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Undying Loyalty rebuilds the tags for one rune, and the one card it cannot rebuild is Ivern

Issue #362 (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: starhound-undying-loyalty-four-tag-recursion, the mono-Order ENGINE in which UNL-168 Undying Loyalty plays a Bird, Cat, Dog or Poro from your trash for 1 Order Power and UNL-167 Starhound returns one to your hand, so the four tags that UNL-177 Ivern, Friend to All reads come back after the bodies die. Walked as a game, the recursion paid, but not with Ivern's point. On T3 and T4 two Undying Loyalty, one rune each, put a Bird and a Poro back, and with Starhound as the Dog, Ivern's T4 conquer found all four tags: +2. The same hand scores that +2 without the spells, because Ivern then chooses Bird and the Feline brings the Cat from base. What the spells bought was where the Feline stands. With the Bird back from the trash Ivern could be the Cat, so the Feline went to G after the conquer and held it on their T4: 4 to 4, where the hand without them ends at 4 to 5. On their T4 one Energy of OGN-004 Cleave on an attacker killed Ivern, and neither half of the recursion can bring him back: he costs E6, and in the trash he has no Bird, Cat, Dog or Poro tag. The entry is right about the cost and the ceiling. It is wrong that the recursion carries the condition through a sweeper, because Undying Loyalty is cast only in your Main Phase, after your Hold. The cheapest break is the payoff, not the tags, and it costs one rune: OGN-009 Hextech Ray or UNL-134 Existential Dread in Ivern's own T4 attack stops the Conquer and the trigger.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-14 at 0c981b5, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 31 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 73 (a hit on first), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 72, warden-saboteur-hidden-lock (OGN-070 Mageseeker Warden with OGN-018 Noxus Saboteur), played in The Warden keeps their battlefield small, and the Saboteur deletes one hidden card until a Gust.

1. Needs

LegendUNL-195 Green Father (Calm/Order)
The payoffUNL-177 Ivern, Friend to All (Order, E6, M6), the Chosen Champion
The engineUNL-168 Undying Loyalty (Order, E2 + 1 Power, spell), UNL-167 Starhound (Order, E5 + 1 Power, M6, Dog)
The bodiesOGN-216 Soaring Scout (Order, E2, M1, Bird), OGN-210 Daring Poro (Order, E2, M2, Poro), SFD-159 Trusty Ramhound (Order, E2, M2, Dog), VEN-132 Fallen Feline (Order, E2 + 1 Power, M3, Cat)

Ivern carries the Ivern tag and is a champion unit, so 103.2.a.2 lets him be the Chosen Champion of a Green Father deck: "Must be a champion unit with a champion tag that matches the tag on your Champion Legend." He starts in the Champion Zone and is played from there, 108.3.d: "The Chosen Champion can be played from here as normal, following the rules of Playing a Card." 103.2.b.1 counts him among the three copies of his name: "This includes your Chosen Champion." So two more Ivern can sit in the Main Deck. None of these cards is Signature (data/cards.json) or in data/legality.src.json. UNL-196 Daisy! is the other four-tag payoff; it is Signature, and this walk does not run it.

The card text the play turns on:

Order prints all four tags inside Undying Loyalty's ceiling. Over data/cards.json, Calm, Order and Calm/Order units with a Bird, Cat, Dog or Poro tag at printed E2 or less and 1 Power or less are nine names: Soaring Scout (Bird); Trusty Ramhound (Dog); Daring Poro, OGN-052 Stalwart Poro, SFD-036 Lonely Poro and VEN-029 Ol' Poro (Poro); Fallen Feline, UNL-036 Mutated Mouser and VEN-043 Steel Paws (Cat). The Order ones are Scout, Ramhound, Daring Poro and Fallen Feline, one of each tag. The colourless UNL-T02 Bird is a token and never reaches the trash (185, 186.1). Ivern supplies one tag himself.

2. What the recursion costs, where it lands, and when it can be cast

The discount is real, and it reads the body you play. The trash is public, 355.10.a.1: "Public zones are Battlefield Zones, Bases, Trashes, Legend Zones, Champion Zones, and Facedown Zones." So the unit Undying Loyalty plays from it is a target, and the target is chosen in step 2 of playing the card, 355.5: "If a card requires you to specifically choose one or more Game Objects, that choice is made now." The cost comes after it, in step 3, and 356.4.a: "Discounts may be applied by the card being played or by any other card or effect." Choosing a tagged body makes it E0 + 1 Order Power. With no unit in your trash at printed E2 or less and 1 Power or less, the spell cannot be cast at all, 355.8: "In order to put a spell or ability on the chain, valid choices must be made for all targets." The ceiling reads the printed cost, 206: "Effects that need to determine a card’s cost for any purpose always use its printed or copied cost, even if that cost is increased, decreased, or ignored as the card is played."

The Power needs no Energy. A rune's two abilities are separate, 164.2.b: "Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]." Recycling asks no ready rune, so a rune you exhausted for Energy earlier in the turn pays it. In the walk Undying Loyalty never costs a rune of Energy; it costs one rune off the board.

The body enters exhausted, at base or at a battlefield you hold. The play is free, 356.1.b.1: "If a card allows a player to play a card "ignoring its cost," its base Energy cost and base Power cost are set to zero." It goes where 355.2.a allows: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." And 359.2.c: "If it is a Unit, it enters the Board exhausted at the Location that was chosen." Ivern's condition reads "your units", with no location, so a tag in base counts as much as one at a battlefield.

It is cast only in your Main Phase, after your Hold. Undying Loyalty has neither [Action] nor [Reaction], so 310.1.a holds it: "By default, cards can be played and abilities activated only when a player has priority on their turn in a Neutral Open state." On your turn the Hold comes first, 315.2.b.2: "1. The Turn Player Holds all Battlefields they Control." The Main Phase starts after that, 316.1: "When all steps of the Start of Turn have been completed, the Main Phase begins." A tag body killed on their turn is missing when Ivern's hold trigger resolves, whatever your trash holds. The rebuild reaches a Conquer the same turn, or the Hold of the turn after.

Ivern's tag check is made on resolution. His "if" comes after the effect verb, not right after the trigger, so it is not part of the condition, 383.2.a.1: "Any additional conditional statement immediately after the Condition must be true in order for the Condition to be fulfilled." Riot's own second example there is OGN-251 Loose Cannon, whose "if" sits in the same place and is called part of the effect. A tag removed while Ivern's trigger waits on the chain costs the point.

Ivern is outside both halves. A card that dies is a new object, 124: "A Game Object that changes zones to or from a Non-Board Zone becomes a new object for the purposes of tracking that object." In the trash Ivern carries his printed tags, Ivern and Ionia, not the one he chose, so Starhound cannot return him. Undying Loyalty cannot either, since he costs E6. The Champion Zone does not take him back, 108.3.c: "The Chosen Champion cannot be returned to this zone by normal means."

3. Their deck: Fury/Chaos, bodies and cheap spells

OGN-251 Loose Cannon (Fury/Chaos): "At start of your Beginning Phase, draw 1 if you have one or fewer cards in your hand." In the walk they start each of their turns with two cards or more, so it draws nothing. Its Chosen Champion is OGN-030 Jinx, Demolitionist, unplayed here. They play OGN-175 Shipyard Skulker (Chaos, E3, M3, no text), OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (Fury, E2, M2), OGN-006 Flame Chompers (Fury, E3, M3), and OGN-004 Cleave (Fury, E1): "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Give a unit [Assault 3] this turn. (+3 :rb_might: while it's an attacker.)" §5 names the other spells that answer the line.

