Combo · ENGINE
Aphelios, Exalted with Jax's Quick-Draw — rune value per Equipment played
Pieces
- Aphelios, Exalted ×1
SFD-049 · engine · calm
When you attach an Equipment to me, choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn — • Ready 2 runes. • Channel 1 rune exhausted. • Buff a friendly unit.
- Jax, Unmatched ×1
SFD-054 · enabler · calm
[Deflect] (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) Your Equipment everywhere have [Quick-Draw]. (Each gains [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.)
- Doran's Shield ×1
SFD-033 · enabler · calm
[Equip] 1 Calm Power (1 Calm Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)
[Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)
- Grandmaster at Arms ×1
SFD-193 · legend · calm/body
1 Energy, Exhaust: Attach a detached Equipment you control to a unit you control. Exhaust: Attach an attached Equipment you control to a unit you control.
Payoff
Deck
- Legend is Grandmaster at Arms (SFD-193, Calm/Body); without it the second domain is free but the free re-attach is gone.
Prerequisites
- Hard cap: 'that hasn't been chosen this turn' allows three triggers per Aphelios per turn. The legend's re-attach must move an Equipment that is already sitting on another unit onto Aphelios; moving one off him triggers nothing.
- WHAT KILLS IT, AND IT IS NOT NAMED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THIS ENTRY. 718.5.b: "Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached." Every attach trigger this entry counts needs an Equipment that is still on the board, and 718.2 and 721.2 make only the printed text Inactive - the card remains a legal target while attached. Killing one Quick-Draw Equipment removes one of the three modes; killing both ends the turn's engine, and 819.1.d's free attach cannot replace a card that is in the trash. Measured over every printing: FIFTEEN names kill a gear, they cover ALL SIX domains and NONE is colourless, so no opponent identity lacks one - the cheapest are OGN-179 Acceptable Losses (Chaos, E1, [Action]) and SFD-005 Detonate (Fury, E1 + 1 Power) - and ZERO of the fifteen carry [Reaction], so none reaches the Beginning-Phase Hold window (312.2.a with 813.1.c.1) - the answer has to be cast a turn early, which is also the turn in which to defend it. In its own Body/Calm colours the answers are VEN-080 Noxian Demolitionist (Body, E2) and SFD-032 Disarming Rake (Calm, E3 + 1 Power). Note that the legend this entry already runs is a RELOCATOR and not an answer: moving an Equipment is not killing it.
Steps
- Play Doran's Shield (1E) with Quick-Draw: attach it to Aphelios — Ready 2 runes. Net +1 Energy.
- Grandmaster at Arms (exhaust): move an Equipment attached to another unit onto Aphelios — Channel 1 rune exhausted.
- A second Quick-Draw Equipment (1E) onto Aphelios — Buff a friendly unit.
How it ends
engine only — net 0 resources on a full three-attach turn (two 1E Equipment out, two runes readied back), plus one exhausted rune channelled and one buff; the channel mode needs a fresh Equipment on another unit each turn
Sources
Walked here, in this project
- Hunt v2 lens L3, entry L3-09 2026-09-03 record
- REFUTE pass 2, 2026-09-03 2026-09-03 record
- Hand walk 2026-09-04 2026-09-04 record
How this entry was audited
REFUTE = a refutation pass, with its date and verdict · WOUNDED = the pass found a flaw and the entry was rewritten · BUDGETED = the pass checked the recycle-and-draw ledger · lens = the hunt that proposed it.
Calm/Body sibling of azir-aphelios-attach (Calm/Order, Emperor of the Sands). Tiny by the lens's own arithmetic and bounded by the three-mode cap and the 12-rune deck (161.2.a); bounce resets (a new Aphelios object) cost more than they return. Listed for completeness. Card text verified against the corpus. Jax is a 5E+1P prerequisite for the Quick-Draw static, and Cloth Armor (SFD-064) is Mind, so it only serves the Calm/Mind variant, which has no Grandmaster at Arms and so no free re-attach. REFUTE 2 (2026-09-03): WOUNDED — the mechanics hold (819.1.d makes Quick-Draw a real attach; 434.1.g/h forbids re-attaching to the same unit) but the entry's own three steps net 0 resources, not +1 Energy. HAND-WALKED 2026-09-04 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-04-virtuoso-and-two-attach.md). 819.1.d makes Quick-Draw literally '[Reaction]' plus 'When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control', so the attach rides the play with no Equip Power paid. Both of Grandmaster at Arms's abilities exhaust her, so one free re-attach a turn, and 434.1.g/h forces it to move an Equipment off ANOTHER unit onto Aphelios. Net zero on a full three-attach turn, as the entry already says. Depends on no unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16