Combo · ENGINE

Adaptatron eats the Gold the same Conquer made it, because 205 puts his kill at RESOLUTION and 340.1 lets you order it second

2 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Adaptatron ×1 OGN-056 · engine · calm

  When I conquer, you may kill a gear. If you do, buff me. (If I don't have a buff, I get a +1 Might buff.)

• Treasure Hoard ×1 SFD-220 · enabler

  When you conquer here, you may pay 1 Energy to play a Gold gear token exhausted.

Payoff

Deck

• Adaptatron is mono-Calm and Treasure Hoard is Colorless, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend with Calm as one of its two domains. Neither card is Signature.

Prerequisites

• THE ORDERING IS THE ENTRY, AND IT IS LEGAL RATHER THAN CLEVER. Both triggers fire off the same Conquer. 383.3.d: 'If more than one Triggered Ability is Triggered simultaneously, then the player that controls the Abilities selects the order to place them on the Chain.' 340.1: 'The newest Finalized Chain Item resolves.' So place Adaptatron's trigger FIRST and Treasure Hoard's SECOND, and the Hoard's resolves first, putting the Gold on the board before Adaptatron looks for a gear.
• AND IT IS THE POSITIVE MIRROR OF A TRAP THIS CATALOGUE ALREADY RECORDS. A resource produced by one trigger can never fund another trigger's 383.3.b BASE COST from the same event, because 383.3.b.1 demands payment at finalization — which is why `monastery-hirana-warmogs-conquer-draw` has to sit out its first Conquer. Adaptatron's kill is not a base cost (205), it is a linked game action at resolution, so the same event CAN feed it.
• 205 CUTS THE OTHER WAY TOO, AND THE ENTRY DEPENDS ON IT: 'the later instruction checks whether the game action was performed, not whether a cost was paid'. If the kill is not performed — no gear on the board — the buff simply does not happen and nothing is lost. The 'you may' makes the whole clause optional, so a Conquer with no Gold is never a misplay.
• WHAT THE FODDER COSTS. 1 Energy per Conquer for a Gold that is killed rather than cashed. That is deliberately the cheap side of the trade: 187.5's Gold ability has an exhaust in its cost, so a Gold played EXHAUSTED cannot be cashed until your next Awakening anyway — this line spends a token that was going to be idle for a turn and converts it into a permanent 702 Buff counter now.
• 702.3 IS THE CEILING AND IT IS LOW ON ITS OWN. Adaptatron only ever buffs himself, so the second Conquer places nothing (702.3.a). The line is worth one counter per SPEND, not one per Conquer — pair it with a buff spender (Monastery of Hirana, Wallop, Call to Glory, Fae Dragon's Gold clause) or with a payoff that reads the counter without removing it (`OGN-063 Spirit's Refuge`, `OGN-053 Stand United`).
• THE BATTLEFIELD IS NOT GUARANTEED. 485.4.a has each player provide three battlefields and 485.5 randomly selects one, and 103.4.c forbids running duplicates of a name, so Treasure Hoard shows up one time in three.
• AND THE LINE CONSUMES CONQUERS IT DOES NOT PRODUCE. 470 caps Scoring once per battlefield per turn and 348.2.a refuses Control to a player who already has it, so re-conquering the Hoard you hold needs a garrison that leaves.
• 204.3.a IS THE FIRST AND CLEANER SOURCE FOR THIS, AND IT CARRIES THE WORKED EXAMPLE: "When Costs within Instructions appear as the first part of the effect in triggered abilities, the cost is taken to be the base cost of the triggered ability. It must be paid to finalize the triggered ability", with Riot's example being Overzealous Fan - "When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base" - and the note that "in order to finalize the ability to the chain, its controller must kill Overzealous Fan". 383.3.b says the same thing later in the book. The companion is 204.3.b: a cost appearing in a SPELL, in an ACTIVATED ability, or in a LATER part of a trigger's effect is paid on resolution instead, which is the 205 "pay X. If you do, Y" family and the reason the two look alike on the card and behave differently on the chain.

Steps

1. Bring Treasure Hoard as one of your three battlefields and get Adaptatron standing where he will take part in the Conquer.
2. Conquer the Treasure Hoard. 466.5 establishes Control and 466.5.d makes it a Conquer, so both triggers fire simultaneously.
3. Order them under 383.3.d: place Adaptatron's on the Chain first, Treasure Hoard's second. Pay Treasure Hoard's 1 Energy to finalize it (383.3.b.1).
4. 340.1 resolves the newest item — Treasure Hoard's — and a Gold gear token is played exhausted.
5. 340.1 then resolves Adaptatron's. The optional game action is available: kill the Gold. 205 checks that the action was performed, and it was, so the linked instruction executes and Adaptatron gets a +1 Might Buff counter.
6. Spend that counter on whatever the deck reads it with, and the next Conquer can place another one; leave it in place and 702.3.a refuses the second.

How it ends

engine only — one 702 Buff counter per Conquer at the Treasure Hoard for 1 Energy, capped at one at a time by 702.3 unless the deck also spends it; 470 caps the Conquers at one there per turn and nothing here scores

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue