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Akali's Shroud goes on before she moves, and on their turn she is a plain 4

Issue #347 (a slice of #200), 2026-10-14. 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: akali-silent-twilight-shroud-cant-be-chosen, the Calm ENGINE in which VEN-038 Akali, Silent, who cannot be chosen by enemy spells and abilities while she is out of combat, is covered for the combat itself by VEN-031 Twilight Shroud. Walked as a game, the protection held: on your T4 Akali attacked at Might 7 into a Fury/Chaos opponent holding VEN-015 Decree of Rage, they could not cast it on her, and she conquered. Two things the entry does not walk decide the line. Its step order cannot be played: the steps move Akali first and then cast the Shroud "before the combat opens", but a move into an occupied battlefield opens the combat in the cleanups that follow it, and the Shroud has no keyword that lets it into that window. The Shroud goes on before the move. And the entry never walks Akali on defence. On their turn she is a 4 in combat, and the Shroud cannot be cast there, so Decree of Rage, one Energy and one Fury, kills her and takes the battlefield back.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-14 at 8896448, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 39 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 63 (a hit on before), first in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 64, UNL-056 Yuumi, Magical Cat granting [Tank] to a third body, played in Yuumi's grant is the +3, and one Flurry takes both.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Calm among its two domains (103.1.b); here OGN-261 Radiant Dawn (Calm/Order)
The bodyVEN-038 Akali, Silent (Calm, E4 + 1 Calm Power, M4)
The coverVEN-031 Twilight Shroud (Calm spell, E1, [Flow] E2)

Both cards are mono-Calm, so 103.1.b admits them under any of the Calm legends. Neither is in data/legality.src.json.

The card text the play turns on:

2. When the Shroud can be cast

155 in full: "A spell can be played during an Open State outside of Showdowns on its controller's turn." That is the only window the Shroud has. It has no [Action], so it cannot enter a Showdown, and no [Reaction], so 813.1.c.1 ("This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn.") does not reach it either.

After the move there is no such window. A move ends in a cleanup, 319.8: "After a Move is completed". That cleanup stages the combat, 323.9: "Mark a Combat as Staged at each Battlefield that Contested was applied to that have Units present controlled by opposing players." And the next cleanup with an empty chain opens it, 460: "A Combat occurs when a Cleanup occurs, there are no items on the Chain, there is a staged Combat at a Battlefield, and no Showdown or Combat is ongoing at any other Battlefield." Between the two, Akali's own +2 trigger is on the chain, which is a Closed State. Then 316.7.f: "Combat will also include a Showdown." At no point between the move and the Combat Showdown is the turn in an Open State outside a Showdown. The entry's steps 2 and 3, "Move her to a battlefield" and then "In the SAME Main Phase, before the combat opens, play Twilight Shroud", cannot be played in that order. Cast the Shroud on Akali in base first, then move her. The total is unchanged: 4 + 1 + 2 = 7.

Then she is untouchable for the whole fight. 740.2.c: "A unit is in combat if it is occupying a battlefield where combat is ongoing and has a combat designation." From the moment she takes the Attacker designation, Akali's own clause stops covering her. The Shroud's clause has no "unless", and it lasts "this turn", which covers the whole combat.

On their turn the Shroud does not exist. 155 confines it to your turn. When they attack the battlefield she stands on, she is in combat, her own clause is off, and nothing you hold restores it.

3. Their order: Fury/Chaos, bodies and one removal spell

SFD-185 Glorious Executioner (Fury/Chaos): "When you win a combat, draw 1." Its Chosen Champion carries the Draven tag. They play SFD-006 Eager Drakehound (Fury, E3 + 1 Power, M3, "I enter ready."), OGN-013 Pouty Poro and OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (both Fury, E2, M2) and OGN-016 Dangerous Duo (Fury, E3, M3). Their hand holds VEN-015 Decree of Rage (Fury, E1 + 1 Fury Power): "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) This can't be countered. Deal 4 to an enemy Calm (:rb_rune_calm:) unit." "An enemy Calm unit" is a choice, so it targets (355.10).

4. The turns, going first

Calm/Order against Fury/Chaos. Your rune deck is six Calm and six Order; theirs six Fury and six Chaos. Your opening four are Stalwart Poro, Sunlit Guardian, Akali and Twilight Shroud; the draws are for later turns. OGN-052 Stalwart Poro is Calm, E2, M2 with [Shield]; OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian is Calm, E3, M3 with [Shield] and [Tank].

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Stalwart Poro (E2) to base.                               0
their T1        Eager Drakehound (E3 + 1 Fury) on the 485.7 extra rune:
                three exhausted, one recycled. It enters ready, walks to
                B, Conquer. Two runes, none ready.
T2      4       Stalwart Poro walks to A, Conquer: +1. Sunlit Guardian    1
                (E3) to base. One rune left.
their T2        Hold B. Pouty Poro (E2) and Legion Rearguard (E2) to
                base. Four runes, all spent.
T3      6       Hold A: +1. Akali (E4 + 1 Calm): four exhausted, one      2
                of them recycled. Sunlit Guardian walks to A. Five
                runes, two left.
their T3        Hold B. Dangerous Duo (E3) to base. Six runes, three
                left, Decree of Rage in hand.
T4      7       Hold A: +1. Twilight Shroud (E1) on Akali in base, then   4
                Akali walks to B: 4 + 1 + 2 = 7 against the Drakehound's
                3. They cannot choose her. Her 7 kill it; its 3 do not
                kill her. Conquer B: +1. Six runes left.
their T4        Pouty Poro and Legion Rearguard (2 + 2) attack B. Decree
                of Rage (E1 + 1 Fury) on Akali: 4 on a 4, and the
                cleanup kills her. No damage step. Conquer B.

Their points: 1 after their T1, 2 after their T2, 3 after their T3, 4 after their T4. After their T4 it is 4 to 4, and they draw 1 off Glorious Executioner for the combat they won.

Why they did not attack A. From their T3 on, A holds the Stalwart Poro at 3 and the Sunlit Guardian at 4 on defence ([Shield]), 7 in all, and the Guardian's [Tank] takes lethal first. Their base never sums more than 7.

Your T4, the Shroud. You cast it in a Neutral Open State; they can answer only with a [Reaction] (813.1.c.1), and Decree of Rage is an [Action]. Akali is in base, where her own clause covers her anyway. Then the move, the +2 trigger, and the combat. The attacker gains Focus (464.2.d). When Focus passes, Decree of Rage cannot choose her. Its only legal choices are your Stalwart Poro and Sunlit Guardian at A, which change nothing at B, so they keep it. 465.2.c sums the Might: 7 against 3. The Drakehound dies; 3 on a 7 is not lethal, and 466.1.a.1 heals her in the cleanup.

Their T4, Akali on defence. The Shroud's "this turn" and the move's +2 ended with your turn, so she is 4. Their two Fury 2s walk in from base, she gains the Defender designation, and she is in combat (740.2.c). They have Focus (464.2.d) and cast Decree of Rage: 4 on a 4 is lethal (142.4.b), and the cleanup kills her (323.5). 465.1 then skips the damage step: "If both Attacking and Defending units remain at this battlefield, the following Tasks become Outstanding". They are the only player with units at B, so they win the combat and establish Control (466.5, 466.5.d): Conquer.

What the Decree bought them. Without it the same attack is 4 against 4. Her 4 kill both 2s; their 4 kill her. Nobody is left, and 466.5.b: "If there are no Units remaining here controlled by any player, the Battlefield becomes Uncontrolled." That is 4 to 3, with both their bodies gone. With the Decree it is 4 to 4, both bodies alive and B theirs, for one rune: the Fury rune is exhausted for the Energy and recycled for the Power (164.2.a, 164.2.b).

The entry's order, walked on the same T4. Akali walks to B first, at 6. Combat opens with no window for the Shroud (§2), and she is in combat. They cast Decree of Rage with Focus: 4 marked on a 6, not lethal. Then the Drakehound's 3 go on her: 7 marked on a 6, and she dies. Her 6 kill the Drakehound. Nobody is left at B (466.5.b), so there is no Conquer, and Akali is gone a turn early. That costs you a point and her.

How often this happens. The draw pile is 39 cards, the 40 of Tournament Rules 601.1.b less the Chosen Champion, which 103.2.a.1 places in the Champion Zone. Going first you have seen 7 cards by T3 (four opening, one draw a turn) and 8 by T4. The walk's line, an Akali by T3 and a Shroud by T4, is 21.71% at the entry's three of each. An Akali by T3 alone is 45.73%; a Shroud by T4 alone is 50.82%. With one of each it is 3.31%.

