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The Poro's free Empower is a turn-one play, it moves their attack to the other battlefield, and the discard that pays is the one that plays itself

Issue #429 (a slice of #200), 2026-10-23. 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 and data/Riftbound-Tournament-Rules-2026-07-16.txt. Read the unopposed clock for the baseline this is measured against.

Subject: punching-poro-morbid-return-free-empower, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which VEN-007 Punching Poro (Fury, E2, M2) pays its [Empower] by discarding a card, which makes it a 3 for good, and OGN-170 Morbid Return (Chaos spell, E2, [Action]) returns the discarded unit from the trash. The entry is right about the cost: the Poro is one of five [Empower] costs in the pool that pay no Energy and no Power, and an Empowered Poro stays Empowered. Walked as a game, going first, under SFD-185 Glorious Executioner against the Calm/Order Leona deck, the free Empower came on T1, the turn the Poro itself spends both runes. Their T2 OGN-210 Daring Poro, a 3 on the attack, would only have traded with the 3 at A. It took the empty B instead. Morbid Return then brought the discarded OGN-012 Noxus Hopeful back on T3 and turned on the Hopeful's [Legion], so the Return cost no Energy that turn. Score after their T4: 3 to 3. The same hand with the Empower never paid also ends 3 to 3: their Poro takes A instead of B, and the Return is still in hand, with the dead Punching Poro to fetch. The pair moved no point. The discard that does is OGN-006 Flame Chompers, which plays itself from the trash for one Fury Power: the same T1 puts two 3s on the board, and it is 6 to 1 after their T4. The cheapest answer to the Poro is one rune on their T2: OGN-046 En Garde makes the Daring Poro a 5 at A.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-23 at bdfc1f2, reads 773 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 97 in the queue and 9 of them with no play. The issue measured 9 of 99 at 0526f2c. The queue lost two entries and the number with no play did not move, so the two picks are unchanged and two ranks higher. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 89, the first in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 90, en-garde-hand-hammer-alone-versus-pair. Both decks are the ones walked in Whirlwind reaches any unit, so the opponent picks first on your board, with the same seats, battlefields and opponent's draws, so the two plays can be read side by side.

1. Needs

LegendSFD-185 Glorious Executioner (Fury/Chaos, tag Draven)
Chosen ChampionOGN-028 Draven, Showboat (Fury, E5 + 1 Fury Power, M3), never played in the walk
The engineVEN-007 Punching Poro (Fury, E2, M2) and OGN-170 Morbid Return (Chaos spell, E2), one copy each as the entry declares
The other bodiesOGN-018 Noxus Saboteur (Fury, E3, M3), OGN-012 Noxus Hopeful (Fury, E4, M4), OGN-010 Legion Rearguard (Fury, E2, M2), OGN-013 Pouty Poro (Fury, E2, M2), OGN-016 Dangerous Duo (Fury, E3, M3), OGN-171 Mystic Poro (Chaos, E2, M2)

The entry admits any of the five Fury/Chaos legends. Glorious Executioner is the one for this walk because its text fires on a won combat and nothing else: "When you win a combat, draw 1. (You win if only your units remain after combat.)" It never fires here: you win no combat. Its tag is Draven, so Draven, Showboat can be the Chosen Champion, 103.2.a.2: "Must be a champion unit with a champion tag that matches the tag on your Champion Legend."

Both engine cards are mono-domain, so a Fury/Chaos deck admits them, 103.1.b.3: "If a card has a single Domain, then that card is permitted in the Domain Identity that corresponds to the same Domain." Three copies of each is the cap, 103.2.b: "Your Main Deck can include up to 3 copies of the same named card." The walk uses one of each, as the entry declares, and §4 prices three. None of the cards in this play is a Signature card (signature in 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. What the Empower costs, when it can be paid, and what it keeps

It is an activated ability, so it is your turn and an open state. 827.1: "Empower is an Activated Ability keyword." 381: "All Activated Abilities can only be activated on the Controlling Player's Turn and during an Open State." The shorthand is 827.1.c.1: "Empower is functionally short for “[Cost]: Empower this. Play only if not Empowered.”" Its cost here is a card and nothing else, 827.1.c.2: "Empower costs may include both resource costs and non-resource costs." The cost carries no exhaust, so the Poro can pay it the turn it lands, although it enters exhausted, 143.4: "Units enter the Board exhausted." On T1, going first, you have two runes and the Poro costs both. That is the turn the entry means by "a turn when every Energy is committed".

