Combo · ENGINE

Gearhead doubles the BASE Might Bonus, so the right Equipment is the biggest printed one — and Quick-Draw lands it mid-combat

2 cards · mind + calm · verified

Pieces

• Gearhead ×1 SFD-068 · payoff · mind

  [Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Mind Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) Each Equipment attached to me gives double its base Might bonus.

• Sterak's Gage ×1 SFD-056 · engine · calm

  [Quick-Draw] (This has [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.) [Equip] 1 Calm Power (1 Calm Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)

Payoff

Deck

• Calm + Mind: Sterak's Gage is mono-Calm and Gearhead mono-Mind (103.1.b.3), so the legend must hold both and the pool prints exactly four names — OGN-255 Nine-Tailed Fox, SFD-189 Fire Below the Mountain, UNL-189 Bashful Bloom and VEN-145 Curator of the Sands (103.1.b.2).
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
• Gearhead has to be on the board when the Gage lands; the doubling is his static, not the Equipment's.

Prerequisites

• 'BASE MIGHT BONUS' IS THE PRINTED NUMBER, WHICH IS WHY THE BIGGEST ONE WINS. 137.3: 'A card's Might Bonus modulates the Might of the card to which the card that has the Might Bonus is Attached', and 477.3.d applies it in the Might layer. Gearhead doubles the BASE value, so nothing that modifies the bonus afterwards is doubled with it — the way to make him bigger is a larger printed M+, not a stack of modifiers. Sterak's Gage's M+3 is the largest in Calm or Mind, so Gearhead stands at 3 + 6 = 9.
• [Quick-Draw] IS WHY IT COSTS NO ATTACH. 'This has [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.' The attach is part of PLAYING the card, not an [Equip] activation, so the one Calm rune printed on its [Equip] line is never paid on the first landing — and 434.1.g ('Attaching a card to its current Top-Most Card will not have any effect') never comes up, because the Gage is arriving from hand rather than being shuffled between hosts.
• AND IT LANDS AFTER THE OPPONENT HAS COMMITTED. 813.1.c.1: on cards, Reaction is 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn.' 465.2.c reads Might when damage is assigned, so a Gearhead who looked like a 3 while they were choosing their attack is a 9 when the bill is calculated. On your own turn the same play makes an unimpressive body into a real attacker for one card.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Gearhead is 5 Energy for a Might 3 body, or 6 Energy + 1 Mind Power with [Accelerate] to enter ready (143.4.a). Sterak's Gage is 3 Energy + 2 Calm Power and attaches itself on play: Gearhead becomes 9. A second Equipment is doubled too — SFD-073 Experimental Hexplate is M+1 for 1 Energy and one Mind rune, so it is +2, taking him to 11; the ceiling is how much Equipment you can afford, not a cap on the card.
• 718.4 KEEPS IT HONEST ABOUT WHERE THE MIGHT LIVES. 'While in this state, the card's Might Bonus modulates the Top-Most Card's Might by the value listed' — the bonus is a property of the attachment, so moving the Gage to another body takes all six points with it and leaves Gearhead at 3. It is not a buff (702.3 never applies) and it is not a 'this turn' effect (317.2.c never expires it), which makes it the rare Might in Calm or Mind that survives to the next turn.
• THE DOUBLER IS UNIQUE AND THAT IS THE REASON TO BUILD AROUND IT. Swept for the wording: Gearhead is the only card in the pool that doubles a Might Bonus. Every other way of turning Equipment into Might in these two domains adds the printed value once.

Steps

1. Play Gearhead for 5 Energy — or 6 Energy + 1 Mind Power to use [Accelerate] and have him enter ready (143.4.a).
2. Hold Sterak's Gage in hand.
3. When the fight is open — your own attack, or the opponent's, since [Quick-Draw] carries [Reaction] (813.1.c.1) — play the Gage for 3 Energy + 2 Calm Power. Its own text attaches it to a unit you control as it is played, so choose Gearhead and pay no [Equip] cost.
4. Gearhead's static doubles the Gage's base Might Bonus of 3: he is Might 9 (137.3, 477.3.d).
5. Assign combat damage with the raised Might (465.2.c). Nothing here expires — 718.4 keeps the bonus for as long as the Gage stays attached.
6. Add further Equipment for double their printed bonuses; moving the Gage elsewhere takes all six points with it.

Per iteration

+6 Might on Gearhead from one 3-Energy Equipment, at Reaction speed and with no attach cost, and it does not expire

How it ends

engine only — the Might is bounded by how much Equipment you own, and it moves with the Equipment rather than expiring; Calm and Mind convert none of it into points, so 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 2026-09-07 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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