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the Cub is hidden last, and one Energy still answers it

Issue #345 (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: pakaa-cub-determined-sentry-hidden-anchor, the Body ENGINE in which UNL-111 Determined Sentry holds a battlefield so that an OGN-135 Pakaa Cub hidden there keeps its hide. From the next turn on, the Cub can be played into the opponent's attack for nothing. Walked as a game, every step of the entry that the game reached held. Their two-body attack on the Sentry met a 3-Might Cub hidden for 1 Power on your T2, and the battlefield stayed yours. Two things the entry does not walk decide whether it works. The hide has no [Reaction] on the turn it is made, so it must be the last thing you do that turn. And the cheapest answer for a Fury/Chaos opponent is not the entry's Body sweep but OGN-169 Gust, one Energy at Reaction speed, which returns either piece to hand.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-14 at f342824, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 41 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 62 (a hit on before), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 61, SFD-024 Rell, Magnetic stacking Equipment under the Purifier, played in Rell feeds only from base, and the legend does the arithmetic.

1. Needs

Legendany legend with Body among its two domains (103.1.b); here OGN-257 Blind Monk (Calm/Body)
The anchorUNL-111 Determined Sentry (Body, E1, M1)
The payoffOGN-135 Pakaa Cub (Body, E3, M3, [Hidden])

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

The card text the play turns on:

2. What the hide is, turn by turn

811.1.b in full: "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."

Two halves, and the entry walks the second. On the turn you hide it, the Cub has no [Reaction]. It cannot be played to save itself that turn. It is lost if you lose the battlefield, and 323.7 says how: "Remove all Hidden cards from all Battlefields that are not controlled by the same player and place them in their owner's Trash."

On your own turn, though, they can act only when you give them a chain. 316.5.b: "This is denoted as a Neutral Open State, and only the Turn Player has the ability to play spells or activate abilities." Hiding opens none. 811.1.c.2: "Hiding a card does not open a chain." Every play and every activated ability does (354.1: "This Closes the State."), and a [Reaction] of theirs can answer it (813.1.c.1: "This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn."). So hide last. Hide first and then play anything, and they can respond to that play by removing the Sentry. When the chain empties the turn is Open again, and 323.6 strips your Control: "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 Cub goes to the trash in the same cleanup.

From the next turn the Cub is a [Reaction] card that costs nothing, and it can answer anything.

3. Their order: Fury/Chaos, bodies from base

SFD-185 Glorious Executioner (Fury/Chaos): "When you win a combat, draw 1." Idle in the walk, since they win none; 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). In the walk their hand holds no removal. §5 puts a Gust in it.

4. The turns, going first

Calm/Body against Fury/Chaos. Your rune deck is six Calm and six Body; theirs six Fury and six Chaos. Your opening four are Determined Sentry, Pakaa Cub, Stalwart Poro and Sunlit Guardian; the draws are bodies 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       Determined Sentry (E1) to base. Blind Monk (E1): buff     0
                the Sentry, Might 2.
their T1        Eager Drakehound (E3 + 1 Fury) on the 485.7 extra rune:
                three exhausted, one recycled. It enters ready, walks to
                A, Conquer. Two runes, none ready.
T2      4       The Sentry walks to B, Conquer: +1. Stalwart Poro (E2)     1
                to base; Blind Monk (E1) buffs it, Might 3. Last, hide
                the Cub at B: one rune recycled for the rainbow. Three
                runes.
their T2        Hold A. Pouty Poro (E2) and Legion Rearguard (E2) to
                base. Four runes, all spent. The Drakehound stands at A
                and cannot reach B (144.4).
T3      5       Hold B: +1. Sunlit Guardian (E3) to base; Blind Monk      2
                (E1) buffs it, Might 4. Stalwart Poro stays in base,
                where it can reach either battlefield. One rune left.
their T3        Hold A. Pouty Poro and Rearguard (2 + 2) attack B: the
                Sentry, 2, and one facedown card. You play the Cub from
                facedown, free: 2 + 3 = 5 against 4. Their 4 kill the
                Cub and mark 1 on the Sentry; your 5 kill both. B stays
                yours. Dangerous Duo (E3) to A. Three runes left.
T4      7       Hold B: +1. Stalwart Poro (3) and Sunlit Guardian (4)     4
                attack A: the Drakehound and the Duo, 3 + 3. Their 6
                go 4 on the Guardian first ([Tank]) and 2 on the Poro;
                your 7 kill both. Conquer A: +1.

