When Icathian Rain is played and the opponent responds with En Garde on Fiora (giving her deflect), how many runes does the Icathian Rain player have to recycle to kill Fiora?

Ruling: The Icathian Rain player can choose to recycle anywhere from 0-6 runes. They are not required to pay the deflect cost for each reflexive trigger - if they decline to pay, that trigger is removed from the chain without dealing damage.

Sequence:

• Icathian Rain is played
• Players can react (En Garde can be played here)
• Icathian Rain resolves, creating 6 reflexive triggers
• For each reflexive trigger targeting Fiora with deflect, the player chooses whether to pay the deflect cost
• If they decline to pay, the trigger is removed from the chain and deals no damage
• If they pay, the trigger remains and will resolve to deal 2 damage
• At minimum, 3 paid triggers (3 runes) are needed to kill Fiora

Nuances:

• If Fiora is the only available target, she must be targeted by all 6 triggers, but the player can still choose not to pay deflect for any or all of them
• When a player declines to pay for a triggered ability that has incurred a cost, the ability ceases being a pending item and is removed from the chain without ever becoming a chain item