Combo · ENGINE

The Captain's buff mode is what turns the Initiate's draw on a turn earlier

6 cards · body · verified

Pieces

• Buhru Captain ×3 SFD-091 · engine · body

  When you play me, you may draw 1 or buff me. (To buff a unit, give it a +1 Might buff if it doesn't already have one.)

• Kinkou Initiate ×3 UNL-097 · payoff · body

  When you play me, draw 1 if your other units have total Might 5 or more.

Payoff

Deck

• All cards are mono-Body (the battlefield, where one is used, is Colorless), so 103.1.b.3 admits any legend with Body in its pair: SFD-203/SFD-250 Battle Mistress, OGN-257/OGN-304 Blind Monk, OGN-267/OGN-309 Bounty Hunter, VEN-141/VEN-190 Butcher of the Sands, VEN-149/VEN-194 Defender of Tomorrow, SFD-205/SFD-251 Grand Duelist, SFD-193/SFD-245 Grandmaster at Arms, UNL-203/UNL-237 Keeper of the Hammer, VEN-153/VEN-196 Matriarch of War, OGS-023 Might of Demacia - Starter, UNL-183/UNL-227 Pridestalker, SFD-183/SFD-241 Purifier, OGN-249/OGN-300 Relentless Storm, OGN-269/OGN-310 The Boss, UNL-201/UNL-236 Voidreaver, OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter, UNL-191/UNL-231 Wuju Master.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• Five Might among your OTHER units when the Initiate's trigger executes. Two bodies of 3 and 2, or one buffed Buhru Captain at 4 plus any 1 Might body, both clear it.

Run play

• The Captain's draw is never a card behind his buff, and a two-drop played first is what turns the Initiate on