The discard is a cost you can always see coming. 422.3: "When Discarding is listed as a Cost, then the Action must be able to be completed for the cost to be paid." You choose the card, 422.1.a: "The player who is performing the action chooses which cards to send to their Trash, and may use Private Information to do so."

It is bought once and kept. 441.1.b: "An Empowered Game Object can not be Empowered." 441.2: "“Empowered” is a state for Game Objects on the board that other game effects and abilities can reference." A Poro that leaves the board leaves the state behind, 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." A Poro returned to hand and replayed can pay again.

Nothing in the Empower is a target; Morbid Return is. The Poro is not, 827.1.b.1: "The source game object is not a target of the Empower ability." The discarded card is not, 355.10.c: "It is included only as part of a cost, trigger condition, or replacement effect." Morbid Return's own sentence is the rules' example of a target, 355.10.a: "e.g., “Return a unit from your trash to your hand” targets a unit card in your trash, because your trash is Public." That is why a counterspell reaches the Return and nothing reaches the Empower (§5).

The Return needs a unit in your trash, and any unit will do. It does not care how the unit got there. A unit of yours that dies in combat is as good a target as the one the Poro discarded.

Moving and taking a battlefield. Units move from base to a battlefield and back, never between battlefields, 144.4.a: "Units may move from their Base to a Battlefield." 144.4.b: "Units may move from a Battlefield to their Base." 144.4.c.1 is the one exception: "Units with Ganking may use their Standard Move to Move from Battlefield to Battlefield.", and no unit in this walk has [Ganking]. A unit is played to base or to a battlefield its controller controls, 355.2.a: "By default, Valid locations include the controller’s Base or a Battlefield the controller controls." Taking a battlefield scores, 469.1: "Conquer: A player gains Control of a Battlefield they did not yet Score this turn." Keeping it scores at the start of the turn, 469.2: "Hold: A player maintains Control of a Battlefield they did not yet Score this turn during their Beginning Phase." An emptied battlefield is lost, 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 runes, going first. You have 2, 4, 6 and 8 runes channelled on T1 to T4. Nothing in your main line costs Power, so none is recycled. Going second, they channel an extra rune on T1, 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."

3. Their deck: Calm/Order Leona

The deck of the Whirlwind play linked above, and of the Guard play before it. OGN-261 Radiant Dawn (Calm/Order): "When you stun one or more enemy units, buff a friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 :rb_might: buff.)"; nothing in the walk stuns. Its Chosen Champion is OGN-238 Leona, Determined, never played. The engine is SFD-157 Royal Guard (Order, E4, M2): "When you play me, play a 2 :rb_might: Sand Soldier unit token here." Then VEN-119 Keeper of Law (Order, E5 + 1 Order Power, M5): "I cost :rb_energy_2::rb_rune_order: less if you control a battlefield with exactly two units there." The rest are Daring Poro (Order, E2, M2): "[Assault] (+1 :rb_might: while I'm an attacker.)", OGN-054 Sunlit Guardian (Calm, E3, M3, [Shield], [Tank]), SFD-159 Trusty Ramhound (Order, E2, M2), OGN-218 Vanguard Captain (Order, E3 + 1 Order Power, M3, [Legion] two 1-Might Recruits), OGN-044 Clockwork Keeper (Calm, E2, M2) and OGN-216 Soaring Scout (Order, E2, M1).

4. The turns, going first

Fury/Chaos against Calm/Order. Your battlefield is A, SFD-210 Hall of Legends ("When you conquer here, you may pay :rb_energy_1: to ready your legend.", and your legend has no exhaust ability); theirs is B, OGN-282 Monastery of Hirana ("When you conquer here, you may spend a buff to draw 1.", and nobody has a buff). Your opening four are Punching Poro, Noxus Saboteur, Morbid Return and Legion Rearguard. Your draws are Noxus Hopeful (T1), Pouty Poro (T2), Dangerous Duo (T3) and Mystic Poro (T4). Their opening four are Daring Poro, Royal Guard, Keeper of Law and Sunlit Guardian. Their draws are Clockwork Keeper (T1), Trusty Ramhound (T2), Soaring Scout (T3) and Vanguard Captain (T4), as in the Whirlwind play.

turn      runes   your turn                                                 points
T1        2       Punching Poro (E2) to base. Empower: discard Noxus        0
                  Hopeful. The Poro is a 3. None left.
their T1  3       Daring Poro (E2) to base. One left.
T2        4       The Punching Poro walks to A, Conquer: +1. Noxus          1
                  Saboteur (E3) to base. One left.
their T2  5       Daring Poro walks to B, empty, Conquer. Royal Guard
                  (E4) to B; its Sand Soldier is at B too. One left.
T3        6       Hold A: +1. Morbid Return (E2): the Hopeful comes back.   2
                  Noxus Hopeful (E2 with Legion) and Pouty Poro (E2) to
                  A. None left.
their T3  7       Hold B. Daring Poro walks B to base. Keeper of Law (E3,
                  no Power) to B. Sunlit Guardian (E3) to B. One left.
T4        8       Hold A: +1. Legion Rearguard (E2), Dangerous Duo (E3)     3
                  and Mystic Poro (E2) to A. One left.
their T4  9       Hold B. Trusty Ramhound (E2), Vanguard Captain (E3 + 1
                  Order Power) and Clockwork Keeper (E2) to B. Nine
                  runes, one recycled; two left.

Their points: 0 after their T1, 1 after their T2, 2 after their T3, 3 after their T4. After your T2 it is 1 to 0; after their T2, 1 to 1; after your T3, 2 to 1; after their T3, 2 to 2; after your T4, 3 to 2; after their T4, 3 to 3.

Your hand, card by card: 5 after the T1 draw, 4 after the Poro, 3 after the discard; 4 after the T2 draw, 3 after the Saboteur; 4 after the T3 draw, 3 after the Return, 4 with the Hopeful back, 2 after the Hopeful and Pouty Poro; 3 after the T4 draw, 0 after the three bodies. Theirs: 5 after the T1 draw, 4 after the Poro; 5, then 4 after the Guard; 5 after the T3 draw, 3 after the Keeper and the Guardian; 4 after the T4 draw, 1 after the three bodies (Soaring Scout).

Your T1: why the Hopeful. It is the card in hand you can least use soon: E4, or E2 only on a turn when another card has been played first. The Return is the card that brings it back, and being a card played that turn, it is also what makes the Hopeful cost two.

Their T2: the 3 at A turns their Poro around. Attacking, the Daring Poro is a 3, and the Punching Poro defends as a 3. The damage is summed and assigned, 465.2.c: "Starting with the Attacker, each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units." Each 3 is lethal on the other, 142.4.b: "Lethal Damage for a Unit is a non-zero amount greater than or equal to that Unit’s Might." Both die, A empties, and nobody takes it. Walking into the empty B instead scores for them, keeps their Poro, and leaves your Punching Poro alone at A. They walk to B. The Guard goes to B with it: B is then 2 + 2 + 2 = 6, more than the Saboteur's 3, and one body can walk home on T3 to leave exactly the two the Keeper wants. With the Guard in base instead, B is the Poro's 2 and the Saboteur takes it on T3.

Your T3: the Return, for no Energy. The Saboteur cannot attack the 6 at B, and the Punching Poro cannot reach B from A (144.4.b). The Return brings back the Hopeful, and the Hopeful's [Legion] reads "if you've played another card this turn": the Return is that card. Return and Hopeful cost four runes, which is the Hopeful's own price. Pouty Poro takes the last two. Everything goes to A, which you control (355.2.a).

Their T3 and their T4. The Daring Poro walks home, B has exactly the Guard and the Soldier, and the Keeper costs three and no Power. The Guardian follows him. B defends as 2 + 2 + 5 + 3 + 1 (Shield) = 13. Nothing of theirs can reach A: their units at B can only go to base (144.4.b), and what they play enters exhausted (143.4). Your 16 at A are never attacked, and your Saboteur's 3 never attack B. Each side Holds its battlefield every turn.

The control: the Empower never paid. The same hand keeps the Hopeful, and the Poro is a 2.

The scoreboard is the same, turn by turn. The battlefields are swapped: in the main line you keep A and they take B, in the control they take A and you take B. Counting cards in hand and on the board, both lines have seven after your T4: the main line's seven are all on the board, the control's are six on the board and Mystic Poro in hand. The main line's Punching Poro is a 3, the control's a 2. The Empower bought one point of Might on a body that never fought.

The control: the Empower on T2. Paid after the Poro walks to A on T2, it is the same 3 when their Poro could first attack it. T1 is free in a way T2 is not: on T2 the discard is a card you could have played with the runes you had.

The other discard: Flame Chompers. Put it in the Hopeful's place as the T1 draw. Its text is read in the trash, after the discard, 422.1.b: "“When I am discarded” abilities or other Triggered Abilities that trigger on discarding are executed after discarding has occurred." Its price is the one Fury Power and nothing else, by 051 ("Card text uses different terminology than rules. Card text should be interpreted according to these rules, not as though it were text within these rules.") and 356.1.a ("If an ability or instruction allows you to play a card “for [Cost]”, replace the card’s Base Costs with [Cost]."), the reading the verified flame-chompers-discard-recursion stands on. The Power is paid by recycling one of the two runes the Poro exhausted, 164.2.b: "Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]."

turn      runes   your turn                                                 points
T1        2       Punching Poro (E2). Empower: discard Flame Chompers; pay  0
                  1 Fury Power, recycled, and the Chompers comes down in
                  base. One rune left on the board.
their T1  3       Daring Poro (E2) to base. One left.
T2        3       The Punching Poro walks to A, Conquer: +1. The Chompers   2
                  walks to B, Conquer: +1. Noxus Saboteur (E3) to base.
their T2  5       Daring Poro attacks B, 3 against 3: both die, and you
                  lose B. Royal Guard (E4) to base. One left.
T3        5       Hold A: +1. The Saboteur walks to B, empty, Conquer: +1.  4
                  Pouty Poro (E2) to B, Dangerous Duo (E3) to A.
their T3  7       Keeper of Law at full price (E5 + 1 Order Power) to
                  base. Clockwork Keeper (E2) to base.
T4        7       Hold A and B: +2. Rearguard (E2) and Mystic Poro (E2) to  6
                  B. Morbid Return (E2): the Chompers comes back. One left.
their T4  8       Guard, Soldier, Keeper and Clockwork Keeper, 11, attack
                  A's 6 and take it.

6 to 1 after their T4, against 3 to 3. Two battlefields on T2 because two 3s were on the board on T1. The Guard and the Soldier, 4, never have a battlefield to walk into on their T3 (A is 6 and B is 5), and they never control a battlefield with exactly two units there, so the Keeper costs full price. The price is a rune: one T1 rune is recycled for good, so you are a rune short every turn after. [2026-10-24, #452: not for good. A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b) and is channelled again when the deck reaches it (430.1). Going first, with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (315.3.b), each rune recycled is a rune short on every turn through T6, until the Rune Deck runs dry (161.2.a); a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. The walk ends after their T4, so the count stands for every turn it covers. The wording above is kept as history.] It needs a Fury rune among your first two, and the Chompers in hand on T1 (§7). And on T4 the Return has a job: it brings back the Chompers that died at B, ready to be discarded to the next Poro.

How often this happens. The draw pile is 39 cards, the 40 of Tournament Rules 402.1 less the Chosen Champion. Tournament Rules 402.1: "In a constructed event, players must register a Main Deck of exactly 40 cards (including a chosen champion), 1 Legend, 12 runes, and exactly 3 battlefields each with a unique name." Going first, you have seen 5 cards by T1, 7 by T3. With one copy of each, as declared: the Poro among the first 5 is 12.82%, the Return among the first 7 17.95%, both on time 2.02%. With three of each, the 103.2.b cap: 34.52%, 45.73% and 14.42%. The Chompers line needs a Poro and a Chompers both among the first 5: 1.35% with one of each, 10.27% with three of each. A unit to discard on T1 is the walk's assumption: your T1 hand is the Poro and four other cards.

5. Breaks to

What the engine did, and the predicate. The Empower made the Punching Poro a 3 on T1, and on their T2 that 3 turned the Daring Poro's attack into a trade, so they took B instead. The Return brought back the Hopeful on T3. The predicate is: cast or played by them, on their T2 or on your T3, does it let the Daring Poro take A, or stop the Return?

The scope. A Calm/Order deck plays only Calm, Order and Calm/Order cards (103.1.b), and its Signature cards must carry its legend's tag. The predicate is: a card in data/cards.json whose domains are all Calm or Order (tokens carry no domain), not a legend, battlefield or rune, and not a Signature card with another champion's tag. Folded by name, that is 254 cards, the pool of the Whirlwind play.

Their T2: one rune. Five runes, less the Guard's four. The combat at A opens a showdown, and only [Action] and [Reaction] play there, 308.1.a: "Only cards and abilities with the Action or Reaction keywords can be played or activated in a Showdown State." 62 of the 254 carry [Reaction], [Action], [Hidden] or [Ambush] (the regex \[(Reaction|Hidden|Ambush|Action)\], case-insensitive, on the whole text with reminder text left in). Nine cost one Energy or less. No hidden card is possible: hiding needs a battlefield they control, 811.1.b: "you may pay [A] to hide this facedown at a battlefield you control", and on their T1 they control none. Four of the nine break it, each for one ready rune and a card:

Any of the four returns the game to the control's board: their Poro alive at A beside the Guard and the Soldier, yours dead, with the Hopeful in your trash rather than in your hand and their card spent. The Return then has two units to choose from on T3, and it is 3 to 3 after their T4. The other five do not: OGN-045 Defy and VEN-039 Crumbling Sands counter a spell and you cast none on their turn; OGN-081 Seal of Focus and OGN-245 Seal of Unity are gear abilities, and neither gear is on the board; UNL-173 Sacrifice needs a friendly Mighty unit.

