the unopposed clock: eight points by turn 5 with no combo at all
Issue #200, 2026-09-12. Constructed, Duel (485). Rules version 2026-07-16. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; rules paragraphs pasted from data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt.
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.
The mana model, so every later line is checkable
| rule | text |
|---|---|
| 161.2.a | "Exactly 12 Rune cards chosen during Deck Construction." |
| 315.3.b | "The Turn Player channels 2 runes from their Rune Deck." |
| 485.7 | "The player going second channels an extra Rune from their Rune Deck during their first Channel Phase of the game." |
| 164.2.a | "[E]: [Reaction] — Add [1]." |
| 164.2.b | "Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]." |
| 161.2.b | "When a Rune is Recycled it is returned to the Rune Deck, not the Main Deck." |
| 415.3.a | (readies all non-spell Game Objects in your Awakening, so every rune on the board is Energy again each turn) |
Two consequences the arithmetic turns on:
- A rune pays Energy AND Power in the same turn. 164.2.a costs the rune's exhaust; 164.2.b's cost is the RECYCLE and carries no exhaust. So a rune already tapped for 1 Energy still recycles for 1 Power of its Domain. With
Rrunes on the board a turn affords up toREnergy and up toRPower — but every Power spent this way takes that rune OFF the board. - Therefore
Rgrows by 2 a turn minus whatever you recycled, capped at 12 simultaneously (161.2.a), and a recycled rune returns to the Rune Deck to be re-channelled. Going first: R = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 12 … if you never spend Power.
The points model
| rule | text |
|---|---|
| 190.1 | "Control is established over Battlefields through the course of play." (both battlefields start uncontrolled) |
| 143.4 | units enter exhausted, so a body played on turn N moves on turn N+1 (315.1.b readies it at your Awaken) |
| 344.2 | "If Control of a Battlefield is Contested, there aren't units controlled by different players there, and the turn is in a Neutral Open State, a Showdown is opened during the next Cleanup." |
| 348.2.a / 348.2.a.1 | "…that player establishes Control over the Battlefield." / "This results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored that Battlefield this turn." |
| 315.2.b.2 | "The Turn Player Holds all Battlefields they Control." |
| 470 | "A player may only Score, from either method, once per Battlefield per turn." |
| 194.3 / 472 | Victory Score 8; you win at the Cleanup once you are at or above it with more points than any opponent |
So: walking one body into an empty, uncontrolled battlefield is a free Conquer in your own Main Phase, and every battlefield you still control at your next Beginning Phase pays again. The ceiling is 2 points a turn on a two-battlefield board.
The play: mono-Body, two Determined Sentry, turn 5
Needs. 2× UNL-111 Determined Sentry (Body, E1, M1, "I can't move to base.") — the cheapest bodies that exist. Swept over data/cards.json, the entire pool prints exactly TWO units at Energy cost 1 or less: UNL-111 Determined Sentry (Body, E1, M1) and VEN-043 Steel Paws (Calm, E1, M0). Nothing else. Any legend whose domains include Body. No battlefield requirement — 485.5 puts one of each player's battlefields on the table at setup whatever you do.
T1 channel 2 (R=2). Play both Determined Sentry to base (E1 + E1 = 2 Energy). They enter
exhausted (143.4).
T2 channel 2 (R=4). Awaken readies both (315.1.b).
Standard-Move Sentry A to battlefield A (144.4.a, exhaust 144.2).
Cleanup -> Contested (190.3.a.1) -> 344.2 opens a Showdown -> nobody
contests -> 348.2.a Control -> 348.2.a.1 CONQUER. +1 = 1
Standard-Move Sentry B to battlefield B. Same sequence. +1 = 2
T3 channel 2 (R=6). 315.2.b.2 Holds both battlefields. +2 = 4
T4 channel 2 (R=8). Hold both. +2 = 6
T5 channel 2 (R=10). Hold both. +2 = 8 -> 472 wins at the Cleanup
Eight points on turn 5, for two Energy spent on turn 1 and nothing afterwards. The other 38 cards of the deck never have to be drawn.
