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One Apprentice brings the banish to turn 4, and the bounce alone was the better board

Issue #366 (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: moonlight-affliction-wind-and-ghosts-banish, the Mind/Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-066 Moonlight Affliction gives a unit -10 Might and VEN-106 Wind and Ghosts then banishes it instead of bouncing it. The entry prices one use at 10 Energy and 1 Chaos Power. Walked as a game, the printed price is ten runes, which going first is T5 at the earliest. One OGN-084 Eager Apprentice at a battlefield takes one Energy off each spell, and that brings it to T4. On T4 the pair banished their SFD-021 Ferrous Forerunner before its [Deathknell] could fire, and your attack took their battlefield: 4 to 2 after their T4. Killing it instead with the Affliction alone left them two Mech tokens that retook the battlefield: 4 to 3. Bouncing it with Wind and Ghosts alone also ended 4 to 2, cost six Energy less, and put six more Might of yours on the board. What the Affliction bought over the bounce is cards, not points: their Forerunner gone for good, and one card drawn by the legend. The cheapest break is one rune, and twelve cards do it. UNL-173 Sacrifice, in response to the Affliction, kills the Forerunner while it is still Mighty and turns the banish into the Deathknell it was meant to deny. Any of nine cards hidden at B the turn before plays for nothing into your attack and keeps B: 3 to 2. So do OGN-009 Hextech Ray and UNL-014 Monster Harpoon, from hand in the combat. The pair spends all eight runes, so you can answer none of them.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-14 at 7717c97, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 101 in the queue and 29 of them with no play. That is one fewer in the queue than the issue's 102; the two picks are unchanged. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 73 (a hit on before), first in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 74, jinx-rebel-discard-event-ready, played in The ready only pays when Jinx is spent, and in a Duel switching battlefields costs a card.

1. Needs

LegendSFD-199 Prodigal Explorer (Mind/Chaos)
The pairUNL-066 Moonlight Affliction (Mind, E7), VEN-106 Wind and Ghosts (Chaos, E3 + 1 Power)
The discountOGN-084 Eager Apprentice (Mind, E3, M3)
The bodiesOGN-171 Mystic Poro (Chaos, E2, M2), OGN-175 Shipyard Skulker (Chaos, E3, M3)

The entry names four Mind/Chaos legends. This play takes Prodigal Explorer, because the pair chooses the same enemy unit twice and the Explorer pays for exactly that. 103.1.b.1: "Cards included in your deck must abide by your Domain Identity." Its Chosen Champion is SFD-082 Ezreal, Dashing (Mind). 103.2.a.2: "Must be a champion unit with a champion tag that matches the tag on your Champion Legend." He is not played in this walk: he costs Power (§2). No card of either deck is a Signature card (data/cards.json), and none is in data/legality.src.json or marked [BANNED] in data/corpus_flat.txt.

The card text the play turns on:

2. The price, and when it can be paid

Ten Energy is ten runes. You channel two a turn, 315.3.b: "1. The Turn Player channels 2 runes from their Rune Deck." Going first gets no extra rune; going second does, 485.7: "First Turn Process: The player going second channels an extra Rune from their Rune Deck during their first Channel Phase of the game." So going first you have 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 runes on T1 to T5. The Chaos Power costs no extra rune: one of the ten is recycled after it is exhausted for Energy, 164.2.b: "Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]." But a recycled rune leaves the board, 161.2.b: "When a Rune is Recycled it is returned to the Rune Deck, not the Main Deck." Every Power paid before the turn of the banish is one rune fewer on that turn. At the printed price the pair needs T5, going first, and no Power paid on T1 to T4. That is why Ezreal, Dashing (E4 + 1 Power) waits in this walk.