4. The turns, going first

Calm/Order against Fury/Chaos. Your battlefield is G; theirs is B. Your opening four are Soaring Scout, Daring Poro, Trusty Ramhound and Undying Loyalty. Your T1 draw is Fallen Feline, your T2 draw Starhound, your T3 draw a second Undying Loyalty, and your T4 draw a card the walk does not use.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 points
T1      2       Soaring Scout (E2) to base.                               0
their T1        Shipyard Skulker (E3) to base. Three runes, none left.
T2      4       The Scout walks to G, Conquer: +1. Daring Poro (E2) and   1
                Trusty Ramhound (E2) to base. No runes left.
their T2        The Skulker walks to G: 3 against the Scout's 1. The
                Scout dies, and its Deathknell channels you a rune,
                exhausted. Conquer G. A second Skulker (E3) and Legion
                Rearguard (E2) to base. Five runes, none left.
T3      7       Ivern from the Champion Zone (E6), choosing Cat, to       2
                base: six runes exhausted. Undying Loyalty choosing the
                Scout in your trash: E0 + 1 Order Power, one exhausted
                rune recycled. The Scout to base. The Poro and the
                Ramhound walk to G: 6 against the Skulker's 3. The
                Ramhound and the Skulker die. Conquer: +1. One rune
                ready, six on the board.
their T3        The Rearguard walks to B, Conquer. The second Skulker
                walks to G: 3 against the Poro's 2. The Poro dies.
                Conquer G. A third Skulker (E3) and a second Rearguard
                (E2) to base. Seven runes, two left.
T4      8       Starhound (E5 + 1 Order Power, five runes exhausted,      4
                one of them recycled) to base, returning the Ramhound
                to hand. The second Undying Loyalty choosing the Poro,
                one exhausted rune recycled: the Poro to base. Ivern
                walks to G: 6 against the Skulker's 3. Conquer: +1, and
                Ivern's trigger: +1. Fallen Feline (E2 + 1 Order Power)
                to G, naming Hextech Ray. One rune ready, five on the
                board.
their T4        Hold B. The third Skulker and the second Rearguard walk
                to G. Cleave (E1) on the Skulker: 6 + 2 = 8 against
                Ivern's 6 and the Feline's 3. Ivern dies and the Feline
                takes 2; your 9 kill both. G stays yours. Flame
                Chompers (E3) to base. Nine runes, five left.

Their points: 0 after their T1, 1 after their T2, 3 after their T3, 4 after their T4. After their T4 it is 4 to 4.

Your T3, what the first Undying Loyalty buys. The Scout's Deathknell made the board seven runes instead of six. Ivern takes six of them, and Undying Loyalty recycles one of the six he exhausted, so the Scout comes back for no Energy at all. That is the entry's "the first trip pays for itself", and it holds. Ivern chooses Cat, because Bird, Dog and Poro are already on the board. In the attack on G the Ramhound is a 3 (the Poro is there with it) and the Poro a 3 ([Assault]), and the Skulker's 3 goes on the Ramhound: 465.2.c, "Starting with the Attacker, each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units." Your 6 kill the Skulker, and G is yours, 466.5.d: "Establishing Control results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored this Battlefield this turn."

Their T3, two conquers. B is empty, so the Rearguard walks in and conquers it with no fight. The second Skulker kills the Poro at G and conquers G. A unit at a battlefield cannot reach the other one without [Ganking], 144.4.c.1: "Units with Ganking may use their Standard Move to Move from Battlefield to Battlefield." So their Rearguard stays at B for the rest of the walk.

Your T4, where the recursion pays. The Bird (Scout) is in base and the Cat is on Ivern. Starhound is the Dog and returns the Ramhound to hand; the second Undying Loyalty puts the Poro back in base. Both go first, because the tag check comes on resolution of Ivern's trigger (383.2.a.1). Ivern walks to G, kills the Skulker and conquers it, and his trigger finds all four tags: +2. The Feline goes to G only after the conquer, since 355.2.a needs a battlefield you control. It names Hextech Ray, so they cannot play it on their T4. Ivern's own attack had no such cover: they held two runes ready, and Hextech Ray or Existential Dread in that showdown stops the Conquer (§5). Their hand holding neither is the walk's assumption.

Without the two Undying Loyalty, the same hand still scores the +2, and loses G. On T3 the Scout stays in the trash, so Ivern chooses Bird; the attack on G is the same. With nothing recycled, T4 has nine runes. Starhound (E5 + 1 Order, the Dog) returns the Poro, which died on their T3, and the Poro (E2) goes to base. The Feline (E2 + 1 Order, the Cat) goes to base too, before the attack: 355.2.a always allows the base, and Ivern's condition reads "your units" with no location. Nine Energy, two Order recycled, seven runes left on the board. Ivern conquers G and his trigger finds Bird, Cat, Dog and Poro: 4 to 3, as in the walk. The difference comes on their T4. The Feline is in base, exhausted (359.2.c), so Ivern stands at G alone. Their 8 kill him and his 6 kill the Skulker, a 6 while it attacks. The Rearguard conquers G: 4 to 5, where the walk ends at 4 to 4. So the two spells cost two runes off the board and no Energy, and bought one point: not Ivern's, but G kept on their turn, because the Bird from the trash let Ivern be the Cat and freed the Feline to stand at G.

