Run plays
A combo entry prices a line. A run play prices a game: turn by turn, with the mana, against an opponent who is doing something. Each one below states what it checked, what it found, and where it was wrong.
- Yasuo fires on turn four off the Hold curve, so Chaos/Order wins turn five unopposed, and their free turn-three attack makes it six
Subject: Yasuo, Windrider played on turn three and shuttled with Ride the Wind from turn four, on top of the Hold curve — two points no board of theirs can switch off, for a turn-five eight, a new CHAIN synthesized for this slice. Chaos/Order is the next legend pair of the identity-first pass. Its Hold baseline is T6, because neither domain prints a unit at Energy 1. Its catalogue holds ten finishers, none clocked by T4, and the issue asks for a BURST or a CHAIN shape. No shape in the pair reaches 8 by T4 (§6), so the question becomes whether one pays on T5. One does: OGN-205 Yasuo, Windrider played on T3 and moved three times on T4 with one OGN-173 Ride the Wind, on top of the Hold curve. The Chaos/Fury shuttle play had the same two cards and a T6 verdict, because it played its Yasuos one a turn and fired all three on T6. Fire the first Yasuo the turn after he lands, and every turn after that. He adds one point on T4 and one on T5 to a curve that already sits at five on T4, so unopposed the line has 8 on T5. The turn clock prices it at T5 against the T6 baseline. Walked as a game, going first, against the Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck of the Galio walk, it wins on T6. Their free T3 attack takes the second battlefield back, and Yasuo has used all the T3 mana. On that same contested board the free Hold curve wins on T8, so the line saves two turns there and one turn unopposed. The cheapest break is in their own identity: OGN-213 Hidden Blade, hidden the turn before for one Power, kills Yasuo for no Energy as soon as his first move puts him at a battlefield. The walked hand held none.
- Galio is a six-Might Tank for three Energy and a Vanguard Captain makes three, so eight hold the Plaza and their six kill nothing
Subject: Galio, Indefatigable holds The Grand Plaza from turn two and a Vanguard Captain makes three on turn three — eight units behind a seven-Might Tank for a turn-four Hold, a new ALT_WIN synthesized for this slice. Body/Order is the least-covered legend pair the identity-first pass has not worked yet: seven finishers in the catalogue and none clocked by T4. The two Body slices before it hit the same wall from two sides: a [Tank] among seven units, and seven units from the seven cards seen by T3. Order answers both at once. UNL-171 Galio, Indefatigable is a 6-Might [Tank] for three Energy and one Order Power, and OGN-218 Vanguard Captain is three units for one card once another card has been played that turn. Both Powers come from runes that have already paid their Energy, recycled. Eight units at OGN-293 The Grand Plaza by the end of T3 for 11 Energy and 2 Order Power, and with Pit Rookie's buff on Galio, killing two of them costs 8 Might. The turn clock prices it at T4 against the Body/Order Hold baseline of T5. Walked as a game, going first, against the same Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck and the same draws as the four earlier Plaza plays, it wins on T4. Their two T2 bodies attack with exactly 6, and all of it has to go to Galio, who has 7. Nothing of yours dies, both of theirs do, and the T4 Hold sees eight. It is the first identity-first Plaza walk to win on T4. The cheapest break is in their own identity: OGN-043 Charm (Calm, E1 + 1 Calm, and one Power more for Galio's [Deflect]) moves Galio off the Plaza, and then 1 Might of attack is enough. The walked hand held no Charm.
- Up from the Deep puts seven on the Plaza by turn three, and the two bodies they already had kill five of them
Subject: Up from the Deep and its Flow put four Tentacles on The Grand Plaza on turn three — seven units for a turn-four Hold, a new Chaos/Fury ALT_WIN synthesized for this slice. Chaos/Fury is the legend pair with the fewest finishers in the catalogue (two) and none that pays by T4. The line: three Energy-2 bodies take OGN-293 The Grand Plaza and stand on it by the end of T2, then on T3 VEN-100 Up from the Deep (Chaos spell, E3) and its own [Flow] replay (E3) put four 1-Might Tentacles straight onto the Plaza. That is seven units at the Plaza after twelve Energy and no Power, and the Hold at the start of T4 wins the game. The catalogue's turn clock prices it at T4 against the Chaos/Fury Hold baseline of T6. Walked as a game, going first, against the Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck of the Helm play, it does not win on T4. On their T3 the two bodies they played on their T2 walk into the Plaza with 6 Might and kill five of the seven, because four of the seven are 1-Might Tentacles. Both of theirs die and the Plaza stays yours, but the count is 2. The T4 rebuild to seven meets the same answer on their T4, from the bodies they played on their T3. 3 to 3 after their T4. The cheapest answer costs nothing: any ready body in their base on their T3. The cheapest spell is one Energy: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades (Body) kills all four Tentacles at once, and OGN-169 Gust (Chaos) removes one, which is enough.
- Two Frisky Hunters put seven on the Plaza by turn three, a Tank raises the free answer to three Might, and their six still kill four
Subject: Two Frisky Hunters and their Birds fill The Grand Plaza on turns two and three — seven units, no spell, for a turn-four Hold, a new ALT_WIN synthesized for this slice. Body/Calm is the least-covered legend pair the identity-first pass has not worked yet: four finishers in the catalogue and none clocked by T4. The line: two Energy-1 bodies take OGN-293 The Grand Plaza on T2, and UNL-033 Frisky Hunter (Calm unit, E4) is played onto it on T2 and again on T3, each with the 1-Might Bird its play trigger puts "here". A third body on T3 makes seven units at the Plaza after twelve Energy and no Power, and the Hold at the start of T4 wins. The turn clock prices it at T4 against the Body/Calm Hold baseline of T5. There is no spell in it, so the spell tax that cost the Up from the Deep line a turn does nothing here. Walked as a game, going first, against the same Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck and the same draws as the Up from the Deep play, it does not win on T4. The seventh unit is UNL-036 Mutated Mouser, whose [Tank] and [Shield 2] make killing one of the seven cost 3 Might instead of 1. Their two T2 bodies attack with 6, and that is enough to kill the Mouser and three more. 3 to 3 after their T4, the same score the slice-1 line reached. The cheapest answer is still free, from 3 Might ready in their base. The cheapest spell is still one Energy: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades (Body) kills five of the seven.
- Seal of Rage and Upstage Comedy bring Tryndamere's nine to turn six, the turn the free Hold curve wins, and one Hextech Ray holds it to three
A negative result. Chaos/Fury is the legend pair with the fewest finishers in the catalogue, and none of them pays by turn 4 (the coverage table, identity coverage by legend pair). This play asks for the fastest BURST a Chaos/Fury deck can build. The pair's only point multiplier is UNL-029 Red Brambleback, and the only conquer effect in the pair that scores is OGN-034 Tryndamere, Barbarian, so the answer is the nine of Tryndamere, Barbarian × Red Brambleback — multiplied Conquer points: two Tryndameres and three Bramblebacks, 1 + T x (1 + K) in one Conquer. That entry's earliest attack is T7 going first. Two cards the entry does not name, OGN-040 Seal of Rage and UNL-009 Upstage Comedy, bring it to T6 (the Seal is the one that matters), and no set of buys brings it to T5. T6 is the turn the free Hold curve wins in Chaos/Fury, so the line does not beat it, and it does not enter the catalogue.
- Identity coverage by legend pair: Chaos/Fury has two finishers and none that pays by turn four
Chaos/Fury is the target pair, and Body/Calm is the runner-up. No Chaos/Fury finisher in the catalogue pays by T4, and it has two finishers in all, the fewest of the fifteen pairs. This slice walked two new Chaos/Fury lines. One beats the pair's Hold baseline on the clock and enters the catalogue as a candidate; the other pays on the baseline's own turn and is a negative result.
- A Towering Combatant makes one Plaza kill cost six, their six kill only it, and the turn-four rebuild wins the turn-five Hold
Subject: A Towering Combatant holds The Grand Plaza from turn two and Up from the Deep fills it on turn three — seven units behind a six-Might Tank for a turn-four Hold, a new ALT_WIN synthesized for this slice. Body/Chaos is the least-covered legend pair the identity-first pass has not worked yet: five finishers in the catalogue and none clocked by T4. The line takes one card from each domain's best Plaza piece. Body gives the Energy-1 bodies that take OGN-293 The Grand Plaza on T2 and UNL-099 Towering Combatant, a [Tank] that is 5 Might as a defender, played onto the Plaza on T2. Chaos gives VEN-100 Up from the Deep, two Tentacles for three Energy, on T3, with a third body and OGN-136 Pit Rookie, whose buff makes the Combatant 6. Seven units at the Plaza after twelve Energy and no Power, and killing one of them costs 6 Might, where it cost 1 on the slice-1 line and 3 on the slice-2 line. The turn clock prices it at T4 against the Body/Chaos Hold baseline of T5. Walked as a game, going first, against the same Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck and the same draws as the two earlier Plaza plays, it does not win on T4: their two T2 bodies attack with exactly 6, kill the Combatant and nothing else, and six are left. But one unit is all they kill, and the T4 rebuild (the [Flow] casting and a second Combatant) puts nine on the Plaza behind a new 6-Might Tank. Their 6 Might can again kill only the Tank, and the T5 Hold wins the game, 3 to 3 on points. T5 is the baseline's own turn. The cheapest spell is still one Energy: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades (Body) kills five of the seven.
- A hidden Marai is the seventh unit for no Energy, so a Tank fits by turn three, and their six still take it to six
Subject: A Towering Combatant holds The Grand Plaza from turn two and a hidden Mischievous Marai is its seventh unit for no Energy — seven behind a six-Might Tank for a turn-four Hold, a new ALT_WIN synthesized for this slice. Body/Fury is the least-covered legend pair the identity-first pass has not worked yet: seven finishers in the catalogue and none clocked by T4. The slice-3 line put a [Tank] among seven units by T3 because Up from the Deep makes two units from one card. Body/Fury has no card at Energy 4 or less that makes two units for one card, and going first you have seen seven cards by T3, so all seven have to be units, and under a legend that adds no Energy, seven units with the Tank cost 13 Energy against the 12 runes of T1 to T3. Fury's answer here is UNL-003 Mischievous Marai: hidden at OGN-293 The Grand Plaza for one Power, which a rune that has already paid its Energy can still give by being recycled, it is played from there later for no Energy. Seven units at the Plaza for 11 Energy and 1 Power, and killing one of them costs 6 Might. The turn clock prices it at T4 against the Body/Fury Hold baseline of T5. Walked as a game, going first, against the same Calm/Order Radiant Dawn deck and the same draws as the three earlier Plaza plays, it does not win on T4: their two T2 bodies attack with exactly 6, Marai's 2 damage kills neither of them, the Combatant dies and nothing else does, and six are left. Unlike slice 3 there is nothing left in hand to rebuild with, and it does not win by T5 either. The cheapest spell is one Energy: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades (Body) kills the three Sentries.
- The Helm costs your turn four, their two spells cost two runes more, and Acceptable Losses kills it for two
Subject: Helm of Suppression, Empowered — every opponent spell costs them a rune, and 206 is why it widens none of your own counters, the one-card Calm ENGINE in which VEN-045 Helm of Suppression (Calm gear, E4 + 1 Calm Power, [Empower] E4 + 1 Calm Power) makes every opponent spell cost 1 Energy more, and once Empowered 1 Energy and one Power of any domain more. The entry prices the bill at 8 Energy and 2 Power and says the Power half is the claim. It is right about the bill and about the tax. Walked as a game, going first, under OGN-261 Radiant Dawn against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the Decree of Focus play, in the same seats and on the same battlefields. The main line: the Helm takes your whole T4: all eight runes, two of them recycled. On their T4 they take your battlefield A with two spells and an attack, and each spell costs them a rune more: their board drops from 9 runes to 5 where the same two spells would have left 7. A falls, your five units at A die, and it is 3 to 4 after their T4. The control spends the same T4 on two bodies at A instead of the Helm. A defends at 22, nobody attacks, and it is 3 to 3. The cheapest answer is two runes, one recycled: OGN-179 Acceptable Losses (Chaos, E1) kills the Helm, since it is your only gear, for E2 and one Power under the tax. Cast first, it also lifts the tax off the two spells behind it, and their board ends at 6 runes instead of 5.
- Protective Sands draws once on turn two, the Sandspinner's three Energy cost four runes, and the Dragon cannot be cast
Subject: Three Fury cards read the same 'four or fewer runes' clause, and 164.2.b lets you meet it on purpose, at the price of the runes recycled, the Fury ENGINE built on one clause printed three times: "if you control 4 or fewer runes". VEN-162 Protective Sands (battlefield) draws a card for 1 Energy when you conquer it, VEN-016 Eclipse Dragon (Fury, E8, M8) draws when it moves, and VEN-001 Baccai Sandspinner (Fury, E6, M6) gets its [Empower] for E2 instead of E5. The entry says the condition is free in the opening and later a timing choice: tap the runes for Energy, then recycle down to four. It is right that the condition is free on your T2 going first, and right that the recycle pays. Walked as a game, going first, under SFD-181 Mechanized Menace against the Calm/Order Shield deck of the Rell play. The main line: a Rearguard conquers Protective Sands on T2 with four runes on the board, and you pay 1 and draw. That is the only conquer of A in the walk, because A stays yours. On T4 you tap all eight runes and recycle four, the Sandspinner's [Empower] costs E2, it takes their battlefield at Might 8, and the 3 Energy saved buy one more two-drop. On their T4 eleven Might kill it. 4 to 3 after their T4, on 4 runes. The control pays the [Empower] at E5 and recycles nothing: also 4 to 3, on 8 runes. On T5 the control can cast the Dragon and the main line cannot. The cheapest answer is one rune, recycled: VEN-034 Resonating Strike, hidden at their battlefield with the one rune their T3 leaves spare, moves their Sunlit Guardian in from base, and the Sandspinner dies attacking a 9. From hand it takes two runes: VEN-040 Decree of Focus and OGN-046 En Garde with none recycled, or SFD-040 Thwonk! or VEN-126 Ki Barrier with one.
- Factory Recall saves the Axe only inside a showdown, Brittle Steel trades a card for Rell's free sword, and Angle Shot ends the Axe for two runes
Subject: 718.2 makes an [Equip] Inactive only WHILE attached, so a bounce to hand is the legal way to move Equipment to a new carrier, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE built from two spells: VEN-003 Brittle Steel (Fury, E2 + 1 Fury Power, [Flow] E4 + 1 Fury Power) kills a gear, six times a game counting its replays from the trash; SFD-135 Factory Recall (Chaos, E1, [Action]) returns a gear to its owner's hand. The entry uses the bounce three ways: on their gear, to rescue your own Equipment "in response" to a removal spell, and to move your Equipment to a new carrier, free of any [Equip] on a [Quick-Draw] card such as SFD-186 Spinning Axe. Walked as a game, going first, with a Fury/Chaos Draven deck in your seat against the Fury/Body Rell deck of the Rell play. The rescue cannot be cast in response. Factory Recall is [Action], and a removal spell on the chain makes the turn a Closed State, where only [Reaction] cards can be played. The main line: on their T3 Rell attacks your Axe-carrying Noxus Saboteur with a free Long Sword. You Factory Recall the Axe inside the showdown, before damage. The Saboteur dies either way, and the Axe goes to your hand instead of being killed by its own [Temporary] at your next Beginning Phase. On T4 Brittle Steel kills the Long Sword, a card Rell got for free, and the Axe goes back out on its play cost. 4 to 3 after their T4. The control spends the Brittle Steel's T4 on a third body: also 4 to 3, with a rune more on your board and Rell at 7 instead of 5. The cheapest answer to the engine is one rune: SFD-005 Detonate (Fury, E1 + 1 Fury Power) kills the Axe in their own Main Phase, where Factory Recall has no window. It hands you two cards. SFD-011 Angle Shot (Fury, E2, [Reaction]) is the answer that comes out ahead on cards. It detaches the Axe, the Axe's own [Temporary] kills it at your next Beginning Phase, and they draw 1.
