Combo · ENGINE

Two cards that only want to CARRY a buff, and a legend that hands one out every turn

3 cards · calm + body · verified

Pieces

• Blind Monk ×1 OGN-257 · engine · calm/body

  1 Energy, Exhaust: Buff a friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 Might buff.)

• Wizened Elder ×1 OGN-065 · payoff · calm

  While I'm buffed, I have an additional +1 Might.

• Bilgewater Bully ×1 OGN-125 · payoff · body

  While I'm buffed, I have [Ganking]. (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

Payoff

Deck

• Calm + Body: OGN-257 Blind Monk is itself the legend, and both payoffs are single-domain (103.1.b.3).
• Nothing has to be held and no battlefield of yours is needed.

Prerequisites

• These two are the only two "While I'm buffed" STATICS in the pool — a static on the carrier itself; four other cards read a buff being carried, but as a count, a grant or a replacement rather than a static on the carrier (OGN-240 Sett, Kingpin counts buffed units, OGN-063 Spirit's Refuge grants them [Deflect], OGN-228 Vanguard Helm and OGN-269 The Boss react to a buffed unit dying) (#167 precision, 2026-09-07), which is what the synergy rule found and no earlier buff rule had. Every other buff card in the catalogue is written from the granter's side.
• 702.3 is why this is a STATIC bonus and never an engine: 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time', so one buff per body turns the bonus fully on and a second does nothing. Two bodies is two turns of the legend's ability and then it is done — the legend is free to buff something else afterwards.
• The buff persists. 702.2.a: 'To Buff a Unit, a player chooses a Unit and then places a buff on it. That Unit is Buffed for as long as the buff remains on it.' So the E1 is paid once per body, not per turn. 705 removes it only when the unit leaves play.
• Do NOT spend these buffs. The other Order and Calm buff lines in the catalogue — OGN-207 Call to Glory, OGN-230 Albus Ferros, SFD-101 Fae Dragon — pay you for spending a buff (702.2.b), and spending is exactly what switches these two off. The two uses are exclusive, and a deck has to pick one.
• [Ganking] is not an extra move: 810.1.c.3, 'It does not give additional abilities or activations of Movement, only new options for the Standard Move.' What the Bully gains is the battlefield-to-battlefield destination of 144.4.c, not a second move — and in a Duel (485.4) there are only two battlefields, so it is worth exactly one alternative destination.
• 709 is not involved: 'becomes Mighty' is an event and both bodies are already at or above 5 with the buff, so this line feeds no Mighty payoff. Recorded because friendship-fiora-worthy-mighty-ready is the entry that does use that event and the two look similar.

Steps

1. Play Wizened Elder (E4) and Bilgewater Bully (E6).
2. Pay E1 and exhaust Blind Monk: buff Wizened Elder. 703 gives +1 and his own text adds another, so he is M6 permanently (702.2.a keeps the buff on him).
3. 315.1.b readies the legend at your next Awaken. Pay E1 again: buff Bilgewater Bully. He is M7 and has [Ganking].
4. Both bonuses are now on for the rest of the game at a total cost of 2 Energy, and 702.3 means no further buff on either does anything.
5. The legend's ability is free from turn three onward for whatever else wants a buff — but never spend these two (702.2.b), or the statics switch off.

How it ends

engine only — a permanent +1 Might and a permanent [Ganking] for one Energy each, then the legend's buff a turn for anything else. 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
• Issue #153 (GitHub) 2026-09-06

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06, issue #153 — the 55 synergy rules no catalogued entry stands on 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue