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the Angler Beast opens the battlefield for a body already in base

Issue #343 (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: angler-beast-ocean-drake-open-and-take, the Chaos ENGINE in which UNL-132 Angler Beast empties a battlefield garrisoned by bodies of 2 Might or less and VEN-115 Ocean Drake is played onto the open battlefield for a Conquer with no combat. The entry is right that emptying a battlefield opens it, and right that the Drake cannot clear his own landing spot. Walked as a game, the Drake was never needed. The cleanup that strips their Control of the emptied battlefield runs in the same turn as the Beast. Any ready body of yours in base with 3 Might or more then walks in for the Conquer, for no more resources. The entry prices the line at 13 Energy and 3 Power across two turns; the walk took the battlefield for the Beast's 5 Energy and 1 Power, in one turn. Two things the entry does not say made the Beast stronger than it reads: their tokens did not go to hand, they ceased to exist, and the same cleanup put their facedown card in the trash.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-14 at cdb647e, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 43 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 59 (a hit on first), first in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 60, OGN-107 Ava Achiever throwing UNL-003 Mischievous Marai into her own attack, played in Ava's free body lands only while she is still standing there.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Chaos among its two domains (103.1.b); here OGN-251 Loose Cannon (Fury/Chaos)
The engineUNL-132 Angler Beast (Chaos, E5 + 1 Power, M5)
The payoff, per the entryVEN-115 Ocean Drake (Chaos, E8 + 2 Power, M7)
The payoff in the walkOGN-175 Shipyard Skulker (Chaos, E3, M3), ready in base
Their boarda battlefield held only by bodies of 2 Might or less

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

The card text the play turns on:

2. Open, and when

170.11.a: "Battlefields can be “occupied.” This means they have a Unit present." 170.11.c: "Battlefields can be “open.” This means they are unoccupied and uncontrolled." The Beast makes the battlefield unoccupied at once. Uncontrolled comes in a cleanup, 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." The step is 323.6: "4. Players lose control of any controlled Battlefields without their Units occupying them if the turn is in an Open State and there is no Showdown or Combat ongoing there."

The cleanup that follows is the one after the Beast's trigger resolves, in your own Main Phase, not one on a later turn. So the battlefield is open while you still have the rest of your turn.

The next step of the same cleanup is 323.7: "5. Recall all Unattached non-Unit Gear and non-Unit Runes at Battlefields, and all Permanents and Runes in Bases other than their controller’s. Remove all Hidden cards from all Battlefields that are not controlled by the same player and place them in their owner's Trash." Their facedown card at that battlefield goes to the trash in the cleanup that strips their Control. The entry does not mention it.

Their tokens do not go to hand. 186.1: "If a token is put into any Non-Board Zone besides the chain, it ceases to exist immediately after moving to its new zone." The Beast returns a card to its owner's hand, where they can play it again. A token it reaches is gone for good.

3. Walking in rather than landing

355.2.a: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." So nothing of yours can be played onto an open battlefield without the Drake's permission (355.2.b). But a unit does not have to be played there. 144.4.a: "Units may move from their Base to a Battlefield." A ready unit already in your base moves onto the open battlefield, and 190.3.a.1 applies: "Units moving to or being played to a battlefield apply Contested status if that battlefield is not already Contested and that Unit’s controller does not already control that battlefield." From there the path is the entry's own step 6: 323.9 stages no Combat with no opposing units there, 344.2 opens a Showdown at the next cleanup, and 348.2.a.1 says "This results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored that Battlefield this turn."

The mover has to have 3 Might or more, or the Beast sends it to hand along with theirs. The Beast has to be played somewhere a 2-Might body of yours is not your only unit, or you lose Control of your own battlefield in the same cleanup (323.6 reads "any controlled Battlefields", not only theirs). Played to that battlefield, the Beast holds it with its own 5 Might.

