both executions are chosen when you cast it, so the second can be eight to one body

Issue #256 (a slice of #200), 2026-10-05. Constructed, Duel (485). Rules version 2026-07-16. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; rules pasted from data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt. Read the unopposed clock for the baseline this is measured against.

Subject: rocket-barrage-marai-spire-repeat-base-damage, 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.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-05 at 2374ce6, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 85 of them with no play. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 14 (two hits on first), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 13, played in the faucet is also the landing pad.

1. Needs

Legend	any legend with Mind in its pair (103.1.b)
The spell	`SFD-077 Rocket Barrage` (Mind, E4 + 1 Power, [Repeat] E4 + 1 Mind), cast in your Main Phase
A target	an enemy unit in their base, or a gear
Optional	`SFD-211 Marai Spire`, controlled: the Repeat costs E3 + 1 Mind

The card text the play turns on:

Rocket Barrage: "[Repeat] :rb_energy_4::rb_rune_mind: (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect, and may make different choices.) Choose one — • Deal 4 to a unit in a base. • Kill a gear."
Marai Spire: "While you control this battlefield, friendly [Repeat] costs cost :rb_energy_1: less."

2. When the second execution is chosen

Not when it resolves. 820.2: "When a spell or ability’s effect is performed an additional time with Repeat, choices must be made at the usual time during the Make Relevant Choices step of Playing a Card." Both modes and both targets are fixed as you cast it, and 820.2.a's own example is this card: "they may choose the same mode or a different one, and if they choose the same mode, may choose the same target or a different one."

Then both executions happen inside one resolution — 340.1: "The newest Finalized Chain Item resolves. Execute its game effects in their entirety." — and damage only kills in the Cleanup that follows (323.5). Three consequences:

The same target twice is eight damage. 4 and 4 are both marked before anything checks for lethal, so a Might 5 to 8 body in their base dies to one card. Split, the same card kills two bodies of Might 4 or less, or one body and one gear.
The order of the two modes does not matter for lethal. Killing a gear first and then dealing 4 to the unit it was on reaches the same Cleanup as the reverse.
A single dodge blanks both executions on that target. 359.3.e.5: "If any of the spell's targets are no longer legal, those game objects, players, or zones are unaffected by the spell as it resolves." Eight to one body is all-in on that body still being in the base at resolution; two targets hedge it.

3. The turns, going first

Mono-Mind. The opponent plays a body a turn to their base (143.4, "Units enter the Board exhausted.") and walks it next turn, so on your turn their base holds whatever they played last.

The rows below are alternatives, not one game: each assumes no earlier recycle, because every Power paid sends a rune back to the Rune Deck (161.2.b) and the board loses it.

alternative                 runes   your Main Phase                               after
A  single on T2             4       Rocket Barrage, one mode: exhaust 4 for E4,   3 runes; one body of
                                    recycle one exhausted Mind rune for the       Might <= 4 in their
                                    Power (164.2.b)                               base dead
B  double on T4, nothing    8       Rocket Barrage + Repeat: exhaust 8 for E8,    6 runes, 0 Energy
   cast before                      recycle two exhausted Mind runes for 2 Mind   spare; 8 to one
                                    Power                                         body, or two bodies
C  as B, Spire controlled   8       the same at E7 + 2 Mind                       1 Energy spare
D  double on T5, nothing    10      the same at E8 + 2, leaving 2 runes ready     2 Energy spare
   cast before

Carried through from A, the board is 3 runes after T2, 5 on T3 and 7 on T4, so E8 + 2 is not payable on T4: the double comes on T4 only with the Spire controlled (E7 + 2 exactly, 0 spare), or on T5 with 9 runes and 1 spare.

T4 is the earliest double for a deck that skipped the T2 single, and it is the whole turn. Eight runes pay E8 because 164.2.b's cost is the recycle, not an exhaust ("Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]."), so the two runes already tapped for Energy still pay the two Mind Power. You end at six runes with nothing ready.
The Spire is worth exactly 1 Energy, and only after you have walked a body in and taken it.
T5 with nothing cast before is the double that survives a tax, for the reason in §4.

4. Breaks to

OGN-045 Defy — Calm, E1 + 1 Power: "Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:." Rocket Barrage is the rules' own worked example of being in range with its Repeat paid — 206: "Rocket Barrage is a legal target for Defy even if Rocket Barrage’s Repeat cost is paid, because Defy only checks the printed or copied cost of its target." Countered, nothing resolves and nothing comes back — 425.1.c: "Countering does not refund any costs paid to play a card, activate an ability, or trigger an ability.", and 425.1.c.1: "This includes additional costs." That is E8 + 2 Mind Power and two runes off the board, for E1 + 1.

Outside Calm, SFD-136 Hard Bargain — Chaos, E2, counters a spell unless its controller pays 2 Energy. The T4 double leaves 0 ready and loses the spell to it; the T5 double leaves 2 and pays. A deck that also cast the T2 single never reaches 2 spare in time: 0 on T4 with the Spire, 1 on T5, so it loses the double to Hard Bargain through T5.

Keep nothing in the base. 355.2.a lets them play a unit to "the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls", so an opponent who holds a battlefield can play there and leave the "unit in a base" mode with no target; the spell is then two gear kills or nothing.

5. Verdict

The entry is right that one card buys both modes, and leaves out that both are chosen up front. Because the two choices are locked at casting and lethal is checked only after both resolve, the strongest use is not the two different modes but the same body twice: eight damage to something in their base that four would not kill. The cost of that choice is that one dodge blanks the whole card.

It scores nothing: E4 + 1 for one execution from T2, E8 + 2 for two from T4 if nothing was cast before (E7 + 2 with the Spire, which is also the only T4 double after a T2 single), and it breaks to OGN-045 Defy for E1 + 1 Power at any point, or to SFD-136 Hard Bargain for E2 when you cast the double on T4 with nothing left ready.

6. Not verified

I did not walk which Reaction-speed moves can pull a unit out of a base in response (the dodge in §2.3 is stated, not enumerated), the gear mode against an attached Equipment, or 2v2.

Leads

The entry lists "two different base targets" and "both modes" but not the same target twice. 820.2.a allows it, and with both executions resolving before the Cleanup (340.1, 323.5) it is eight damage to one body.
Step 5 reads as if the second choice follows the first ("Resolve the second. 820.2.a lets you choose the other mode"). 820.2 makes both choices at the Make Relevant Choices step, so nothing learned from the first execution can change the second.
The ledger does not say the earliest double is T4 (for a deck that skipped the single on T2; after it, T4 needs the Spire) and leaves 0 Energy ready, which is what exposes it to SFD-136 Hard Bargain; on T5 it has 2 spare.