Their points: 1 after their T1, 2 after their T2, 3 after their T3. After your T4 it is 4 to 3, with both battlefields yours.

Why the hide survived your T2. They had no ready rune: their T1 spent all three. You played the Poro and used the Monk before the hide, so the last chain of your turn closed before the Cub went down (§2).

The Cub in their attack. The attacking player gains Focus (464.2.d). In the Showdown they pass, and you play the Cub with Focus. It is a [Reaction] card from facedown, at no cost (811.1.b), and 811.1.d.1 puts it at B: "A hidden permanent must be played to that battlefield." 464.2.c.3.a makes it a defender: "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". Entering exhausted (143.4) does not keep it out. They chose which of your units died: lethal must be assigned in full one unit at a time (465.2.c.3), and 4 is one Cub and 1 on the Sentry, or one Sentry and 2 on the Cub. Either way a unit of yours is left at B. Their attackers are gone, so B stays yours.

What the facedown card bought. Without it the same attack is 4 against the Sentry's 2: the Sentry dies, they Conquer B and it is 2 to 4 after their T3, both battlefields theirs. The Cub cost one rune recycled on T2, so you had five runes on T3 instead of six. T3 spent four, so the missing rune cost nothing in the walk.

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 5 cards by T1 (four opening, one draw) and 6 by T2. The walk's line, a Sentry by T1 and a Cub by T2, is 12.41% at the entry's three of each. A Cub by T2 alone is 40.30%. With one of each it is 1.69%.

5. Breaks to

The cheapest break is OGN-169 Gust, one Energy, at Reaction speed. "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less to its owner's hand." The scope: the 32 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 or counter, read by hand. Three of them cost one resource in all. Gust is the only one of the three that touches a unit; OGN-179 Acceptable Losses and SFD-135 Factory Recall touch gear. Gust reaches both pieces, since the Sentry is Might 1 or 2 and the Cub Might 3. A return to hand is not a move to base, so the Sentry's text does not stop it.

Walked on their T3, with a Gust in hand: they still have six runes. The Cub resolves at B and Focus passes to them, 346: "When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority." They Gust the Cub back to your hand. 4 against the Sentry's 2 takes B, and it is 2 to 4, as if the Cub had never been hidden. The Cub in hand has lost its free play: it costs E3 from hand (811.3), or another rainbow and a turn of waiting. They paid one Energy and still played the Duo.

What answers the Gust. OGN-045 Defy (Calm, E1 + 1 Power): "Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:." Gust qualifies. Your one rune left from T3 pays both halves if it is a Calm rune: exhausted for the Energy and recycled for the Power (164.2.a, 164.2.b). Holding it is what keeps the hide honest against a Chaos hand.

On your own hide turn they need a ready rune and a chain you open after the hide (§2). In the walk they had neither.

The entry's named answer, OGN-133 Flurry of Blades, is Body: it is not legal under a Fury/Chaos legend (103.1.b).

6. Verdict

Right, with an order the entry does not state, and a cheaper answer than the one it names. A Sentry plus a hidden Cub held B against a two-body attack, for one Energy and one Power spent across two turns. 811.1.b gives the Cub [Reaction] only from the next turn. On the turn of the hide, a chain you open afterwards gives them a window. If they remove the Sentry in it, 323.6 takes the battlefield and 323.7 puts the Cub in the trash. So the hide goes last. From then on the Cub can answer anything, and the cheapest thing that answers it is Gust: one Energy, either piece back to hand, and the free play gone with it.

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%. Your side needs no domain in the walk: the Sentry, Poro, Guardian and the Monk's ability are Energy only, and the hide's rainbow is any rune. Defy in §5 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%. With at least one Calm you keep it by recycling another rune on T2 and leaving it ready on T3. Gust needs no Power.

I did not walk which unit they kill when both are lethal options, the case where they keep the Cub alive and kill the Sentry (the Cub then holds B and can leave it), the mulligan, a second hide, or 2v2. The probabilities in §4 count only cards in hand at the turn named.

Leads