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the Pouch draws until one spell kills both holders

Issue #301 (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: mushroom-pouch-smoke-and-mirrors-facedown-tenure, the mono-Mind ENGINE in which OGN-101 Mushroom Pouch draws a card every Beginning Phase off UNL-083 Smoke and Mirrors left face down at a battlefield you hold. The entry is right that the draw is free once it is set up and that the facedown card lives exactly as long as the battlefield is yours. Walked as a game, the engine's real cost is not the hide: it is the garrison. One holder dies to a one-rune spell outside any combat, two holders die to a two-rune spell, and the hidden card is only saved, not lost, if a third unit of yours stands somewhere else.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-07 at b1de50c, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 71 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 28 (a hit on before), first in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 29, played in Draven passes first and Rebukes their answer.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Mind in its pair (103.1.b); the entry lists sixteen names
Firsta battlefield you control, taken by SFD-065 Forecaster (Mind, E2, M2)
ThenOGN-101 Mushroom Pouch (Mind gear, E2) and UNL-083 Smoke and Mirrors (Mind, E2) hidden for one rainbow
Beside ita second unit at another location, OGN-096 Watchful Sentry (Mind, E2, M1) at base, and a second holder, UNL-076 Petal Pixie (Mind, E2, M2)

The card text the play turns on:

2. Your order: the battlefield first, then the hide

The hide needs a battlefield that is already yours. 811.1.b: "While this card is in your hand or in your Champion Zone on your turn during an Open State, you may pay [A] to hide this facedown at a battlefield you control that doesn't already have a facedown card hidden there for as long as you control that battlefield. Beginning on the next turn, this gains [Reaction] and you may play this, ignoring its base cost." The zone says the same thing — 107.3.c: "Cards can only be placed in or occupy the Facedown Zone if the controller of the card also controls the associated Battlefield." So the order on T2 is forced: the Forecaster walks onto the empty battlefield first, the Showdown it opens closes with nobody else there, and only then, back in an Open State, is there anywhere to hide.

The tenure is the same sentence read the other way. 107.3.d: "If a player loses Control of a Battlefield, any cards in the Facedown Zone associated with that Battlefield are removed during the next Cleanup." And outside a combat, Control is only as long as the garrison — 190.4.a: "If a player controls Units at a Battlefield, outside of Combat, they maintain Control of that Battlefield for as long as they have Units at that Battlefield." — and 190.4.c: "If a player has no Units at a Battlefield and the turn is in an Open state, they lose Control of that Battlefield in the following cleanup unless there is a Combat or Showdown ongoing there."

3. Their order: kill the garrison outside a combat

The entry's protection is 190.4.b: "While a Combat or Showdown is ongoing at a Battlefield, Control of that Battlefield cannot change until instructed by steps of the Combat or Showdown." That protects the card during an attack, and the attack is not the cheap answer. The cheap answer is a removal spell in the opponent's own Main Phase, where 190.4.b does not apply, aimed at the units holding the battlefield. When the last holder dies, 190.4.c strips Control at the next Cleanup and 107.3.d takes the facedown card with it.

The card does not have to go for nothing. A facedown card has [Reaction] — 811.6: "A card that is Hidden gains Reaction while facedown or played from facedown, and may be played any time a card with Reaction may be played as a result." — so Smoke and Mirrors can be played for 0 in response to the removal and still draws its card. But it has two targets, and 811.1.d bars it with nothing to choose: "Some choices made while playing a card from Hidden are restricted to the battlefield where it was hidden. A card cannot be played from Hidden if it is a spell with no valid targets under these restrictions." 811.1.d.2.a is Riot's ruling on this exact card: "If Smoke and Mirrors is played from hidden, the first unit chosen can be chosen at the battlefield Smoke and Mirrors was played from, so it must be. The second unit chosen explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible, so it can be chosen from any location." So the response needs a unit of yours at the battlefield and another one anywhere else. That is the Watchful Sentry's job at base. With only the holder on the board the card cannot be played at all, and it is removed unplayed.

4. The turns, going first

Mono-Mind against Fury/Calm. The opponent takes the other battlefield, B, on their T2.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points  draws, total
T1      2       Forecaster (E2) at base                                   0
T2      4       Forecaster walks to A, Conquer: +1. Mushroom Pouch        1
                (E2). Watchful Sentry (E2) at base. Hide Smoke and
                Mirrors at A for one rainbow: one of the four exhausted
                runes is recycled. 3 runes on the board.
T3      5       Hold A: +1. Pouch: draw 1. Second Pouch (E2). Petal       2       1
                Pixie (E2) played to A. 1 rune left.
their T3        Hextech Ray (E1 + 1 Fury Power) on the Forecaster. The
                Pixie still holds A; nothing else changes.
T4      7       Hold A: +1. Both Pouches: draw 2.                         3       3

The hide's rainbow comes from a rune, so it takes one off the board — 164.2.b.1: "The Power added this way corresponds to the Domain of the Rune that is being Recycled." — and 161.2.b: "When a Rune is Recycled it is returned to the Rune Deck, not the Main Deck." The rune is exhausted for the Pouch's Energy first; the recycle asks nothing about readiness. That is why T3 has five runes and not six.

The Pixie is played straight to A, not walked there. 355.2.a: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." A unit played there costs no Standard Move, so the second holder arrives on the turn it is paid for.

Three Pouches draw three a turn off one facedown card, as the entry says. They do it only from the first Beginning Phase after the hide, and only while A has a unit of yours on it.

5. Breaks to

The line breaks to SFD-023 Piercing Light (Fury, E2 + 1 Power, "[Repeat] :rb_energy_2: :rb_rune_fury: (You may pay the additional cost to repeat this spell's effect.) Deal 2 to a unit at a battlefield, then deal 2 to up to one other unit."), cast in the opponent's Main Phase on their T3 instead of Hextech Ray, aimed at the Forecaster and the Pixie. Both are Might 2, so both die. In response you play Smoke and Mirrors from facedown for 0: the Forecaster at A and the Sentry at base, neither with [Temporary], so nothing moves and you draw 1. Piercing Light resolves, A has no unit of yours, 190.4.c takes Control at the next Cleanup, and the Pouches have no facedown card to read. It costs the opponent two runes: two exhausted for the Energy, one of them recycled for the Fury Power. You lose two holders, the battlefield's Hold, and every Pouch draw until you take a battlefield back and hide a second card for a second rainbow.

With one holder it is one rune. OGN-009 Hextech Ray (Fury, E1 + 1 Power, "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield.") kills a lone Forecaster, and one rune pays it: exhausted for the Energy, then recycled for the Power. That is why the play spends T3 on a second holder instead of a third Pouch.

An attack also works, and the entry already knows it. If the opponent walks a bigger garrison onto A and wins the combat, 466.5.c removes the card: "Remove all Hidden cards from this Battlefield that do not share a controller with the Battlefield." 190.4.b makes the card playable inside that combat, so the attack costs you the engine and not the card. The removal spell costs you both holders as well, and it is cheaper.

6. Verdict

Three cards by T4 for one rainbow, and it ends to a two-rune spell. The ordering is forced twice: the battlefield must be yours before anything can be hidden, and the hidden spell can only be rescued in response to the removal if a unit of yours stands at a second location. The draws are real and the engine is cheap. What protects it is the garrison at A, and that has to be defended like any Hold.

7. Not verified

I did not walk a holder with [Temporary], which would make Smoke and Mirrors move the two units when it is played in response and could carry the holder out of the removal's battlefield. I did not walk UNL-014 Monster Harpoon, the entry's suggested second payload, or a removal spell that chooses no target, or 2v2.

Leads