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the Bow fires before the giant swings, and one Calm counter undoes the turn

Issue #252 (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: noxian-guillotine-recurve-bow-delayed-kill, 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.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs re-run on 2026-10-05 at 63b679a reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language and 102 in the queue, unchanged from the last slice. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play. This entry is rank 8 (two hits on first); rank 7 is played in the Blade draws what it costs. The other entry of this slice is rank 10, played in the buff is a Flurry insurance policy; rank 9 already has a play.

1. Needs

LegendOGN-253 Hand of Noxus — forced: the Guillotine is a Signature card tagged Darius
The killOGN-254 Noxian Guillotine (Fury/Order spell, E4 + 1 Power, [Action]) x3
The damageSFD-016 Recurve Bow (Fury gear, E2, Might Bonus +0, [Equip] one Fury rune)
Carrier, walked hereOGN-219 Vanguard Sergeant (Order, E4, M4) — not in the entry
BodiesOGN-210 Daring Poro (Order, E2, M2), SFD-159 Trusty Ramhound (Order, E2, M2)
Board it wantsan enemy battlefield with one big body on it

The card text the play turns on:

2. The rule, and why it holds

158.2's worked example is the Guillotine's own text: "If the Legion condition is satisfied, the unit is killed immediately and the instruction to kill it the next time it takes damage is ignored, even if the unit remains on the board somehow." So the order of the turn decides the mode, and 812.1.c says what counts: "As long as a card different than the one with the Legion ability has been Finalized by you on the same turn then the Dependent Ability is Active on the card with Legion." A card, not an ability. Two consequences for the walk:

3. The turns, going first — 485.7 gives the extra rune to the player going second

R = runes on the board at the start of your Main Phase. A rune pays 1 Energy by exhausting (164.2.a) and 1 Power by recycling (164.2.b); the recycled rune goes to the Rune Deck (161.2.b) and two come back each Channel Phase (315.3.b). [2026-10-24, #456: not the recycled rune. The Channel Phase's two come from the top of the Rune Deck (315.3.b, 430.1) and a recycled rune goes to the bottom (416.1, 416.1.b), so it is channelled again only when the deck reaches it: T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (161.2.a, 485.7); each two more recycled push it a turn later, a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner, and the next Channel Phase gives it back only once the Rune Deck is empty. The R column below already counts two a turn less every rune recycled, so no number in this play changes. The wording above is kept as history.]

       R   your Main Phase                                         spent      you
T1     2   Daring Poro                                              E2          0
T2     4   Poro walks to the empty battlefield A -> Conquer;
           Trusty Ramhound to A; Recurve Bow (unattached, at base)  E4          1
  their T2: a Might 2 body walks into B and Conquers it
T3     6   Hold A. Vanguard Sergeant at base; [Equip] the Bow
           on him (one Fury rune, recycled -> R 5)                  E4+1P       2
  their T3: they play a Might 6 body at B; B now holds 2 + 6
T4     7   Hold A. Noxian Guillotine FIRST, on their Might 6 body
           (recycle -> R 6). Sergeant walks base -> B, attacks.
           Bow trigger: 2 to the marked body -> it dies.
           Damage step: Sergeant (4) vs the Might 2 body (2):
           it dies, he survives. Conquer B. Legend adds 1 E.       E4+1P       4
T5         Hold A and B                                                         6
T6         Hold A and B                                                         8

The Sergeant walks from the base because 144.4.a is the move a body at A does not have: a body already at A would need [Ganking] (144.4.c.1, "Units with Ganking may use their Standard Move to Move from Battlefield to Battlefield."). Poro and Ramhound stay at A so 323.6 does not take it when the Sergeant is elsewhere.

Why the Bow and not just the combat. Combat damage also arms the Guillotine — 417.1.a: damage assigned in the damage step "will cause Damage to be Dealt when assignment is complete" — so a plain attack into the marked body kills it too. But it dies in the same step it hits back. 465.2.c: "each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units". Without the Bow the defenders sum 2 + 6 = 8 against the Sergeant's 4. He can spend 2 on the Might 2 body (465.2.c.3 makes lethal come first) and 2 on the marked one, so both die — and so does he, and with no units left at B nobody conquers it.

The Bow's 2 lands at the attack trigger, before the damage step, so the marked body is gone before 465.2.c sums anything. The defenders now sum 2: the Sergeant takes 2 at Might 4, survives, and puts all 4 into the Might 2 body (465.2.c.4 allows it when "no further units remain to have damage assigned to them"). He is the only unit left and 466.5 gives him the battlefield. The Bow does not make the conquer bloodless here — the small body still fights — it makes it survivable: it removes 6 of the 8 Might that would have killed the attacker. Against a Might 6 body standing alone it is bloodless outright, because 465.1's tasks need "both Attacking and Defending units" and none remain.

On the board it scores what the bodies score. Eight on T6 only if they never retake B; on the ordinary board it is the contested curve, T9, and the Guillotine is the tool that keeps B from being held against you. Three copies (103.2.b) is three such turns a game.

4. Breaks to

OGN-045 Defy — Calm, E1 + 1 Power, [Reaction]: "Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:." The Guillotine costs exactly E4 and one Power, so it is inside Defy's range by one point on each axis. Cast it on the Guillotine; 425.1.c: "Countering does not refund any costs paid to play a card, activate an ability, or trigger an ability." You lose the card and E4 + 1 Power, and the Sergeant now walks into 8 Might of defenders with Might 4. One Energy and one Power undo the turn.

Cheaper, if the carrier is small: OGN-169 Gust — Chaos, E1, [Reaction]: "Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less to its owner's hand." Cast in response to the Bow's trigger, on the carrier. 359.3.f.2's worked example is this case: Yasuo, moved home in response to his own attack trigger, and "“here” is no longer the battlefield where combat is ongoing and the attack trigger mistargets." The Guillotine is scoped "this turn", so it is spent. The Bow's +0 Might Bonus is why this bites: a +0 gear never lifts its carrier out of Gust's range, so the carrier has to be printed at Might 4. That is why the walk uses the Sergeant and not the Poro (Might 3 while attacking, with [Assault]).

What does not break it: damage. OGN-133 Flurry of Blades and every other ping arms the Guillotine for you. The marked body dies to the first point of damage from anyone.

5. Verdict

The rule is right, and the Bow's value is timing, not damage. Played first in the turn, the Guillotine plus a Bow trigger kills a body of any Might before the damage step, so its Might never reaches the attacker: against the board walked here the Sergeant takes 2 instead of 8, survives, and conquers. Played second, it is a plain kill that one would-die shield answers whole.

It scores nothing; priced as a game it is the contested curve, T9, with three turns a game where a big defender does not hold the battlefield. It breaks to OGN-045 Defy for E1 + 1 Power, and to OGN-169 Gust for E1 if the carrier is printed at Might 3 or less.

6. Not verified

I assumed perfect draws, runes in the domains the costs want (108.5.d), and an opponent with two bodies at B, the smaller one Might 2. I did not walk a larger second defender (from Might 4 up the Sergeant does not survive it), the defence half of the Bow on their turn, or a would-die shield on the marked body, which this mode survives only because the delayed kill is not spent by a death that did not happen.

Leads