Their T4, the payoff dies. They Hold B: 4. Ivern was healed at the end of your turn (143.3.b.1), so he is a 6 again, beside the Feline's 3. The third Skulker and the second Rearguard walk in. Cleave needs no Power and is not the spell the Feline named. The Skulker is a 6 while it attacks, and their 8 go 6 on Ivern and 2 on the Feline, 465.2.c.3: "Units must have lethal damage assigned to them in full before damage is assigned to a different Unit." Your 9 kill the Skulker (6) and the Rearguard (2). The Feline survives, so G stays yours, and they score nothing there.

After the walk. On your T5 you Hold G: 5 to 4. No trigger fires, because Ivern is in the trash. Bird, Dog and Poro are on the board and the Feline is a Cat, so all four tags stand, and no card on your side reads them. Neither half returns Ivern (§2). The two Ivern left in the Main Deck are the way back: at least one among the 9 cards seen by T5 is 41.30% before the game (39-card pile). In this walk, whose first 8 cards held none, it is the T5 draw alone: 2 of 31, 6.45%.

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. Ivern is therefore always available. Going first you have seen 7 cards by T3 and 8 by T4 (four opening, one draw a turn). With three copies of each card (103.2.b): an Undying Loyalty among the first 7 is 45.73%, two among the first 8 is 10.11%, a Starhound among the first 8 is 50.82%, and the walk's whole draw (two Undying Loyalty, a Starhound and a Fallen Feline among the first 8) is 1.66%. That counts only those cards. The walk also needs three 2-drops by T2. On their side, Cleave among the 8 cards they have seen by their T4 (four opening, four draws) is 50.82%. Hextech Ray or Existential Dread among the 7 they have seen by your T4 (four opening, three draws) is 45.73% with three copies of one and 72.23% with three of each, 7 of 39.

5. Breaks to

The cheapest break is the payoff, for one rune, and the first window is your own T4. Scope: the Fury, Chaos and Fury/Chaos spells in data/corpus_flat.txt at E1 or less and 1 Power or less. They are 14 by base code, 13 once the banned SFD-122 Called Shot is left out: OGN-004 Cleave, OGN-009 Hextech Ray, OGN-169 Gust, OGN-179 Acceptable Losses, OGN-183 Stacked Deck, SFD-003 Blood Rush, SFD-005 Detonate, SFD-135 Factory Recall, UNL-010 Vault Breaker, UNL-014 Monster Harpoon, UNL-134 Existential Dread, VEN-015 Decree of Rage and VEN-107 Decree of Discord.

Your T4, Ivern's attack. Ivern, a 6, walks into the Skulker's 3 at G before the Feline is on the board. They ended their T3 with two runes ready, and in the Combat Showdown only [Action] and [Reaction] spells can be played (308.1.a), which rules out Detonate and Decree of Discord. Two of the 13 break it:

Either costs you the T4 +2 for one rune. UNL-014 Monster Harpoon puts 2 on Ivern, 5 with the Skulker's 3, short of 6; it deals 4 if they control a facedown card, and then it breaks too, but they hid nothing in this walk. Cleave, Blood Rush and Vault Breaker add Might only to an attacker, and the Skulker defends. Gust reaches only a unit of 3 Might or less: on their own Skulker it hands you G. Decree of Rage hits only a Calm unit. Acceptable Losses, Stacked Deck and Factory Recall touch no unit.

Their T4, from the walk's position. Ivern is a 6 at G beside the Feline's 3. Five Might of attackers kill him once anything adds 1, and on their own turn all 13 can be played. Five break it:

If they run three copies of one of the five, it is among their 8 cards by their T4 in 50.82%; with two of them (six cards), 77.43%; with four (twelve), 96.39%. Each is 8 of 39. For your T4 window the figures are in §4.