4. Their order: B, and nothing at 3 Might

Mind/Order under OGN-265 Herald of the Arcane: ":rb_energy_1:, :rb_exhaust:: Play a 1 :rb_might: Recruit unit token." 187.1: "A 1 [M] Recruit token is a domainless unit token with 1 Might and the Recruit tag." They build B wide and cheap with OGN-211 Faithful Manufactor (Order, E3, M2: "When you play me, play a 1 :rb_might: Recruit unit token here."), the legend's Recruit and OGN-210 Daring Poro (Order, E2, M2, [Assault]), and hide OGN-213 Hidden Blade at B. Their Chosen Champion carries the Viktor tag and is idle.

5. The turns, going first

Fury/Chaos against Mind/Order. Your rune deck is six Fury and six Chaos; theirs six Mind and six Order. Your opening four are Legion Rearguard, Shipyard Skulker, Angler Beast and a second Shipyard Skulker; the draws are bodies for later turns. Theirs hold Faithful Manufactor, Daring Poro, Hidden Blade and Vanguard Sergeant.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Legion Rearguard (E2) to base.                            0
their T1        Faithful Manufactor (E3) to base, on the 485.7 extra
                rune; its Recruit to base.
T2      4       Rearguard walks to A, Conquer: +1. Shipyard Skulker       1
                (E3) to base. One rune left.
their T2        Manufactor and Recruit walk to B, Conquer. Herald (E1):
                a Recruit at B. Daring Poro (E2) to B. Hidden Blade
                hidden at B for its rainbow: an exhausted rune recycled.
                B is 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 6 Might. Four runes, two ready.
T3      6       Hold A: +1. Angler Beast (E5 + 1 Chaos) to A: five        3
                exhausted, one exhausted Chaos recycled. Five runes,
                one ready. Trigger: your Rearguard (A) to your hand;
                Manufactor and Poro to their hand; both Recruits cease
                to exist (186.1). Cleanup: they lose B (323.6) and the
                facedown Blade goes to their trash (323.7); you keep A,
                the Beast is there. Skulker walks base to B: Showdown,
                you have Focus, both pass, Conquer: +1.
their T3        Nothing to Hold. Six runes: Vanguard Sergeant (E4) and
                Daring Poro (E2) to base, both exhausted (143.4).
                Nothing of theirs can reach A or B this turn.
T4      7       Hold A and B: +2. Rearguard (E2) to B, the second         5
                Skulker (E3) to B. Two runes left. A: Beast 5; B:
                3 + 2 + 3 = 8.
their T4        Sergeant (4) and Poro (3 with [Assault]) attack A: 7
                against the Beast's 5. They put 5 on the Beast, your 5
                kill the Sergeant, Poro survives: Conquer A. Then
                Manufactor and its Recruit to base.

Their points: 1 after their T2, still 1 after their T3, 2 after their T4. After their T4 it is 5 to 2.

Why they could not answer the walk-in. 345: "As a Showdown begins, the player who applied Contested status to the Battlefield gains Focus." You pass with Focus and they get their turn in the Showdown. They have two ready runes and the Order to recycle, enough for a Hidden Blade from hand (E2 + 1 Power, [Action]), but their only Blade was the facedown one, now in the trash. Their hand is Sergeant, the returned Manufactor and Poro, and their draws, none of them an [Action] or a [Reaction]. 316.8.b.1.a: "During the proceedings of a Non-Combat Showdown, units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is ongoing." Nothing of theirs can become present: every body they had stood at B, so the one trigger took all of them, and their base was already empty.

Why their T3 scored nothing. Every body they had stood at B, so the one trigger took all of them: Manufactor and Poro to hand, both Recruits gone. Everything they played on T3 entered exhausted (143.4), and a Recruit token is no exception (185.2.d: "A token unit is a unit. It enters exhausted"). The Beast cost them their T3 Hold, every move on their T3, two tokens and a facedown card. It also cost you your own Rearguard from A.

What the six resources would have bought. The same six runes on T3 are the second Shipyard Skulker and another 3-drop from the draws, nothing recycled. Your one ready Skulker cannot attack B alone: 3 Might against 6 and a facedown Blade. On their T3 they Hold B (2) and add the Sergeant there: 10 Might. On T4 your three 3-drops, 9 Might, attack 10, and the free Blade from facedown kills one: you lose the fight. 3 to 2 after your T4, with B still theirs, against 5 to 1 with the Beast.

