Combo · ENGINE
Vex swings spell costs by two in both directions, and 155 is why only an [Action] can use the window
Pieces
- Vex, Cheerless ×1
SFD-146 · engine · chaos
While I'm in combat, friendly spells cost 1 Energy + 1 Power of any domain less to a minimum of 1 Energy, and enemy spells cost 1 Energy + 1 Power of any domain more.
- Void Seeker ×1
OGN-024 · payoff · fury
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Deal 4 to a unit at a battlefield. Draw 1.
Payoff
Deck
- Chaos + Fury, so five legend names (103.1.b.2): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
- Vex actually IN a combat — 740.2.c requires her to occupy a battlefield where combat is ongoing AND to have a combat designation, so a Vex sitting at your base does nothing.
Run play
Prerequisites
- 155 IS THE SELECTION RULE FOR EVERY PARTNER SHE CAN HAVE. 'A spell can be played during an Open State outside of Showdowns on its controller's turn' — that is the whole permission a plain spell gets, so a spell without [Action] or [Reaction] can never be cast in the window Vex's own text creates. Her partners are exactly the [Action] and [Reaction] spells in the identity, and `OGN-024 Void Seeker` is the biggest Energy-plus-Power one available to a Chaos/Fury legend.
- THE DISCOUNT IS TWO RESOURCES AND THE FLOOR ONLY BINDS ONE. 'costs :rb_energy_1::rb_rune_rainbow: less to a minimum of :rb_energy_1:' takes Void Seeker from 3 Energy + 1 Power to 2 Energy and nothing else. 356.4.e is why the floor does not leak into anything else — 'If a discount applies a minimum cost, that minimum applies only to that discount' — and 356.6 is why the rainbow half is simply wasted on a spell with no Power cost, rather than becoming Energy.
- AND THE OTHER HALF IS A TAX ON THEM IN THE SAME WINDOW. 'enemy spells cost :rb_energy_1::rb_rune_rainbow: more' is a cost increase applied inside the Showdown their attack opened — where their Energy is already coming off runes they had to leave ready (167, 415.3.a). A two-resource swing in each direction is four resources of tempo per exchange, and it exists only while she is in the fight.
- SHE IS ALSO A LIABILITY, AND THE ENTRY SAYS SO. Being 'in combat' means being a legal damage assignment: 465.2.b sums her 5 Might into the defence and 465.2.c.3 lets the opponent spend lethal on her first to switch the discount off mid-combat. The card asks you to keep a 5-Might body in every fight you want cheap spells in.
- THE DISCOUNT HAS THE USUAL SIDE EFFECT. 166.2, 203.1 and 356.4.b mean you SPEND less, so every 'if you spent N or more' clause reads the smaller number — `SFD-143 Sivir, Mercenary`'s 'if you've spent at least :rb_rune_rainbow::rb_rune_rainbow: this turn' is a Chaos card one slot away and is switched off by exactly this. `UNL-004 Prepared Neophyte` is the Fury version of the same trap.
- Void Seeker replaces itself, which is what makes the discount compound: 2 Energy for 4 damage and a card, at Showdown speed (806.1.b), and 143.2.a kills any body up to 4.
Steps
- Play Vex, Cheerless (5 Energy + 1 Chaos Power) at a battlefield that will be fought over.
- When combat opens there, she gains a combat designation and is 'in combat' (740.2.c).
- Cast Void Seeker inside that Showdown (806.1.b, and 155 is why a spell without [Action] could not be here at all).
- Vex's discount applies: 3 Energy + 1 Power becomes 2 Energy and no Power (356.4.e, 356.6).
- Deal 4 to a unit at a battlefield and draw 1. 143.2.a kills anything up to 4 Might.
- Any spell the opponent answers with, in that same window, costs them 1 Energy and 1 rainbow more.
Per iteration
-1 card, -2 Energy, 4 damage and +1 card; the opponent's answer in the same window costs 1 Energy + 1 Power more
How it ends
engine — a two-resource discount on every [Action] spell you cast in a combat Vex is in, and a two-resource tax on theirs, for as long as she survives it; 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 / Body / 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.
AUTHORED 2026-09-07, issue #173. SFD-146 Vex, Cheerless and OGN-024 Void Seeker were both in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.2, 143.2.a, 155, 166.2, 167, 203.1, 356.4.b, 356.4.e, 356.6, 415.3.a, 465.2.b, 465.2.c.3, 740.2.c, 806.1.b opened in the Core Rules file. Both cards legal in both formats; neither is Signature. No unruled reading. 155 is the reusable half: it is the paragraph that decides which spells can exist in a Showdown at all, and it silently rules out most of the partner list any 'while I'm in combat, spells cost less' card appears to have.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16