- Tryndamere scores two on turn five, the nine needs a garrison under four Might, and eight Might at the battlefield is the free answer
Subject: Tryndamere, Barbarian × Red Brambleback — multiplied Conquer points, the Fury BURST that moves OGN-034 Tryndamere, Barbarian (Fury, E7 + 2 Fury Power, M8, "When I conquer after an attack, if you assigned 5 or more excess damage to enemy units, you score 1 point.") into an enemy garrison beside UNL-029 Red Brambleback (Fury, E4 + 1 Fury Power, M4, "Your conquer effects for conquering here trigger an additional time."), and counts 1 + T x (1 + K): nine points from two Tryndameres and three Bramblebacks in one Conquer. Walked as a game, going first, under OGN-249 Relentless Storm against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the En Garde play, in the same seats. The main line: one Tryndamere on T4 and two Bramblebacks, the second Accelerated, attack A on T5 into a garrison of three 2-Might bodies. The garrison's 6 damage kill a Brambleback before the Conquer, so Tryndamere fires twice, not three times: 3 points in one Conquer, 6 to 4 after your T5 and 6 to 5 after their T5. The same deal with UNL-108 Wily Newtfish in the Brambleback slots ends 5 to 5. The nine is not on this board. The five bodies first attack together on T7 at the earliest, and they score nine only into a garrison of 1 to 3 total Might: a garrison of 4 kills a Brambleback first, and one of 8 kills a Tryndamere. The cheapest answer is free: their fourth body at A instead of B makes A 8 Might, Tryndamere dies in the combat, and the game is 4 to 5 after their T5. The one-rune card answers are OGN-009 Hextech Ray, UNL-014 Monster Harpoon and UNL-134 Existential Dread.
- the Blade and the Mixologist land on the same turn, the three come out of a trash their attack filled, and one rune on a Karthus makes it two
Subject: Glasc Mixologist reanimates three times for one Power, the Order ENGINE that kills SFD-165 Glasc Mixologist (Order, E5 + 1 Order Power, M5) as the cost of SFD-178 Blade of the Ruined King's [Equip] (Order gear, E3 + 1 Order Power, M+4) beside two OGN-236 Karthus, Eternal (Order, E3 + 1 Order Power, M3). His Deathknell runs three times, and each run plays a unit of cost E3 or less and 1 Power or less out of your trash for free. The entry is right about the count, the cost-kill and where the bodies go. Walked as a game, going first, with a Hand of Noxus Order deck in your seat, against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the En Garde play, in the same seat and with the same deal as the Tryndamere play. The main line: the two Karthus go down on T2 and T3 and stay in base, and the Blade and the Mixologist both wait in hand for T5. Their T4 attack takes A and puts three of your units in your trash. On your T5 the Blade, the Mixologist and the [Equip] cost eight Energy and three Order Power, and the three units come back to your base. The Captain, now a 7 with the Blade, retakes A alone: 4 to 4 after your T5, 4 to 5 after their T5. The control puts the Blade down a turn early. That buys the Captain's two Recruits and a second Gloryseeker, but the Blade sits at your base through their T4, where OGN-179 Acceptable Losses (Chaos, E1) kills it and T5 returns nothing. The cheapest answer to the main line is one rune: VEN-107 Decree of Discord (Chaos, E1 + 1 Chaos Power) returns one Karthus to your hand on their T4, and the three bodies are two. There is no free answer: the only fuel in the walk is what their own attack kills.
- Rell takes one free Equipment, the Bow fires only on defence, and Decree of Focus kills her for one rune
Subject: Rell, Magnetic — a free Equipment every attack, and the one that misses its own combat, the Fury ENGINE in which SFD-024 Rell, Magnetic (Fury, E4, M4, [Tank]) plays an Equipment of Energy cost 2 or less from hand for free each time she attacks and attaches it to herself. Its order is a SFD-022 Long Sword (Fury gear, E2 + 1 Fury Power, M+2, [Quick-Draw]) first, whose +2 is live in the combat it lands in, and a SFD-016 Recurve Bow (Fury gear, E2, M+0) on the next attack, whose 2 damage misses the combat that fetched it. The entry is right about both timings. Walked as a game, going first, with a Fury/Body deck in your seat against the Calm/Order Shield deck of the Purifier play. The main line: on T3 Rell walks into their battlefield, takes the Long Sword for free, kills their lone Stalwart Poro at Might 6 and conquers. After that she stands at that battlefield, where a unit can move only to base. She never attacks again, so the Bow the entry takes next is never played for free. On their T4 eleven Might attack her there. She kills two of them and dies. 5 to 2 after their T4. The control takes the Bow first and keeps the Long Sword in hand. The Bow's first and only shot comes on their T4, when she defends. The Long Sword's [Quick-Draw] gives it [Reaction], so it goes on her in that same combat for two runes, and she takes three of them with her. Also 5 to 2, with one attacker left at the battlefield instead of two. The cheapest answer is one rune: VEN-040 Decree of Focus (Calm, E1) makes their defending Poro a 7 against her 6, and she dies attacking.
- Darius goes down first, the Captain's Recruits are born 2s, and Charm with Flurry still takes them for two runes
Subject: 812.1.b ends the Legion Ability at the CLAUSE, so Darius's aura is unconditional - a permanent mono-Order Might floor nobody had catalogued, the Order ENGINE that reads OGN-243 Darius, Executioner (Order, E6 + 1 Order Power, M6) as two clauses: a [Legion] ready, and an aura, "Other friendly units have +1 :rb_might: here.", that needs no other card. Beside OGN-218 Vanguard Captain (Order, E3 + 1 Order Power, M3) it makes the Captain's two Recruits 2s, out of range of OGN-133 Flurry of Blades (Body, E1, 1 to every unit at a battlefield). The entry is right about the clause. Walked as a game, going first, with the Fury/Order Recruit deck of the Fortress play in your seat, against the Calm/Body Wuju Master deck of the Feral Strength play with a Flurry in its hand. The main line: Darius is the first card of your T4, so his own Legion is off, and his aura is on anyway. He is also the other card the Captain's Legion asks for, so the Captain follows him for the same eight runes and the legend's one Energy, and no third card is needed. Every Recruit at A is born a 2. Five of them stand there after your T4, and the Flurry in their hand kills nothing. 3 to 3 after their T4. The control plays the same Captain a turn early, before Darius: their T3 Flurry kills both Recruits for one rune. That is also 3 to 3, with two Recruits at A instead of five. The cheapest answer is two runes: OGN-043 Charm (Calm, E1 + 1 Calm Power) moves Darius off A, and Flurry then kills every Recruit there. Moved into their battlefield, Darius dies in the combat as well. The engine scores nothing, as the entry says, so their free answer is to leave A alone.
- Whirlwind reaches any unit, so the opponent picks first on your board, and the Attendant is what they pick
Subject: "Starting with the next player" means you choose LAST on a symmetric bounce, and 355.10.e means nobody pays [Deflect], the Chaos ENGINE in which OGN-187 Whirlwind (E3 + 1 Chaos Power) lets each player return a unit to its owner's hand, the opponent first, and OGN-165 Cemetery Attendant (E3 + 1 Chaos Power, M3) is the unit you return so that its play trigger fetches another unit from your trash. The entry is right that you choose last and that nobody pays [Deflect]. It is wrong about whose unit each player may choose. Whirlwind says "a unit", and a unit is any unit on the board, so the opponent, choosing first, may return one of yours. Walked as a game, going first, under SFD-185 Glorious Executioner against the Calm/Order Leona deck that pairs SFD-157 Royal Guard with VEN-119 Keeper of Law, the Attendant came down on T3 and brought back the Legion Rearguard their Daring Poro had killed. Whirlwind on T4 was answered on your own board. With your trash empty, the opponent's best first pick is the Attendant itself, since replaying it costs a recycled rune for an empty fetch. You chose last and returned their Sand Soldier, which as a token ceases to exist. Score after their T4: 3 to 3. The same hand with Whirlwind kept in hand, and with OGN-016 Dangerous Duo in the Attendant's place, also ends 3 to 3. Each engine card cost one rune for good and moved no point. [2026-10-24, #452: not for good. A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b) and is channelled again when the deck reaches it (430.1). Going first, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (315.3.b), each rune recycled is a rune short on every turn through T6, until the Rune Deck runs dry (161.2.a); a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. The walk ends after their T4, so the count stands for every turn it covers. The wording above is kept as history.] If their Keeper goes to base instead of the battlefield, it ends 4 to 3 with or without Whirlwind. Cast on T3, as soon as it can be, Whirlwind costs the T3 Conquer and leaves the Keeper's discount intact: 1 to 2 after their T3. The cheapest answer is OGN-045 Defy, one ready rune and one Calm Power: it counters Whirlwind. Nothing in their 254 cards counters the Attendant's trigger.
- The Surge goes first off a two-drop Mech, and its base token is the one that takes B
Subject: 187.4 gives a Mech token its tag by rule, so the first token pays for the second spell, the Mind ENGINE in which VEN-051 Iterative Design (E4) plays a 3-Might Mech token and SFD-076 Production Surge (E4 + 1 Power) costs two less while you control a Mech. The entry is right about the rules. 187.4 gives the token the Mech tag, so the first token turns the discount on, and [Flow] makes three Iterative Designs six plays. Walked as a game, going first, under SFD-181 Mechanized Menace (Rumble, whose Mechs have [Shield]) against the Mind/Order Lux deck, the discount was already on from T1, because VEN-058 Patched Porobot is a two-energy Mech. So the first Production Surge came on T2, a turn before the entry's steps can cast it. Its token went to base, where the spell has to put it. On T3 a second Surge and SFD-062 Bubble Bot, which readies another friendly Mech, sent two 3-Might tokens into their battlefield and took it from a lone 3: 4 to 3 after their T4. The same hand with plain Mechs in the engine's three slots also ends 4 to 3. It pays no Power, so it has 8 runes on T4 against the engine's 6, and the two cards the Surges drew went uncast. What the engine bought is the size of the attackers. Two 3s survive every open answer their one ready rune can cast, while the control's 3 and 2 lose to three of them. Played in the entry's order, Iterative Design first with its token on your own battlefield as the entry advises, the same cards end 3 to 3: nothing is in base on T3 to attack with. Their better T2 stacks their battlefield, and it ends 3 to 3 in every line. No open one-rune card stops the walked Conquer. The cheapest answer is a card hidden at their battlefield on their T2 for one recycled rune, and seven of the thirteen hidden cards in their identity stop it. VEN-117 Disciple of Shen does it best: it kills both tokens and their battlefield stays theirs.
- The Poro's free Empower is a turn-one play, it moves their attack to the other battlefield, and the discard that pays is the one that plays itself
Subject: One of five [Empower] costs in the pool that pay neither Energy nor Power — and the card it discards is one you get back, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which VEN-007 Punching Poro (Fury, E2, M2) pays its [Empower] by discarding a card, which makes it a 3 for good, and OGN-170 Morbid Return (Chaos spell, E2, [Action]) returns the discarded unit from the trash. The entry is right about the cost: the Poro is one of five [Empower] costs in the pool that pay no Energy and no Power, and an Empowered Poro stays Empowered. Walked as a game, going first, under SFD-185 Glorious Executioner against the Calm/Order Leona deck, the free Empower came on T1, the turn the Poro itself spends both runes. Their T2 OGN-210 Daring Poro, a 3 on the attack, would only have traded with the 3 at A. It took the empty B instead. Morbid Return then brought the discarded OGN-012 Noxus Hopeful back on T3 and turned on the Hopeful's [Legion], so the Return cost no Energy that turn. Score after their T4: 3 to 3. The same hand with the Empower never paid also ends 3 to 3: their Poro takes A instead of B, and the Return is still in hand, with the dead Punching Poro to fetch. The pair moved no point. The discard that does is OGN-006 Flame Chompers, which plays itself from the trash for one Fury Power: the same T1 puts two 3s on the board, and it is 6 to 1 after their T4. The cheapest answer to the Poro is one rune on their T2: OGN-046 En Garde makes the Daring Poro a 5 at A.
- Feral Strength's +2 saves the T2 pair, the Repeat never changes a count, and Combat Experience stays a +1
Subject: 820.2.a lets the repeated execution pick a DIFFERENT unit - which is the whole difference between +4 on one body and +2 on two, the Calm ENGINE that compares two [Reaction] pumps: UNL-031 Combat Experience (Calm spell, E1), +1, or +3 at [Level 6], and SFD-034 Feral Strength (Calm spell, E2), +2, with a [Repeat] of two more Energy that may put a second +2 on a different unit. The entry is right about the rules: one extra execution, a second target allowed, and a rung that replaces the +1. Walked as a game, going first, under UNL-191 Wuju Master against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the En Garde play, three lists were dealt the same hand with one card changed. The Feral Strength list keeps two runes up on T2 behind a pair of 2s at A. Their Saboteur, made a 5 by OGN-016 Dangerous Duo, attacks. The +2 keeps one body alive and kills the Saboteur: 2 to 1 after their T3, 3 to 2 after their T4. The Combat Experience list has the same deal, but at 1 XP the card is a +1. Both bodies die with the Saboteur, A is left empty, and on T3 every unit goes to base: 1 to 2 after their T3. The control, a third UNL-094 Gemhand Hunter in the slot, plays it on T2. Their Saboteur takes the empty battlefield instead: 2 to 2 after their T3. The Repeat is never paid. In these lists, whose bodies all cost 2, it cannot be paid with two of your units at one battlefield before their T3. And against the walk's fights, a second +2 kills no more and saves no more than the first. Combat Experience's rung is dark in both pump lists through their T4, at 4 XP at most; only the control, which lost no body on their T2, reaches 6, on its T4 Hold. The cheapest answer to Feral Strength is one rune: OGN-004 Cleave, SFD-003 Blood Rush or UNL-010 Vault Breaker, played before the attack as the card that turns on the Duo's [Legion], or VEN-015 Decree of Rage on the Calm body.
- En Garde wants a lone body they attack, the Hammer a pair they leave alone, and both end where a plain two-drop does
Subject: Two Calm cards on the same battlefield want opposite garrisons - one pays for ALONE and the other for exactly one companion, the Calm ENGINE that puts OGN-046 En Garde (Calm spell, E1, [Reaction]) beside VEN-027 Hand Hammer (Calm Equipment, E2, M+1, [Equip] one Calm Power) and calls them a deckbuilding fork: En Garde pays its second point to a unit that is the only one you control where it stands, and the Hammer pays +2 to a carrier with exactly one other unit of yours at its battlefield. The entry is right that the two never pay together, and right about the sizes, one and two. Walked as a game, going first, under OGN-261 Radiant Dawn against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the Guard's pair play, the three lists were dealt the same hand with one card changed. The En Garde list keeps its Poro alone at A on T2 with two runes up. Their Saboteur attacks it, but they play OGN-016 Dangerous Duo first, and its [Legion] +2 makes the Saboteur a 5, which En Garde's 4 cannot beat. The Poro dies unanswered. On T3 En Garde wins A back with a lone Ramhound: 2 to 2 after their T3, 3 to 3 after their T4. The Hand Hammer list puts a pair at A on T2, and the Hammer makes it 8, so the Saboteur takes the empty battlefield instead: 2 to 2, one rune recycled for good. [2026-10-24, #452: not for good. A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b) and is channelled again when the deck reaches it (430.1). Going first, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (315.3.b), each rune recycled is a rune short on every turn through T6, until the Rune Deck runs dry (161.2.a); a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. The walk ends after their T4, so the count stands for every turn it covers. The wording above is kept as history.] The control, OGN-044 Clockwork Keeper in the slot, puts the same pair at A without the Hammer, 5. The Saboteur takes the empty battlefield there too: 2 to 2. Only an opponent who attacks before playing the Duo lets En Garde move a point, 3 to 1 after their T3. The cheapest answer to En Garde is that Duo, played before the attack, at no cost beyond the turn they had planned. One rune buys three more: OGN-004 Cleave, SFD-003 Blood Rush or OGN-169 Gust. Nobody needs to answer the Hammer: they go where it is not.
