Combo · ENGINE

Downwell empties the board, so 344.2 hands the first body back a Conquer with no combat — and twelve runes pay for both halves exactly

2 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Downwell ×1 SFD-147 · engine · chaos

  Return all units and gear to their owners' hands.

• Crescent Guardian ×1 UNL-122 · payoff · chaos

  If you've played a spell this turn, you may pay 1 Chaos Power as an additional cost to play me. If you do, I enter ready.

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Chaos among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: 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).
• Twelve runes on the board — see the last notable; this is a late-game turn and the arithmetic is exact, not approximate.

Prerequisites

• AN EMPTY BOARD IS A FREE CONQUER, AND THE TWO PARAGRAPHS ARE DIFFERENT ONES. 323.9 stages a Combat only 'at each Battlefield that Contested was applied to that have Units present controlled by opposing players' — after Downwell there are none, so no combat opens. 344.2 covers it instead: 'If Control of a Battlefield is Contested, there aren't units controlled by different players there, and the turn is in a Neutral Open State, a Showdown is opened during the next Cleanup', and 348.2.a establishes Control at its close with 348.2.a.1 saying outright 'This results in a Conquer'. So the first body to walk in scores, with no damage step and no attack trigger.
• AND DOWNWELL IS WHAT MAKES THE BATTLEFIELDS OPEN. 323.6 / 190.4.c strip a player's Control the moment their last body leaves, so returning every unit to hand leaves both battlefields unoccupied and uncontrolled at the next Cleanup — 170.11.c's definition of open, both conditions, not just the second.
• THE GUARDIAN IS THE FASTEST BODY BACK, AND 'I ENTER READY' IS NOT A READY. Downwell is itself the spell his clause asks for, so the extra Chaos Power is always payable on this turn. 143.4.a's 'or similar game effects' is the exception to 143.4 that lets him enter ready; 415.1 is why that is a play-time property and not a ready (nothing is being marked), which matters only if something else wanted to ready him. What it buys is 144.2's exhaust available at once, so he Standard-Moves to an open battlefield the same turn (144.4).
• 'Return all units and gear' TARGETS NOTHING. 355.10.d makes a programmatically selected set a non-target, so [Deflect] never charges (809.1.c, 809.1.d) and `SFD-105 Ruin Runner`'s 'can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' does not save it. It is symmetric, including your own Equipment, which detaches with its carrier.
• TWELVE RUNES PAY FOR THE WHOLE TURN, EXACTLY. 161.2.a caps the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards'. Exhaust all twelve for 1 Energy each (164.2.a) — that is the 12 Energy the two cards cost together (8 + 4). Then recycle three of those ALREADY EXHAUSTED runes for 1 Power each: 164.2.b is 'Recycle this: [Reaction] — [Add] [C]' with no exhaust in its cost, so a spent rune still pays. Three Power covers Downwell's 2 and the Guardian's 1. The line is affordable on the exact turn the twelfth rune lands and not before, and 161.2.b sends those three to the Rune Deck rather than the Main Deck.
• The cost of the reset is your own board too. This is a card for the turn you are behind and holding a Crescent Guardian: everything goes to hand, they must re-spend their Energy from scratch, and you take the first battlefield for free while they do.
• 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.

Steps

1. Reach twelve runes (161.2.a) and hold Downwell and Crescent Guardian.
2. Exhaust all twelve runes for 12 Energy (164.2.a) and recycle three of the spent ones for 3 Power (164.2.b — no exhaust in that cost).
3. Cast Downwell (8 Energy + 2 Chaos Power): all units and gear return to their owners' hands, targeting nothing (355.10.d).
4. At the next Cleanup, 323.6 and 190.4.c leave both battlefields uncontrolled and unoccupied — open by 170.11.c.
5. Play Crescent Guardian (4 Energy) paying the extra Chaos Power; Downwell satisfies 'if you've played a spell this turn', so he enters ready (143.4.a).
6. Standard-Move him to an open battlefield (144.2, 144.4). With no opposing units there, 323.9 stages no Combat; 344.2 opens a Showdown at the next Cleanup and 348.2.a.1 makes the resulting Control a Conquer.

Per iteration

-2 cards, -12 Energy -3 Power, both boards returned to hand, one battlefield conquered with no combat

How it ends

engine — a full board reset and one uncontested Conquer on the same turn, for twelve runes' worth of Energy and Power; the Conquer is a point but the line reaches no further

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 / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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