Combo · ENGINE

A mass-choose spell pays [Deflect] PER UNIT, and the mass [Ganking] that exploits the empty battlefield is the same turn's second half

3 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Decree of Discord ×1 VEN-107 · engine · chaos

  Return any number of enemy Order (1 Order Power) units with total Might 5 or less to their owners' hands.

• Megatusk ×1 UNL-126 · payoff · chaos

  Spend 3 XP: Give your units here [Ganking] this turn. (We can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

• Mister Root ×1 UNL-127 · enabler · chaos

  [Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Chaos Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) When I move to a battlefield, gain 2 XP.

Payoff

Deck

• Mono-Chaos, so any of the sixteen legend names carrying Chaos holds it (103.1.b.1): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Unforgiven (OGN-259), Swift Scout (OGN-263), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Prodigal Explorer (SFD-199), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Gloomist (UNL-193), Scorn of the Moon (UNL-197), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Master of Shadows (VEN-143), Soul's Reflection (VEN-151), Heart of the Tempest (VEN-155).
• AN XP FAUCET. Mono-Chaos has FOUR, measured on the corpus 2026-09-09 and named: `UNL-127 Mister Root` (E2, 2 XP per move, repeatable - the cheapest and the one this line uses), `UNL-129 Vicious Snapjaws` (E5, 1 XP per friendly death), `UNL-136 Scryer's Bloom` (E1) and `UNL-143 Kha'Zix, Mutating Horror` (2 XP). An earlier version of this line said the identity had exactly ONE, which came of dropping four words from a true claim in CLAUDE.md - the Snapjaws is the pool's only DEATH-TO-XP faucet, not its only faucet, and a uniqueness claim survives only at the precision it was measured at. And [Hunt] is not the alternative either: all thirteen [Hunt] cards are Fury, Calm, Mind, Body or Order and NONE is Chaos. Megatusk's cost is a SPEND, so see the last notable before putting it in a [Level] list.
• An opponent playing ORDER units. The spell is a domain hoser and is dead letter against the other five domains.

Prerequisites

• A MASS-CHOOSE SPELL PAYS THE [DEFLECT] TAX ONCE PER UNIT, WHICH IS THE ARITHMETIC NOBODY RUNS. 809.1.c prices Deflect as extra Power 'for each time they choose [me/this]' — and 'return ANY NUMBER of enemy Order units' chooses each of them separately, so a garrison of three Deflect bodies costs three extra Power on top of the spell. Contrast a programmatic sweeper, which 355.10.d keeps off the tax entirely however many bodies it hits. This is the one shape where a 1-Energy spell can become unaffordable.
• AND THE BUDGET IS A SUM, NOT A CEILING PER BODY: 'with total Might 5 or less'. Five 1-Might tokens is legal; two 3-Might bodies is not. Against a token board it is a mass evacuation for 1 Energy + 1 Power, and against two real bodies it is dead.
• THE SECOND HALF IS WHY MEGATUSK IS HERE. 144.4 confines the Standard Move to base-to-battlefield and back, so a body already standing at your other battlefield cannot walk into the one you just emptied — it would have to go home first, and 143.4 plus 144.2 make that two turns. 144.4.c.1's [Ganking] collapses it to one leg, and Megatusk grants it to 'your units HERE' — a whole garrison at once, on the turn the Decree opens the ground.
• AND THE TAKING IS BLOODLESS. With their units gone, 190.3.a.1 applies Contested as yours arrive, 323.9 stages no Combat (no opposing units present), and 344.2 opens a Showdown at the next Cleanup, which 348.2.a and 348.2.a.1 turn into Control and 'a Conquer if that player has not yet scored that Battlefield this turn'. No damage is assigned at any point.
• A BOUNCE TO HAND IS NOT A RECALL, AND HERE THAT IS THE WHOLE VALUE. 455 defines a Recall as a relocation to the BASE; the hand is neither, so the bodies leave the board entirely and have to be paid for again, while 323.6 strips the opponent's Control of the battlefield they were the last units at.
• MEGATUSK'S COST IS A SPEND, AND IT IS ANTI-SYNERGIC WITH THE IDENTITY'S ONLY [LEVEL] CARD. 730.2: 'To Spend XP, reduce the value of XP marked on the Player spending it', and 824.1.d: 'The Dependent Ability will be Inactive as soon as the controlling player has less than [N] XP.' `UNL-016 Scorchclaw` is the only [Level] card in Fury or Chaos, and its rung is [Level 3] — so a single Megatusk activation switches it off. The catalogue's `vicious-snapjaws-scorchclaw-xp-faucet-no-sink` is the entry on the other side of that choice, and a list picks one.
• AND 810.2 CAPS THE GRANT: 'Multiple instances of Ganking are redundant', with 810.1.c.3 confining it to 'new options for the Standard Move'. Three XP buys the permission once a turn for the whole garrison; spending six buys nothing extra.
• 355.11.b IS A TOTAL FAILURE MODE FOR AN EVACUATION, NOT PARTIAL CREDIT, AND THIS ENTRY DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-09 by the #187 lane split). 355.11.b: "If the group of targets no longer collectively fulfill the targeting restriction as the spell or ability resolves, that spell or ability`s controller can choose a subset of the original targets that fulfills the targeting requirement for the spell or ability to affect." For a REMOVAL that subset is partial credit - fewer bodies die. For an EVACUATION it is worth nothing at all, because 323.6 strips Control only from a player "without their Units occupying" the battlefield: one body left behind and the whole line buys zero. Price the shrink before casting.
• A BLOODLESS CONQUER IS NOT A FAIT ACCOMPLI, AND 46 OF THE 47 ENTRIES CITING 344.2 DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-12, #187 batch 25). **316.8.b.1.a**: during a Non-Combat Showdown *"units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is"*, which converts it to a COMBAT Showdown in the following cleanup - so the opponent can turn your uncontested walk-in into a fight. 316.8.c is the permission (a Showdown is a Window of Opportunity for [Action] and [Reaction] cards). **The answer set is THREE CARDS, swept on the ACTOR rather than on the destination**: `OGN-173 Ride the Wind` (Chaos, E2+1), `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` (Calm/Order, E3+2) and `SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit` (Fury/Body, E2+1) - twelve printings move a friendly unit, and nine of them send it to base or need a body already there. They span three identities, so **no identity is safe**; and `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` is the worst to walk into, because it STUNS your body on the way in, and 423.1.b removes a stunned unit`s contribution to the damage step while 423.1.c keeps its full Might as the price to kill it - one 3-Energy card takes the unit and the battlefield. **[Ambush] is not a fourth answer**: 822.1.b needs a battlefield where the player already has units, and the defining feature of that board is that they have none there. **THE REMEDY IS A COUNTERSPELL, AND A FIRST VERSION OF THIS NOTABLE SAID SOMETHING FALSE THAT IS WITHDRAWN HERE (corrected within the hour, 2026-09-12).** It said that because all three answers are [Action] and 358.4 admits an Action card only as the card that CLOSES the state, the attacker - who holds Focus by 345 and priority by 335.1 - could shut them out by playing any cheap Action card first. Every step is true and the conclusion is false, because **a Showdown is a LOOP, not a single window**: 346 - *"When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority"* - with 347.1.b and 347.2.a. Closing the state buys a lock-out lasting exactly that CHAIN; when it resolves the Showdown reopens, Focus passes TO THE DEFENDER, and they play their answer into an open Showdown after all. **The real sequence**: walk in, take Focus, **PASS** (acting first gains nothing); they play the answer, which closes the state as it is played; **you COUNTER it**, since 358.4`s other half now admits only [Reaction] and all eleven of the pool`s counters are Reaction, and 425.1.c refunds them nothing; all players then pass in sequence, 347.2.a ends the Showdown, and 348.2.a with 348.2.a.1 give you Control and the Conquer. The cheap counter is `OGN-045 Defy` (Calm, E1 + 1 Power, *"counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than one rainbow"*), which covers all three answers; `OGN-064 Wind Wall` is the unconditional one. **So the protection narrows to pairs containing CALM** - it is not the one-Energy insurance any deck can buy.
• ONE ENERGY AT REACTION SPEED ANSWERS THE BODY THIS ENGINE STANDS ON (Mister Root (M1 x1)). OGN-133 Flurry of Blades is Body, 1 Energy: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Deal 1 to all units at battlefields." 143.2.a kills a unit whose marked damage equals or exceeds its Might and 142.4.b defines Lethal Damage as "a non-zero amount greater than or equal to that Unit's Might", so one damage is lethal to every body of Might 1 or less. RUNNING MORE COPIES IS NOT A DEFENCE: 370.1.a.2 makes events simultaneous when they "are all the result of the same Game Action", so the sweep kills every copy at once. And because it carries [Reaction], 813.1.c.1 lets it be played "during Closed States on any player's turn" - it never has to be cast a turn early the way the base-reaching removals do, and it can land in response to the very trigger this engine exists to fire. WHAT PROTECTS IT: this entry's cards are chaos, so the second domain is still free and CHOOSING IT DECIDES WHICH PROTECTION YOU GET - 103.1.b allows exactly one partner, so these are alternatives and not a list you can run together. only if the second domain is FURY: VEN-018 Rage Amplifier (gear, 'Your units have +1 Might' - the only UNCONDITIONAL board-wide one, +2 while Empowered) | only if the second domain is ORDER: OGN-243 Darius, Executioner ('Other friendly units have +1 Might HERE' - his battlefield only, and never himself); OGS-013 Garen, Commander (same clause as Darius, same limits) | only if the second domain is MIND: UNL-077 Soul Shepherd ('Your TOKEN units have +1 Might' - tokens only, nothing for a printed body); SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper ('Your MECHS have +1 Might' - Mech tag only) | colourless, so legal whatever the second domain is: OGN-294 Trifarian War Camp (colourless battlefield, 'Units here have +1 Might') - but 485.5 makes a battlefield you bring a 1-in-3, and 103.4.c forbids two of the same name. A single-target pump is no use against a sweep that hits every body at once, which is why only permanent, board-wide sources are listed.

Steps

1. Bank at least 3 XP — in this identity that means `UNL-129 Vicious Snapjaws` and friendly deaths, since [Hunt] is the only other faucet and it is on the [Level] card this line switches off.
2. Play Decree of Discord (1 Energy + 1 Chaos Power): return any number of enemy Order units whose total Might is 5 or less to their owners' hands. Count the [Deflect] bodies first — 809.1.c charges a Power for each one you choose.
3. 323.6 strips their Control of any battlefield they no longer occupy, at the next Cleanup.
4. Spend 3 XP on Megatusk: your units at his battlefield gain [Ganking] this turn.
5. Move them battlefield to battlefield into the emptied one (144.4.c.1), paying each unit's exhaust (144.2).
6. 190.3.a.1 applies Contested, 323.9 stages nothing, and 344.2 with 348.2.a.1 gives a Conquer at the next Cleanup with no damage step.

Per iteration

an enemy garrison of total Might 5 or less returned to hand and the battlefield taken the same turn, for 1 Energy + 1 Power and 3 XP

How it ends

engine — one bloodless Conquer per Decree of Discord against an Order board, three a game (103.2.b), capped by 470 and 485.4 at two Conquers a turn; nothing here scores beyond those

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 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue