Combo · ENGINE

383.4.a.4 - a Reflection loses only the copied card's OWN play triggers, so Viktor's 'when you play a card' survives the copy

2 cards · mind + order · verified

Pieces

• Deceiver ×1 UNL-199 · legend · mind/order

  When you conquer or hold, you may discard 1 and exhaust me to play a ready Reflection unit token there. Then do this: It becomes a copy of another unit there. Give it [Temporary].

• Viktor, Innovator ×1 OGN-117 · payoff · mind

  When you play a card on an opponent's turn, play a 1 Might Recruit unit token in your base.

Payoff

Deck

• The legend is fixed by the entry: Deceiver (UNL-199/UNL-235), Mind/Order. Viktor, Innovator is mono-Mind, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied and no other legend can run this line, because Deceiver is the only card in the pool that makes a Reflection off a Hold.
• Neither card is Signature (data/cards.json, signature=false on both) and neither appears in data/legality.json in either format - checked 2026-09-12.

Prerequisites

• 383.4.a.3 AND 383.4.a.4 WERE UNCITED, AND THEY ARE THE ONLY PLACE THE POOL'S OWN PHRASE IS DEFINED. UNL-T06 Reflection prints '(I become a copy of something when played. I don't get that card's play effects.)' - a defined term used on a token with no definition on the card. 383.4.a supplies it: 'Play Effects are Triggered Abilities whose Condition includes the Permanent that has the Play Effect being played to the board.' 383.4.a.3: 'These Triggered Abilities can be referred to as Play Effects.' And 383.4.a.4 draws the boundary: 'Abilities that trigger when another object is played are not considered Play Effects.'
• SO THE REFLECTION'S DRAWBACK IS NARROWER THAN IT READS. It loses 'When you play me...' (383.4.a.1 gives that exact wording) and nothing else. A trigger that watches a DIFFERENT object being played is not a Play Effect at all, so it is copied in full - and Viktor, Innovator is the extreme case, because that trigger is his ENTIRE printed text. The naive reading of the token makes a Reflection of him a blank 0 Might body; 383.4.a.4 makes it a second Viktor.
• THE [TEMPORARY] WINDOW AND VIKTOR'S WINDOW LINE UP EXACTLY, AND THE PHASE ORDER IS WHY. 816.1.b is 'At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this' and 816.1.c makes the Trigger Condition 'the controller of the permanent's Beginning Phase starting'. Deceiver's Reflection is made at the Hold, which 315.2.b.2 puts in the Scoring Step AFTER 315.2.a has already run - so the copy survives the rest of your turn, survives the OPPONENT'S ENTIRE TURN, and dies at your next Beginning Phase. The opponent's turn is precisely the only turn Viktor's trigger can fire on.
• WHAT THE PAIR PAYS, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Two Recruits per CARD you play on the opponent's turn, not per action: the original Viktor and the copy each fire, and 383.3.d lets you order them. What you can play there is a [Reaction] card (813.1.c.1), an [Action] card inside a Showdown (806.1.b), or a [Hidden] card from face down, whose tail 811.1.b grants [Reaction]. Two such cards in their turn is four bodies for the cost of the cards themselves.
• AND THE RECRUITS DO NOT FEED VIKTOR - 350.2 WITH 185.2.a IS THE TRAP THIS FAMILY ALWAYS WALKS INTO. 350.2: 'Tokens are not cards, but can still be Played.' Viktor's clause says 'play a CARD', so the Recruits he makes are invisible to both instances of his own trigger and there is no cascade. The same pair of paragraphs is why a token fires 'when you play a unit' and never '[Legion]'.
• THE COPY IS 0 MIGHT AND THAT IS FINE HERE. R6 and R27 on issue #11: Might is not a copyable trait - 477.1.a lists the inherent traits without it, 477.1.b.1.a lists the copyable traits without it - so a Reflection carries the copied card's Rules Text at 0 Might. This line wants the trigger and not the body, and 143.2.a ('If a Unit ever has nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might, it is Killed') still charges an attacker one damage to remove it, with 465.2.c.4 capping that at the minimum.
• THE BODIES ARE BORN AT YOUR BASE AND CANNOT WALK THE SAME TURN. Viktor's text says 'in your base', so this is CLAUDE.md's walk-to-the-battlefield bottleneck in its purest form: 143.4 enters them exhausted, 144.1.b forbids a Standard Move outside your Main Phase, and 315.1.b readies them only at your own Awakening. A Recruit made on the opponent's turn is a body for the turn AFTER, which is also why SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist adds nothing to this particular pairing.
• THE SHORTFALL, STATED AS THE ENTRY'S OWN: this is a token faucet and nothing else. Nothing here Conquers, Holds or gains a point, the Reflection is spent every turn and has to be remade, and the whole engine costs one card discarded per turn (Deceiver's base cost). The two catalogued outlets for a token-body-engine are OGN-293 The Grand Plaza and VEN-067 Bottled Constellation, and the Plaza's 1-Might problem applies to Recruits in full.
• ONE REFLECTION PER TURN, NOT ONE PER BATTLEFIELD. Deceiver's cost is his own exhaust, and 315.1.b readies him once, at your Awakening - so even though 315.2.b.2 Holds every battlefield you control and a Duel puts two on the table (485.4), the second Hold trigger has no exhaust left to pay with.

Steps

1. Play Viktor, Innovator (E4 + 1 Mind Power) to a battlefield and establish Control of it, with Deceiver as your legend.
2. At your Beginning Phase, 315.2.b.2 Holds that battlefield. Deceiver's trigger fires; pay its base cost - discard 1 and exhaust him (204.3.a) - to finalize it.
3. A ready Reflection token is played there, and the reflexive 'Then do this:' (387.1) makes it a copy of Viktor and gives it [Temporary].
4. 383.4.a.4 is what it keeps: Viktor's text triggers on ANOTHER object being played, so it is not a Play Effect and the copy carries it whole. R27 leaves the copy at 0 Might.
5. 816.1.b does not touch it this turn - 315.2.b.2's Hold ran after 315.2.a - so it lives through the rest of your turn and all of the opponent's.
6. On the opponent's turn, every CARD you play - a [Reaction], an [Action] inside a Showdown, a [Hidden] card from face down - fires both Viktors: two 1 Might Recruits to your base each time. 350.2 keeps the Recruits themselves from re-triggering anything.
7. At your next Beginning Phase 816.1.b kills the Reflection at 315.2.a, 315.1.b has already readied Deceiver, and the Hold at 315.2.b.2 mints a fresh copy.

Per iteration

one Reflection of Viktor per turn, doubling every opponent-turn card into two Recruits instead of one

How it ends

engine - two 1 Might Recruits per card played on the opponent's turn, for one card discarded per turn and a one-off 4 Energy + 1 Mind Power on Viktor. The bodies are born exhausted at your base and are usable from your following turn; 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 2026-09-12, issue #187 - uncited Core Rules sub-rules 300-499 2026-09-12 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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