Combo · ENGINE

The Altar draws twice per round trip, because the Overzealous Fan dies on the OPPONENT's turn and the Awaken hands the exhaust back

4 cards · order + chaos · verified

Pieces

• Altar of Memories ×1 SFD-169 · payoff · order

  When a friendly unit dies, you may exhaust me to draw 1, then put a card from your hand on the top or bottom of your Main Deck.

• Overzealous Fan ×3 SFD-128 · engine · chaos

  When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base.

Payoff

Deck

• Chaos + Order, and the pool prints exactly ONE legend name holding both: VEN-155 / VEN-197 Heart of the Tempest (103.1.b.2). This is one of the three single-name domain pairs in the legend census, so the shell is forced.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• You must be defending at a battlefield with the Fan standing there — the Fan's trigger is 'When I defend', which needs the opponent to attack a battlefield you control (464.2.c.2).

Prerequisites

• THE EXHAUST IS A BASE COST PAID AT FINALIZATION, NOT AT RESOLUTION. 383.3.b makes a cost written right after a Triggered Ability's opening 'you may' the ability's BASE COST, and 383.3.b.1 pays it to FINALIZE the trigger onto the Chain. So 'you may exhaust me to draw 1' requires the Altar to be READY at the instant the friendly unit dies. There is no window to ready it in response, and a second death in the same turn finds it exhausted.
• WHICH IS WHY THE OFF-TURN DEATH IS THE WHOLE ENTRY. 315.1.b: 'The Turn Player readies all Game Objects they control that are able to be readied', and 415.3.a scopes that to YOUR Awakening Phase. So an Altar spent on the opponent's turn is ready again at your own Awaken, and a second friendly death on your turn is a second activation. One E2 gear, two activations per round trip — where every catalogued Altar line so far (trevor-altar-of-memories-beginning-draw) takes only the one on your own turn.
• WHAT THE FAN COSTS AND WHAT IT BUYS ON THE WAY OUT. 'You may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base' — the kill is the price of the move, both inside the Fan's own defend trigger, so no spell is spent. The removed attacker is out of the combat before damage: 465.2.c has each player assign damage equal to their SUMMED Might, so pulling one attacker out lowers the bill by exactly that body's Might. It does not cancel the combat unless it was the only attacker (see janna-overzealous-empty-the-attack for the version that empties the whole attacking side).
• THE ALTAR IS A FILTER, NOT CARD ADVANTAGE, AND THE ENTRY IS PRICED THAT WAY. 'Draw 1, then put a card from your hand on the top or bottom of your Main Deck' leaves your hand the same size. What you get is selection plus a known top card — which is why the 'on the top' half is worth more than the draw: it sets up the next Draw Phase (315.4.b) and any [Vision] or Predict line. Two activations a round trip is two sculpts, not two cards.
• AND THAT IS WHY IT NEVER BURNS YOU OUT. 431.1.a is the Burn Out on drawing past the Main Deck; the Altar puts a card back before you would ever reach it, so the deck never shortens on its account. The Fan, being three copies, is the real ceiling: three off-turn activations a game.
• TWO CLAUSES THAT DO NOT APPLY. The Fan's kill is not a Deathknell and no would-die replacement is involved, so 808.1.d.1 (a shield erasing a Deathknell) never comes up; and the Fan dies to its own instruction, so 355.10.e/f do not either — you choose, there is nothing to choose.
• 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. Play Altar of Memories (2 Energy) and put Overzealous Fans at the battlefields you control (2 Energy each).
2. On the opponent's turn they attack a battlefield where a Fan stands; the Fan's 'When I defend' trigger goes on the Chain.
3. Take the option: kill the Fan and move one attacking unit to its base, lowering the attackers' summed Might by that body's Might (465.2.c).
4. The Fan's death is a friendly death, so the Altar triggers. Pay its base cost — exhaust the Altar (383.3.b, 383.3.b.1) — and draw 1, then put a card from hand on top of your Main Deck.
5. At your own Awakening Phase the Altar is readied (315.1.b, 415.3.a).
6. Any friendly death on your own turn is the Altar's second activation of the round trip; draw and sculpt again.
7. Repeat for as long as you have Fans; three copies is the cap (103.2.b).

Per iteration

two Altar sculpts per round trip instead of one, plus one attacker removed from a combat, for 2 Energy per Fan and no spell

How it ends

engine only — three Overzealous Fans a game, each consumed, and the Altar is capped at one activation per player turn by its own exhaust (383.3.b) and the Awaken (415.3.a). Nothing here draws you ahead on cards 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

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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