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the fourth body walks home

Issue #307 (a slice of #200), 2026-10-07. 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: repulse-heedless-resurrection-shrink-target-count, the Body/Chaos ENGINE in which an enemy trigger chooses three of your units, two UNL-142 Heedless Resurrection kill two of them as their cost and play them back from the trash, and UNL-106 Repulse then counters the trigger, because it now chooses only one friendly unit. The entry is right about the rule, and the case is Riot's own: the example at 359.3.e.9.a is OGN-041 Volibear, Furious. Walked as a game, the line wins the combat it is built for, but only for a garrison of exactly three. The attacker picks how many units the trigger chooses, so a fourth body at the battlefield breaks the line for free, and on the turn Volibear arrives the right play is to walk one home. A fifth body would have won the fight without any spell. What breaks the line is a one-rune counter on Repulse after both Heedless Resurrections are paid.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-07 at b39a3a3, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 65 of them with no play, unchanged from the issue. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 35 (a hit on first), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 34, played in Time Warp comes a turn early, and a one-rune counter takes it.

1. Needs

Legenda Body/Chaos legend (103.1.b); here OGN-267 Bounty Hunter, idle in the walk
Firstthree bodies at your battlefield A, and no fourth
Held openfive runes through their turn, two Chaos and one Body among them (5 Energy and 3 Power)
Thentwo UNL-142 Heedless Resurrection (Chaos, E2 + 1 Power) and UNL-106 Repulse (Body, E1 + 1 Power)

The card text the play turns on:

2. Your order: kill two, then counter

The rule is 359.3.e.9.a: "If another spell or ability attempts to reference the number of game objects, players, or zones that a Finalized Chain Item targets, it will include any mistargeted choices, but not any targets that have changed to a non-board zone." Riot works it with these cards. A move does not shrink the count: "In reaction, the defending player plays Flash moving two of the three units back. That player cannot then target the attack trigger with Repulse". A kill does: "If the defending player instead played Heedless Resurrection twice, killing the two units, Repulse can legally target the attack trigger, because two of the targets have changed to a non-board zone."

The kill is the cost, so it happens while Heedless Resurrection is being played. 356.2.a.1: "Some Additional Costs specified by Passive Abilities on the card being played or another card are Mandatory, and must be paid to complete playing the card." The killed unit is in your trash before the spell resolves. When it resolves, the killed unit itself always meets "costs no more Energy and no more Power than the killed unit", so each Heedless Resurrection can play its own victim back. It is a new object, 359.3.e.4: "If a target changes Zones to or from a Non-Board Zone and then returns to its original zone, it is no longer a legal target, because it's not treated as the same object." It enters exhausted (143.4), and it can enter at A, because 355.2.a reads "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." A is still yours while you defend it. If combat is going on there, the returned unit joins it, 464.2.c.3.a: "If a Unit controlled by the Attacker or Defender becomes present at this Battlefield after this moment, it will gain the Attacker or Defender designation during the Cleanup phase following the action that caused it to become present, as appropriate for its controller."

So two Heedless Resurrections leave the trigger choosing one friendly unit, and Repulse on that unit is legal. The bodies are all still yours. The line costs five runes exhausted and three recycled, two Chaos and one Body, and the five have to be ready on the opponent's turn.

The count is theirs to choose, and that is the play's own finding. 355.14.b: "The Targets are chosen when the spell or ability is finalized on the chain." 355.14.c: "A number of Targets can only be chosen up to, and not exceeding, the initial amount of damage available when the spell is played." Five damage is up to five targets, so Volibear chooses every body you have at A, up to five. Each Heedless Resurrection takes one body out of the count, and Repulse needs the count at one, so two in hand cover a garrison of three and no more. A fourth body at A makes Repulse illegal, and the attacker pays nothing for that.

3. Their order: Volibear on T5, attacking on T6

Fury/Body ramp with OGN-249 Relentless Storm, Volibear's own legend, holding B. Going second they have eleven runes on their T5. Volibear costs ten exhausted and two Fury recycled. He is Mighty, so the legend channels one rune back: ten on the board. He enters exhausted, so he attacks on their T6, from their base, because 144.4.a reads "Units may move from their Base to a Battlefield."

When combat opens at A, the attack trigger goes on the chain and chooses its targets then. The damage is split later, 355.14.e: "The choice of how much damage is divided across the split is not decided until the resolution of the spell or ability." That cuts both ways. Kill two of three targets and the trigger still resolves, 359.3.e.8: "If an instruction has more than one Target and fewer than all of the Targets become Invalid or Unavailable by the time the spell begins resolving, the instruction will execute, with only the Targets available and valid being operated on." The last target then takes all five.

The fight they expect: your three defenders, Shipyard Skulker 3, Ember Monk 4 and another Skulker 3, are ten against Volibear's nine. The trigger's five kills the Monk and puts one on a Skulker, and six cannot kill a 9-Might unit. Then he assigns his nine with lethal in full first, 465.2.c.3: "Units must have lethal damage assigned to them in full before damage is assigned to a different Unit." Two kill the damaged Skulker, three kill the other, and he conquers A.

4. The turns, going first

Body/Chaos against Fury/Body. Your rune deck is six Body and six Chaos.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Veteran Poro (E2) to base                                 0
their T1        Pouty Poro to base, with the 485.7 extra rune.
T2      4       Poro walks to A, Conquer: +1. Shipyard Skulker (E3) to A. 1
their T2        Pouty Poro walks to B, Conquer. Sentinel Adept (E3) to B.
T3      6       Hold A: +1. Ember Monk (E4) to A.                         2
their T3        Hold B. Bilgewater Bully (E6) to B.
T4      8       Hold A: +1. A second Skulker (E3) to A. Four bodies,      3
                twelve Might. Five runes idle.
their T4        Hold B. Combat Chef (E5) to B. B defends at sixteen.
T5      10      Hold A: +1. The hand is two Heedless Resurrection, a      4
                Repulse and nothing else castable: ten runes idle.
their T5        Hold B. Volibear (E10 + 2 Fury Power) to base: ten runes
                exhausted, two Fury recycled. Relentless Storm channels
                one rune exhausted. Ten runes.
T6      12      Hold A: +1. The Poro walks home (144.4.b): three bodies    5
                at A, ten Might. Twelve runes idle; five are the line.
their T6        Hold B. Volibear walks to A. Combat; his trigger chooses
                all three. Heedless Resurrection: Skulker 1 dies as the
                cost and comes back to A. Again for Skulker 2. Repulse
                on the Monk: the trigger is countered. Ten against
                nine: Volibear dies, two of the three die, and A stays
                yours.
T7      11      Hold A: +1.                                               6

Their points: 1 on T2, then one Hold a turn, 5 on T6. The opponent was never idle. They took B, built it to sixteen, and spent their T5 on a 9-Might threat.

The walk home on T6 is 144.4.b: "Units may move from a Battlefield to their Base." With the Poro at A, Volibear chooses all four. Two Heedless Resurrections leave two chosen, so Repulse is illegal, and the trigger's five lands on those two. The best pair to leave is the two Skulkers, which five cannot both kill: one dies, and the Poro, the Monk and the damaged Skulker are nine against nine. Volibear dies, his nine kill all three, and A is left empty, so you lose it at the next cleanup (323.6). Leave any other pair and it is seven or eight against nine, and he conquers. Without the Poro, A has ten Might on three bodies, and the line can shrink three.

The combat after Repulse: the Monk, which was never killed, and the two returned Skulkers, defenders from the next cleanup. 465.2.b: "Sum the Might of all Defending Units." That is ten against nine. Volibear dies. His nine can kill only two of the three, the Monk and a Skulker or both Skulkers, as he chooses. 466.3.a: "A Player has won a combat if they received either the attacker or defender designation and are the only Player that has units remaining at this battlefield during this step." The line cost three cards and three runes off the board (twelve to nine), and it killed a ten-Energy unit and kept A.

A fifth body would have done it for free. Had T5 drawn OGN-131 Dune Drake (Body, E5, M5) and put it on A, the garrison would be seventeen on five bodies. The trigger can kill at most the Poro and a Skulker. Twelve Might is left, Volibear dies, and no spell is cast. The line is for a thin board. Here the board was thin because the hand was three [Reaction] spells, which is also why T4 to T6 idled five, ten and twelve runes. Two of the three Heedless Resurrections and one of the three Repulses are in hand by their T6, after the opening four cards and six draws from 39, 8.4% of the time.

5. Breaks to

The line breaks to OGN-045 Defy (Calm, E1 + 1 Power: one rune), cast on Repulse after both Heedless Resurrections are paid: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:." Repulse costs one and one. Both Heedless Resurrections have resolved, so the two Skulkers are back at A, and Repulse's rune is gone, 425.1.c: "Countering does not refund any costs paid to play a card, activate an ability, or trigger an ability." But the trigger resolves on the Monk alone, with all five (355.14.e, 359.3.e.8), and the Monk dies. Six against nine: Volibear survives, kills both Skulkers, and conquers A. You are down three cards, three units, three runes and A. They spent one rune. Volibear is not a Signature card, so a Fury/Calm build of this deck (VEN-139 Rogue Assassin) can hold Defy beside him. VEN-039 Crumbling Sands does the same for the same rune, because by then you have played another spell this turn. Defy on a Heedless Resurrection breaks it too: that Skulker stays in the trash, and the Monk and the other Skulker are seven against nine.

The reply is UNL-131 Abandon (Chaos, E2: two runes): "Counter a spell. Return it to its owner's hand instead of putting it in their trash." The line plus Abandon is seven runes, and T6 idled twelve. A second counter from them, at one rune more, wins the exchange.

And it breaks for nothing to a fourth body, as §4 shows. Before Volibear is on the board, nothing tells you to keep A at three.

6. Verdict

Right when it lands, for a garrison of exactly three, and in hand one game in twelve. The rules reading is right. A kill takes a target out of the count, a move does not, and Repulse is legal once two of three are gone. The play adds two prices. The attacker picks the count, so the line covers one body more than the Heedless Resurrections in hand. On the turn Volibear arrives that means walking a body off the battlefield you are defending, while one more body put on it would win the fight with no cards spent. And the payoff is the last spell played, at one Energy and one Power, which is exactly what the cheapest counter in the pool counters.

7. Not verified

I did not walk OGN-250 Stormbringer (Volibear's Signature spell), which chooses one of their units and a battlefield and none of yours, so Repulse cannot touch it. I did not walk three Heedless Resurrections against four bodies, a token among the targets (a token costs 0, 185.3.a.1, so its Heedless Resurrection returns nothing), Riot's Flash version, or 2v2. The walk puts the returned Skulkers at A in the middle of the combat, on 355.2.a and 464.2.c.3.a; no paragraph says in one sentence that a unit played by a spell's effect may enter a battlefield during combat. If they had to go to base, the Monk would defend alone at four against nine, A would fall, and the line would save the two Skulkers but not the battlefield.

Leads