Your T3: the Return. They have one ready rune left from their T2. Of the pool's five counterspells, one reaches it: OGN-045 Defy (Calm, E1 + 1 Calm Power): "Counter a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:." The Return costs two and no Power. The ready rune pays the Energy and a Calm rune is recycled for the Power: one ready rune and one Calm Power, and it costs them a rune for good. [2026-10-24, #452: not for good. A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the Rune Deck (416.1, 416.1.b) and is channelled again when the deck reaches it (430.1). Going second, with 485.7's extra rune and then only the Channel Phase's two a turn (315.3.b), each rune they recycle is a rune short on every turn through their T5, until their Rune Deck runs dry (161.2.a); a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner. The walk ends after their T4, so the count stands for every turn it covers. The wording above is kept as history.] The Hopeful stays in the trash; Pouty Poro and the Rearguard go to A for the four runes left, and A is 2 Might smaller. Nothing of theirs attacks A, so the score does not move: 3 to 3. VEN-039 Crumbling Sands needs another spell of yours that turn, and SFD-045 Not So Fast counters a spell that chooses "a friendly unit or gear" of theirs, and the Hopeful in your trash is yours.

Before it: empty your trash. OGN-212 Forge of the Future (Order gear, E2): "When you play this, play a 1 :rb_might: Recruit unit token at your base. Kill this: Recycle up to 4 cards from trashes." On their T1 it costs two of their three runes and takes the Hopeful back into your deck, so the Daring Poro is a turn late. With the Hopeful gone, the Return has no target on T3, and A gets Pouty Poro and the Rearguard instead.

What the census says about the engine. The Empower cannot be answered: on your T1 they have no rune, and nothing in it is a target. What it bought can be answered for one rune by four cards, and the Return by one.

6. Verdict

Right about the cost; the pair moved no point. The Poro's [Empower] pays no Energy and no Power, the pool has five such costs, and the Empowered state is permanent (441.1.b, 441.2). Walked against the Leona deck, the free Empower came on T1, when the Poro had spent both runes. On their T2 the 3 at A made their Daring Poro's attack a trade, and they took the empty B instead. On T3 Morbid Return brought back the Hopeful and paid for itself by turning on the Hopeful's [Legion]. 3 to 3 after their T4. Without the Empower it is 3 to 3 too, with the battlefields swapped and the Return still in hand. The Return needed no discard: in the control a combat death filled the trash. The discard that moved points is Flame Chompers, which plays itself for one Fury Power: two 3s on T1, two battlefields on T2, 6 to 1 after their T4. The cheapest answer to the Poro is En Garde, Combat Experience, Friendship or Decree of Focus, one ready rune on their T2; to the Return, Defy, one ready rune and one Calm Power.

7. Not verified

I did not deal the channel order. The walk assumes six Fury and six Chaos in the twelve of Tournament Rules 402.1. Nothing in your main line or its control costs Power, so no deal breaks them. The Chompers line needs a Fury rune among your first two, to recycle for its Power: it fails in 15 of 66, 22.73%, the deals with two Chaos first.

Their walk assumes six Calm and six Order. The Keeper's discount removes his Order Power, so their T3 needs no particular domain; at full price, in the Chompers line, he needs an Order rune among their seven: 0 of 792. Vanguard Captain on their T4 needs an Order rune among nine: 0 of 220. Defy on your T3 needs a Calm rune among their five: it fails in 6 of 792, 0.76%.

How likely an answer is. Out of their own 39, by their T2 they have seen 6 cards: four opening and a draw on each of their two turns. En Garde, run three times, is among them in 40.30%, and so is each of the other three pump spells alone. Defy has to be among the same 6 by your T3: 40.30% with three copies. These count only the cards named, not how many of them a deck runs.

Their hand holding no answer is the walk's assumption; §5 prices it. Not walked: going second, the mulligan, 2v2, Draven, Showboat, a second Punching Poro (a new object pays its own Empower), and the turns after their T4. In the Chompers line their T2 trade at B is one choice of two; with the Daring Poro kept back instead, you Hold both battlefields on T3. The probabilities count only the cards named.

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