Combo · ENGINE

The Attacker designation for free, beside the pool's one unbounded [Assault] — and the gear that pays for it never has to be attached

9 cards · body · verified

Pieces

• Dauntless Vanguard ×3 SFD-093 · engine · body

  You may play me to an occupied enemy battlefield.

• Repair Specialist ×3 VEN-076 · payoff · body

  I have [Assault] equal to the number of gear you control. (+1 Might while I'm an attacker for each instance of Assault.)

• Warmog's Armor ×3 SFD-108 · enabler · body

  [Equip] 1 Body Power (1 Body Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)

  When I conquer, buff me. (If I don't have a buff, I get a +1 Might buff.)

Payoff

Deck

• All three cards are mono-Body, so ANY legend whose two domains include Body runs the line (103.1.b.1). Nothing here is Signature (103.2.d.2).
• An enemy battlefield with a garrison. The Vanguard's permission names an OCCUPIED enemy battlefield, and 807.1.d needs the Attacker designation, which only a real fight hands out.

Prerequisites

• THE ATTACKER DESIGNATION WITH NO MOVE AND NO EXHAUST. 190.3.a.1 reads 'Units moving to or being played to a battlefield apply Contested status if that battlefield is not already Contested and that Unit's controller does not already control that battlefield', and 464.2.c.1 makes 'the Attacker … the player whose unit(s) applied the Contested status'. So the Vanguard is an attacker the instant he is played: 144.2's exhaust never comes up, and 143.4's 'Units enter the Board exhausted' costs nothing, because combat does not read exhaustion (464.2.c.3 and 465.2.b do not filter by state).
• AND THE PERMISSION IS FOR HIM ALONE, WHICH IS WHY THE PARTNER HAS TO WALK. 'You may play me to an occupied enemy battlefield' — 355.2.b lets a game effect grant new valid play locations and this one grants exactly one card's. Repair Specialist arrives the ordinary way, base to battlefield (144.4.a) with his own exhaust as the cost, and 144.3 lets him and any other body do it as ONE game action. The Vanguard's real contribution is a body the opponent could not see coming and a Contested status applied without spending a move.
• THE ONLY [Assault] IN THE POOL THAT IS NOT A PRINTED NUMBER. 807.1.b formats the keyword as 'Assault [X]' with X 'referenced in the functional text', and every other carrier prints a fixed X. Repair Specialist's is 'equal to the number of gear you control' — a quantity you build. 807.2 then sums it with any other source: 'If a Unit has Assault or has been granted Assault and is granted Assault by an additional source, the Assault Value of all granted Assault keywords is summed.'
• AND THE GEAR DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ATTACHED, WHICH IS THE CHEAP PART. The clause counts gear you CONTROL. 818.1 makes [Equip] an Activated Ability with its own cost, and nothing here pays it: three Warmog's Armor at 1 Energy each, left sitting unattached, are three points of [Assault]. 323.7's Cleanup recalls unattached non-unit gear at battlefields to their controller's base, which changes where they are and not who controls them.
• THE ARITHMETIC, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Three gear on the board: Repair Specialist is M3 with [Assault 3], so M6 while attacking. Play the Vanguard straight in at M4. Summed attacking Might 10 (465.2.c), for 3 Energy of gear, 3 Energy for the Specialist, and 4 Energy + 1 Body Power for the Vanguard — and 465.2.c.4 caps the defenders' bill at their own minima, so most of that 10 is excess (R28 = A) for any excess-damage payoff a Body list wants to add.
• 807.1.d.1 IS WHY IT ALL EVAPORATES ON DEFENCE. 'Assault remains in effect as long as the Unit maintains the Attacker designation.' On the opponent's turn Repair Specialist is a M3 body and the gear counts for nothing. This package attacks; it does not hold.
• WHAT REFUTES IT. (a) Walking into an EMPTY enemy battlefield conquers without an Attacker (323.9 stages no Combat with no opposing units), and then every point of [Assault] is worth zero — the exact trap the rule's own text warns about. (b) The Vanguard's play is a Main Phase action: 155 confines a spell without [Action] or [Reaction] to the Main Phase, and a unit's play has no Reaction speed here, so the surprise is against a garrison the opponent left standing, not a response to their attack. (c) Three Warmog's Armor left unattached are three dead cards outside this line.

Steps

1. Earlier turns: play up to three Warmog's Armor (1 Energy each) and leave them unattached, and play Repair Specialist (E3). 143.4 makes him enter exhausted; 315.1.b readies him.
2. Main Phase: Standard-Move Repair Specialist from your base into the enemy-held battlefield (144.4.a; his exhaust is the cost, 144.2 / 420.3.a). 190.3.a.1 and 450 apply Contested.
3. Play Dauntless Vanguard (E4 + 1 Body Power) directly to that same battlefield under his own permission (355.2.b). He needs no move and pays no exhaust.
4. The next Cleanup stages a Combat (323.9: units of opposing players are present) and 323.13 opens it. 464.2.c.1 makes you the Attacker and 464.2.c.3 designates your units.
5. 807.1.d and 807.2: Repair Specialist has [Assault] equal to your gear count — 3 with three Warmog's on the board — so he fights at M6 beside the Vanguard's M4.
6. 465.2.c assigns your summed 10 Might; 465.2.c.4 caps each defender at its minimum, so the remainder is excess damage. Winning empties their side, and 466.3.a / 466.5 / 466.5.d Conquer the battlefield.

Per iteration

ten points of attacking Might for seven Energy and one Power, with the last body arriving after the opponent has finished deciding

How it ends

engine only — one Conquer per battlefield per turn (470), two battlefields in a Duel (485.4); the [Assault] is worth nothing on defence (807.1.d.1)

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Rules readings R28 = A, ruled 2026-09-04 (GitHub issue #11) 2026-09-04

Walked here, in this project

• Synergy rule dauntless-vanguard-occupied-battlefield-assault (data/synergies.json) 2026-09-06
• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue