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LeBlanc is the whole army, and the army walks one body a turn

Issue #260 (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: sprite-queen-leblanc-permanent-army, 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.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-05 at 0e77706, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 81 of them with no play. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 19 (hits on first and before), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 18, played in the Guardian buffs Sett too.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Mind in its pair (103.1.b)
Firsta battlefield you control
ThenUNL-090 LeBlanc, Everywhere at Once (Mind, E4, M4) played to it
AndUNL-084 Sprite Queen (Mind, E7 + 1 Power, M6), anywhere

The card text the play turns on:

2. The order inside each turn

A Sprite is born at the base, and LeBlanc's clause covers only her battlefield. So every Sprite has one Main Phase to get there, and the walk is the engine:

  1. Beginning Phase. The Queen's trigger plays a new Sprite at the base. It survives this Beginning Phase, because the [Temporary] trigger's condition has already been met before it existed — 816.1.c: "The Trigger Condition is the controller of the permanent's Beginning Phase starting." Every older Sprite stands at LeBlanc's battlefield and does not trigger at all.
  2. Main Phase. The new Sprite is printed ready, so it can pay the move's cost the turn it arrives — 144.2: "Exhausting the Unit is the Cost for this action." — and walk from the base, 144.4.a: "Units may move from their Base to a Battlefield."
  3. Next Beginning Phase. Anything still at the base dies — 816.1.b: "At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this."

Skip the walk once and that Sprite is gone. Lose LeBlanc once and all of them are.

3. The turns, going first

Mono-Mind. The opponent contests the other battlefield and attacks this one when it can.

turn   runes   your turn                                              at battlefield A
T1     2       Watchful Sentry (E2) at base                           —
T2     4       Sentry walks to A and conquers (144.4.a).              Sentry
               Ravenbloom Student + Forecaster at base.
T3     6       Hold A (1 point). Student and Forecaster walk to A.    Sentry, Student, Forecaster,
               LeBlanc to A (E4), a 2-drop to A with the last 2.      LeBlanc, a 2-drop
T4     8       Hold A. Sprite Queen at base: exhaust 7, recycle one   + Sprite 1
               for the Mind Power (164.2.b). Her play trigger gives
               Sprite 1, ready; it walks to A. 7 runes remain.
T5     9       Hold A. Beginning Phase: Sprite 2 at base.             + Sprite 2
               Main Phase: Sprite 2 walks to A.
T6+    +2      one more Sprite a turn, same walk                      + one a turn

LeBlanc can be played straight to A because 355.2.a makes a battlefield you control a default play location: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." The Queen does not need to be at A; her trigger plays to the base wherever she stands, so she can sit at home.

By T8 that is five permanent 3-Might Sprites at A for no Energy after T4. The points come from holding A, one a turn from T3: the contested Hold curve, nothing faster. The Sprites make A expensive to attack; they score nothing themselves.

4. Breaks to

The army breaks to OGN-213 Hidden Blade (Order, E2 + 1 Power, "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2.") aimed at LeBlanc. Every Sprite at A then dies at your next Beginning Phase in one stroke, because the clause that kept them alive left with her. The opponent pays E2 + 1 and a card; you draw two and lose the whole army. The Queen keeps making one Sprite a turn, but none of them survive past the next Beginning Phase until another LeBlanc arrives.

Combat does not reach her first. [Backline] puts her last in line for damage, so an attacker has to kill every Sprite before a point lands on LeBlanc. That is exactly why the answer is a removal spell and not an attack — and why OGN-133 Flurry of Blades ("Deal 1 to all units at battlefields.") does nothing to the army: the Sprites are 3 Might and LeBlanc is 4. It does kill the T3 garrison's OGN-096 Watchful Sentry (Might 1), whose [Deathknell] draws you a card.

A bounce is as good as a kill. UNL-128 Star-Crossed (Chaos, E3 + 1 Power, [Reaction], "Return a friendly unit and an enemy unit to their owners' hands.") sends LeBlanc home on their turn; your Beginning Phase comes before your Main Phase, so the Sprites die before you can replay her.

5. Verdict

Two cards, eleven Energy and one Mind Power, and then a permanent 3-Might body every turn for free — as long as LeBlanc is standing. It is a wall that grows by one a turn behind a 4-Might pin, and the pin costs the opponent E2 + 1 Order with OGN-213 Hidden Blade. It scores nothing of its own.

6. Not verified

I did not walk a two-domain shell, the Sprite consumers that count [Temporary] bodies, or 2v2.

Leads