- Decree of Focus takes the first spell, Crumbling Sands the second, and the free answer is the empty battlefield
Subject: Crumbling Sands can never counter the first spell of a turn and Decree of Focus can, when it is a Fury one, the Calm ENGINE that holds VEN-039 Crumbling Sands (Calm spell, E1 + 1 Calm Power, [Reaction], counters a spell if an opponent has played another spell this turn) beside VEN-040 Decree of Focus (Calm spell, E1, [Reaction], +4 on a friendly unit in combat with an enemy Fury unit or chosen by an enemy Fury spell), and calls them the cheapest answers in Calm, each blank against the board it was not written for. The entry is right about both conditions. Walked as a game, going first, under OGN-261 Radiant Dawn against the Fury/Chaos Draven deck of the En Garde play, in the same seats, you keep two runes up on T2 behind a Poro and a Ramhound at A. The main line: their Saboteur attacks A with OGN-009 Hextech Ray and OGN-004 Cleave behind it. Decree of Focus makes the Ramhound a 7, so the Ray (the first spell) does not kill it. Crumbling Sands counters the Cleave (the second). A stays yours: 1 to 0 after their T2, 3 to 2 after their T4. The same deal with OGN-044 Clockwork Keeper in both slots loses A on their T2 and ends 3 to 3. Two other swaps get the main line's 3 to 2: OGN-045 Defy in Crumbling Sands' slot, at the same rune, and OGN-046 En Garde in Decree of Focus' slot. The cheapest answer is free: the Saboteur walks into the empty B instead. Neither card can be cast, and the game ends 3 to 3, the control's score. Once they fight into the two runes, the cheapest answer is a third one-rune spell. Ray, Cleave, UNL-014 Monster Harpoon and OGN-169 Gust each leave A empty, for one rune.
- Two XP on T2 kept Kha'Zix alive and moved no point, and T2 is the last turn their answers are all in hand
Subject: One of them strips a card and the other swaps it — and the Investigator's price is XP, which 824.1.d then reads, the Chaos ENGINE that pairs two hand attacks: UNL-135 Insightful Investigator (E3) reveals an opponent's hand and, for 2 XP, swaps a card of it for a draw, and OGN-192 Mindsplitter (E7 + 2 Chaos Power) reveals it again and strips a card with no replacement. The entry is right about the rules. Riot's own example under 383.3.b is this card, and the 2 XP is paid on resolution, after you have seen the hand. Walked as a game, going first, with UNL-201 Voidreaver against a Body/Order Garen deck, the Investigator's swap on T2 took the OGN-229 Vengeance that would have killed your Chosen Champion UNL-119 Kha'Zix, Evolving Hunter on their T3. Mindsplitter on T4 then took the OGS-016 Vanguard Attendant that could still trade with him. 3 to 3 after their T4. Without the swap the score is the same, 3 to 3: Vengeance kills Kha'Zix, and your battlefield is never at stake by their T4 whatever you do. So the hand attack bought a body, not a point. The swap's 2 XP is paid back by T5, by the Hunt of the champion it kept alive. The timing is the finding: going first, your T2 is the last turn their answers are all in their hand. From their T2 they control a battlefield, and a card with [Hidden] can go where no hand attack reaches; Mindsplitter, on T4, comes two such turns too late. The cheapest answers are three cards that each cost them two runes on their T1, one Order recycled, and kill your UNL-127 Mister Root in base before it can move; without its 2 XP the Investigator only looks. The one named here is VEN-131 Decree of Unity, because the same card kills Mindsplitter.
- Two Mighty bodies buy a ready Jaull-Fish on T4, and the three Body runes it recycles are the part no discount touches
Subject: A discount counted in Mighty bodies - and [Shield] is exactly the kind of Might that does not count, the Body ENGINE in which SFD-103 Jaull-Fish (E7 + 2 Body Power, M6) costs 2 Energy less for each Mighty unit you control, with OGS-007 Garen, Rugged as the printed-5 body that turns the discount on. The entry is right about its trap: [Shield] and [Assault] only count inside a combat, so a body that is a 5 only while defending counts as what it prints when the cost is read. It is right that 356.6 floors the Energy and never touches the Power. It misses two things. The discount also reaches [Accelerate]'s Energy, because additional costs are added before discounts are applied (356.2, 356.4, 356.4.f), so four Mighty bodies make a ready Jaull-Fish cost 0 Energy, not 1. And Garen is not the cheapest certain Mighty body: nineteen mono-Body units with printed Might 5 or more cost less than his E6 + 1 Body Power. Walked as a game, going first, against a Fury/Chaos Jinx deck that stacked its own battlefield, UNL-171 Galio, Indefatigable and VEN-088 Jayce, Hammer in Hand made two Mighty bodies, the Jaull-Fish came down ready on T4 for 4 Energy and 3 Body Power, and it walked into their battlefield beside Jayce and the Ramhound: 4 to 2 after their T4. Without it, the same turn spent on Garen holds and attacks nothing: 3 to 3. At full price it cannot be played on T4 at all. The bill comes in runes: three Body runes recycled on T4, so the line ends T4 with three runes on the board against the control's five, and 30.30% of rune orders cannot pay it on T4. The cheapest cards that break the turn are not answers to the discount. They take the attack's third body, the Ramhound, which leaves the attack two short: VEN-107 Decree of Discord returns it from your base on their T3 for one rune, recycled, and OGN-169 Gust returns it in the combat for one rune and no Power.
- Three Incinerates kill Lux and one guard, the Curses kill Lux and two, and the third kill is the battlefield
Subject: Consuming Curse counts cards in a zone, not a history — the un-controversial cousin of R15, and 714 sums it with Annie, the Fury ENGINE in which VEN-010 Consuming Curse (E2, [Action]) deals 2 to a unit at a battlefield plus 1 for each Consuming Curse already in your trash, and OGS-001 Annie, Fiery adds 1 to every copy. The entry is right about the rules. The trash is a zone, read when the spell resolves; 714 adds Annie's instance to the Curse's own; and three copies cast in order under Annie are 3, 4 and 5. Walked as a game, going first, against a Mind/Order Lux deck that built its battlefield wide and put OGS-006 Lux, Illuminated (M5) on it, all three copies landed on your T4. They killed a 3, a 3 and Lux, and Annie took the battlefield: 4 to 2 after their T4. The honest control is the same hand with three OGS-003 Incinerate, the Curse's own first sentence and nothing else. Under Annie each is a 3, and damage stays marked until the end of the turn, so two of them kill Lux and the third kills one of her 3s. The 3 and the 2 left beside it are 5 against Annie's 4: 3 to 3, with Lux dead. Spent on the three small bodies instead, they leave Lux alone at 5 against the same 4. Three Deals of 3 kill Lux and one guard, or three guards. Three of 3, 4 and 5 kill Lux and two, and that third kill is the Conquer. It is all the scaling bought, and it needs all three copies in hand, which happens in 0.61% of games by T4. Two copies are 3 + 4, which kill Lux and nothing else: one kill fewer than the Incinerate line, and the same 3 to 3. One OGN-024 Void Seeker in the third slot does the third copy's job for one rune more. Their better T3 does not play Lux at all: it puts three more small bodies on the battlefield, and then the 4 and the 5 have nothing to kill that a 3 could not. That line ends 3 to 3. Three answers to the walked line tie at one ready rune: SFD-064 Cloth Armor, OGN-104 Retreat and VEN-052 Mesmerize. Only Cloth Armor and Mesmerize stop the Conquer, and only Cloth Armor does it with no Power: on their last defender in Annie's combat, the battlefield ends nobody's.
- The Wielder and the Mask each do the other's job, and a plain body does both
Subject: 740.2.a makes 'alone' an own-side measurement - the enemy garrison is irrelevant and your own is the cost, the Calm ENGINE in which OGN-055 Wielder of Water (E3, M2) has +2 Might while it attacks or defends alone and OGN-060 Mask of Foresight (E2 gear) gives +1 this turn to any friendly unit that attacks or defends alone. The entry is right about the definition. 740.2.a counts only your own side, so a body facing a full enemy garrison is still alone, and neither bonus is a buff. Walked as a game, going first, under OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter (whose own +2 goes to a friendly unit defending alone) against a Mind/Order Lux deck that kept two bodies at home to attack your battlefield, the Wielder walked alone into their battlefield on your T3 as a 5 and took it from a 3. The Mask then made both of your lone garrisons too big for their two bodies, and they did not attack until Lux could join them: 5 to 2 after their T4. The same hand with no Mask also ends 5 to 2. The Wielder alone is still a 4 against the Pigeons' 3, and the Sunlit Guardian played onto your battlefield beside Stalwart Poro makes it a 7 with no alone bonus at all. That is the number the Mask and the legend gave the lone Wielder. The same hand with a OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian in place of the Wielder ends 5 to 2 too. A lone Sunlit Guardian is 3 + 1 defending, which is the Wielder's 2 + 2, under any legend, and with the Mask it is 4 on the attack, which also kills a 3. So the T3 Conquer needs one of the two cards, not both, and on this board neither bought a point that a plain body did not. The Wielder is one point better only while it attacks alone, and worse whenever it has company. Played in the entry's order, Mask first on T1, the same cards end 2 to 3 in every line walked, because the Mask takes the turn your first body needed. Their better T2 never attacks at all: they stack their own battlefield, nothing of yours ever fights alone, and it ends 3 to 3 with or without the engine. The cheapest answer to the walked line is SFD-064 Cloth Armor, one ready rune and no Power: on their 3-Might defender it makes the Wielder's attack a 5 against a 5, and both die.
- The Memories kill the lone guard a turn late, and the spare in base walks the point back
Subject: Fading Memories kills a lone garrison before their Scoring Step — it denies the Hold, and the point only when their base holds nothing ready, the Chaos ENGINE in which OGN-180 Fading Memories (E4 + 1 Chaos Power) gives an enemy unit at a battlefield [Temporary], so it dies at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, and OGN-191 Maddened Marauder (E5, M4, [Tank]) moves a unit from a battlefield to its base when he is played. The entry is right about the rules. The kill lands ahead of the Scoring Step, the battlefield loses its controller in the Cleanup after it, and the Hold is gone. Its own fourth step also says what decides the point: a ready body in their base. Walked as a game, going first, against a Calm/Body Master Yi deck, the whole plan of which is one body defending alone, that body is always there. The Memories went on their lone OGN-055 Wielder of Water on your T3, it died before their scoring, and their OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian walked out of base into the empty battlefield and took the same point by Conquer: 2 to 2 after their T3. The honest control is the same slot spent on UNL-186 Death from Below, the Pyke Signature at the Memories' exact cost. It kills now, the battlefield opens on your own turn, and Pyke, who has [Ganking], walks in: 3 to 2. On your T4 it comes back from the trash for one rune, and the Marauder sends your own Legion Rearguard home so it can walk into the battlefield that emptied: 5 to 3 after their T4. OGS-003 Incinerate does the same for two runes, because the Wielder's +2s are combat-only and it is a 2 on your turn, and also ends 5 to 3, against 4 to 3 for the Memories and the Marauder. So landing before their scoring is not an advantage over a kill in your own Main Phase. It is the same denial a turn later, after their base has readied, and the trigger hands them the first priority of their turn with every rune ready. The card's real property is elsewhere. It is the only mono-Chaos card that kills or banishes an enemy unit you choose with no Might condition (damage does not count), and 14 of the 16 Chaos legends have no other card that does. Nothing in Calm/Body saves the Wielder once the Memories resolve: a recall keeps [Temporary] on it. The cheapest answer to the point is no card at all, a ready body in base. The cheapest cards that save the unit tie, OGN-045 Defy and UNL-106 Repulse: each is one ready rune and one rune recycled (Calm for Defy, Body for Repulse), held on your turn.
- The Guard's pair has to walk out of base, and one answer is not enough to stop the Keeper's discount
Subject: Royal Guard lands as exactly two bodies, which is exactly what Keeper of Law's discount reads — E5 + 1 Power becomes E3 and nothing, the Order ENGINE in which SFD-157 Royal Guard arrives as two bodies and VEN-119 Keeper of Law costs E3 and no Power, instead of E5 + 1 Order Power, while you control a battlefield with exactly two units there. The entry is right about the discount and about when it is read: the Keeper is on the chain when its cost is determined, so the count is the board's, not his. Its first step cannot be done. A battlefield you control always has a unit of yours on it (190.4.c), so the Guard played there makes three, never two. The pair is made in base and has to walk. Walked as a game, going first, against a Fury/Chaos Draven deck, the pair walked into the battlefield they had left empty on T3, the Keeper came down for three runes, and the three runes it saved put OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian beside the pair. Their two bodies could not take that battlefield back: 2 to 2 after their T3, 3 to 3 after their T4. The same six runes spent without the Keeper, on the Guardian and SFD-159 Trusty Ramhound, hold that battlefield too and score the same. So the discount does not buy the battlefield; it buys the Keeper's 5-Might body on T3 on top of holding it. The line that insists on the Keeper at full price, five runes with one of them recycled, leaves the pair alone: they take the battlefield on their T3, and it is 3 to 4 after their T4. The cheapest card that touches the line by Energy, and the only one-rune card among them that needs no Power, is OGN-169 Gust: it returns the Sand Soldier in the showdown, and the Guardian played to the same battlefield first puts the count back at two for the same six runes. What stops the discount is a card that removes both bodies. OGN-029 Falling Star does it on their T2, in your base, for two runes and two Fury Power. The pair is not the only way to two, either: two 2-drops at your battlefield get the same T3 without the Guard.
- The Captain's draw is never a card behind his buff, and a two-drop played first is what turns the Initiate on
Subject: The Captain's buff mode is what turns the Initiate's draw on a turn earlier, the Body ENGINE in which SFD-091 Buhru Captain (E3 + 1 Body Power, M3) may "draw 1 or buff me", and UNL-097 Kinkou Initiate (E3, M3) draws when your other units total Might 5 or more. The entry is right that the Initiate's threshold is read when its trigger resolves, so a body played earlier the same turn counts. It is wrong about what the Captain's buff buys. Call S the Might of your other units besides those two. The draw mode gives one card, plus the Initiate's when S is 2 or more; the buff mode gives the Initiate's card when S is 1 or more. So the buff never draws more than the draw does. It ties only at S = 1, where it gives the same one card plus a permanent +1 Might, and that card is the one an answer can still take. Walked as a game, going first, against a Mind/Order Viktor deck that killed the Captain's partner on its T2, the Captain took the draw on T2. On T3 OGN-136 Pit Rookie, the card he drew, went down first and buffed him, and the Initiate drew at 7: 3 to 3 after their T4, with two cards in hand and no rune idle. The honest control is the same deck with two vanilla 3-drops in the pair's slots. It ends 3 to 3 with an empty hand and one rune idle. The entry's own advice, the buff on T2, ends 3 to 3 with one card, one card fewer than the draw, though its extra Might is what refuses their best trade. The cheapest answer costs one ready rune and no Power: VEN-061 Decree of Insight, on the Captain, in response to the Initiate's trigger, takes the 7 to 3.
- Onslaught and the Duel beat an ambushed Vilemaw only together, and the second spell is what Crumbling Sands counters
Subject: The mutual-damage family's ceiling is whatever you pumped first - and Onslaught pays that twice from one card, the Body ENGINE in which VEN-081 Onslaught (E4, +6 Might this turn, [Flow] E4) is played in your Main Phase on the body that will fight, and OGS-008 Gentlemen's Duel (E6 + 1 Body Power, [Action]) adds its own +3 and makes that body and an enemy unit deal damage equal to their Mights to each other. The entry is right about the mechanism: the exchange is dealt by the units (417.6.b.3) and is never combat damage (417.6.c), so no [Tank] orders it, and the arithmetic has no cap. It is right that Onslaught has no timing keyword and must be committed in the Main Phase, before the fight. It is wrong about the domain: OGN-154 Primal Strength is a bigger pump (+7) at [Action] speed, and VEN-083 Rampage also pumps and fights with one card. Walked as a game, going first, with Keeper of the Hammer against a Calm/Order Eye of Twilight deck that held nine runes on its T4 and ambushed UNL-060 Vilemaw (M8) into the T5 attack, the engine is the only line that takes their battlefield: Onslaught makes Poppy an 11 that Vilemaw cannot silence, the Duel makes her a 14 that kills Vilemaw and survives, and the attack conquers: 5 to 3 after their T5. The Duel alone trades Poppy for Vilemaw and the attack fails; Onslaught alone leaves Vilemaw standing; both end 4 to 4. The cheapest answer to the engine costs one rune, and it fits beside Vilemaw in their nine: OGN-045 Defy counters Onslaught in the Main Phase, and VEN-039 Crumbling Sands counters the Duel in the combat, because Onslaught was "another spell this turn".
