Combo · ENGINE

Ava Achiever x Hostile Takeover — a seven-resource spell for 1 Power, and the garrison walks off

4 cards · mind + order · verified

Pieces

• Ava Achiever ×1 OGN-107 · engine · mind

  When I attack, you may pay 1 Mind Power to play a card with [Hidden] from your hand, ignoring its cost. If it's a unit, play it here.

• Hostile Takeover ×3 SFD-202 · payoff · mind/order

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) Take control of an enemy unit at a battlefield. Ready it. (Start a combat if other enemies are there. Otherwise, conquer.) Lose control of that unit and recall it at end of turn. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

Payoff

Deck

• SFD-202 Hostile Takeover is a SIGNATURE card tagged Renata Glasc, so 103.2.d.2 forces a Renata Glasc legend that also covers mind + order: SFD-201 Chem-Baroness — the only one. Domain-legal legends without the Renata Glasc tag cannot run the list. (Rebuilt from the census by test/legend-lines.test.ts, 2026-09-07; an earlier line named legends that cannot hold a Renata Glasc Signature card.)
• Ava at the enemy battlefield you are attacking, one Hostile Takeover in hand, 1 Mind Power available during the combat.

Prerequisites

• THE GARRISON MUST BE EXACTLY ONE UNIT. Hostile Takeover's own reminder splits on it: 'Start a combat if other enemies are there. Otherwise, conquer.' With 2+ enemy units at the battlefield you steal one and still have to fight the rest. That is a condition on the opponent's board, not on yours, and it is the entry's real fragility.
• WHY IT IS PLAYED FROM HAND, NOT FROM HIDDEN. 811.1.d.2 makes a hidden spell's targets "chosen from among options at that battlefield", and 811.1.b only lets you hide at a battlefield YOU control — so from Hidden this could only steal an enemy unit standing on your own battlefield, where taking it conquers nothing because you already hold it. Ava's from-hand play is governed by 811.3 instead: "no restrictions on targeting".
• HOW THE POINT ACTUALLY LANDS. With the lone defender now yours, the opponent has no units at the battlefield, so 466.3.a gives you the combat ("the only Player that has units remaining at this battlefield during this step") and 466.5 plus 466.5.d establish Control, which "results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored this Battlefield this turn". The showdown route says the same thing at 348.2.a / 348.2.a.1 — that pair is why R20 was retired rather than ruled.
• THE RECALL DOES NOT UNDO IT. 'Lose control of that unit and recall it at end of turn' happens after the conquer, and 456/458 confirm a recall is not a move and changes no state. The point stays.
• ONE POINT PER BATTLEFIELD PER TURN. 470: 'A player may only Score, from either method, once per Battlefield per turn.' Three Avas are not three points on the same battlefield, and a Duel puts two battlefields on the table (485.4), so scoring caps at 2 a turn. THAT is why this is ENGINE and not CHAIN.
• AT SEVEN POINTS IT STOPS BEING A FINISHER. 471.1.b.1: a Conquer at one point from the Victory Score gives the final point only 'If the player has Scored every Battlefield this turn'; otherwise you draw a card instead of scoring.
• A REAL COMBAT IS REQUIRED for Ava's trigger at all (461, 383.4.e): entering an empty enemy battlefield is not an attack.
• 323.2.b IS THE DEFENSIVE USE OF THIS CARD AND IT IS NOT IN THIS ENTRY (upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 28; 323.2.b is cited by NOTHING while 323.2 and 323.2.a carry 66 each). *"If there are Units present at the Battlefield the Combat is taking place at, but have the OPPOSITE designation of their controller, they lose that designation, and gain the same designation as their controller now."* So a unit whose CONTROL changes mid-combat flips from Attacker to Defender at the next Cleanup. Swept: four cards take control of an enemy unit and three of them RECALL it, so **`SFD-202 Hostile Takeover` is the only one that leaves the body standing where 323.2.b can reach it**. The defensive line this catalogue does not have: the card is [Hidden], so the tail of 811.1.b hands it [Reaction] from the following turn at 0 Energy, and 811.1.d.2 confines its target to the battlefield it was hidden at — **which is a battlefield you control, which is exactly where the opponent attacks you**. Steal their largest Attacker mid-combat, 323.2.b flips it at the next Cleanup, and 465.2.c then sums its Might ON YOUR SIDE INSTEAD OF THEIRS: **a swing of twice its Might for zero Energy.** This entry uses the card offensively and cites 464.2.c.3 rather than 323.2.b; the legend is forced either way, since SFD-202 is a Signature card tagged Renata Glasc.

Steps

1. Ava Achiever attacks battlefield Y, garrisoned by exactly one enemy unit (461: a Combat needs units of two opposing players).
2. 464.2.c.3 gives Ava the Attacker designation; 383.4.e puts her attack trigger on the chain.
3. Pay 1 Mind Power; play Hostile Takeover from hand for 0 (356.1.b.1) as a Limited Action (419.3.a).
4. Take control of the lone defender and ready it. Y now has no enemy units.
5. 466.3.a: you are the only player with units there, so you won the combat. 466.5 + 466.5.d establish Control, which is a Conquer — the point, plus every 'When I conquer' you control there.
6. At end of turn the stolen unit is recalled to its owner's base; the point is already scored (456, 458).

Per iteration

one Conquer (1 point, subject to 470 and 471.1.b.1) plus a ready enemy body for the turn, for 1 Mind Power and a card

How it ends

engine only — 470 caps scoring at once per battlefield per turn and a Duel has two battlefields (485.4), so the ceiling is 2 points a turn and this never becomes a chain

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Hunt lens [Hidden]/[Ambush] — issue #40 (GitHub) 2026-09-05
• 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 2026-09-05 2026-09-05 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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