Prerequisites

• THE THRESHOLD IS READ ON EXECUTION, NOT ON PLAY. 359.3.f.2: 'Information referenced in an instruction in this way will be checked on execution of the instruction' - its worked examples are Yasuo, Remorseful's attack trigger reading 'here' and his current Might. So the Initiate's 'total Might 5 or more' is the board as its trigger resolves, and a body played earlier in the same turn counts. The word 'OTHER' is what keeps its own 3 Might out of the sum. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): the paragraph is 383.2.a.1, not 359.3.f.2, and the conclusion stands. 383.2.a.1 makes a conditional statement that is not immediately after the trigger condition part of the effect, with Loose Cannon's "draw 1 if" as its example, and the effect is what executes as the trigger resolves (the UNL-097 use note pastes it). 359.3.f.2 governs referents such as "here", "my" and "its" (359.3.f.1).
• AND THE CAPTAIN'S TWO MODES ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE HERE. 'Draw 1' is one card now; 'buff me' is 703's '+1 :rb_might: to a Unit', permanently, taking the Captain from 3 to 4. On the turn you are one Might short of the Initiate's threshold, the buff mode IS the draw - it turns the Initiate's own card on - and on any other turn it is not. That is the whole interaction, and it is a choice made at resolution rather than a deckbuilding one. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): at S = 1, the one turn it is true, the buff mode buys the Initiate's card in place of the Captain's own, never in addition to it, and that card is still on the chain when an answer can be played. One ready rune of VEN-061 Decree of Insight (Mind, E1, no Power: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Ignore [Deflect] while paying this spell's cost. Give an enemy Body (:rb_rune_body:) unit -5 :rb_might: this turn.") on the buffed Captain in answer to the Initiate's trigger takes the sum under 5, and the Initiate draws nothing; the draw mode's card was already in hand. "A choice made at resolution" is corrected in the SFD-091 use note. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#413, finding in docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md): "a choice made at resolution" is right after all for which mode, though declining the trigger is decided at finalization (383.3.a.1, 355.17; the SFD-091 use note pastes both). The S = 1 point stands: the Decree lands on the Initiate's trigger, after the Captain's pick.
• 702.3 IS WHY THE BUFF IS A ONE-TIME PLACEMENT. 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time', with 702.3.a: a second buff on a buffed unit 'is not placed instead'. So a Buhru Captain that chose the buff cannot be buffed again by anything, and the +1 is permanent unless something SPENDS it (702.2.b) - which in Body means OGN-146 Wallop or OGN-153 Overt Operation, both of which would take the Initiate's threshold back down. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): not only those two, and not both of them. OGN-147 Wildclaw Shaman (Body, E4, M3: "When you play me, you may spend a buff to buff me and ready me.") spends one too, and moves the +1 to itself rather than losing it, so the other units' sum does not drop. Narrowed from my own check of the corpus, predicate stated: the cards in the pool whose text spends a buff that is not their own. There are eight, and each is playable in this entry's decks, Body, Colorless, or Order under a legend with Order in its pair such as OGN-269 The Boss. In Body: OGN-146 Wallop lowers the sum by 1; Wildclaw Shaman moves the buff and leaves it unchanged; OGN-150 Kraken Hunter ("As you play me, you may spend any number of buffs as an additional cost. Reduce my cost by :rb_rune_body: for each buff you spend.") is a 5-Might body, so it adds more than it takes; and OGN-153 Overt Operation does not take the threshold down, since after the spend it reads "Then buff all friendly units." and every unit it un-buffed is buffed again. The legend OGN-269 The Boss (Body/Order, listed above): "If a buffed unit you control would die, you may pay :rb_rune_rainbow:, exhaust me, and spend its buff to heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead." It replaces a death, and the recalled unit still counts in base because the Initiate's sum names no location, so against the death it keeps the unit in the sum, less only the spent +1. Colorless: OGN-282 Monastery of Hirana ("When you conquer here, you may spend a buff to draw 1.") lowers the sum by 1 for a card. Order: OGN-207 Call to Glory ("As you play this, you may spend a buff as an additional cost. If you do, ignore this spell's cost. Give a unit +3 :rb_might: this turn.") nets +2 this turn, and OGN-230 Albus Ferros ("When you play me, spend any number of buffs. For each buff spent, channel 1 rune exhausted.") is a 3-Might body that takes 1 per buff spent. OGN-157 Udyr, Wildman and OGN-164 Sett, Brawler spend only their own buff ("Spend my buff"). So Wallop and Monastery of Hirana are the two that only lower the sum. A buff is also removed when its unit leaves play, 705: "If a Unit leaves play, remove all Buffs from it." And the opponent cannot spend it, 702.2.b.2: "A player can only spend buffs on units they control."
• THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Two Buhru Captains (3 Energy + 1 Power each) both taking the buff are 4 + 4 = 8 Might among 'other units', which clears the threshold with room to lose a body. One Captain at 4 plus a 1 Might body (UNL-111 Determined Sentry, 1 Energy) is exactly 5. Three of each card by 103.2.b: at most three Initiate draws and three Captain draws in a game, and the two modes cannot both be taken on one Captain. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): two Captains that both take the draw are 3 + 3 = 6, which clears the threshold too. That is three cards (two Captain draws and the Initiate's) against the double buff's one, and the double buff's only gain is +2 Might.
• WHY THIS IS AN ENGINE AND NOT A TRICK. Neither card does anything at instant speed - both are play triggers on units, so 143.4 has them enter exhausted and they are Main Phase plays - and neither reads a battlefield. What they produce is cards, which is the resource a Body curve is normally short of, and the entry exists to state the sequencing: Captains first, Initiate second, on the same turn if the Energy allows. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): two qualifications. "Neither reads a battlefield": the Initiate's sum names no location, so it counts units in base too, out of reach of every "at a battlefield" removal, such as UNL-159 Soul Harvest ("Kill a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less.") and OGN-213 Hidden Blade ("Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2."), though not of VEN-127 Lacerate ("Choose a unit. If it's [Empowered], disempower it. Then kill it if it has 3 :rb_might: or less."), which names no location. Building the 5 in base protects the Initiate's card against those, at the cost of the bodies holding nothing. And "what they produce is cards, which is the resource a Body curve is normally short of": in the play's walk (going first, Bounty Hunter against a Mind/Order Viktor deck), the control with two vanilla 3-drops in the pair's slots ended at 3 to 3 after their T4 with an empty hand, and the engine at 3 to 3 with two cards. The claim holds from T5; through T4 the score is the same.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold. And the Initiate's draw is conditional, so it is not filler in the sense the cross-audit on issue #166 required - UNL-103 Disposal Order is Body's unconditionally-castable card, not this one.
• NO ANSWER WAS NAMED - ADDED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md). In the play's Mind/Order matchup the cheapest is VEN-061 Decree of Insight (Mind, E1, no Power, [Reaction]: "Give an enemy Body (:rb_rune_body:) unit -5 :rb_might: this turn.") on a Captain in answer to the Initiate's trigger, since the threshold is read when that effect executes (383.2.a.1). In the play's walk it took the sum from 7 to 3, and it is the one E1 card in their list that answers the walked board. Elsewhere it ties at E1. OGN-169 Gust (Chaos, E1, no Power: "Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 :rb_might: or less to its owner's hand.") takes a 3-or-less unit at a battlefield, such as an unbuffed Captain at a battlefield, out of the sum entirely. OGN-095 Stupefy (Mind, E1: "Give a unit -1 :rb_might: this turn, to a minimum of 1 :rb_might:. Draw 1.") answers it wherever the sum is exactly 5, and in the walk it took 7 only to 6. The turn before, UNL-159 Soul Harvest, VEN-127 Lacerate or OGN-213 Hidden Blade (each E2 + 1 Order Power, two runes) on an unbuffed Captain moves the Initiate's card a turn later. The buff mode's 4 Might keeps him out of Soul Harvest's, Lacerate's and Gust's "3 :rb_might: or less", which is a real use of the buff the entry did not name, and Hidden Blade gives you two cards back ("Its controller draws 2.").