5. Breaks to

On their turn the cheapest break is VEN-015 Decree of Rage, one Energy and one Fury Power, and it was walked on their T4 above. The scope: the 36 spells in data/corpus_flat.txt whose domains are Fury, Chaos or Fury/Chaos, whose text carries [Action] or [Reaction], and that say kill, deal, stun, return, banish, move, counter or Might, read by hand. Of those, the ones that remove a 4-Might unit outright, with no other condition, are Decree of Rage (E1 + 1 Power), OGN-172 Rebuke (E2 + 2 Power), VEN-008 Ruthless Strike (E3, with a discard), OGN-024 Void Seeker (E3 + 1 Power), VEN-106 Wind and Ghosts and UNL-128 Star-Crossed (both E3 + 1 Power), OGN-014 Sky Splitter (E8 + 1 Power, "This spell's Energy cost is reduced by the highest Might among units you control. Deal 5 to a unit at a battlefield.", so E5 + 1 Power on their T4, where the Dangerous Duo's 3 is their highest Might and they have eight runes) and OGN-203 Possession (E8 + 3 Power). Four more kill her only with a condition: UNL-014 Monster Harpoon (E1 + 1 Power) if they control a facedown card, VEN-010 Consuming Curse (E2) with two Curses already in their trash, OGN-008 Get Excited! (E2 + 1 Power) by discarding a card of Energy cost 4 or more, and OGN-033 Shakedown (E2 + 1 Power) only if you refuse to let them draw 2. OGN-169 Gust (E1) returns only a unit with 3 Might or less, and Akali on defence is 4. OGN-168 Fight or Flight is banned in Constructed. Decree of Rage is the cheapest unconditional one in the set, and it is printed for exactly this: it names Calm.

What answers the Decree. Nothing in Calm/Order that the walk had. OGN-045 Defy (Calm, E1 + 1 Power) counters a spell costing no more than E4 and one Power, which the Decree does, but the Decree reads "This can't be countered." The Shroud cannot be cast on their turn (§2). The answer is not to leave Akali alone at a battlefield on their turn, or to accept that she is a 4 there.

On your turn, with the Shroud cast first, the one card in the set that changes the fight without choosing her is SFD-001 Against the Odds (Fury, E2, [Reaction]): "Give a friendly unit at a battlefield +2 :rb_might: this turn for each enemy unit there." It chooses their own unit, which neither clause forbids. Akali is alone, so it is +2. Walked on your T4: the Drakehound goes 3 + 2 = 5 against her 7. It still dies and she still lives. It breaks her attack only when their defenders already sum 5 or more. The only other card in the set that adds Might to their side of this fight is OGN-173 Ride the Wind (Chaos, E2 + 1 Power): "Move a friendly unit and ready it." It can bring a unit from their base in as another defender (464.2.c.3.a). Pouty Poro brought in that way makes it 5 against 7. Both spells together make it 3 + 2 + 2 = 7, and then everyone at B dies. That costs E4 + 1 Power, and they had three ready runes. OGN-004 Cleave, SFD-003 Blood Rush and UNL-010 Vault Breaker give [Assault], which counts only while a unit is an attacker, and their units are defending. Every other card in the set that acts on one of your units chooses it.

The counters in the set only tax the Shroud. SFD-136 Hard Bargain (Chaos, E2, [Reaction]) counters it "unless its controller pays :rb_energy_2:". UNL-131 Abandon (Chaos, E2, [Reaction]) counters it and returns it to your hand. On your T4 you have seven runes: the Shroud plus the tax is three, and a recast after Abandon is two. Both answers are cast on your turn, before the move, so they do not stop the line, only make it dearer.

The entry's last step names the sweepers, which 355.10.d puts through both clauses. The set holds no board-wide damage spell; the Fury/Chaos opponent has none to cast.

6. Verdict

Right about what the Shroud protects, wrong about when to cast it, and silent about the other half of the board's turns. Cast before the move, the Shroud kept Akali out of reach of a removal spell held for her, and she conquered at 7. Cast in the order the steps give, it never resolves: the combat opens in the cleanups after the move, and 155 keeps a keyword-less spell out of it. On their turn she defends at 4 with neither clause, and Decree of Rage takes her and the battlefield for one rune. It cannot be countered.

7. Not verified

I did not deal the channel order. Their Drakehound needs one Fury among their first three runes, which it recycles: with six Fury in the twelve it fails in 20 of 220 deals, 9.09%. The Decree on their T4 needs a second Fury among the nine runes they have channelled by then; with six non-Fury in the twelve, nine runes always hold at least three Fury, so it never fails at six. The entry's-order walk needs that second Fury among the seven channelled by their T3 instead: together with the Drakehound's need, that fails in 9.42% of deals. Your Akali needs one Calm among the six runes you have channelled by T3. With six Calm in the twelve the six hold none in 1 of 924 deals, 0.11%; with four, 28 of 924, 3.03%. The Shroud, the Poro and the Guardian are Energy only.

I put Decree of Rage in their hand and did not price it. I did not walk a second Shroud from the trash with [Flow], Akali moving back to base before their turn (144.4.b, which needs her ready and she moved that turn), the mulligan, or 2v2. The probabilities in §4 count only cards in hand at the turn named.

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