Combo · ENGINE

The heal/exhaust/recall shield printed as a SPELL - it erases a Deathknell and it sends the body home, and both traps are on the card it saves

6 cards · calm + body · verified

Pieces

• Highlander ×3 OGS-020 · payoff · calm/body

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn, heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.)

• Towering Combatant ×3 UNL-099 · engine · body

  [Shield 2] (+2 Might while I'm a defender.) [Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.)

Payoff

Deck

• OGS-020 Highlander is a SIGNATURE card tagged Master Yi, so 103.2.d.2 forces a Master Yi legend whose two domains cover calm + body - and the census prints TWO such names, not one: OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter and UNL-191 / UNL-231 Wuju Master. Both are Calm/Body and both are legal here.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format. The Highlander spends one of the three Signature slots 103.2.d.1 allows; UNL-099 is not a Signature card.
• 4 Energy held open on the opponent's turn - it is a [Reaction], and 415.3.a is why the runes have to have been left ready.

Prerequisites

• THE TWO TRAPS ARE ON THE BODY, NOT ON THE SPELL, WHICH IS WHY THE PARTNER IS PART OF THE ENTRY. 808.1.d.1: 'If the Permanent with the effect is not sent to the Trash, for example because its "killed" event was replaced with a recall, the triggered ability will be removed from the chain' - and Riot's worked example is exactly this replacement, a Zhonya's Hourglass save on Draven, Audacious. So saving a body with a Deathknell DESTROYS the Deathknell. And 455: 'A Recall is when a Permanent is relocated from anywhere to its Base without it being a Move' - so the body goes HOME, which switches off any 'While I'm at a battlefield' text it carried and hands back the battlefield if it was the last unit there (323.6). A Towering Combatant has neither, which is what makes it the right thing to save.
• AND IT COMES BACK EXHAUSTED, SO THE SAVE COSTS A TURN. The spell says so - 'heal it, exhaust it, and recall it' - and 315.1.b readies it only at your next Awakening. 456.3 is the companion: 'A Recall cannot be prevented by actions and Game Effects that restrict or block Movement', so nothing on either side can keep the body where it was.
• A SPELL VERSION OF THIS SHIELD PLAYS DIFFERENTLY FROM A GEAR ONE, AND THAT IS THE ENTRY'S POINT. OGN-077 Zhonya's Hourglass sits on the board announcing itself and can be answered before the combat; the Highlander is a card in hand at [Reaction] speed (813.1.c.1: 'This can be played during Closed States on any player's turn'), so the opponent has to commit their removal or their damage without knowing. Against that, it costs 4 Energy every time where the gear costs its Energy once - so the spell is the better BLUFF and the worse ENGINE.
• WHAT 'The next time it would die this turn' ACTUALLY COVERS. It is a replacement of the death event, so it works against combat damage, against a burn spell and against a kill BY EFFECT alike - anything whose result is the unit dying. It does not cover a BANISH (108.6.c, which is not a death), a bounce to hand, or a return to the Main Deck; UNL-204 Keeper's Verdict in this same batch is exactly the removal it cannot answer.
• AND IT PAIRS BADLY WITH THE THING IT LOOKS LIKE IT SHOULD PAIR WITH. Every Deathknell body in the pool is anti-synergic with it by 808.1.d.1, and this catalogue has recorded that pairing failing twice before - once on a Zero Drive line and once on a Ruined Rex one. If the deck's plan is deaths, do not run the shield.
• TWO LEGENDS, NOT ONE, AND THAT IS A CORRECTION TO A FACT THIS SESSION ITSELF REPORTED. The invariant reported earlier today - that every uncatalogued dual-domain Signature spell forces exactly ONE legend name - holds for eight of the nine and fails here: the Master Yi tag is carried by both OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter and UNL-191 / UNL-231 Wuju Master, which is the same double-printing this project already records for Master Yi's unit cards. State the invariant as 'the legends carrying that champion tag whose domains equal the spell's', which is usually one name and here is two.
• WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold.
• A DELAYED WOULD-DIE SHIELD IS ENDED BY A BOUNCE, NOT ONLY BY REMOVAL, AND NO SHIELD ENTRY SAID SO (upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 9). 390.5 defines a Delayed LINKED Ability as one that references the generating ability or the Game Objects it affects *"instead of a window of time"* - which is what a *"Choose a friendly unit. The next time it would die this turn"* shield is, against a *"the next spell you play this turn"* delay, which IS a window of time and falls under 391 instead. **390.5.a then has teeth: *"If that Ability affects a Game Object, the Delayed Linked Ability`s window will be as long as that Game Object is in an appropriate zone."*** So returning the shielded body to hand CLOSES the window - and 359.3.e.4 makes the body that comes back a different object, so replaying it does not restore the shield. The cheapest answer in the pool is `OGN-169 Gust` at one Energy; see `windsinger-gust-bounce-as-a-counterspell`, which reaches the same paragraph from the opposite side. Note which half applies before citing 390.5 at all: this project nearly published it against Ravenborn Tome and Raging Firebrand, whose delays are windows of time and therefore 391.

Steps

1. Have Towering Combatant (4 Energy) at a battlefield. Its [Tank] means 815.1.c.2 forces the attacker's whole assignment onto it, so it is the body that will die.
2. Hold Highlander. Its [Reaction] permission (813.1.c.1) means you commit nothing until the opponent has.
3. When the Combatant would die - in combat, to a burn spell, or to a kill by effect - play Highlander (4 Energy) and replace the death: heal, exhaust, recall.
4. 455 sends it to your BASE, so the battlefield is now short a body; 323.6 hands it back at the next Cleanup if that was your last unit there.
5. It is exhausted until your next Awakening (315.1.b). 456.3 means nothing can stop the recall.
6. Do NOT aim this at a body with a Deathknell or with 'while I'm at a battlefield' text - 808.1.d.1 and 455 destroy exactly what you were saving.

Per iteration

one body saved from any death, returned to base exhausted, per casting

How it ends

engine only - three copies by 103.2.b, one save each, and the saved body is out of position for a 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
• Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt (built from Riot's gallery content API) 2026-09-07

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-orphan-remainder.md, part 1) 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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