- Nidalee draws only behind an attack of eight or less, and the card is the smallest thing the ambush wins
Subject: 466.3.a is stricter than Nidalee's own reminder text - she draws only when your side is the ONLY side left, the Body ENGINE in which UNL-114 Nidalee, Cat Form (E3 + 1 Body Power, M4) is played with [Ambush] into a combat beside UNL-099 Towering Combatant (E4, M3, [Shield 2], [Tank]) and draws a card when her side wins it. The entry is right about the rule it is named for: 466.3.a makes a win mean being the only player with units left, so a defence the attackers survive is No Result and draws nothing. It is right that [Shield] makes the Combatant a 5 exactly when it defends. It is wrong that the Combatant "forces every point onto itself": [Tank] demands lethal damage first, and 465.2.c.4 stops the assignment there, so the Combatant soaks exactly 5 and the rest goes to Nidalee. She survives an attack of 8 or less, and the two of them die to 9. That gives the line a closed form the entry does not state. Against an attack of 8 or less with no tricks, the defence's 9 always clears the attackers, so Nidalee survives exactly when she draws. Walked as a game, going first, against a Fury/Chaos Draven deck whose own legend draws when it wins a combat, they attacked the Combatant with 7 on their T3. The ambush killed both attackers and drew a card: 4 to 3 after their T4. Played face-up on your own T3, the same Nidalee deters the same attack and draws nothing: 3 to 3. Without her, the best use of the same three runes is OGN-217 Trifarian Gloryseeker, buffed, beside the Combatant. That makes A an 8 on defence, which deters the same attack: 3 to 3 again. So what the ambush buys over an honest defence is one point, two of their units and a card. The card is the smallest of the three, and it is the most fragile. The attacker gets Focus back after Nidalee resolves (347.1.b), and the cheapest cards that break the line cost one rune and no Power. OGN-169 Gust returns the Combatant before the attack, while it is still a printed 3. OGN-004 Cleave in the combat makes the attack 10.
- Galio alone deals no combat damage, so the Snapvine beats him by killing his partners and never by choosing him
Subject: Challenge damage is UNIT damage, so it walks past a [Tank] wall and past a spell-damage fog alike, the Body ENGINE in which OGN-149 Carnivorous Snapvine lands and trades damage with an enemy unit at a battlefield, and VEN-083 Rampage pumps a friendly body by 2 and does the same again. The entry is right about the rule it stands on: the damage is dealt by the two units, not by the card (417.6.b.3), so it is never assigned in a combat damage step and a [Tank] orders none of it. It is also right that this matters against UNL-171 Galio, Indefatigable, the Order Tank whose Might is a toll, but not in the way it says. Galio's "I don't deal combat damage." is about combat damage, so in an exchange he deals his full 6: the Snapvine's 6 against Galio's 6 kills both, and choosing him costs a third Power for his [Deflect]. Walked as a game, going first, against a Calm/Order Shen deck that put Galio at its battlefield on T2, the Snapvine went the other way. On T3 it killed OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian beside him. On T4 a paid Rampage killed VEN-118 Horns of the Dragon, the Tank they had added, and the Snapvine walked into Galio alone, who dealt it nothing and died: 4 to 2 after their T4. That score is not the Snapvine's on T3: the same hand holding the Snapvine and Rampage for T4 reaches 4 to 2 too, with Rampage on Lucian, Merciless and the Snapvine trading with Horns. What the T3 Snapvine buys is a 6-Might body that survives and a card kept. Choosing Galio on T3 trades the Snapvine, five runes with three recycled, for Galio, three runes with one recycled. The cheapest break costs them one rune on their T2 and none on your T4: a card hidden at B, such as OGN-057 Block, which makes Galio a 9 as a defender, so the Snapvine's 8 does not kill him. Without a hidden card, it takes two ready runes on your T4: OGN-058 Discipline (Calm, E2, no Power) on the Rampage's target makes the exchange 8 against 8, and both bodies die.
- The Heirloom took B from a three and kept Jinx off it, then went home when its carrier died
Subject: Shepherd's Heirloom is the only Equipment in the pool whose attach costs neither Energy nor Power — and it hands you the XP it spends, the Order ENGINE in which UNL-158 Shepherd's Heirloom (E2, M+2) pays its own [Equip] with the XP its play trigger gives, and UNL-162 Enthralling Protector's [Hunt] is the XP faucet behind it. The entry is right about the arithmetic: the first attach costs no Energy, no Power and, net, no XP. In a game, one Heirloom on a 2-Might Protector made a 4. On your T2 the 4 took their battlefield from SFD-006 Eager Drakehound, a 3, and cost them the Hold. On their T3 it kept OGN-030 Jinx, Demolitionist's Assault off that battlefield. It did not stop their T4. They could bring 13 Might, stopping a Conquer on both battlefields would need 26, and the most you could stand was 24. They took the Protector's battlefield, and the Heirloom went back to your base for a 1-XP re-equip. 5 to 3 after their T4. The cheapest answer is one rune on the turn they first face it: nine cards in their colours. Five of them need no Power, among them OGN-004 Cleave, a one-Energy Assault 3 that the Heirloom cannot answer inside the combat.
- Annie's +1 kills the 5-Might body that 2 + 2 cannot, and that is a battlefield
Subject: Bonus Damage is paid per Deal action, so the pool's multi-target spells are its only real payoff — twelve damage from one card, the Fury ENGINE in which OGS-001 Annie, Fiery raises every Deal action of your spells by 1, and SFD-023 Piercing Light with its [Repeat] paid performs four of them: twelve damage for 4 Energy and 2 Fury Power. The entry is right about the rules. 715.2 pays the Bonus Damage per Deal action, and the four Deals of 3 are real. Walked as a game, going first, against a Body/Order Garen deck, the line did its job on T4. It killed their Chosen Champion OGS-013 Garen, Commander and the two 3-drops his aura had made 4s, and your Shipyard Skulker took the battlefield they had held for two turns. That is 4 to 2 after your T4 and 4 to 3 after theirs. The same spell without Annie kills two 4s and leaves Garen standing. Their better T3 is OGS-016 Vanguard Attendant into your battlefield instead of Garen. Then the spell kills the Attendant (5 Might, 3 + 3) and two 3-drops, and you take both battlefields: 4 to 3 after your T4. Without Annie the Attendant lives. Casting the spell on T3, before Annie, takes their battlefield a turn earlier, but the Attendant takes yours back: 4 to 3 after their T4 again, with their Attendant still holding your battlefield and Garen still in their Champion Zone. The entry's order is not slower; it kills more. The cheapest answer costs them one ready rune and no Power: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades, in the Skulker's combat, and B ends empty instead of yours. For one Body Power more, OGN-145 Unyielding Spirit prevents all twelve.
- Yuumi's grant is the +3, and one Flurry takes both
Subject: Granting [Tank] to somebody ELSE is what keeps the body that only pays when it takes no damage, the Calm ENGINE in which UNL-056 Yuumi, Magical Cat gives a third body +3 Might and [Tank] when she attacks or defends, so that the opponent's combat damage cannot reach VEN-024 Affectionate Poro, which draws a card when a combat it was in ends and it has taken no damage that turn. Walked as a game, the engine held. On your T4 Yuumi, a Sunlit Guardian and the Poro attacked a battlefield held by two bodies summing 5. The grant made the Guardian a 6, all 5 went on it, nothing of yours died, and the Poro drew. Without Yuumi the same attack loses the Guardian and the card. Two things the entry does not walk decide the line. The third body in the walk is a printed [Tank], which the entry's sixth notable says wants the grant "elsewhere or not at all"; on this board elsewhere is the Poro, and the +3 on the Guardian is the whole effect. And the answer the entry names, OGN-133 Flurry of Blades, does more than it says: cast in response to Yuumi's trigger, it kills her before the grant resolves, the grant then has no "here" to read, and the attack that should have drawn a card loses all three bodies.
- Undying Loyalty rebuilds the tags for one rune, and the one card it cannot rebuild is Ivern
Subject: Starhound and Undying Loyalty — the four-tag board rebuilt for one Power a card, the mono-Order ENGINE in which UNL-168 Undying Loyalty plays a Bird, Cat, Dog or Poro from your trash for 1 Order Power and UNL-167 Starhound returns one to your hand, so the four tags that UNL-177 Ivern, Friend to All reads come back after the bodies die. Walked as a game, the recursion paid, but not with Ivern's point. On T3 and T4 two Undying Loyalty, one rune each, put a Bird and a Poro back, and with Starhound as the Dog, Ivern's T4 conquer found all four tags: +2. The same hand scores that +2 without the spells, because Ivern then chooses Bird and the Feline brings the Cat from base. What the spells bought was where the Feline stands. With the Bird back from the trash Ivern could be the Cat, so the Feline went to G after the conquer and held it on their T4: 4 to 4, where the hand without them ends at 4 to 5. On their T4 one Energy of OGN-004 Cleave on an attacker killed Ivern, and neither half of the recursion can bring him back: he costs E6, and in the trash he has no Bird, Cat, Dog or Poro tag. The entry is right about the cost and the ceiling. It is wrong that the recursion carries the condition through a sweeper, because Undying Loyalty is cast only in your Main Phase, after your Hold. The cheapest break is the payoff, not the tags, and it costs one rune: OGN-009 Hextech Ray or UNL-134 Existential Dread in Ivern's own T4 attack stops the Conquer and the trigger.
- The Warden keeps their battlefield small, and the Saboteur deletes one hidden card until a Gust
Subject: Mageseeker Warden strands their face-down hidden units and Noxus Saboteur switches off the other hidden cards in the one combat where they would fire, the Calm/Fury ENGINE in which OGN-070 Mageseeker Warden leaves the opponent's hidden units face down for good and OGN-018 Noxus Saboteur switches off their other hidden cards in the one combat where they would fire. Walked as a game, the lock was one card: the single card in the facedown zone of the one battlefield they control. The Saboteur walked into it on T4 with no window for them to answer, their hidden SFD-070 Wages of Pain stayed face down through the combat, and when the attack took the battlefield the card was removed unplayed: 4 to 2. The Warden's hidden-unit clause did nothing, because they hid a spell. What the Warden did was the other half of the same sentence: their T3 bodies could not be played straight to their battlefield, so it was a 7 instead of a 12 when the attack came. Four one-rune spells in their colours break that combat. The one that matters for the lock is OGN-169 Gust from hand, on the Saboteur in the showdown: with him gone, the hidden card is live again in the same showdown.
- The second burn buys Anivia's life, not a kill, and Level 11 only hides her for a turn
Subject: Svellsongur on Anivia — the attack burns the battlefield for six instead of three, the Calm/Body ENGINE in which SFD-059 Svellsongur copies OGN-148 Anivia, Primal's "When I attack, deal 3 to all enemy units here", so one attack sweeps the battlefield for 6, and UNL-191 Wuju Master's Level 11 lets her attack the turn she lands. Walked as a game going first, the sweep came on T5 and killed a seven-body garrison. The first sweep and her own 9 Might would have killed all seven anyway. What the second sweep bought was that no defender was left for the damage step, so she lived and conquered. Level 11 was live on T5, but it did not make the attack earlier. Landed on T4 without it, she is ready on T5 too. What it bought is that she was never on the board during their turn. The entry prices the line at 9 Energy and 2 Power, and its own addends make 11 and 4. The cheapest break needs no card: a body kept in base on their T2 trades into the Hunt bodies on their T3, and Level 11 misses T5. The cheapest answer to Anivia herself is one rune: OGN-213 Hidden Blade hidden at the battlefield she attacks kills her with both sweeps on the chain, and the sweeps then have no "here".
- The second Bonds is the +1 Jae lives on, and Falling Star kills him the turn before
Subject: Only a [Repeat] pays Jae twice from one casting — a spell that chooses TWO friendly units cannot choose him twice, the Order/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-151 Bonds of Strength with its [Repeat] paid chooses SFD-142 Jae Medarda in both executions, so one card draws two. The entry is right about the two draws, and they resolve before anything else on the chain. In a game the draws were the half that did not decide anything. The +1 Mights did. On T4 Jae walked into a 6 at B, and the two +1s made him a 7: he killed both defenders, took 6 and lived, and Conquered. That is 4 to 2. With the [Repeat] not paid, he is a 6 against 6: all three die, B is left empty, and it is 3 to 2 with one card drawn and no Jae. The cheapest answer comes a turn earlier. Going first, Jae lands on T3 with one rune left, and on their T3 OGN-029 Falling Star deals 3 and 3 to him in your base for two runes, before he draws once. Over Fury/Mind it is the cheapest single card that kills a 5 in a base. The only other one at six runes or less is OGN-105 Singularity, at all six of theirs, and it takes a second unit with him.
- The ready only pays when Jinx is spent, and in a Duel switching battlefields costs a card
Subject: Jinx, Rebel counts discard EVENTS, not cards, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which OGN-202 Jinx, Rebel readies and gains +1 Might for every discard event, fed by OGN-003 Chemtech Enforcer. The entry is right that the trigger counts events, not cards. In a game, the ready was worth something only when Jinx was already exhausted. That happened twice. On T3 she was played exhausted, and a free discard let her walk into the battlefield they had just taken: their three units died, you took it back, and it was 2 to 1, their next board starting from base. On T4 she had already moved, and a discard made base to B a second legal move: 4 to 1. The other two discards readied a Jinx who was already ready, which does nothing (415.1.c). One of their +1s won the T3 combat; the other came with no combat left. The entry's own line, three Enforcers in one turn, needs six cards in hand: an Enforcer with an empty hand discards nothing, so no event fires (422.4). The two discards that paid in this walk cost no Energy: VEN-007 Punching Poro's Empower and OGN-023 Unlicensed Armory. The cheapest answer in their colours is a hidden OGN-220 Facebreaker or OGN-213 Hidden Blade at the battlefield she attacks, one rune on the turn before.
- The Poro dies where he has to stand, and the Dredgers alone cast Ledros a turn sooner
Subject: Commander Ledros fed on free Birds — an 8-Might body for six Energy and no Power, the Order ENGINE in which UNL-160 Ultrasoft Poro makes two Bird tokens a turn and UNL-153 Carrion Dredger hands a Bird back when it dies, so that OGN-231 Commander Ledros can kill four friendly bodies as he is played and cost 6 Energy and no Power. Walked as a game, the Poro never made a Bird. He has to stand at a battlefield to use his ability, he enters exhausted, and on the opponent's next turn two bodies they had played on their T2 walked in and killed him. Ledros still landed on T4, for 6 Energy and 2 Order Power, killing the two Birds the Dredgers left behind. The Dredgers alone put the same Ledros down on T3, a turn sooner, for the same 2 Power. The entry's refutation is the wrong card: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades reaches only battlefields, and the line's Birds stand in base.
- The Mother's +2 kept the attacker alive, and one rune answers the Strike eight ways
Subject: Ruthless Strike pays twice for one Mask Mother — +2 damage from the spell and +2 Might from the trash, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which VEN-008 Ruthless Strike is paid for by discarding VEN-094 Mask Mother, so one Strike deals 5 instead of 3 and her trigger gives a friendly unit +2 Might for one more Energy. The entry is right about the order: her trigger resolves before the Strike, and the two never contend. In a game the 5 damage was the half any discard buys. The +2 was the half only she buys, and it paid as a body, not as damage. On T3 the Strike killed one of two 4-Might defenders, and the +2 let a 3-Might OGN-175 Shipyard Skulker take the other's 4 and live: 2 to 1, a Conquer, and SFD-185 Glorious Executioner drew back a card. Discarding a dead card instead, the Skulker dies and they keep the battlefield. Paying for the same +2 with a second attacker (Accelerate) also wins the fight, but it leaves no unit in base, and the walk's T4 Conquer of the other battlefield is gone: 3 to 2 against 2 to 2. The cheapest answer in their colours is one rune held up on their T2: eight cards at one rune stop the T3 Conquer, VEN-040 Decree of Focus the plainest of them, because it answers exactly a Fury spell.
