Combo · ENGINE

A '+N this turn' is a REPEATABLE Mighty crossing and a buff is a one-time one — Fiora, Victorious falls back under five every Cleanup

5 cards · body + order · verified

Pieces

• Grand Duelist ×1 SFD-205 · legend · body/order

  When one of your units becomes [Mighty], you may exhaust me to channel 1 rune exhausted. (A unit is Mighty while it has 5+ Might.)

• Fiora, Victorious ×1 OGN-232 · payoff · order

  While I'm [Mighty], I have [Deflect], [Ganking], and [Shield]. (I'm Mighty while I have 5+ Might.)

• Call to Glory ×3 OGN-207 · engine · order

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) As you play this, you may spend a buff as an additional cost. If you do, ignore this spell's cost. Give a unit +3 Might this turn.

Payoff

Deck

• The legend IS SFD-205 Grand Duelist (Body/Order), so Fiora, Victorious and Call to Glory, both mono-Order, are in identity by 103.1.b.3. Neither is a Signature card, so 103.2.d.2 adds no further constraint beyond the legend already being named.
• None of the three is banned or restricted in either format.
• Call to Glory is free only if you have a buff to spend (702.2.b); otherwise it is 3 Energy, which is still payable at Reaction speed on the opponent's turn out of runes exhausted for Energy.

Prerequisites

• THE FINDING: A 'THIS TURN' PUMP RE-ARMS ITSELF AND A BUFF DOES NOT. 709's worked example is 'A Unit with Might 5 that gets +1 does not become Mighty, because it was already Mighty' — the crossing is an EVENT, so a body only pays once for staying over the line. A BUFF is permanent (702.2, 703 makes it exactly +1) and 702.3 stops a second one, so a buffed Might-4 body crosses ONCE, ever, which is the ceiling grand-duelist-arena-bar-mighty-channel runs into. A '+3 Might this turn' expires at the end-of-turn Cleanup — 317.2.c inserts '3d. All "this turn" effects expire simultaneously' — so Fiora, Victorious is back at Might 4 by the opponent's turn and can cross AGAIN. The same body, every turn, for as long as the pumps last.
• AND THAT IS WHY THIS IS TWO RUNES A ROUND TRIP, NOT ONE. The Duelist's cost is his own exhaust, and 415.3.a scopes readying to 'the Awakening Phase on their turn' — so an exhaust spent on the OPPONENT's turn is refunded before yours. Call to Glory is [Reaction] (813.1.c.1: 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn'), so one crossing happens inside their combat and a second on your own turn: two channelled runes per round trip, where every catalogued Grand Duelist line takes one.
• WHAT THE CROSSING ALSO BUYS ON FIORA. Her text is a static keyed to the state, not a trigger: 'While I'm [Mighty], I have [Deflect], [Ganking], and [Shield].' Crossing her mid-combat gives her [Shield] (+1 Might while defending, so 7 + 1 = 8 as a defender) and [Deflect] (809.1.c: opponents' spells and abilities that choose her cost a rainbow more) at the moment the opponent has already committed. [Ganking] on your own turn is the battlefield-to-battlefield move (810.1.c.3 — it widens the Standard Move, it does not add one).
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Opponent's turn: Call to Glory at Reaction speed for 0 Energy (spending a buff) or 3 Energy, Fiora 4 -> 7, she becomes Mighty, the Duelist exhausts and channels 1 rune exhausted (430.2.a's default overridden by the card's own 'exhausted'). Your Awaken readies the Duelist (315.1.b). Your turn: a second Call to Glory, or any other pump, crosses her again and channels a second rune. Three copies of Call to Glory (103.2.b) is three such crossings.
• THE RUNE ARRIVES EXHAUSTED, SO IT IS POWER FIRST AND ENERGY NEXT TURN. 164.2.b ('Recycle this: [Reaction] — [Add] one Power') carries no exhaust, so an exhausted rune still pays Power the turn it lands; 415.3.a readies it at your next Awaken, after which 164.2.a taps it for Energy. And 430.3 is the ceiling: 'If there aren't sufficient runes in the Rune Deck, channel as many as possible' — by the late turns the Rune Deck is what runs out, not the crossings.
• SHE MUST BE UNDER FIVE WHEN THE PUMP LANDS. If anything has already put Fiora at 5 or more — a buff, an Equipment's Might Bonus (137.3), a static like Soul Shepherd's — 709 says she is already Mighty and the pump crosses nothing. Keep her Might Bonus at zero; that is a deckbuilding constraint on her, not on the line.
• 745.2 IS WHY AN UNQUALIFIED "SPEND A BUFF" CAN ONLY TAKE ONE OFF YOUR OWN BOARD, AND THE 741-749 BLOCK WAS CITED BY NOTHING (upgrade 2026-09-12, #191 batch 26 - diagnosed five days earlier by #187 batch 2 and never applied). The cards that print this cost say *"spend a buff"* with NO owner stated, and none of them has ever had to, because the rules say it: **745.2** - *"In order to spend a Counter, the spending player must control the Game Object the Counter is placed on."* It is the general form of the 702.2.b.2 this project cites fourteen times, and its neighbours finish the picture: **749** (*"Counters do not have a controller"*) and **748** (*"Game Objects that change zones to a non-board zone lose all of their Counters"*), which is the real rule behind buff recovery rather than the 702.x usually cited. Measured consequence from the same walk: a change of CONTROL is not a zone change, so **a buff survives a theft and becomes the thief`s to spend** - the exact complement of 718.5.f, under which an Equipment`s Control does NOT follow its carrier while a buff`s spendability DOES.

Steps

1. Run SFD-205 Grand Duelist as your legend and play Fiora, Victorious (4 Energy) to a battlefield; she is a Might 4 body with none of her three keywords on.
2. On the opponent's turn, once they have committed their attack, play Call to Glory at Reaction speed (813.1.c.1) — free if you spend a buff, otherwise 3 Energy — and give Fiora +3 Might this turn.
3. She crosses to 7 and becomes [Mighty] (709). Her static switches on: [Deflect], [Ganking] and [Shield], so she defends at 8.
4. The Grand Duelist's trigger fires; exhaust him and channel 1 rune exhausted.
5. At your Awakening Phase the Duelist readies (315.1.b, 415.3.a) and the end-of-turn Cleanup has already dropped Fiora back to 4 (317.2.c).
6. On your own turn, cross her again with a second pump and channel a second rune. Two runes per round trip, and the same body pays every time.

Per iteration

two runes channelled per round trip instead of one, plus [Deflect]/[Shield]/[Ganking] on a Might 7 Fiora at the moment they matter

How it ends

engine only — one channel per player turn (the Duelist's own exhaust), three Call to Glory (103.2.b), and 430.3 empties the Rune Deck in the end; 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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