One Apprentice makes it eight. Its reduction is a discount, 356.4.b: "Discounts may say that cards "cost [amount] less" or that one or more of their costs are "reduced by [amount]."" It applies to each spell you play while it stands at a battlefield: the Affliction costs E6 and Wind and Ghosts E2

own, 356.4.e: "If a discount applies a minimum cost, that minimum applies only to that discount." That makes E5 and E1 + 1 Power, six Energy. But the second Apprentice cannot land before T3 (T1 has two runes, and T2's four pay for one), and on T3 it and the pair are E3 + E6, nine Energy from six runes. So two Apprentices do not reach T3 either, and T4 is the walk's turn, with one.

The scope of "one". Of the 259 Mind, Chaos and Mind/Chaos cards in data/corpus_flat.txt (four legends and two runes included), 15 print a cost that is "less" or "reduced by". Three can lower these two spells: Eager Apprentice; VEN-055 Applied Researchers once [Empowered] ("Your spells cost :rb_energy_1::rb_rune_rainbow: less, to a minimum of :rb_energy_1:.": E6 and E2 with no Power, for E4 + E3 to set up); and SFD-146 Vex, Cheerless, only while she is in combat. The other twelve do not: OGN-112 Kai'Sa, Evolutionary plays a spell from the trash, SFD-141 Irelia, Graceful discounts spells that choose her, SFD-149 Ezreal, Prodigy discounts optional additional costs, VEN-098 Stargazer discounts [Flow] from the trash, SFD-076 Production Surge and VEN-059 Shock Blast discount themselves, and OGN-195 Rhasa the Sunderer, VEN-050 Grumpy Rockbear, VEN-064 Plaza Guardian and VEN-096 Shadowblade Lurker discount themselves or their own ability. SFD-085 Ornn, Forge God and SFD-127 Master Bingwen ([Weaponmaster]) equip "for :rb_rune_rainbow: less".

The order is the entry's, and it matters for the break. Moonlight Affliction is cast first and resolves. While it is on the chain they may answer only with [Reaction], 309.1.a: "Only cards and abilities with the Reaction keyword can be played or activated in a Closed State." Below zero the unit is read as 0, 143.2.b: "If a unit's Might is ever less than 0, it is treated as 0 when referenced by spells and abilities, and when summing Might to be assigned as damage in the Combat Damage Step." So Wind and Ghosts reads "3 or less" and banishes. A banished card does not reach the trash, so a [Deathknell] does not fire, 808.1.d: "The Trigger for this and similar effects that trigger on their source’s death is the Permanent being Killed and sent to the Trash." And the Explorer's "twice" is met: each spell chooses the unit when it is played, 355.5: "If a card requires you to specifically choose one or more Game Objects, that choice is made now." The worked example under 355.5.a calls "Stun a unit at a battlefield" a choice, and "Give a unit -10" has the same shape.

3. Their deck: Fury/Order, Piltover Enforcer

UNL-187 Piltover Enforcer (Fury/Order): "When you conquer, if you assigned 3 or more excess damage, you may exhaust me to ready a unit." It never triggers in this walk. Its Chosen Champion is OGN-036 Vi, Destructive. They play VEN-004 Dune Surfer (Fury, E3, M3), OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (Fury, E2, M2) and the body worth answering, Ferrous Forerunner (Fury, E6 + 1 Power, M6): "[Deathknell] — Play two 3 :rb_might: Mech unit tokens to your base. (When I die, get the effect.)" Killed, it leaves six Might behind. That is the one case the banish is built for. §5 names their answers.

4. The turns, going first

Mind/Chaos against Fury/Order. Your battlefield is G; theirs is B. Your opening four are Mystic Poro, Eager Apprentice, Moonlight Affliction and Wind and Ghosts. Your draws are a Shipyard Skulker on T1, a second Mystic Poro on T2, and a Shipyard Skulker on each of T3 and T4.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Mystic Poro (E2) to base.                                 0
their T1        Dune Surfer (E3) to base. Three runes, none left.
T2      4       The Poro walks to G, Conquer: +1. Eager Apprentice (E3)   1
                to G. One rune left.
their T2        The Surfer walks to B, Conquer. Two Legion Rearguards
                (E2 each) straight to B. Five runes, one left.
T3      6       Hold G: +1. Shipyard Skulker (E3) and the second Mystic   2
                Poro (E2) to G. One rune left. No attack: your two
                ready bodies are a 5 against their 7.
their T3        Hold B. Ferrous Forerunner (E6 + 1 Fury Power)
                straight to B: 3 + 2 + 2 + 6, a 13. Seven runes, six
                exhausted and one of those recycled. One rune left.
T4      8       Hold G: +1. Moonlight Affliction (E6) on the              4
                Forerunner, then Wind and Ghosts (E2 + 1 Chaos Power):
                banished. Eight runes exhausted, one recycled. The
                Explorer draws 1. The Apprentice, the Skulker and the
                first Poro walk to B: 3 + 3 + 2, an 8 against 7. All
                three of theirs die; one of yours lives. Conquer: +1.
                Seven runes on the board.
their T4        No battlefield to hold. Vi, Destructive (E2 + 1 Fury),
                a second Dune Surfer (E3) and a third Legion Rearguard
                (E2) to base. Eight runes, one left.

Their points: 0 after their T1, 1 after their T2, 2 after their T3, 2 after their T4. After your T4 it is 4 to 2, and after their T4 it is still 4 to 2.

Your T2, why the Apprentice goes to G. Its discount asks for a battlefield, and G is yours once the Poro conquers it, 355.2.a: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." It never has to move: on T4 it is still at G when both spells are played.

Their T3, what the Forerunner did. It made B a 13 that your 10 cannot attack. Their units at B cannot walk to G; from a battlefield they go only home, 144.4.b: "Units may move from a Battlefield to their Base."

Your T4, the banish. The Affliction resolves first: the Forerunner's Might is 6 - 10, read as 0. Wind and Ghosts finds 3 or less and banishes it. They hold one ready rune, have nothing hidden at B, and pass every time, here and in the combat (that is the walk's assumption; §5 prices it). Then the three walk as one move, 144.3: "Players may perform multiple Units' standard move simultaneously." Your 8 kill Surfer 3, Rearguard 2 and Rearguard 2. 465.2.c: "Starting with the Attacker, each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units." Their 7 can kill two of yours but not three: the Apprentice and the Skulker (3 + 3, with 1 left on the Poro), or the Poro and a Skulker (2 + 3, with 2 on the Apprentice). Which one lives is their choice. You establish control, 466.5.d: "Establishing Control results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored this Battlefield this turn."

Their T4, why nothing comes back. The Forerunner is in their banishment, not their trash, and its Deathknell never triggered (808.1.d). They control no battlefield, so their three new bodies go to base, and they enter exhausted, 143.4: "Units enter the Board exhausted."

What the pair bought, against each half alone. Same hand, same board, same T4:

So the banish beat the kill by a point, because the Forerunner's Deathknell is six Might. Against the bounce it changed no point. It traded six Might of yours on B for two cards: their Forerunner, gone from the game, and your Explorer's draw.

How often this happens. The draw pile is 39 cards, the 40 of Tournament Rules 402.1 less the Chosen Champion, which 103.2.a.1 places in the Champion Zone. Going first you have seen 6 cards by T2 and 8 by T4 (four opening, one draw a turn). With three of each (103.2.b), an Apprentice among the first 6 is 40.30%; an Affliction among the first 8 is 50.82%, and so is a Wind and Ghosts; both spells among the first 8 is 24.20%; and the walk's three (an Apprentice by T2, both spells by T4) is 8.33%. At the printed price on T5 you have seen 9 cards, and both spells among them is 29.35%. That counts only those cards; the walk also needs a two-drop on T1.

5. Breaks to

The predicate is the walk's T4 result: the banish, and the Conquer of B that follows it. Undo the banish and their Deathknell retakes B on their T4. Undo the Conquer and B stays theirs: 3 to 2 after your T4 instead of 4 to 2. Twelve cards do one or the other for one rune.