- The Gardens buy Level 6 a turn early, and a ready attacker on their T2 takes them first
Subject: Gardens of Becoming is the pool's only free exhaust sink — one XP per body per turn, and at Level 11 the units arrive ready to pay it, the Calm/Body ENGINE in which UNL-213 Gardens of Becoming gives every unit standing there an exhaust for 1 XP, UNL-191 Wuju Master turns 6 XP into +1 Might for all your units and 11 XP into units that enter ready, and UNL-109 Blood Rose adds 1 XP for 1 Energy per unit played. Walked as a game, the faucet paid exactly where it mattered. On your T3 the Gardens' 2 XP made Level 6 live, your four bodies became a 15 the opponent could not attack, and without those 2 XP they were a 9 that their T3 board takes. Level 11 arrived on T4 and bought one more XP, not the attack. The entry overstates two things. The faucet does not start a turn late for every body: from the second one on, you play it straight to the Gardens. And the [Hunt] units a Calm/Body deck stands there pay as much XP as the Gardens do. The cheapest break needs no card beyond the walk's own. On their T2, while every body is still a 2, Pridestalker's two triggers make the ready Rearguard a 4, and it empties the Gardens.
- The Fortress killed nothing: their Recruits stayed off it until Darius stood there
Subject: Frozen Fortress sweeps every 1-Might body twice a round, and Soul Shepherd is what makes the sweep one-sided, the Mind ENGINE in which UNL-212 Frozen Fortress deals 1 to every unit on it at the start of each Beginning Phase, and UNL-077 Soul Shepherd gives your token units +1 Might, so your Recruits live through the tick and the opponent's die. The entry is right about the rules: the tick fires in both Beginning Phases, before scoring, and a battlefield left with no units loses its controller. In a game the sweep found nothing to kill. A Recruit deck facing it keeps its 1-Might bodies off the Fortress for free, and when it wants the battlefield, its Chosen Champion OGN-243 Darius, Executioner makes them 2s there, the same fix Shepherd is for you. The tick did one thing in the walk. It put 1 damage on their OGN-217 Trifarian Gloryseeker at the start of your T3, and that let one Shepherd-sized Recruit (2 Might, made for one Energy) trade with it: a token for a card. That moved no point. It is 3 to 3 after their T4 with the trade and without it. The cheapest answer to the trade costs nothing in their colours: OGN-207 Call to Glory, free by spending the Gloryseeker's own buff.
- the Cub is hidden last, and one Energy still answers it
Subject: A hide lasts only for as long as you control the battlefield - so the cheapest body in the domain is what keeps it there, the Body ENGINE in which UNL-111 Determined Sentry holds a battlefield so that an OGN-135 Pakaa Cub hidden there keeps its hide. From the next turn on, the Cub can be played into the opponent's attack for nothing. Walked as a game, every step of the entry that the game reached held. Their two-body attack on the Sentry met a 3-Might Cub hidden for 1 Power on your T2, and the battlefield stayed yours. Two things the entry does not walk decide whether it works. The hide has no [Reaction] on the turn it is made, so it must be the last thing you do that turn. And the cheapest answer for a Fury/Chaos opponent is not the entry's Body sweep but OGN-169 Gust, one Energy at Reaction speed, which returns either piece to hand.
- the Angler Beast opens the battlefield for a body already in base
Subject: Emptying a battlefield opens it, and 344.2 gives the next body a Conquer with no combat — but the Drake cannot open his own landing spot, the Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-132 Angler Beast empties a battlefield garrisoned by bodies of 2 Might or less and VEN-115 Ocean Drake is played onto the open battlefield for a Conquer with no combat. The entry is right that emptying a battlefield opens it, and right that the Drake cannot clear his own landing spot. Walked as a game, the Drake was never needed. The cleanup that strips their Control of the emptied battlefield runs in the same turn as the Beast. Any ready body of yours in base with 3 Might or more then walks in for the Conquer, for no more resources. The entry prices the line at 13 Energy and 3 Power across two turns; the walk took the battlefield for the Beast's 5 Energy and 1 Power, in one turn. Two things the entry does not say made the Beast stronger than it reads: their tokens did not go to hand, they ceased to exist, and the same cleanup put their facedown card in the trash.
- Rell feeds only from base, and the legend does the arithmetic
Subject: Rell attaches by EFFECT, never by [Equip] — so she is the one body that keeps stacking Equipment, and the Purifier turns each of them into summed [Assault], the Fury ENGINE in which SFD-024 Rell, Magnetic plays an Equipment from hand for free each time she attacks and attaches it to herself, and the SFD-183 Purifier legend adds [Assault] for every Equipment on her. The entry is right about the free play and right that 807.2 sums the Assault. Walked as a game, Rell attacked once in five turns. Once she has conquered a battlefield she is parked there: a Standard Move from a battlefield goes only to base (144.4.b). After her conquest there was nothing of theirs to attack, and when they took a battlefield back they did it by attacking her, at Might 4 on defence. Her one free Dirk outlived her: it went to your base, and a Ganking unit carried it, with a second Dirk, to Might 10 for E1 and 2 Fury Power. The Assault 9 the entry promises needs all three Dirks drawn, which is 2.41% by your turn 8.
- One Apprentice brings the banish to turn 4, and the bounce alone was the better board
Subject: Moonlight Affliction into Wind and Ghosts — banish any unit in the pool, permanently, the Mind/Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-066 Moonlight Affliction gives a unit -10 Might and VEN-106 Wind and Ghosts then banishes it instead of bouncing it. The entry prices one use at 10 Energy and 1 Chaos Power. Walked as a game, the printed price is ten runes, which going first is T5 at the earliest. One OGN-084 Eager Apprentice at a battlefield takes one Energy off each spell, and that brings it to T4. On T4 the pair banished their SFD-021 Ferrous Forerunner before its [Deathknell] could fire, and your attack took their battlefield: 4 to 2 after their T4. Killing it instead with the Affliction alone left them two Mech tokens that retook the battlefield: 4 to 3. Bouncing it with Wind and Ghosts alone also ended 4 to 2, cost six Energy less, and put six more Might of yours on the board. What the Affliction bought over the bounce is cards, not points: their Forerunner gone for good, and one card drawn by the legend. The cheapest break is one rune, and twelve cards do it. UNL-173 Sacrifice, in response to the Affliction, kills the Forerunner while it is still Mighty and turns the banish into the Deathknell it was meant to deny. Any of nine cards hidden at B the turn before plays for nothing into your attack and keeps B: 3 to 2. So do OGN-009 Hextech Ray and UNL-014 Monster Harpoon, from hand in the combat. The pair spends all eight runes, so you can answer none of them.
- Mel's three banishes thin a battlefield nothing of yours can reach
Subject: Mel's Empower costs a spell, not Energy — Sanction re-fires the banish three more times, the Calm/Chaos ENGINE in which VEN-110 Mel, Defiant Soul banishes an enemy unit of 3 Might or less each time she becomes [Empowered], her own [Empower] costs a discarded spell, and each VEN-035 Sanction in mode two disempowers her now and Empowers her again at end of turn. The entry counts four permanent banishes a game. Walked as a game, going first, Mel lands on T3 and banishes three times by the end of your T4: her own [Empower] on T3, then two Sanctions in mode two on T4, one followed by her [Empower] again (a banish now) and one left to end of turn. All three came off their battlefield, B, and none scored. Nothing of yours could reach B: your two units stood at G, Mel entered exhausted, and without [Ganking] a unit on a battlefield moves only to its base (144.4.b). B went from 11 to 6 by the end of your T4 and was a 14 after their T4: 3 to 3, the same score with or without the banishes. The banishes score only if their bodies stay off B. With their T3 bodies at base, two banishes leave the Diplomat alone there, Mel walks in herself, and it is 4 to 2 after your T4. That Conquer breaks for the one rune they have left on their T3: 9 cards do it, 3 from hand and 6 hidden at B.
- Fortified Position holds the battlefield, and one Flurry before the attack takes it
Subject: 814.1.d.1 ties Shield to the Defender designation, which is why Fortified Position's 'this combat' is the pool's exactly-right duration on a 2-Energy Tank, the Calm ENGINE in which OGN-279 Fortified Position grants [Shield 2] for a combat, and UNL-036 Mutated Mouser, a 1-Might body with printed [Shield 2] and [Tank], defends as a 5 when the grant goes on it. Walked as a game, the wall held. On their T3 two attackers with 5 Might between them hit two Mousers. The grant was the difference between keeping the battlefield and an empty one: with it they lost both attackers and you kept a Mouser and the battlefield. The entry's own answer clause gets the timing wrong. OGN-133 Flurry of Blades cannot kill a Mouser "in response to the very trigger this engine exists to fire". By then the Mouser is a defender and a 3. It kills them in the opponent's Main Phase, before the attack, when every Mouser is a 1. Cast there, one Energy takes both Mousers and the battlefield.
- Flash keeps the bodies, and both battlefields go with them
Subject: 381 and 813.1.c.1 split movement into your turn and theirs — and a base is the one place an "all units at battlefields" effect cannot reach, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-007 Gem Jammer gives a unit [Ganking] for one battlefield-to-battlefield trip on your turn, and OGS-011 Flash, a [Reaction], pulls two units back to base on theirs, out of reach of OGN-133 Flurry of Blades. Walked as a game, both halves worked. On your T3 the Jammer's grant sent a unit from your battlefield into theirs, and you conquered it while still holding yours. On their T3 Flash took both your units off the board before the Flurry resolved, and both survived. Two things the entry does not walk decide the line. The Ganking trip empties the battlefield it leaves, and only a second unit already standing there when the trip leaves keeps it. And Flash pulled one unit from each battlefield, so it gave up both battlefields, not one. They walked into an empty one and conquered it.
- Darius is an eight only where they attack, and his ready pays on your turn
Subject: Thrill of the Hunt on the opponent's turn is your first card, and the unit it replays is your second, the Fury/Body ENGINE in which UNL-184 Thrill of the Hunt, played on the opponent's turn, is your first card and the unit it replays is your second, so OGN-027 Darius, Trifarian readies and takes +2 Might, and UNL-183 Pridestalker adds +1: an 8 in the middle of their turn. Walked as a game, the trick paid where the opponent attacked Darius. On their T4 four bodies walked into his battlefield, and the 8 plus the replayed body killed all four. Darius's +2 was the margin between that battlefield going uncontrolled and the opponent conquering it. The ready paid nothing on their turn. It paid on yours, on T4, where two cheap units (not Thrill) readied Darius after he walked home, and he walked again as a 9. The entry is right about the count and the 8. It is wrong that the ready makes him available on their turn, and it never says the 8 lives at one battlefield. The cheapest break is the attack on the other battlefield: no card, no rune.
- Ava's free body lands only while she is still standing there
Subject: Ava Achiever is the SECOND route into the battlefield you are attacking — and she puts a different card there, free, after the defender has committed, the Fury/Mind ENGINE in which OGN-107 Ava Achiever attacks, pays one Mind Power, and puts UNL-003 Mischievous Marai from hand into the battlefield she is attacking, ignoring its cost, where its own trigger deals 2 to an enemy unit. The entry is right on every step it walks: the Marai lands at the attacked battlefield, its 2 damage kills a 2-Might defender before combat damage, and it joins the attack. Walked as a game, it won the battlefield. The finding is the one step the entry does not walk: the trigger can be answered. "Here" is read when the trigger resolves (359.3.f.2), and between the attack and that moment the defender may play a [Reaction]. A facedown card at the battlefield is one, and from facedown OGN-213 Hidden Blade kills Ava there before the Marai can land. From a Mind/Order hand, nothing can.
- Akali's Shroud goes on before she moves, and on their turn she is a plain 4
Subject: 'Can't be chosen' is a prohibition and [Deflect] is a tax - and Akali's is switched off by the one thing that usually protects a body, the Calm ENGINE in which VEN-038 Akali, Silent, who cannot be chosen by enemy spells and abilities while she is out of combat, is covered for the combat itself by VEN-031 Twilight Shroud. Walked as a game, the protection held: on your T4 Akali attacked at Might 7 into a Fury/Chaos opponent holding VEN-015 Decree of Rage, they could not cast it on her, and she conquered. Two things the entry does not walk decide the line. Its step order cannot be played: the steps move Akali first and then cast the Shroud "before the combat opens", but a move into an occupied battlefield opens the combat in the cleanups that follow it, and the Shroud has no keyword that lets it into that window. The Shroud goes on before the move. And the entry never walks Akali on defence. On their turn she is a 4 in combat, and the Shroud cannot be cast there, so Decree of Rage, one Energy and one Fury, kills her and takes the battlefield back.
- Vex taxes only the answers cast inside her fight
Subject: Vex swings spell costs by two in both directions, and 155 is why only an [Action] can use the window, the Chaos/Fury ENGINE in which SFD-146 Vex, Cheerless takes one Energy and one Power off every friendly spell while she is in combat, adds the same to every enemy spell, and OGN-024 Void Seeker is the [Action] that uses the window. The entry is right about the arithmetic: Void Seeker drops from E3 + 1 Fury to E2, and the floor of one Energy never binds it. Walked as a game, the window is narrower than the entry's steps make it. Played to a battlefield you control she can only defend, so she goes to base and attacks a turn later. Combat damage comes only after the Showdown closes, so killing her in combat does not switch the discount off while spells are still being cast. And the tax reaches only an [Action] or [Reaction] cast inside her fight. Their main-phase removal is never taxed. In the walk the tax turned their facedown Hidden Blade from free into one Energy and one Power, and they had both.
- the Valley's buff is the legend's, until two bodies need one in a turn
Subject: Valley of Idols buffs the whole garrison as each body lands, which is how the pool's two 'While I'm buffed' statics come online the same turn, the Calm/Body ENGINE that plays OGN-065 Wizened Elder and OGN-125 Bilgewater Bully to UNL-218 Valley of Idols and pays one Energy to buff each as it lands, so the Elder is Might 6 and the Bully has [Ganking] the turn they are played. The entry is right about the arithmetic. Walked as a game under OGN-257 Blind Monk, one of the legends it lists, the Valley's buff is the one the legend places for the same Energy on any turn only one of your units needs a buff. It adds a buff only on a turn two or more of your units need one, whether played that turn or already on the board unbuffed, and one unit played there is enough: two buffs in four turns here. The buffs it placed changed which removal spell the opponent used, never whether one could be used, and the Bully died to OGN-213 Hidden Blade before his [Ganking] could move him. And the Valley is on the table in one Duel in three.
- the save draws its card, and the runes held for it cost the battlefield
Subject: Tactical Retreat saves a body and the Spirit Wheel draws for it — and the recall is the trap, not the save, the Chaos/Order ENGINE in which UNL-175 Tactical Retreat, played on the opponent's turn, chooses a friendly unit that is about to die, and SFD-144 Spirit Wheel draws a card for the choice. The entry is right about the rules: the spell is legal in the opponent's Closed State, the Wheel's trigger goes on the Chain above it and draws first, and the unit comes home healed and exhausted instead of dying. Walked as a game, the save works on T3: their Hextech Ray kills nothing and you draw. But the three runes held for it on T3 are half your runes, and they were the body that kept A. Seven Might walks into a battlefield of five and takes it. The recall itself cost nothing, because a dead unit leaves the battlefield too. The holding cost the point.
- the Repeat counters only into two or three spare Energy
Subject: Two runes handed back is exactly the base cost and not a penny more — so the [Repeat] that doubles the tax is the deck's problem, not the legend's, the Chaos ENGINE in which OGS-017 Dark Child - Starter readies two runes at the end of your turn and SFD-136 Hard Bargain spends them on the opponent's turn, with its [Repeat] paid out of two more runes you chose not to spend. The entry is right that the legend pays the base cost and nothing more, and right to call the card a tax and not a counterspell. Walked as a game, the Repeat has a narrow and readable job: against one spell it turns the tax into a counter only when the opponent has exactly two or three Energy left, and both executions are fixed when you cast it, so you choose it with their ready runes in view. An opponent who casts the spell first, with four ready, pays and loses nothing but tempo.
- the Library's buff lands before their removal resolves
Subject: Forgotten Library is Karma's only repeatable trigger that costs no card and no deck slot — and 'spent' is what a discount switches off, the Order ENGINE in which UNL-211 Forgotten Library gives a [Predict] for every spell that spends four Energy, and recycling the card fires OGN-235 Karma, Channeler for a +1 buff. The entry is right about the arithmetic: one buff per qualifying spell, capped by the unbuffed bodies. It names no spell. Walked as a game, the Library fires on any turn you play a spell, and a Calm/Order deck's cheapest way to spend four is a [Reaction]: SFD-151 Bonds of Strength with its [Repeat]. Cast in answer to their removal, the buff resolves before the removal does, and on their T4 it is the one point of Might that keeps a body alive. The battlefield the entry calls free is in play in one Duel game in three.
- Repulse pays for itself, and the next spell kills Jae
Subject: Repulse counters the removal aimed at Jae and he draws the card that pays for it, the Body/Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-106 Repulse chooses SFD-142 Jae Medarda to counter an enemy removal spell aimed at him, and Jae's "When you choose me with a spell, draw 1" replaces the Repulse. The entry is right about the rules: Repulse is your spell choosing Jae, so his trigger fires, goes on the chain above Repulse and resolves first. The enemy spell choosing him draws nothing, because it is not you choosing him. Walked as a game, Jae comes down on T3 at your battlefield, their OGN-229 Vengeance on their T3 is countered for one Energy and one rune off your board, and you are a card up. On their T4 a OGN-085 Falling Comet kills him, and there is no second Repulse. The clause that lets Repulse protect him, "at a battlefield", is the clause that put him in reach of the Comet. Holding the counter costs one ready rune, not the two the entry asks for.
- Jhin is in every game, and the Library in one in three
Subject: One 4-Energy spell turns on both halves of the 'if you spent' family — a free [Predict] and a 4-Energy body for one Power, the Mind ENGINE in which one spell that spends four Energy arms both halves of the "if you spent" family: UNL-211 Forgotten Library gives a free [Predict], and UNL-089 Jhin, Meticulous Killer comes down for one Mind Power. The entry is right about the word spent, and the play shows it twice over: Jhin's own domain carries the discount that switches both halves off, and Iterative Design's own [Flow] is a spend of two. Walked as a game, the T3 is real: Deadly Flourish, Jhin and a 2-drop on six runes, a 4-Might body for one rune. Two things the entry does not price come out of it. The Library is in play in one Duel game in three, and Jhin never needed it. And the two Predicts are one look at one card unless the first one recycles.
- eight instances, and one body left to buff
Subject: Eight instances of a draw that says 'you may' — the one Svellsongur stack that cannot Burn Out, and eight buffs on eight different bodies, the Calm ENGINE that puts three SFD-059 Svellsongur on UNL-051 Ivern, Nurturer for eight instances of his Hold trigger: every Hold looks at 24 cards, draws as many units as you like and places up to eight buffs. The entry is right that the trigger survives being multiplied, because every clause in it is optional. Walked as a game, the eight instances arrive at the start of T6, and by then the board holds one unbuffed body and the runes pay for three of the units drawn. A buff cannot reach a unit drawn by the same Hold, and a buffed unit cannot take a second one, so each Hold buffs at most the unbuffed bodies on the board when it resolves. Against an opponent removing a body a turn, four instances already cover that. The third Svellsongur costs the three bodies that would have used the buffs.
- two stuns make the Herald nine, and all six attackers die
Subject: Thwonk!'s [Repeat] is two stuns and two Eclipse Herald triggers — the opposite use of the same keyword, the mono-Calm ENGINE in which SFD-040 Thwonk! with its [Repeat] stuns two attackers inside the opponent's Combat Showdown, and OGN-059 Eclipse Herald takes +1 for each stun. The entry is right about the rules: two executions, two stuns, two triggers, and the ready does nothing. Walked as a game, the Herald comes down on T4, and under VEN-145 Curator of the Sands his own cost readies two runes, so the full line is live from their T5. On their T5 they attacked A with eighteen against seventeen. The stuns took their two Monks out of the sum, the Herald defended at 9, and all six attackers died. They killed the Herald with what was left. The stuns are Thwonk!'s, and the Herald's share is the +2, which in the walk was worth one body on each side. What breaks it is SFD-136 Hard Bargain, two runes, against four runes held and no more.
- Time Warp comes a turn early, and a one-rune counter takes it
Subject: 738 inserts every Additional Turn immediately after the current one, so the LAST created is taken FIRST - and Riot's own worked example is Promising Future handing out Time Warps, the Mind ENGINE in which OGN-115 Promising Future digs five cards deep and plays OGN-122 Time Warp from among them without its ten Energy, so the extra turn costs five Energy and five Mind Power. The entry is right about the discount and right that Riot worked this exact pair at 738. Walked as a game, the discount moves the extra turn from T5 to T4 for one more rune off the board, and in the walk that turn is worth one point, a card and a Main Phase. Two things go wrong. Every Promising Future hands the opponent their best card of five first, for nothing. And Time Warp is always the second spell of your turn, so a one-rune counter that wants exactly that takes it after all five runes are gone. The entry also has the queue backwards: if both players banish a Time Warp, the opponent's extra turn comes first.
- the Vortex taxes whoever answers, and Focus changes hands
Subject: 813.5.b plus 358.4: the Mystic Vortex taxes the ANSWER and never the opening play, because whoever closes the state needs only [Action] and 813.1.b's containment runs one way, the mono-Body ENGINE in which you attack into VEN-160 Mystic Vortex, take Focus as the Attacker and play OGN-153 Overt Operation first. It has [Action] and not [Reaction], so the Vortex charges it nothing, and any answer inside its chain must be a [Reaction] card and pays one rainbow Power more. The entry is right about that chain. Walked as a game, the chain closes, Focus passes to the opponent, and an [Action] card played on their Focus is the card that closes the next chain: the Vortex charges it nothing either. The tax falls on the answer to each chain, not on the opponent.
- the Undertitan comes ready, and they kill Rek'Sai
Subject: Void Rush reveals the Undertitan, and the Undertitan pays for its own play — a ready 5 Might body that pumps the board, the Fury/Order ENGINE in which SFD-188 Void Rush reveals SFD-175 Undertitan, the reveal adds two Energy toward the Undertitan's own discounted play, and SFD-029 Rek'Sai, Breacher gives it [Accelerate], so a 5-Might body enters ready and gives your other units +2 Might. The entry is right about the rules: 369.1 names the Undertitan as a replacement effect, and the banishment zone is not a hand. Walked as a game, Void Rush finds an Undertitan on T3 a little more than one cast in four, and then it takes the opponent's battlefield from a seven-Might garrison. The price is three runes off the board. And the +2 and the ready are only worth anything in an attack, which puts Rek'Sai in the fight, and the defender kills her first. In the walk the line ran once. Two things the entry has wrong change the deck. Void Rush is a Rek'Sai Signature card, so the only legend that can run it is SFD-187 Void Burrower. And that legend reveals the top two on every conquer, which is the same line for one Power less, with no spell to counter. What breaks the spell route is OGN-045 Defy, one rune, before anything is revealed.
- the Seer stays home and the Birds answer their spell
Subject: Four Birds, four Visions, and 817.2.b says they all see the SAME card unless you recycle — which is what makes it a four-deep dig instead of four looks, the Calm/Mind ENGINE in which OGN-100 Gemcraft Seer gives [Vision] to the four Bird tokens of UNL-044 Flurry of Feathers, and 817.2.b turns four Visions into one look with up to three re-rolls: a four-deep dig with a stop button. The entry is right about 817.2.b, which is its whole content, and right that the dig never burns you out. Walked as a game, the best time to dig is the opponent's turn, and on their turn the only window is a card of theirs on the chain. So the dig is a response, and the Birds can be the answer to that card as well as four looks. What breaks it is a [Reaction] that kills the Seer first.
- the second Sergeant walks the turn it lands, and B changes hands twice
Subject: Overt Operation × Fiora, Worthy — the team readies twice off one spell, the Body/Order ENGINE in which OGN-153 Overt Operation readies every buffed friend by spending its buff, then buffs every friend, and SFD-180 Fiora, Worthy readies each 4-Might body the buff makes Mighty. The entry is right about the rules: 702.3.a makes the two halves disjoint, and the 4 to 5 is 709's crossing. Walked as a game, the order in the entry's steps buys nothing in a duel. It attacks first and casts the spell after, and a body readied at a battlefield can only walk home. The order that buys something is the reverse: the spell first, on a body played that turn, which then walks. In the walk that is T5. The second Vanguard Sergeant walks the turn it lands, the team's +1 makes the attack ten against nine, and B is yours a turn early. On their T5 they take it back. Net, one point, and three of their bodies for one of yours. What breaks it is OGN-095 Stupefy, one rune, on the fresh Sergeant.
- the refill held for the Burn Out never gets a turn
Subject: 369.2 - Burning Out is a Replacement Effect inside one resolution, so its four steps are atomic and the refill lands before the rest of the draw, the Mind ENGINE in which Shadow Temple burns three cards a turn, OGN-114 Progress Day is held until the Main Deck is empty, and its draw then runs into a Burn Out: the trash is recycled into the deck, the opponent gains a point, and the draw is completed from the rebuilt deck. The entry is right about the rule. 431.2 orders the steps, and a Burn Out is a Replacement Effect inside one resolution. Walked as a game, the moment the entry waits for never comes. Going first, the deck is at one card on T10 at the earliest, and the race of Holds is decided by T9. Held for that moment, Progress Day is a draw-four that sits in hand for five turns while runes idle. The Temple survives the opponent's one legal attack on their T8 by a single Might. Cast as a plain draw-four on T6, the same card is four more bodies at the Temple, and the attack is not worth making. Either way the Burn Out lands on T10, after the game. What breaks the designed moment is UNL-131 Abandon, two runes. Countered, Progress Day draws nothing, and the Temple burns you out at the next Hold anyway.
- the Pouch draws until one spell kills both holders
Subject: 107.3.c and 107.3.d price a facedown card in CONTROL, and 190.4.b is the one window that freezes it - so the Mushroom Pouch draws a card a turn for a spell you never play, and the only thing that can take it is losing the battlefield outside a combat, the mono-Mind ENGINE in which OGN-101 Mushroom Pouch draws a card every Beginning Phase off UNL-083 Smoke and Mirrors left face down at a battlefield you hold. The entry is right that the draw is free once it is set up and that the facedown card lives exactly as long as the battlefield is yours. Walked as a game, the engine's real cost is not the hide: it is the garrison. One holder dies to a one-rune spell outside any combat, two holders die to a two-rune spell, and the hidden card is only saved, not lost, if a third unit of yours stands somewhere else.
- the Musicians take B at six and hold it at three
Subject: 359.2 - a permanent is a Game Object BEFORE its own rules text runs, so the Musicians pump themselves across Mighty and Fiora readies them onto a battlefield the turn they land, the Calm/Order ENGINE in which VEN-026 Field Musicians give themselves +3 Might as they are played, which makes them Mighty, and SFD-180 Fiora, Worthy readies them for one Order Power, so they move the turn they land. The entry is right about the rule: 359.2 puts the body on the board before its own trigger chooses, and Riot's worked example at 710 is this card's effect with these numbers. Walked as a game, the line takes the opponent's battlefield on T3, a turn before any body played that turn could reach it, at six Might against a garrison of five. That is the only place the line does anything. A battlefield you already control needs no Fiora, because 355.2.a lets you play the Musicians straight onto it. So the walk goes to a battlefield you do not control, by T3 that is the opponent's, and the +3 is what wins the fight there. The price comes on their turn: the Musicians hold B at three, and the opponent takes it back. Net, the line bought one point, and three of their bodies for one of yours. What breaks it is VEN-052 Mesmerize, one rune, cast in the combat after Fiora's Power is already paid.
- the garrison goes home on turn six, and four bodies come back
Subject: Moonlight Affliction into Tricksy Tentacles — one spell opens a whole garrison to evacuation, the Calm/Mind ENGINE in which UNL-066 Moonlight Affliction takes the biggest defender's Might out of a garrison's sum, and UNL-054 Tricksy Tentacles moves the whole garrison home, so a body of yours walks into an empty battlefield and conquers it with no combat. The entry is right about the rules: 143.2.b reads the afflicted body as 0, 323.6 strips the control, and the walk-in is a Conquer. Walked as a game, the two spells are eleven runes, so the line runs on T6, the first turn with eleven, and only if nothing was recycled before. The garrison has to be the right size, and the opponent decides that size. In the walk it was exactly 8 plus the biggest body, and the line took B for one point. The evacuated bodies were moved, not killed. On their T6 four of them walked back in, and they kept 14 without the biggest, out of the line's reach. What breaks it is OGN-046 En Garde, one rune, on Tentacles.
- the fourth body walks home
Subject: 359.3.e.9.a: moving your other bodies away does NOT shrink a trigger's target count, but killing them does - which is the difference between Repulse fizzling and countering, the Body/Chaos ENGINE in which an enemy trigger chooses three of your units, two UNL-142 Heedless Resurrection kill two of them as their cost and play them back from the trash, and UNL-106 Repulse then counters the trigger, because it now chooses only one friendly unit. The entry is right about the rule, and the case is Riot's own: the example at 359.3.e.9.a is OGN-041 Volibear, Furious. Walked as a game, the line wins the combat it is built for, but only for a garrison of exactly three. The attacker picks how many units the trigger chooses, so a fourth body at the battlefield breaks the line for free, and on the turn Volibear arrives the right play is to walk one home. A fifth body would have won the fight without any spell. What breaks the line is a one-rune counter on Repulse after both Heedless Resurrections are paid.
- the discount pays for Reinforce and the kill pays for the Faefolk
Subject: Reinforce's discount is Energy-only, so the body to find with it is the one that pays no Power at all, the Calm ENGINE in which OGN-062 Reinforce looks at the top five cards and plays OGN-075 Tasty Faefolk from among them for 5 Energy less: a 6-Might body with [Accelerate], whose [Deathknell] channels two runes and draws a card. The entry is right that the discount is Energy-only and that the dig cannot burn you out. Walked as a game, the five Energy Reinforce takes off is the five it costs. T4 is eight runes and one Calm Power either way, the same as a Faefolk cast from hand, so Reinforce buys a dig, not a discount. Once the Faefolk is down, killing it pays you. What breaks the line is a bounce.
- the Deathcrown comes on turn five, and Charm makes the attack
Subject: Teemo, Strategist wearing Rabadon's Deathcrown — Riot's own worked example, on the one legend the Signature rule leaves, the Calm/Mind ENGINE in which SFD-191 Rabadon's Deathcrown is attached to OGN-121 Teemo, Strategist, and OGN-043 Charm drags an enemy unit onto Teemo's battlefield on your own turn. They become the Attacker, Teemo defends, and his trigger deals one per [Hidden] card among the top five, plus three. The entry is right about the rules, and Riot's own example at 715.4 is this pair. Walked as a game, the line is a T5 line, and only when the one Deathcrown is found. In the walk SFD-058 Ornn, Blacksmith dug it on T4. That happens about three games in ten. On T5 the Deathcrown and a Charm took five runes, three of them recycled, and killed their best unit before combat. Teemo's trigger had already killed a unit on their T3 without either card, when they attacked into him. What breaks the line is OGN-045 Defy, one rune, on the Charm.
