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the tax is paid, the prohibition is walked around, and one Energy does both

Issue #262 (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: petricite-monument-ruin-runner-tax-versus-prohibition, 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.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-05 at 1e5a8c3, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 79 of them with no play. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 21 (a hit on before), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 20, played in Jae draws before anything fights.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Body in its pair (103.1.b)
FirstSFD-105 Ruin Runner (Body, E6, M5) standing at a battlefield you hold
ThenSFD-104 Petricite Monument (Body gear, E2), played in your Main Phase
Andthe rest of the garrison: whatever the curve put there

The card text the play turns on:

2. The order: the Monument before their spell

[Deflect] is charged when the opponent PLAYS a spell — 809.1.c: "Spells and abilities an opponent controls that target [me/this] cost an amount of Power equal to [Deflect Value] more to play as an additional cost for each time they choose [me/this]." A spell already on the chain has paid its costs, so a Monument that arrives after it taxes nothing. And the Monument is a gear with no [Reaction], so it cannot arrive in response anyway. It has one window: your own Main Phase, before the turn you want covered.

Its [Temporary] then lines up exactly with what it is for — 816.1.b: "At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this." Played on your T4, it covers the rest of your T4 and the whole of the opponent's T4, and dies at the start of your T5. It never sits through a turn of yours that it was not bought for. Gear is live the moment it lands — 149.1: "Gear enter play Ready." — but the Monument has no ability to use, so that only means it needs no setup.

Ruin Runner needs no window at all: 054.1 makes his prohibition beat every permission to choose him — "Cards that forbid actions or effects, as a broad method of determination, supersede cards that allow or permit that same action or effect." No amount of Power buys through it.

3. The turns, going first

Mono-Body. The opponent holds the other battlefield, B, and carries cheap removal.

turn   runes   your turn                                                  at A
T1     2       Determined Sentry x2 (E1 each) at base                     —
T2     4       A Sentry walks to A, Conquer. 4 Energy of bodies at base.  Sentry
T3     6       Hold A: +1. Bodies walk to A. Ruin Runner (E6) at base.    Sentry, bodies
T4     8       Hold A: +1. Runner walks to A. Petricite Monument (E2).    Sentry, bodies,
               6 Energy left for more bodies.                             Ruin Runner
their T4       Every single-target removal on the garrison costs one      (taxed)
               extra rainbow per choice. Runner cannot be chosen.
T5     10      Beginning Phase: the Monument dies, then Hold A: +1.        same
               Replay a second Monument (E2) to cover their T5.

Three copies are three round trips (103.2.b), E2 and a card each. Ruin Runner is permanent and costs nothing more after T3.

4. Breaks to

Both protections are answers to CHOOSING, and a sweep chooses nothing. 355.10.d: "It is programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen by the spell or ability’s controller." — with the example "“Kill all units at battlefields” doesn’t target anything."

The garrison 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."). It pays no Deflect tax, because it chooses no unit, and it kills every Might-1 body at A — both Determined Sentries the curve opened with. One Energy, at [Reaction] speed, on either player's turn, and the Monument is no help at all. Ruin Runner survives it at Might 5.

Ruin Runner breaks to OGN-268 Bullet Time (Body/Chaos, E1, "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Pay any amount of :rb_rune_rainbow: to deal that much damage to all enemy units at a battlefield.") at X = 5: E1 + 5 Power kills him and every other body at A of Might 5 or less, in one card that targets the battlefield and not a unit. It is a Signature card tagged Miss Fortune, so only a Bounty Hunter (OGN-267) deck can run it. Outside that deck, the answer is combat: an attack is not a spell or an ability choosing him, and 465's damage step kills a 5-Might body that takes 5.

The tax itself breaks to Power. Against a single-target spell the Monument costs the opponent one rainbow per body chosen, nothing more. OGN-213 Hidden Blade on a garrison body goes from E2 + 1 to E2 + 2. A player with a rune to spare simply pays.

5. Verdict

The contrast is real and the line is weak. Ruin Runner is a 5-Might body no single-target spell can touch, and the Monument makes the rest of the garrison cost one rainbow more per choice for exactly one round trip, if you played it in your own Main Phase. Neither does anything against the cheapest answer in the pool to a Body opening: OGN-133 Flurry of Blades, E1, which chooses nothing and kills every Might-1 body at A. The points are the contested Hold curve; nothing here scores.

6. Not verified

I did not walk a two-domain shell, a Monument held for a turn where the opponent removes it first, or 2v2. That a Monument played after the opponent's spell is already on the chain taxes nothing is read from 809.1.c's "to play" and from 809.1.d's "Mandatory Additional Cost"; I did not find a worked example.

Leads