Why the two moves on T2 are two separate actions. 144.3.a requires a shared Destination for a simultaneous multi-unit move, and these go to different battlefields, so they are two game actions — both legal, because 144.1.a allows the Standard Move "any time during a player's Main Phase" and the first Showdown has already resolved by the time the second move is declared. 144.1.c ("This action cannot be performed during a Showdown or Combat") is the rule to watch, and it is why they are sequenced rather than interleaved.
Why UNL-111's drawback is free here. "I can't move to base" costs a holding body nothing: it is already where it wants to die.
Breaks to
OGN-133 Flurry of Blades— Body, E1 — "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Deal 1 to all units at battlefields." One Energy kills BOTH Sentries at once (143.2.a: marked damage at or above Might kills, and they are Might 1), and because it is [Reaction] it lands inside the Showdown that the first move opened (345/346 give both players Focus and priority there, 813.1.c.1 admits a [Reaction] in any Closed State). It is the single cheapest card in the pool against the single fastest clock in the pool, and the answer costs one Energy against their one Energy.- Any body the opponent puts on a battlefield first. 344.2 needs "there aren't units controlled by different players there"; a garrison turns the free walk-in into a Combat (323.9), where a Might 1 Sentry loses to anything.
- Any single removal spell, because losing one Sentry costs 1 point a turn forever.
What the opponent does with their turns
They get four of them (T1–T4 on the draw). Turn 2 is the one that matters: the Sentries are Might 1 and on battlefields, so anything that deals 1 damage answers the whole play for its cost. A clock this fast is also this fragile — that is the honest content of the play, and it is why the catalogue is full of five-card finishers rather than two-card ones.
The same clock in every other identity, and why it is one turn slower
Chaos/Fury (and every identity that is not Body or Calm) has no unit at Energy 1. Its cheapest bodies are Energy 2: swept as energy == 2 and no Power cost and domains subset of {chaos, fury}, there are 24, of which 19 are Might 2 and 5 are Might 1. Turn 1 affords exactly one. That costs a whole turn:
T1 R=2. Play one E2 body to base. 0 T2 R=4. Move it in -> Conquer. Play a second E2 body (2 Energy spare). +1 = 1 T3 R=6. Hold A (+1). Move body 2 in -> Conquer (+1). +2 = 3 T4 R=8. Hold both. +2 = 5 T5 R=10. Hold both. +2 = 7 T6 R=12. Hold both. +2 = 9 -> win
Turn 6, not turn 5. The whole difference is the one turn of setup that the two Energy-1 bodies skip.
The consequence for the catalogue, which is the reason to write this down
Price tryndamere-brambleback-conquer — the catalogue's mono-Fury BURST, 9 points in one Conquer — against this clock. Its own cost line is 26 Energy and 7 Fury Power for 3 UNL-029 Red Brambleback (E4 + 1 Fury each) and 2 OGN-034 Tryndamere, Barbarian (E7 + 2 Fury each). Deployed as fast as the rune curve physically allows, spending on nothing else and drawing perfectly:
T2 R=4 -> Brambleback 1 (4 Energy, recycle 1 Fury rune) R=3 T3 R=5 -> Brambleback 2 R=4 T4 R=6 -> Brambleback 3 R=5 T5 R=7 -> Tryndamere 1 (7 Energy, recycle 2) R=5 T6 R=7 -> Tryndamere 2 R=5 T7 attack, win the combat, Conquer: 1 + T x (1 + K) = 9
Turn 7 — one turn slower than doing nothing at all, in the same identity. That is not an argument against the entry; it is an argument about what the entry is FOR. Unopposed, the Hold curve has already won. The BURST earns its slot only on a board where the opponent is taking your battlefields, because it converts one Conquer into nine points instead of one, and the Hold curve converts it into one. A finisher in this catalogue is insurance against a contested board, not a clock — and no entry says so, because no entry is denominated in turns.