- the counter kills the unit the spell was saving
Subject: Heedless Resurrection — kill your own unit in response and it comes straight back, the mono-Chaos ENGINE in which the opponent aims removal at your unit, you answer with UNL-142 Heedless Resurrection, kill the unit as the spell's cost and play the same unit straight back from the trash. The entry is right that the removal then does nothing. Walked as a game, the price is paid before the spell resolves, and that is the whole weakness: the unit is already in the trash when the opponent gets to respond, so a one-Energy counter leaves you a card further behind than if you had let the removal resolve.
- the bounce hands the Mech back, and the second stun kills it
Subject: Existential Dread's [Repeat] aimed at the SAME unit is a bounce — one Herald trigger, and hard removal for three Energy, the Calm/Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-134 Existential Dread with its [Repeat] is aimed twice at the same attacking unit: the first execution stuns it, the second finds it stunned and returns it to its owner's hand, and OGN-059 Eclipse Herald takes +1 for the one stun. The entry is right about the rules. Walked as a game, the full line is live from their T5. On their T5 they attacked A with twenty-two against seventeen, OGN-088 Mega-Mech among them. The bounce sends the Mech back to their hand. Spending the same Repeat on a second stun lets your side kill the Mech, and their attack drops to ten instead of fourteen. Your side had the Might to kill the stunned Mech, so the bounce was the wrong half of the card; the Herald's triggers were worth one body. The line breaks to SFD-136 Hard Bargain, two runes, against four runes held.
- the Birds die first, Lillia dies at eight, and A holds
Subject: Four Deflect Birds that must be killed first — Lillia turns Flurry of Feathers into a wall and grows on it, the mono-Calm ENGINE in which UNL-044 Flurry of Feathers puts four 1-Might Birds into the opponent's attack, and UNL-058 Lillia, Protector of Dreams gives them [Tank] and grows by one for each. The entry is right about the rules: the Birds land as defenders inside the Combat Showdown, the first four damage has to go into them, and Lillia defends at 8. Walked as a game, the line is live from their T4, and on that turn it held A: four attackers died, and the Birds and Lillia died for them. The Birds die to any attack of four or more, so they are a wall for one combat and never a board. Past the Birds the attacker picks what dies, and with twelve they picked Lillia, at exactly 4 + 8. What breaks it is SFD-001 Against the Odds, two runes, which counts the Birds as four more enemy units and gives the attacker +2 for each.
- Sona holds the wall up, and the board stops growing
Subject: 383.2.a.1: "if I'm at a battlefield" sits immediately after the Condition, so it is TRIGGER CONDITION - removing Sona in response does not stop the four runes, the Calm ENGINE in which OGN-073 Sona, Harmonious readies up to four runes at the end of your turn and OGN-064 Wind Wall spends them on the opponent's turn to counter a spell. The entry is right about the rule, and the case is Riot's own: the first example at 383.2.a.1 is this card. Walked as a game, the line works. Sona lands on T3, and her own runes counter the two removal spells aimed at her on the opponent's T3 and T4. The price is not in Energy. Every Wind Wall recycles two runes, which is exactly what the Channel Phase brings back, so on the turns you hold the wall up your board does not grow: five runes on T4 and on T5, where it would have been eight and ten. When the opponent plays only units, the readied runes have nothing to counter. What breaks the line is VEN-015 Decree of Rage: one rune, cast on their own turn. It can't be countered, and it names Sona's domain.
- Rhasa comes down on turn three, at seven cards
Subject: The trash is the price tag — Rhasa at zero Energy, and one Burn Out resets all of it, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which the trash prices three bodies. OGN-195 Rhasa the Sunderer costs one Energy less for each card in your trash. VEN-096 Shadowblade Lurker costs two less for each Lurker there. VEN-013 Shadow Assassin enters ready once a copy is there. VEN-108 Forgotten Relic burns one card a turn into it. The entry is right about the rules. 356.6 floors the Energy at zero and never touches the Power. 431.2.b resets the whole pile on the first Burn Out. Walked as a game, the entry's target number is the wrong one. It prices Rhasa at ten cards, "a mid-game price, not a turn-three one". The discount pays long before ten. In the walk the trash held seven cards on T3, and Rhasa came down that turn as a 6-Might body for three Energy and one Power. The card that gets there is not in the entry: VEN-144 Death Mark, a Zed Signature card, puts four cards in the trash for three runes on T2. What answers the body is OGN-213 Hidden Blade, one rune hidden at the battlefield Rhasa has to attack. Nothing in the pool answers the price.
- Masa stuns B, Vex takes it alone, and her Tank covers no one
Subject: Masa stuns anywhere, so Vex teleports into the attack for free — and 190.3.a.1 makes her the Attacker with no exhaust paid, the Calm/Order ENGINE in which VEN-120 Masa, Crashing Thunder, played with his optional Order Power, stuns an enemy unit at a battlefield, and UNL-055 Vex, Mocking moves on the stun into that battlefield for free and attacks there. The entry is right about the rules: the move is an effect move and exhausts nothing, and arriving at their battlefield makes you the Attacker. Walked as a game, Vex comes down on T3 and Masa on T4. Under OGN-261 Radiant Dawn the stun also buffs Vex to 6, and on T4 she takes B from a lone stunned Skulker that deals her nothing: a Conquer, 4 to 2. They had tapped out on their own turn and could answer nothing. On their T4 they take B back with four bodies and kill her; she kills two of them. Her [Tank] covered no one, because Masa can only be played when no battlefield holds both players' units, so she always arrives alone. The line breaks to a garrison at B worth more than her 6, for no card at all.
- LeBlanc stays home and two bodies keep the Tomb
Subject: Hallowed Tomb returns the pool's only Deathknell Chosen Champion — LeBlanc, Fragmented dies in your Beginning Phase for two cards and is back in the Champion Zone the same phase, the Order ENGINE in which UNL-165 Shadow's Call gives UNL-172 LeBlanc, Fragmented [Temporary], she dies at the start of your Beginning Phase for two cards, and OGN-281 Hallowed Tomb returns her to the Champion Zone in the Scoring Step of the same phase. The entry is right about the two steps and about the doubled Deathknell. Walked as a game, the engine has two weak points and the entry names only half of one. A single body on the Tomb dies to a one-rune spell on the opponent's turn, and then the Tomb is not yours when it has to be held. And LeBlanc herself must never stand at a battlefield, because every card in the pool that banishes an enemy unit from the board and does not return it reaches only units at a battlefield.
- Irelia lands with Discipline open and loses to a stun
Subject: Irelia fires on being CHOSEN, and a spell that targets her is a choosing — so Discipline is +3 and a card for two Energy, the Calm ENGINE in which OGN-058 Discipline chooses SFD-057 Irelia, Fervent. Her own trigger adds +1 to the spell's +2, and the spell draws a card, so it is +3 Might for two Energy at no cost in cards. The entry is right that a spell choosing her triggers her, right that her [Deflect] taxes only the opponent, and right that the Awakening ready is a free +1 on your turn. Walked as a game, two things decide it. Irelia lands only when Discipline is open, because on the opponent's turn she is M4 and VEN-015 Decree of Rage deals exactly 4 and can't be countered. And when she attacks, Discipline goes first, because the attacker acts first in the showdown, so the opponent answers after the +3. What breaks it is a stun cast after the pump.
- Draven passes first and Rebukes their answer
Subject: Rebuke inside the opened combat — Draven wins it without a damage step, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-148 Draven, Audacious attacks a battlefield held by one unit and OGN-172 Rebuke, cast inside the combat's Showdown, returns that unit to its owner's hand, so Draven wins with no damage step: a point from his own text, a Conquer, and a card from the legend. The entry is right about the window and the points. Walked as a game, it casts Rebuke too early. Draven has Might 6, so he already beats any lone defender with less than 6 Might, and the fight kills that defender where Rebuke only bounces it. The right order is to pass Focus first and keep Rebuke for whatever the opponent does with theirs.
- the wall stands only where the sweep reaches, so the Shepherd stays home
Subject: The same token engine buying the opposite thing: one static point of Might is the whole difference between a swarm and a sweep, the mind/chaos ENGINE that puts UNL-077 Soul Shepherd's "Your token units have +1 :rb_might:." under a Tentacle factory — VEN-109 Illaoi, Prophet of the Great Kraken and VEN-100 Up from the Deep — so every 1-Might Tentacle is a 2-Might body and the pool's one-Energy sweeper, OGN-133 Flurry of Blades, does nothing to them. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked as a game the +1 is real, but the entry protects the Tentacles in the one place they were never exposed, says the order of play does not matter when one moment of it does, and never names the card that answers a 2-Might swarm.
- the wall is six damage plus the two biggest attackers, and width walks through it
Subject: Vex, Mocking × Thwonk! — a Tank that teleports into the combat as it opens, the mono-Calm ENGINE that answers an attack on the opponent's turn: SFD-040 Thwonk! stuns two attackers inside the Combat Showdown, and UNL-055 Vex, Mocking moves on the stun into the attacked battlefield as a 6-Might [Tank]. The entry's mechanics hold. Walked as a game, the line has one exposed turn, a fixed price that has to be left untapped through your own turn, and a ceiling that is a number: it absorbs the two largest attackers plus six damage, so the opponent's answer is width, not removal.
- the toll is paid in runes, and the Investigator has to stand there before anyone moves
Subject: Mageseeker Investigator is the only card in the pool that prices 144.3 — the simultaneous move a swarm uses to arrive as one action, the mono-Order ENGINE that sets UNL-163 Mageseeker Investigator (a rainbow per extra unit moved to his battlefield at once) in front of VEN-118 Horns of the Dragon (a 6-Might [Tank]). The entry is right that the toll prices 144.3 and right that it is not a lock. Walked as a game, two orders matter: yours, because the Investigator taxes nothing until he is standing at the battlefield, so you conquer it first and then play him straight there; and theirs, because the toll is paid out of runes, and a rune spent on it is a rune that is not on the board next turn.
- the tax is paid, the prohibition is walked around, and one Energy does both
Subject: [Deflect] is a tax and 'can't be chosen' is a prohibition — and the Monument's [Temporary] covers exactly the opponent's turn, the mono-Body ENGINE that sets SFD-104 Petricite Monument (every friendly unit gets [Deflect] for one round trip) beside SFD-105 Ruin Runner ("I can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities"). The entry is right that one is a tax and the other a prohibition, and right that a sweeper goes through both. Walked as a game, the order is forced — the Monument has to be on the board before the opponent's spell is played, which means your own Main Phase and nowhere else — and the cheapest card that ignores both protections is the same one-Energy sweep that kills the bodies a Body curve opens with.
- the Sprite defends the Altar and never holds it, so the point comes from the body behind it
Subject: 801.3.a.3 makes the Altar's [Shield] permanent rather than 'this turn', and 816.1.b makes a [Temporary] body's whole life the opponent's turn - the one window 814.1.c ever pays in, so the grant and the lifespan fit exactly, the mono-Mind ENGINE that hides OGN-094 Sprite Call and flips it inside the opponent's attack on UNL-208 Black Flame Altar, so a 3-Might [Temporary] Sprite defends there at 4. The entry is right that the grant and the lifespan fit: the Sprite lives exactly through the opponent's turn, which is the only time [Shield] pays. Walked as a game, two orders matter. Yours: the Sprite Call has to be hidden at the Altar and only after you have conquered it. Theirs: the Sprite dies before your Hold, so whoever kills the body standing beside it decides whether you score, and a one-Energy sweep makes you flip the Sprite before they attack.
- the Lab is paid before anything resolves, and the Sprite it eats is the one Gust can reach
Subject: Sprite Queen arms Shard of Undoing every turn instead of every other one, and Dusk Rose Lab charges the same scheduled death a card, the mind/order ENGINE in which UNL-084 Sprite Queen makes a ready [Temporary] Sprite every Beginning Phase, UNL-174 Shard of Undoing turns its scheduled death into a forced enemy kill, and UNL-209 Dusk Rose Lab charges the same death a card. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked as a game, two things come out that the entry does not say: the ordering it calls the key to the Lab's card is not load-bearing, and the Lab's card is bought by standing the Sprite where a one-Energy spell reaches it.
- the Guardian buffs Sett too, so the wall is twelve and it is still one card from nothing
Subject: Sett, Kingpin under one mass buff — six buffed bodies read at once, the mono-Order ENGINE in which OGN-223 Peak Guardian buffs a whole garrison at once and OGN-240 Sett, Kingpin reads every buffed body beside him as Might on a [Tank]. Walked as a game, the order is everything: the bodies and Sett must stand at the battlefield before the Guardian lands, because his buff is a one-shot and arrives once. And the wall the entry prices at Might 11 is Might 12, because the Guardian buffs Sett himself.
- the Golds are a bank with no teller, because Portal Rescue is paid in Energy
Subject: Portal Rescue on the Trove Golem — four more Golds, ready, at [Action] speed, the Mind/Order ENGINE in which OGN-102 Portal Rescue replays SFD-174 Trove Golem for four more Gold tokens, and SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist makes every Gold enter ready. The entry's ledger — net +3 Power per casting — is right. Walked as a game, the scarce resource is not Power at all: every casting costs three Energy, the Golds only ever add Power, and so the line turns one turn's Energy into a pile of Golds that the same deck has nothing to spend on.
- the faucet is also the landing pad, so the second Protector is the protection
Subject: Poppy converts 3 XP into 3 Energy, Enthralling Protector's [Hunt] mints it every Score — and 824.1.d is the bill nobody counts, the mono-Order ENGINE in which UNL-162 Enthralling Protector's [Hunt] banks XP on every Score and UNL-178 Poppy, Defender of the Meek turns three of it into three Energy off a 5-Might [Tank] played at Reaction speed. The entry prices the exchange rate correctly. Walked as a game, the card that mints the XP is also the only thing that lets Poppy arrive at Reaction speed at all, so the opponent's cheapest answer is not to Poppy but to the Protector, before they attack — and a second Protector is worth more as a second landing pad than as a second faucet.
- the drag empties their battlefield, and that is worth more than the five damage
Subject: Teemo, Strategist under Swift Scout — Evelynn drags the attacker in, and a deck two thirds [Hidden] answers with five damage, the mind/chaos ENGINE that flips UNL-141 Evelynn, Entrancing from face down on your own turn to drag an enemy body onto the battlefield where OGN-121 Teemo, Strategist stands, so the opponent becomes the Attacker and Teemo's Defend trigger reveals five cards and deals one per [Hidden] card among them. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked as a game, the trigger is the smaller half of what the flip does. The body Evelynn drags has to come from somewhere, and if it was the opponent's only body on their battlefield, that battlefield is open the moment the chain resolves. The entry prices the damage and never mentions the battlefield.
- the buff is a Flurry insurance policy, and a cheaper Mind body sells the same one
Subject: Karma, Channeler — every Recruit the recycle loop makes comes out at 2 Might, the mono-Order ENGINE that parks OGN-235 Karma, Channeler on the board before Forge / Ekko recycle loop — infinite Energy starts, so every recycle to the Main Deck buffs the newest Recruit the loop made. The entry's arithmetic is right: one buff lands per pass, one pass late. Walked as a game, the +1 does one thing that matters — it takes the army out of OGN-133 Flurry of Blades's reach — and a Mind card already in the loop's identity does that better.
- the Bow fires before the giant swings, and one Calm counter undoes the turn
Subject: 158.2: [Legion] REPLACES the Guillotine's delayed kill rather than adding to it - so played first in the turn it is a Might-blind kill that a +0 Might Bonus gear arms, the Fury/Order ENGINE that opens a turn with OGN-254 Noxian Guillotine so its [Legion] stays off, marks a unit to die the next time it takes damage, and lets SFD-016 Recurve Bow's attack trigger supply the damage. The rule is right and Riot works it on this card. Walked as a game, the Bow's real job is not the damage: it is that the marked body dies before the damage step, so its Might never reaches your attacker.