Steps

1. Play Buhru Captain (3 Energy + 1 Power). Choose 'buff me' when the trigger resolves if you intend to play the Initiate soon; choose 'draw 1' otherwise. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): the choice is not made when the trigger resolves (the SFD-091 use note: 402.1 at finalization, and the draw-or-buff timing unruled), and the advice is the wrong way round. Call S the Might of your other units besides the Captain and the Initiate. The draw mode gives one card, plus the Initiate's when 3 + S is 5 or more (S of 2 or more). The buff mode gives only the Initiate's, when 4 + S is 5 or more (S of 1 or more). So the buff never adds a card: at S = 0 it draws nothing against the draw's one, at S = 1 it ties (one card each, and the buff keeps a permanent +1 Might), and at S of 2 or more it costs a card. A 2-Might body played before the Initiate does what the buff does. OGN-136 Pit Rookie (Body, E2, M2: "When you play me, buff another friendly unit.") does it while adding its own 2, since it buffs the Captain that took the draw. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#413, finding in docs/rules-notes/rules-findings.md): the choice IS made when the trigger resolves; only declining the trigger is decided at finalization (383.3.a.1, 355.17; the SFD-091 use note pastes both). The rest of this correction, which mode pays, stands.
2. The buffed Captain is Might 4 (703), and 702.3 means nothing can add a second buff to it.
3. Play a second Buhru Captain, or any 1 Might body such as a Determined Sentry, so your OTHER units total 5 or more.
4. Play Kinkou Initiate (3 Energy). Its trigger reads the board on execution (359.3.f.2) and draws 1. CORRECTED 2026-10-18 (#410, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-18-the-captains-draw-is-never-a-card-behind-his-buff-and-a-two-drop-played-first-is-what-turns-the-initiate-on.md): the paragraph is 383.2.a.1, not 359.3.f.2 (the UNL-097 use note pastes it). The "if" clause is part of the effect, so the board is still read as the trigger resolves.
5. Repeat up to three times each (103.2.b); the Initiate never counts itself, so the first one played on an empty board draws nothing.

Per iteration

one card per Kinkou Initiate once the threshold is met, plus one card or one permanent +1 Might per Buhru Captain

How it ends

engine only - three of each card by 103.2.b, and the Captain's two modes are exclusive per copy; 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
• Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API) 2026-09-07

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-uncatalogued-body.md, batch 4) 2026-09-07 record
• Run play 2026-10-18, issue #406 2026-10-18 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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