Mighty while it has 5+ Might.) Draw 2 and channel 1 rune exhausted.
- B.F. Sword ×1
SFD-161 · enabler · order
[Equip] 1 Order Power (1 Order Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)
Payoff
Deck
- Legend domains only need Order — all three cards are Order.
- Unsung Hero has to be on the board with the Sword attached before Sacrifice is played: 709 is the crossing (2 + 3 = 5) and Sacrifice checks [Mighty] as it pays its cost.
Prerequisites
- ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED, FULL LEDGER. Per cycle: 2 cards spent (Unsung Hero, Sacrifice), 4 cards DRAWN (Deathknell 2 + Sacrifice 2), so NET +2 CARDS; 3 Energy out (E2 body + E1 spell); 2 Order Power out (the Sword's [Equip], once per Unsung Hero); and +1 rune channelled exhausted, which 164.2.b recycles for 1 Power with no exhaust in its cost, buying one of those two back. About 3 Energy + 1 net Order Power for 2 cards, against the ledger's ~10 Energy per card. Three cycles, one per copy.
- THE ORDER OF THE CHAIN, AND IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE TOTAL. The kill is an additional cost paid at step 4 of playing (357) and 428.1.a.1 makes killing-as-a-cost an Active Kill; 808.1.d fires the Deathknell, which goes on the Chain above Sacrifice, so 340.1 resolves 'If I was Mighty, draw 2' first and Sacrifice's own Draw 2 second. Four cards either way.
- 434.1.g AND 434.1.h ARE WHY THE SWORD HAS TO TRAVEL. 'Attaching a card to its current Top-Most Card will not have any effect' / '... nothing additional happens.' When Unsung Hero dies the Sword is left unattached on the board; 434.1.f puts it on the next one for 1 Order rune.
- IT DOES NOT PATCH THE LUX LEDGER, AND THE HUNT'S REASON WAS THE WRONG ONE. Issue #59 modelled this as the Energy pass's Sacrifice killing Unsung Hero instead of Ekko. That swap is not available: lux-infinite-energy's own steps say 'Its additional cost kills Ekko', and OGN-110 Ekko, Recurrent's Deathknell ('Recycle me to ready your runes') IS the engine — he is M5, so he satisfies [Mighty] himself. Adding Unsung Hero therefore needs a SECOND Sacrifice every pass: six cards to bring back instead of four, against a Forge of the Future that recycles 'up to 4' and already spends three, so Unsung Hero gets NO recycle slot at all; and eight draws instead of four against five cards entering the deck. With the Main Deck EMPTY (that entry's own first notable) the surplus is 431.1.a three times, i.e. 431.2.c -> 194.1.d, three points to the opponent per pass. Standalone Order engine, never a loop patch.
- SFD-178 Blade of the Ruined King (M+4) is the other Order Equipment that crosses the line, but its [Equip] costs a friendly unit's life on top of the rune.
Steps
- Play Unsung Hero (2 Energy). Attach B.F. Sword for 1 Order Power: 2 + 3 = 5, the crossing 709 describes.
- Play Sacrifice (1 Energy). It is a [Reaction], and 813.1.b gives Reaction every permission of Action, so a plain Open State on your turn is enough.
- Pay its additional cost by killing Unsung Hero (357, 428.1.a.1). The Sword is left unattached on the board.
- The Deathknell resolves first (340.1): 'If I was Mighty, draw 2'.
- Sacrifice resolves: draw 2 more and channel 1 rune exhausted. Recycle that rune later for 1 Power (164.2.b, no exhaust in the cost).
- Move the Sword to the next Unsung Hero for 1 Order Power (434.1.f) and repeat. Three cycles.
Per iteration
4 cards drawn against 2 spent (net +2) and 1 rune channelled, for 3 Energy and 2 Order Power, one of which the channelled rune buys back
How it ends
engine only — three cycles, one per copy; nothing in Order recycles Sacrifice or Unsung Hero, and it cannot ride the Lux loop (see the notables)
Sources
Published elsewhere
- Lente del draw — issue #59 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
Walked here, in this project
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 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-draw-lens-candidates.md), issue #59 candidate 3. SFD-167 and SFD-161 appeared in no entry before this; UNL-173 Sacrifice is already the Lux loop's kill spell, which is exactly what the negative half is about. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 357, 340.1, 428.1.a.1, 434.1.f/g/h, 435.1, 709, 808.1.c/d, 813.1.b, 164.2.b, 431.1.a and 431.2.c opened in the Core Rules. Ban check: none of the three carries a [BANNED marker. THE WALK'S ADDITION over the hunt: the hunt asked for '+3 Might' without naming a card — B.F. Sword is the only clean answer in Order, since a [Buff] is +1 and a unit can hold only one; and the hunt's Lux table swapped Sacrifice's victim, which the loop cannot afford, so the refutation was rebuilt around a SECOND Sacrifice and comes out three Burn Outs a pass instead of one. Trap check: no attack designation; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no token; no Gold; the kill is a real kill to the Trash, so 808.1.d.1's shield trap never engages; no battlefield. Depends on no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16