The cheapest answer to the recursion itself is VEN-107 Decree of Discord (Chaos, E1 + 1 Power, one rune). "Return any number of enemy Order (:rb_rune_order:) units with total Might 5 or less to their owners' hands." It has no "at a battlefield", so it reaches your base. And it sends the bodies to your hand, which neither Undying Loyalty nor Starhound reads. From the T4 position, if Ivern survives, they cast it on their T4 on the Scout and the Poro (1 + 2). Your T5 Hold of G then finds Dog and Cat only, and Ivern's trigger scores nothing. The bodies come back for E2 each in your Main Phase, after that Hold. Among the 13 one-rune spells of the scope above it is the only one that can remove an Order unit from your base. VEN-015 Decree of Rage reaches base too, but only a Calm unit.

Battlefield sweepers do not touch the tags. OGS-002 Firestorm (Fury, E6 + 1 Power): "Deal 3 to all enemy units at a battlefield." The tag bodies wait in base and the sweep reaches only what stands at G. In the walk that was Ivern and the Feline: Firestorm kills the Feline and puts 3 on Ivern, and the same two attackers then kill him. That is six runes for what Cleave did for one. Two-rune spells that reach base and kill: OGN-029 Falling Star (Fury, E2 + 2 Power), "Deal 3 to a unit. Deal 3 to a unit.", kills two tag bodies. Undying Loyalty can return them, but only after your next Hold.

Against the spells themselves, the answers cost more than the spells. UNL-131 Abandon (Chaos, E2) counters Undying Loyalty and returns it to your hand, two runes against one. VEN-101 Gust Monk (Chaos, E2 plus an optional E1) banishes one card from a trash, three runes for one body.

6. Verdict

Right about the cost and the ceiling; wrong that the recursion protects the condition; silent that the payoff is outside it. Undying Loyalty with a tagged target is E0 + 1 Power, and the Power can come from a rune already exhausted for Energy, so the two copies of the walk cost two runes off the board and no Energy. They did not buy Ivern's conquer point: without them Ivern chooses Bird, the Feline brings the Cat from base, and the T4 +2 is the same. They bought the Feline's place at G, which kept G on their T4, 4 to 4 instead of 4 to 5. And Ivern's own attack is the cheapest window: one rune of Hextech Ray or Existential Dread in his T4 showdown stops the Conquer and the trigger. The rebuild is cast only in your Main Phase, after the Hold, so a tag body lost on their turn costs the next Hold point whatever the trash holds. Battlefield sweepers are the wrong threat: the tag bodies sit in base, where Firestorm cannot reach them. The threat is Ivern, an M6 who dies to one Energy of Cleave and two attackers, and whom neither half can return.

7. Not verified

I did not deal the channel order. The walk assumes six Order and six Calm runes, Green Father's two domains, in the twelve of Tournament Rules 402.1. Nothing in the walk costs Calm Power. Undying Loyalty on T3 needs one Order rune among the seven channelled by then (the Scout's rune included): it fails in 0 of 924 deals. On T4 Starhound, the second Undying Loyalty and the Feline each recycle an Order rune, three in all, after the one recycled on T3. That needs four Order runes among the first nine channelled, and it fails in 84 of 924 deals, 9.09%. In those deals you skip the Feline: two recycles need three Order runes among nine, and that fails in 0 deals. The opponent's walk costs Energy only, and they choose which two of their seven runes stay ready after their T3. Hextech Ray needs a Fury rune and Existential Dread a Chaos rune; seven runes from six Fury and six Chaos always hold one of each, so either holds in all 924 deals. Decree of Discord needs one Chaos rune among their nine on T4; at six and six that holds in every deal. The counterfactual without Undying Loyalty recycles two Order on T4 and none on T3: two Order among nine runes, 0 fail.

I did not walk Daisy!, Green Father's Brush, or going second. Green Father reads "When you conquer or hold, you may exhaust me to replace that battlefield with a Brush battlefield token", and docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md records what a battlefield token is for Control as unruled. The walk never exhausts it. Nor did I walk the mulligan or 2v2. 124 makes a dead Ivern a new object; I read that his chosen tag goes with the old one, and I did not find a paragraph naming a gained tag among the Temporary Modifications of 124.1. Fallen Feline's name is a guess at their removal: had it named Cleave, Hextech Ray would have done the same job with the same attackers. Their hand holding neither Hextech Ray nor Existential Dread on your T4, and Cleave and nothing better on theirs, is the walk's assumption; §5 prices the alternatives. The probabilities in §4 and §5 count only the cards named.

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