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the Seer stays home and the Birds answer their spell

Issue #303 (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: gemcraft-seer-flurry-of-feathers-bird-dig, the Calm/Mind ENGINE in which OGN-100 Gemcraft Seer gives [Vision] to the four Bird tokens of UNL-044 Flurry of Feathers, and 817.2.b turns four Visions into one look with up to three re-rolls: a four-deep dig with a stop button. The entry is right about 817.2.b, which is its whole content, and right that the dig never burns you out. Walked as a game, the best time to dig is the opponent's turn, and on their turn the only window is a card of theirs on the chain. So the dig is a response, and the Birds can be the answer to that card as well as four looks. What breaks it is a [Reaction] that kills the Seer first.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-07 at 4035579, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 69 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 31 (a hit on first), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 30, played in LeBlanc stays home and two bodies keep the Tomb.

1. Needs

Legendany Calm/Mind legend (103.1.b); here OGN-255 Nine-Tailed Fox
Firsta battlefield of your own, taken by OGN-052 Stalwart Poro (Calm, E2, M2)
ThenOGN-100 Gemcraft Seer (Mind, E3 + 1 Power, M3), at your base
HeldUNL-044 Flurry of Feathers (Calm, E4 + 2 Power) and four ready runes, two of them Calm

The card text the play turns on:

2. Your order: the Seer first, the Birds in response

The Seer has to be on the board first, because the Birds get [Vision] from his static as they arrive. 383.2.c.1: "If a Game Object has a Triggered Ability that is active in a specific zone, it is evaluated and subsequently triggered if it enters that zone at the same time that its Trigger's condition is met." And Vision's trigger is entering, not being played, 817.1.c: "The trigger is the permanent entering the Board." Flurry first and Seer after gives one look, the Seer's own.

The four triggers go on the chain in the order you pick, 383.3.d: "If more than one Triggered Ability is Triggered simultaneously, then the player that controls the Abilities selects the order to place them on the Chain." Each one is its own choice, 817.2.a: "The player may choose to recycle or not recycle for each instance of Vision separately." And declining stops the dig, 817.2.b: "If the player does not recycle the top card and nothing else happens in between the triggers resolving, each instance of Vision will see the same card." A recycled card goes to the bottom, 416.1.a: "Main Deck cards are Recycled to the Main Deck."

When to dig is the real decision. Nothing about the dig draws, so the card you stop on waits on top for your next Draw Phase (315.4.b, "1. The Turn Player draws 1."). Digging on the opponent's turn costs the same and keeps Flurry's other mode open until then, since a spell worth countering may come first. But on their turn you have no priority in an open state. 312.2.a gives it "When the turn is in a Neutral Open State during their Main Phase", meaning your own, and the closed-state windows are 312.2.c and 312.2.d, which need a chain. Flurry's [Reaction] is the permission to use them, 813.1.c.1: "This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn." So on their turn the dig is always a response to something of theirs, and the Birds land before that thing resolves, 340.1: "The newest Finalized Chain Item resolves."

Where the Birds go is yours too. Flurry names no place, so 355.2.a applies: "By default, Valid locations include the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." If their spell is removal on your garrison, the Birds go to that battlefield and hold it after the garrison dies.

The Seer stays at the base for the same reason. OGN-169 Gust (Chaos, E1, [Reaction]) returns "a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less", and OGN-009 Hextech Ray deals 3 "to a unit at a battlefield"; neither reaches a base.

3. Their order: removal on your garrison

Fury/Chaos against you, holding the other battlefield, B. On their T3 they cast OGN-009 Hextech Ray (Fury, E1 + 1 Power), "Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield.", on the Poro holding your battlefield, A. That is the chain you were waiting for.

4. The turns, going first

Calm/Mind against Fury/Chaos.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Stalwart Poro (E2) at base                                0
their T1        a unit at base, with the 485.7 extra rune.
T2      4       Poro walks to A, Conquer: +1. Gemcraft Seer (E3 + 1       1
                Mind Power) to base: three runes exhausted, one Mind
                rune recycled. His own Vision: one look. 3 runes on
                the board.
their T2        their unit walks to B, Conquer.
T3      5       Hold A: +1. Spend at most one rune: four stay ready,      2
                two of them Calm.
their T3        Hextech Ray on the Poro at A. In response: Flurry of
                Feathers, Birds mode (four runes exhausted, two Calm
                recycled), all four Birds to A. Flurry resolves first,
                four Visions trigger: look, recycle, look, recycle,
                look, stop. Then Hextech Ray kills the Poro. Four Birds
                still occupy A.
T4      5       Hold A: +1. Draw Phase: the card you stopped on.          3

The dig cost no card of yours that the opponent did not also spend, and A survived a spell that was meant to take it. 431.1.c keeps the dig safe even with a thin deck: "If an instruction directs a player to look at or reveal cards in excess to the number of cards in a player's Main Deck, that player looks at or Reveals as many as possible, but does not Burn Out, then proceeds with the rest of the instruction."

5. Breaks to

The line breaks to OGN-033 Shakedown (Fury, E2 + 1 Power, two runes, one recycled), cast in response to Flurry: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose an enemy unit. Deal 6 to it unless its controller has you draw 2." It names any enemy unit, so the Seer at the base is in reach, and it resolves before Flurry (340.1). You choose. Take 6 and the Seer dies: when the Birds enter, no static is active, 383.2.c.1 has nothing to trigger, and the dig is four bodies and no looks. Or let them draw 2, keep the Seer, and pay two cards for a dig that draws none. Either way the engine is worse than the cards it spent. Answering Shakedown takes a second Flurry in counter mode, four more runes you do not have on T3.

UNL-131 Abandon (Chaos, E2) is cheaper and stops one dig: "Counter a spell. Return it to its owner's hand instead of putting it in their trash." You lose the four runes Flurry spent, two of them off the board, and keep the card and the Seer, so it delays the engine rather than breaking it. OGN-045 Defy cannot reach Flurry, which costs two Power.

6. Verdict

A four-deep dig with a stop button, as the entry says, and on the opponent's turn it is a reaction. The rules reading is right. The play adds the order: the Seer on the board before Flurry, the Seer at the base, and Flurry held for the first card the opponent puts on the chain, so the Birds can also stand where their spell was aimed. The line breaks to a two-rune [Reaction] that kills the Seer before the Birds arrive, or makes you pay two cards to keep him.

7. Not verified

I did not walk the counter mode used on their T3 instead, the dig taken on your own Main Phase, or UNL-077 Soul Shepherd beside the Birds. I did not check whether the opponent may respond between the four Vision triggers, which 817.2.b's "nothing else happens in between" allows for. 2v2 was not walked.

Leads