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, three draws) and 8 by T4. With the entry's one Angler Beast, the Beast by T3 is 17.95%; with three, 45.73%. The entry's own line, Beast by T4 and Drake by T5 (9 cards seen), is 4.32% with one of each and 26.77% with three of each. Whether their battlefield is held only by bodies of 2 Might or less is a property of their deck and their curve, not of the deal, and I did not price it.

6. Where the Drake fits

The Drake is E8 + 2 Chaos. Going first, after the Beast's T3 recycle you have seven runes on T4 and nine on T5. So the entry's line lands the Drake on T5 at the earliest. A ready body of theirs in base walks into the open battlefield with 144.4.a on their very next turn, exactly as your Skulker did. In the walk every body they had stood at B and went with the trigger, so nothing of theirs was ready before their T4, a turn before the Drake could land. The Drake is the plan for a turn where you have no ready body of 3 Might or more in base. In the walk that turn never came.

The entry's sixth notable already names OGN-174 Sai Scout (Chaos, E6, M5, "You may play me to an open battlefield.") as the cheaper landing. A Skulker in base is cheaper again: it was paid for on T2.

7. Breaks to

The cheapest break costs no card at all: keep one body of 3 Might or more in the garrison. The Beast returns only bodies of 2 Might or less, so a single OGN-219 Vanguard Sergeant (E4, M4) or OGN-218 Vanguard Captain (E3 + 1 Power, M3) left at B keeps it occupied (170.11.a), never open. The walker then meets a combat instead of a Showdown, and the facedown Blade stays at B.

With the battlefield already open, they break the Conquer by killing the walker in the Showdown. 348.2.a needs "only one player’s Units remain at the Battlefield"; if none remain, no one takes Control. The scope: the spells in data/corpus_flat.txt whose domains are Mind, Order or Mind/Order, whose text carries [Action] or [Reaction], and that say kill, deal, return, move, stun or counter. That is 23 cards, read by hand. The cheapest that kill a Might-3 unit at a battlefield with no condition are three resources each: OGN-213 Hidden Blade (Order, E2 + 1 Power, you draw 2) and SFD-070 Wages of Pain (Mind, E3). VEN-059 Shock Blast is two resources only if they control something that is [Empowered]. OGN-220 Facebreaker stuns the walker but leaves it present, so the Conquer stands. In the walk they had two ready runes, enough for a Blade from hand, and no Blade in hand.

The three cards the entry's last notable names, OGN-173 Ride the Wind, OGN-262 Zenith Blade and SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit, are Chaos, Calm/Order and Fury/Body: none is legal under a Mind/Order legend (103.1.b).

8. Verdict

Right that emptying opens, wrong that it takes the Drake. The Beast's trigger, the loss of their Control (323.6) and the trash of their facedown card (323.7) all land in your own Main Phase, so a ready body of 3 Might or more in base takes the battlefield the same turn by moving there (144.4.a), for nothing beyond the Beast's 5 Energy and 1 Power. The Drake (E8 + 2 Power) is the plan only when no such body is in base, and it arrives a turn after the battlefield has been open to their own walkers. The symmetry costs you every 2-Might body of yours, at your battlefield as well, and you lose Control there too unless the Beast is played to it. Their tokens cease to exist (186.1), and the garrison breaks it for free by keeping one body of 3 Might or more.

9. Not verified

I did not deal the channel order. The Beast on T3 needs one Chaos among your first six runes, which it recycles: with six Chaos in the twelve it fails in 1 of 924 deals, 0.11%; with four, 28 of 924, 3.03%. The Skulkers and the Rearguard need no Power. Their side needs no domain at all in the walk: the Herald's Recruit, Manufactor, Poro and the Sergeant are Energy only, and the rainbow to hide the Blade is any rune. A Blade from hand in the Showdown would need one Order on their board. They had channelled five runes by your T3 and recycled one, which they can choose to be a non-Order rune: with six Order in the twelve the five hold none in 6 of 792 deals, 0.76%. The probabilities in §5 count only cards in hand at the turn named. I did not walk the Drake's bounce, the mulligan, a garrison of 187.3 Sand Soldiers (Might 2, so also in reach), or 2v2.

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