Combo · ENGINE
Arcane Shift makes both of the Explorer's choices by itself — the blink re-fires an ETB and the spell still has a Deal left over
Pieces
- Arcane Shift ×1
SFD-200 · engine · mind/chaos
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Banish a friendly unit, then its owner plays it, ignoring its cost. Deal 3 to an enemy unit at a battlefield. Banish this.
- Zaunite Bouncer ×1
OGN-188 · payoff · chaos
When you play me, return another unit at a battlefield to its owner's hand.
- Prodigal Explorer ×1
SFD-199 · legend · mind/chaos
Exhaust: [Reaction] — Draw 1. Use only if you've chosen enemy units and/or gear twice this turn with spells or unit abilities.
Payoff
Deck
- ONE LEGEND: Arcane Shift is a Signature card tagged Ezreal, so 103.2.d.2 forces the pool's one Ezreal legend, Prodigal Explorer (SFD-199), Mind/Chaos. Zaunite Bouncer is mono-Chaos and sits inside it by 103.1.b.1.
- 103.2.d.1 caps the deck at three Signature cards, and three Arcane Shifts spend all of it.
- Zaunite Bouncer already on the board — the blink re-plays a unit, it does not deploy one.
Prerequisites
- ONE CARD PAYS A TWO-CARD CONDITION. The Explorer asks that you have 'chosen enemy units and/or gear twice this turn'; the catalogue's existing `prodigal-explorer-two-choices-draw` spends two separate cards on it. Arcane Shift supplies both by itself in printed order — the replayed Zaunite Bouncer's ETB chooses a unit at a battlefield (choice one), and the spell's own 'Deal 3 to an enemy unit at a battlefield' chooses another (choice two). Same legend, half the cards; that is the number this entry adds.
- THE BLINK IS FREE BUT IT COSTS YOU YOUR POSITION, AND THAT IS THE REAL TRAP. 'Ignoring its cost' is wider than 356.1.b.2's 'ignoring its Energy cost' carve-out, so nothing is paid — but 355.2.a still governs where the body lands ('the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls') and 143.4 makes it enter exhausted. A unit blinked out of a CONTESTED battlefield does not come back to it: you trade its position for its ETB, and against a garrison that is a loss, not a gain.
- AND THE BOUNCER'S OWN WORD IS 'ANOTHER'. It cannot return itself, so the blink is what re-buys it; and 'another unit at a battlefield' reaches either side, so the same trigger is removal against them or a rescue of your own body.
- THE DRAW IS AT [REACTION] SPEED AND THE SPELL IS AT [ACTION] SPEED, which is what makes the sequencing safe: 806.1.b lets Arcane Shift be played 'during Showdowns, even when it is not the Controlling player's turn', and 813.1.c.1 admits the legend's exhaust in any Closed State — so the two choices can be made inside the opponent's combat and the card drawn before it ends.
- 'BANISH THIS' IS THE CAP: one use per copy, three a game (103.2.b), and 108.6.c means nothing brings a spent Arcane Shift back. There is no engine here in the Flow sense; the repetition is the Bouncer's, not the spell's.
- A BOUNCE TO HAND IS NOT A RECALL. 455 defines a Recall as a relocation to the BASE; the Bouncer sends a unit to its owner's HAND, so the body leaves the board entirely and has to be paid for again — and if it was the last unit at a battlefield its controller held, 323.6 strips their Control at the next Cleanup.
Steps
- Play Zaunite Bouncer (4 Energy + 2 Chaos Power). Its own ETB already returns a unit at a battlefield to its owner's hand.
- On a later turn, play Arcane Shift (3 Energy + 1 Power), choosing the Bouncer as the friendly unit to banish.
- It comes straight back, ignoring its cost, and its ETB fires again: choose an enemy unit at a battlefield and return it to their hand. That is choice one.
- Arcane Shift then deals 3 to an enemy unit at a battlefield. That is choice two.
- Exhaust Prodigal Explorer at [Reaction] speed: draw 1. Then Arcane Shift banishes itself.
Per iteration
a bounce, 3 damage and a drawn card for 3 Energy + 1 Power, with the Bouncer left on the board
How it ends
engine — one enemy body bounced, 3 damage and a card, for one spell and one exhaust, three times a game (103.2.b); 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, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards and the orphan Signature spells 2026-09-07 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.
SFD-200 Arcane Shift and OGN-188 Zaunite Bouncer were both in ZERO entries; SFD-199 Prodigal Explorer appears in `prodigal-explorer-two-choices-draw` (SFD-199 + OGN-095 + OGN-169), which spends two cards on the condition this entry pays with one — a different number on the same legend, which is why it is an entry and not a notable. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; 103.1.b.1, 103.2.b, 103.2.d.1, 103.2.d.2, 108.6.c, 143.4, 323.6, 355.2.a, 356.1.b.2, 455, 806.1.b, 813.1.c.1 opened in the Core Rules file. Forced legend computed from cards.json. No unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16