Against the banish, one rune: Sacrifice. Sacrifice (Order, E1): "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) As an additional cost to play this, kill a friendly [Mighty] unit. (A unit is Mighty while it has 5+ :rb_might:.) Draw 2 and channel 1 rune exhausted." While the Affliction is on the chain the Forerunner is still a 6, 708: "A Unit "is Mighty" as long as its Might is 5 or greater." They kill it as the cost, with the one rune they kept. Their Deathknell fires (808.1.d), and the Affliction resolves on nothing, 359.3.e.2: "A target is illegal as the spell resolves if it no longer meets the targeting requirements of the spell, or if it has changed Zones to or from a Non-Board Zone." Your T4 then goes like this:

4 to 3, with a Mech on B and two extra cards in their hand. Sacrifice has to come before the Affliction resolves: at -4 the Forerunner is not Mighty, and nothing else of theirs at B is. That is also why the Affliction goes first, alone. If it is answered, you lose six Energy and keep Wind and Ghosts. SFD-163 Deathgrip (Order, E2, "Kill a friendly unit.") does the same at any time, for two runes. In the combat it does not help them: killing a Rearguard to give the Surfer +2 leaves their 7 against your 8.

Against the Conquer, one rune spent the turn before: a card hidden at B. They control B from their T2, so they may hide there (107.3.c), one card at most, 107.3.b: "Each Facedown Zone has a maximum occupancy of one card." On your T4 it plays for nothing, 811.1.b: "Beginning on the next turn, this gains [Reaction] and you may play this, ignoring its base cost." You have Focus first in your combat and nothing to spend: all eight runes went on the pair. They play it when you pass. A hidden unit lands in the combat, 811.1.d.1: "A hidden permanent must be played to that battlefield." A hidden spell's target must be at B (811.1.d.2), and the attackers are. A unit that arrives joins the fight, 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." Your 3 + 3 + 2 meet their 3 + 2 + 2, and each of these nine stops the Conquer:

Two of the nine (Disciple, Lotus Trap) leave B uncontrolled and nothing for them to hold on their T4, so it stays 3 to 2. The other seven leave them B, and they Hold it: 3 to 3.

From hand, two combat breaks cost one rune. A combat is a showdown, and [Action] is legal there, 308.1.a: "Only cards and abilities with the Action or Reaction keywords can be played or activated in a Showdown State." OGN-009 Hextech Ray (Fury, E1 + 1 Power): "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Deal 3 to a unit at a battlefield." It kills a 3 of yours: 5 against 7, and B stays theirs. UNL-014 Monster Harpoon (Fury, E1 + 1 Power) deals 2, which kills your Poro: 6 against 7, and their 7 kill both your 3s. Each is one rune, exhausted for the Energy and recycled for the Fury.

The rest from hand cost two runes or more. The walk left them one. Among the [Reaction] cards, at two: SFD-001 Against the Odds (+2 for each of your three units there, a 13 against 8), SFD-022 Long Sword (+2, a 9), SFD-151 Bonds of Strength (+1 on two, a 9), UNL-002 Inferna ([Ambush], M1: 8 against 8, all die) and VEN-126 Ki Barrier. Ki Barrier prevents 7 on the Surfer, so your 8 cannot kill it as well as both Rearguards; their 7 kill two of yours, and the one left is recalled. Lotus Trap from hand is also two. At three: OGN-206 Back to Back (11), OGN-207 Call to Glory (10), and four bodies that land in the combat. OGN-241 Shen, Kinkou is a 5 with [Shield 2] (12); SFD-025 Rengar, Pouncing, VEN-123 Soulspinner and UNL-021 Grim Apothecary are 3s (10). Apothecary can return the Forerunner to hand before the banish instead. At five or six: UNL-012 Lord Broadmane, UNL-176 Vi, Peacekeeper, VEN-017 Morgana, Vindictive and UNL-178 Poppy, Defender of the Meek (each a 5: 12). Poppy costs three less with 3 XP, and they have none.

