Combo · ENGINE

Vex, Mocking × Thwonk! — a Tank that teleports into the combat as it opens

2 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Vex, Mocking ×1 UNL-055 · payoff · calm

  [Shield] (+1 Might while I'm a defender.) [Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.) When you [Stun] an enemy unit at a battlefield, you may move me to that battlefield.

• Thwonk! ×1 SFD-040 · engine · calm

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) [Repeat] 2 Energy (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.) Stun an attacking unit. (It doesn't deal combat damage this turn.)

Payoff

Deck

• MONO-CALM. Every legend with Calm in its pair can run both cards (103.1.b.3) — Blind Monk, Wuju Bladesman, Grandmaster at Arms, Wuju Master, Unforgiven, Blade Dancer, Gloomist, Rogue Assassin, Nine-Tailed Fox, Fire Below the Mountain, Bashful Bloom, Curator of the Sands, Radiant Dawn, Emperor of the Sands, Green Father, Eye of Twilight.

Run play

• the wall is six damage plus the two biggest attackers, and width walks through it

Prerequisites

• HER MOVE IS AN EFFECT MOVE, WHICH IS WHY IT WORKS ON THE OPPONENT'S TURN. 144.1.b forbids the Standard Move during a Closed State and 144.2 charges it the unit's exhaust; Vex's relocation is neither — 420.2.a covers moves 'when instructed to do so by Game Effects', and 420.3.a puts the exhaust cost only on the Standard Move. So an exhausted Vex, on the opponent's turn, still arrives.
• AND SHE ARRIVES IN TIME TO BE A DEFENDER. 323.2.a: 'If there are Units present at the Battlefield the Combat is taking place at, but do not have a designation, they gain the same designation as their Controller now', and 319.6 runs a Cleanup after any Game Object enters or leaves the Board — so a body that lands mid-combat is designated before 465.2 resolves damage. That is the same window #150 recorded for a hidden Keeper of Masks, used here on purpose.
• WHAT SHE IS WORTH ONCE SHE LANDS: [Tank] is 815.1.b, 'I must be assigned lethal damage before any other unit with the same controller as me that does not have [Tank]', and 465.2.c.3 forces lethal in full onto one unit before any goes to the next. At 5 Might plus [Shield]'s +1 while defending (814.1.c) she eats 6 damage off the top of the attack, and every point spent on her is a point not spent on the garrison she just joined.
• Thwonk! is the partner rather than the cheaper OGN-050 Rune Prison because of when it can be cast: 806.1.b gives [Action] permission 'to be played or activated during Showdowns, even when it is not the Controlling player's turn', and Thwonk! reads 'Stun an ATTACKING unit' — a clause that only has a referent on the opponent's turn. Rune Prison stuns anything but is worth nothing to Vex defensively, because the stun and the move both have to happen while the attack is live.
• Two stuns per cast, not more: 820.1.b gives exactly one extra execution, and 820.2.a lets the second choice differ. So 4 Energy blanks two attackers (423.1.b: 'A Stunned Unit does not contribute its might to damage in the combat damage step') and moves Vex once — the second stun does not move her again to anywhere useful.
• The stun does NOT make the attackers easier to kill. 423.1.c: 'A Stunned Unit must still have damage applied to it equal to, or greater than, its full might' — #61's correction, and the reason this entry is a defensive one rather than a removal one. What it removes is their damage, not their bodies.
• 423.1.a.1 forbids stunning an already-stunned unit and 423.1.a.2 clears the stun at the end-of-turn cleanup, so this is a per-combat answer and never a lock — the whole stun lens yields ENGINE for that reason.

Steps

1. Have Vex, Mocking on the board (5 Energy + 1 Calm Power) — anywhere, including your base — and hold Thwonk! with 4 Energy available.
2. The opponent attacks one of your battlefields. Inside the Combat Showdown (806.1.b), cast Thwonk! for 2 Energy and pay the [Repeat] for 2 more.
3. Each execution stuns one attacking unit: 423.1.b takes its Might out of the combat damage step entirely.
4. Vex's trigger fires on the stun. Move her to that battlefield — an effect move (420.2.a), so her exhausted state and the Closed State do not stop it.
5. 319.6's Cleanup runs and 323.2.a designates her a Defender before damage resolves. [Tank] (815.1.b) then forces the attackers to assign lethal to her first, at 5 + 1 = 6 (814.1.c).
6. Repeat next combat; 423.1.a.2 has cleared the stuns by then.

How it ends

engine — two attackers blanked and a 6-Might Tank inserted into the combat, three times a game

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Two-card pair walk, cause/trigger matrix rows 6-15 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-proven-rule-instances.md §24) 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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