- the Blade draws what it costs, unless the save is a body that stays
Subject: 359.3.e.14.b: a plain second sentence executes even when the first instruction's action was REPLACED - so save your own unit from your own Hidden Blade and still draw 2, the mono-Order ENGINE that aims OGN-213 Hidden Blade at your own unit, saves it with UNL-175 Tactical Retreat, and draws 2 anyway because the draw does not reference the kill. The rule it stands on is right and Riot works it on this card. Walked as a game, the line as written is card-neutral: two cards go in and two come out. It turns into card advantage only when the save is a permanent that is still there for the next Blade.
- the bait is a removal spell before the attack, and the answer is a counter during it
Subject: You cannot PLAY a unit into a battlefield mid-combat, but you can MOVE one there - and a hidden [Reaction] costs nothing to do it, the mono-Calm ENGINE that hides VEN-034 Resonating Strike at a battlefield you hold and, when the opponent attacks it, moves OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian in from somewhere else as a 6-Might [Tank]. The entry prices the arrival correctly. Walked as a game, the line survives the answer that broke the Poppy play — removal on the garrison in the opponent's Main Phase — because the hidden card is itself a [Reaction] and can be flipped in response. What breaks it is cheaper and narrower: a counterspell, at the one moment the facedown card stops being a secret.
- the Axe sleeps only while someone carries it, and the rescue has to come before the blow
Subject: An attached [Temporary] is asleep, not gone — 718.2 silences it, 722.2 still finds it, and 719.5 wakes it the moment its carrier leaves the board, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-186 Spinning Axe's [Temporary] sleeps while it is attached, and SFD-135 Factory Recall returns it to hand when its carrier is about to die, so [Quick-Draw] can put it on a new body for its play cost alone. The entry is right about the rules: 718.2 silences the drawback, 719.5 wakes it, 819.1.d makes the re-attach free. Walked as a game, the rescue has a narrow window. Factory Recall is an [Action], so on the opponent's turn it exists only inside a Showdown, which means before the combat damage that would kill the carrier — and a carrier killed by a spell in their Main Phase takes the Axe with it, because nothing you hold can be played before your Beginning Phase kills it.
- six cards arrive only if both Karthus are still home when LeBlanc dies
Subject: Karthus × LeBlanc, Fragmented — Shadow's Call turns [Temporary] into six cards, the mono-Order ENGINE in which UNL-165 Shadow's Call gives UNL-172 LeBlanc, Fragmented [Temporary], she dies at the start of your next Beginning Phase, and two OGN-236 Karthus, Eternal make her Deathknell draw two, three times. The entry is right about the timing: 816.1.b kills her inside the Beginning Phase, so "draw 2 instead" is live. Walked as a game, the order that matters is the opponent's. Shadow's Call has to be cast the turn before the kill, so the opponent always gets one full Main Phase with every piece on the board, and one two-Energy spell in that phase turns six cards into two.
- play the bodies before the spell, because the units it draws can never take its buffs
Subject: Double Trouble is two recycle EVENTS from one card — Karma counts events, so two small recycles beat one big one, the Calm/Order ENGINE in which UNL-032 Double Trouble with its [Repeat] is two recycle events, so OGN-235 Karma, Channeler places two buffs for one card. The entry's arithmetic is right: the payoff is min(triggers, unbuffed bodies). Walked as a game, the order of the Main Phase decides which half of that minimum binds: every body that is to take a buff has to be on the board before the spell is cast, and the units the spell itself digs up never qualify.
- LeBlanc is the whole army, and the army walks one body a turn
Subject: Sprite Queen under LeBlanc — a permanent 3-Might body every Beginning Phase, for free, the mono-Mind ENGINE in which UNL-084 Sprite Queen plays a [Temporary] 3-Might Sprite every Beginning Phase and UNL-090 LeBlanc, Everywhere at Once keeps every Sprite that reaches her battlefield alive. The entry is right that it is free and slow. Walked as a game, the order inside each turn is fixed — the Sprite is born at the base and must walk to LeBlanc in the same Main Phase — and the whole army hangs on one 4-Might body that a single two-Energy spell removes.
- Last Rites pays on the Hold, so Minefield is the setup and not the engine
Subject: Minefield and Last Rites fire on the SAME Conquer — 383.3.d orders them so the mill lands before the reanimation looks, the chaos ENGINE in which SFD-212 Minefield mills two cards on a Conquer and SFD-150 Last Rites plays a unit back out of the trash on the same Conquer, with the two triggers ordered so the mill lands first. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked as a game, the ordering the entry is named for never comes up on the turn the line is built, and the rate the entry gives is too low: Last Rites fires on every Hold, not only on a Conquer.
- Jae draws before anything fights, and he fights the second time even if the first one killed him
Subject: Marching Orders chooses Jae twice for one card — and 'a friendly unit anywhere' means he fights from the base, the Body/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-114 Marching Orders with its [Repeat] chooses SFD-142 Jae Medarda twice, so one card draws two and trades with two enemy bodies from your base. The entry is right about the two draws and right that "anywhere" lets Jae fight from home. Walked as a game, the order inside the one resolution is the whole line: both choices are made when you cast it, both draws resolve before either trade, and Jae is not removed between the two executions however much damage the first one marks on him.
- each Svellsongur is worth exactly what the board is missing
Subject: Nasus, Ascended under three Svellsongur — nine points on one Conquer, the mono-Calm BURST that puts three SFD-059 Svellsongur on an Empowered VEN-046 Nasus, Ascended and scores nine points on one Conquer. The turn clock reads it at T6 against a T5 baseline. Walked as the entry is written, from zero points, it is T7: the clock cannot see Nasus's own [Empower] cost or the three [Equip] costs. Walked as a game, with a free curve holding one battlefield beside it, it is T6 again, with one gear fewer — because every Svellsongur doubles the payoff, and the number of doublings the line needs is set by the score it swings from, not by the entry.
- both executions are chosen when you cast it, so the second can be eight to one body
Subject: One [Repeat] is exactly one extra execution and it may choose differently — Rocket Barrage is a modal spell that gets both modes for one card, the mono-Mind ENGINE in which SFD-077 Rocket Barrage with its [Repeat] buys both of its modes for one card, with SFD-211 Marai Spire taking 1 Energy off the Repeat while you control it. The entry is right that the second execution may choose differently. Walked as a game, the decisive fact is when both choices are made: at casting, before either resolves, so the second execution cannot react to the first — and the same target twice is eight damage to one body in a base, which is the use the entry does not list.
- the Tank goes in first, or the drag hands them your battlefield
Subject: One card moves both bodies, and its own parenthetical settles which player the Contested rules make the attacker, the body/chaos ENGINE that uses UNL-202 Void Assault to drag an enemy body onto a battlefield you hold, so the opponent becomes the Attacker on your own turn and fights into UNL-099 Towering Combatant. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked as a game, two copies of the spell cast in one Main Phase take back a battlefield the opponent conquered the turn before, and the line reaches eight on T5 against an opponent who took a battlefield off it on their T2. But the two casts have a forced order, and the spell's own wording is the reason: the friendly half moves first, and if the body it moves was your last one on that battlefield, the enemy half delivers your battlefield to them.
- the defender is the fuel, so you burn it last
Subject: Svellsongur doubles the Reveler's ready — Stellacorn Herder draws once per attack, the calm/fury ENGINE that puts SFD-059 Svellsongur on one VEN-020 Twilight Reveler so each of its attacks readies two units, one of them SFD-048 Stellacorn Herder, which draws on every move. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it; walked turn by turn it is first online on T5. The entry's loop works, but it states the opening wrong, it prices the draw at twice what it gives, and it never says that the one card the whole loop stands on — the opponent's lone stunned defender — is also the cheapest Conquer on the board. Spend it last.
- the payoff finishes a turn before the loop can start
Subject: The Jhinpendium — Virtuoso, Ekko, Malzahar and Vi loop into Renata's points, the fury/mind INFINITE that loops Ekko, Malzahar, Upstage Comedy and Vi under the legend Virtuoso and spends the surplus on SFD-088 Renata Glasc, Mastermind's points. The turn clock reads it at T6 against a T6 baseline. Walked turn by turn, the loop cannot start before T7, and by then the same deck has already won on T6 with two of the loop's own cards and no loop at all.
- the fight it does not need to avoid, and the one order that turns nine points into one
Subject: Eight points off one combat nobody fights: three Svellsongur on Draven, and the garrison removed inside the Showdown, the calm/chaos BURST that scores nine points off one combat by putting three SFD-059 Svellsongur on SFD-148 Draven, Audacious. The turn clock reads it at T7 against a T5 baseline, and walked turn by turn it is T7: the clock is right about the turn. What it cannot say is which of the line's four cards is doing the work, and the answer is not the one the entry's name suggests.
- the ambush is the save, if it goes in first
Subject: 813.4.b makes an [Ambush] combat trick FREE TO ATTEMPT - if the Task already running kills your garrison first, the play is UNDONE and the card comes back - and a heal-and-recall save is the one rescue that breaks it, the body/calm ENGINE that holds UNL-060 Vilemaw for an [Ambush] into the opponent's attack and keeps SFD-194 Counter Strike beside him to keep the Ambush legal. Nothing in it scores, so neither turn clock reads it; the only number this line has is the turn on which it is first affordable, and walked turn by turn that is the opponent's T4. The entry prices the Ambush as a free gamble with a failure window between choosing Vilemaw's location and checking its legality. Walked, I found no event that fires in that window on the board the line is for. The window that matters is earlier, and Vilemaw closes it himself if he is played in response to the removal rather than after it.
- Renata is only a body, and the ready is only a trigger
Subject: Overt Operation is the only card that spends N buffs and refills them in the same resolution, the body/order ENGINE that spends a board of buffs with OGN-153 Overt Operation, turns each spend into a Gold through SFD-101 Fae Dragon, and uses SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist so the Golds enter ready. It scores nothing, so neither turn clock reads it. Walked turn by turn, the engine first runs on T5 and banks eight Power by T7, and on that schedule two of its three printed ideas do no work: the ready half of Overt Operation readies nothing that was exhausted, and Renata's clause makes ready a Gold that is never spent on the turn it arrives. What she really supplies is the fourth body.
- the order is free until it is everything, and a package that scores nothing
Subject: Two attack triggers, ordered - the ping and the kill happen in the same combat, so no Main Phase is spent marking, mono-Body, chosen by measurement rather than taste: of 771 entries, 262 carry forced-ordering language in their steps and 102 of those have a terminatesIn that is a bare quantity with no ordering word in it. This one is at the top of that list and its own id names the thing its terminatesIn cannot say.
- the board that cannot be improved, and the three turns of mana you cannot spend on it
Subject: One board shape, three cards — the exactly-two garrison read as a whole, calm/order, from the seven-card Vendetta cycle that all reads one board shape — a battlefield where you control exactly two units.
- the answer is one Energy, the window is one Showdown, and a free reordering closes it
Subject: Both phases of one turn — a Hold that pays and an attack that pays, in the pair that can do both. Its Hold half scores four a turn off a single Might-1 carrier, and OGN-133 Flurry of Blades takes the carrier, the three gear and the battlefield for one Energy. That is already in the entry. What is not anywhere is WHEN.
- one body carries four points a turn, and one Energy takes it back
Subject: Both phases of one turn — a Hold that pays and an attack that pays, in the pair that can do both, which I wrote earlier today and which the turn clock reads at T7 against a T5 baseline. Walked turn by turn it wins on T5 — and the reason is not that the clock is wrong about arithmetic. It is that the clock prices a CARD SET and this line wins with half of its cards still in hand.
- two dials and a hand you keep spending: what "exactly 4 and exactly 4" costs
Subject: Gutter Palace — exactly 4 and 4, which the turn clock reads at T3 against a T6 baseline — the fastest row in the catalogue's fastest class, and the only non-Plaza ALT_WIN family in the file. The family is three entries, not two — Gutter Palace — exactly 4 and 4 at T3, Gutter Palace held at exactly 4/4 — both counters moved at Reaction speed at T6 and Gutter Palace × Keeper of Masks × Invert Timelines — 4/4 in one turn at T7. This play is about the first two, because they are the same card with and without an answer suite and that is the comparison; the Time Warp version is a different question and is not walked here.
- the spell that taxes the cheap curve, and why its threshold is exactly where it is
Subject: Death from Below buys itself back for one Power — repeatable removal and a sacrifice outlet, and this is the first play about an ENGINE rather than a finisher. That class is 686 of the catalogue's 766 entries and until today none of it had a turn on it at all.
- the setup nobody prices, and the turn the free curve has already won
Subject: Bottled Constellation ×3 + Time Warp ×3 — fodder from the loop — the row the turn clock moved furthest in a single day, from T14 to T5, and the one that shows what the clock still cannot see.
- the loop that WANTS a contested board, and what its seven bodies cost
Subject: Jhin, Murderous Artist recalled by Facebreaker — Fiora readies him for infinite Energy and Recruits, an INFINITE the turn clock reads at T5 against a T6 baseline. The companion play found that of the rows beating their baseline, several carry an unpriced empty-Main-Deck cost — five of nine when it was written that morning, four of twenty-one once the ALT_WIN class was added to the clock later the same day. This is one of the ones that do not: a combat-recall loop that spends zero cards a pass, so its number is honest to begin with. The ratio is perishable and the property is not.
- the catalogue's fastest win: what an empty Main Deck actually costs
Subject: Renata Glasc, Mastermind bounce — score to 8, which npm run adversarial -- --turns reports at T4 against a T6 baseline — the fastest point-scoring finisher in the catalogue and the largest margin in the table. It is an INFINITE that scores directly, standing on SFD-088 Renata Glasc, Mastermind, the only card in the pool that converts resources into a point inside the Main Phase.
- the entry the clock condemned hardest, and the board it was never measured on
Subject: Svellsongur copies — multiplied Hold points — a BURST, T6, and a member of the worst-scoring population in the whole catalogue on the day's headline numbers, and three separate counts say so.
- the elegance is the slowness, and the clock is right by the wrong road
Subject: Shen's fragility is free inside a Time Warp — nine points across three uninterrupted turns. With the turn clock's engine-output pricing landed, four of eighty finishers pay later than the CONTESTED curve — the board a finisher is actually for — and three of those four are one closure, the nineteen-card Dragonstorm — six Dragons a pass, Vi recycles them one at a time, the Henge reconverts board. This is the fourth, and the only other one. It is also, card for card, one of the tidiest things in the catalogue.
- the defender's chair, and why the attacker's own window is the only one you get
Subject: The [Temporary] trigger IS the window: a Sprite dying in the Beginning Phase lets you add seven bodies before the Plaza counts. Every play in this folder so far has been written from the combo player's seat. This one is written from the other chair, against the fastest thing the catalogue contains: three lines win on turn three, and all three are ALT_WIN.
- what the idle mana buys: denial is a wash, removal is a turn
The companion to Chaos/Order, the identity with one answer, which ended on a loose end: the deck idles four Energy on turn 2 and two to four on turns 4 and 5, every card in it is a payoff, and Chaos is the denial domain. So: can the idle mana be spent on something that costs the opponent a Hold, and does that change the result?
- the unopposed clock: eight points by turn 5 with no combo at all
This is the yardstick every other play and every finisher in the catalogue should be measured against, and the project has never written it down. Almost every entry says "reaches 8" and almost none says "by turn N, having spent this much". Until you know what a deck does with no combo, you cannot tell whether a combo is fast.
- Chaos/Order, the identity with one answer: is it actually viable?
Run plays exist to check whether a line is viable in a real game. This is the first one written for a specific line rather than for the baseline, and the line is the one written for the only identity that had no legal finisher surviving a stalled board — The same three Iverns pay at both Conquers — the Bard trick in Chaos, for the identity that had nothing. The catalogue says it reaches eight points. A run play asks a different question: on which turn, against an opponent who is doing something, and does that beat what they are doing?
- Chaos/Fury: the only point in the identity the opponent cannot deny
Built on Three moves, three points: the legend walks Yasuo in, Ganking takes the second, Ride the Wind is the third move (CHAIN), which is the same two non-legend cards under a Calm/Chaos legend. No catalogued entry uses that pair alone, so the Chaos/Fury version below is not catalogued; it is written here as a play rather than as an entry because what is new about it is the TURN COUNT and the contested-board case, not the card set.