Among the [Action] spells, fifteen more break the combat from hand:

No pump saves the Forerunner from the banish. At -4 it needs +8 to be a 4. The cheapest +8 from the pumps above is two Call to Glory and a Long Sword: eight runes. The same pumps break the combat for two or three.

The scope of that verdict. A Fury/Order deck plays only Fury, Order and Fury/Order cards (103.1.b.1): 262 in data/corpus_flat.txt, counting three legends and two runes. On your turn, with your spell on the chain, they can play only [Reaction] (309.1.a). In your combat, [Action] is legal too (308.1.a). A card hidden at B gains 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."

The scope is every one of those cards that meets five conditions:

Counted by name, that is 61:

Two are out:

Draven, Vanquisher, the one banned card of the 262, has none of the three keywords.

A count by base code in data/cards.json finds 65, with legends already left out and Noxian Guillotine still in. That is 62 here before the Guillotine. The difference is three reprints and two cards:

The predicate is: played on your T4, does it stop the banish or your Conquer of B? 43 do:

One is not walked: OGN-025 Blind Fury (E4 + 2 Power, four runes) plays the top card of your deck for them, so it depends on that card. The other seventeen do not break it:

Wind and Ghosts alone could not have dodged this. The Conquer breaks hit any attack into B, and Sacrifice answers the bounce the same way, since the Forerunner is still a Mighty 6.

How often. If they run three of one of the twelve one-rune breaks, one is among the 7 cards they have seen by your T4 (four opening, three draws; the same 7 by their T3, when they would hide it) in 45.73%. With two of the twelve (six cards) it is 72.23%, and with three (nine cards) 86.76%. Each is 7 of 39.

6. Verdict

Right about the reading; it leaves out the discount that decides when it can be cast, and the one rune that undoes the turn. The -10 opens Wind and Ghosts' banish on the Forerunner as the entry says (143.2.b), and the banish keeps its [Deathknell] from firing (808.1.d). At the printed ten Energy that is a T5 play going first, and only if nothing paid Power before it. One Eager Apprentice at a battlefield makes it eight, which is T4. On T4 the banish beat the kill by a point, because a killed Forerunner left six Might that retook B. It did not beat the bounce. Wind and Ghosts alone ended on the same 4 to 2, for six Energy less, and with six more Might of yours on the board. What the Affliction buys over the bounce is cards, not points. And the whole turn costs eight runes and goes away for one. Sacrifice, played while the Forerunner is still Mighty, turns the banish back into the Deathknell. Any of nine cards hidden at B the turn before keeps B through your attack, and so do Hextech Ray and Monster Harpoon from hand. Since the pair spends every rune you have, you can answer none of them.

7. Not verified

I did not deal the channel order. The walk assumes six Mind and six Chaos runes, Prodigal Explorer's two domains, in the twelve of Tournament Rules 402.1. Every card you play before T4 costs Energy only. Wind and Ghosts' Chaos Power needs one Chaos rune among the eight channelled by T4. With six Mind, that holds in all 924 deals (0 fail). Their Forerunner needs one Fury rune among their seven by their T3, and Vi one among the eight left on their T4. Their deck has six Order, so both hold in all 924 deals.

Ten of the twelve one-rune breaks need no domain. Sacrifice costs Energy only, and hiding costs one rune of any domain (811.1.b). So each holds in all 924 deals, given the spare rune the walk leaves them on T2 and T3. Hextech Ray and Monster Harpoon need their one ready rune to be Fury. After the Forerunner's Fury is recycled, their six runes on the board hold none when their first seven had exactly one: that is 7 of 924 deals, 0.76%. Pyke's optional Fury, Kennen's two Energy, and the breaks from hand at two runes or more all need runes the walk does not leave them, so I give no rates for them.

I did not walk these:

Their hand holding no answer, and nothing hidden at B, is the walk's assumption; §5 prices it. The probabilities in §4 and §5 count only the cards named.

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