Combo · ENGINE

Hwei, Brooding Painter — every move is a card or two Energy, and the first one each turn is free

5 cards · mind · verified

Pieces

• Hwei, Brooding Painter ×1 UNL-080 · engine · mind

  When I move, draw 1, then discard 1. Then, do the following based on the discarded card's type: • Spell — Draw 1. • Gear — Ready up to 2 runes. • Unit — Give me +3 Might this turn.

• Smoke and Mirrors ×3 UNL-083 · enabler · mind

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Choose a unit you control and another unit you control at a different location. If at least one of them has [Temporary], move each to the other's location. Draw 1.

• Sprite Fountain ×1 UNL-078 · enabler · mind

  [Temporary] (Kill this at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.) When you play this, play a ready 3 Might Sprite unit token with [Temporary] to your base. [Deathknell][>] Repeat this gear's play effect. (When this dies, get the effect.)

Payoff

Deck

• Legend domains only need Mind — all three cards are mono-Mind, so any Mind legend runs the whole line.
• Hwei has to be ready to use his free move, which 315.1.b gives back every Awaken; 143.4 makes him enter exhausted, so the first free move is the turn after he lands.

Prerequisites

• THE MOVER THE HUNT ASKED FOR IS TWO MOVERS, AND THE FIRST IS FREE. Issue #59 filed this candidate as conditional on finding a repeatable Mind mover and missed the cheapest one: Hwei's own Standard Move. 144.2 — 'Exhausting the Unit is the Cost for this action' — is the WHOLE cost, and 315.1.b readies him at every Awaken. One move a turn, base to battlefield or battlefield to base (144.4), for nothing at all.
• THE SECOND MOVER IS MONO-MIND. UNL-083 Smoke and Mirrors swaps two of your units at different locations provided one carries [Temporary]. 446.1 makes that a Move ('A Permanent changing its position from any space on the Board to another space on the Board is a Move') and 456.1 excludes only Recalls, so Hwei's 'When I move' fires. Mind is the domain that prints [Temporary] bodies: UNL-078 Sprite Fountain (two per copy), OGN-094 Sprite Call, UNL-084 Sprite Queen, UNL-082 Lillia.
• WHAT A MOVE IS WORTH, ALL THREE MODES. Discard a SPELL: draw 1, discard 1, draw 1 = net +1 card in hand. Discard a GEAR: ready up to 2 runes, and 164.2.a makes each rune 1 Energy again = +2 Energy. Discard a UNIT: +3 Might this turn, a 5 to 8 body for one combat. The floor is therefore +1 card OR +2 Energy per turn for 0 Energy, and each Smoke and Mirrors buys one more move for 2 Energy while replacing itself, so an extra move is +1 net card for 2 Energy.
• THE CEILING, STATED. One free move a turn plus three Smoke and Mirrors (103.2.b). Nothing in mono-Mind readies Hwei repeatably: VEN-150 Acceleration Gate and OGN-162 Miss Fortune, Captain both reach him but are Mind/Body and are a one-shot and a once-a-turn respectively. Four moves in a turn is the honest maximum.
• THE [Hidden] DISCOUNT, NOW PRICED ON THE RULE INSTEAD OF ON THE OTHER ENTRY (CORRECTED 2026-09-06). This entry used to record that the catalogue was inconsistent about 811.1.d.2 and to price at base cost 'matching the older entry and erring expensive'. The clause decides it and needed no vote. 811.1.d.2 IS SETTLED BY THE RULE'S OWN WORKED EXAMPLES, WHICH NAME THESE CARDS. The clause is "If a hidden spell or a play effect of a hidden permanent chooses any targets, those targets must be chosen from among options at that battlefield, unless the ability explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible", and 811.1.d.2.a adds "Each target is treated separately and individually when processing this rule." The exception is therefore PER TARGET, not per card, and the reglamento works both of these cards by name: Tideturner — "Because its play effect has a targeting restriction that can never be fulfilled by a unit at its battlefield, its target may be chosen freely from among the available options"; Smoke and Mirrors — "the first unit chosen can be chosen at the battlefield Smoke and Mirrors was played from, so it must be. The second unit chosen explicitly restricts targeting in a way that makes this impossible, so it can be chosen from any location." So a hidden Smoke and Mirrors is legal, and its first chosen unit must be at the battlefield it was hidden at — which for this line means Hwei or the Sprite has to be standing there. The headline stays at 2 Energy per copy because 811.1.b makes the hidden copy playable only 'beginning on the next turn' and allows one facedown per battlefield you control, and 323.7 trashes it if you lose that battlefield; a copy hidden a turn ahead costs 1 rainbow Power and 0 Energy instead, which turns an extra move from '2 Energy' into '1 Power spent last turn'.
• OVERLAP DECLARED. lillia-smoke-mirrors-sprite-relay already uses Smoke and Mirrors as UNL-082 Lillia's mover, and both entries want the same three copies, so in one deck they are alternatives rather than additions. A swap that pairs Lillia with Hwei is illegal anyway: neither has [Temporary].
• THE SPRITES NEVER HOLD. 816.1.b kills a [Temporary] permanent 'at the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring', so they are the other half of a swap and nothing else — this entry claims no Hold and no Grand Plaza count from them.

Steps

1. Play Hwei, Brooding Painter (5 Energy + 1 Power). He enters exhausted (143.4).
2. Next Awaken readies him (315.1.b). Standard-Move him base to battlefield: the cost is his own exhaust and nothing else (144.2).
3. His trigger: draw 1, then discard 1. Discard a spell for another card, or a gear to ready 2 runes (+2 Energy), or a unit for +3 Might.
4. For more moves in the same turn, play Sprite Fountain (2 Energy + 1 Power) for a ready [Temporary] Sprite at your base.
5. Play Smoke and Mirrors (2 Energy): choose Hwei and the Sprite, at different locations. They swap, Hwei's trigger fires again, and the spell draws 1 to replace itself.
6. Up to three swaps a turn, alternating Hwei between base and battlefield.

Per iteration

per move: +1 card (discard a spell) or +2 Energy (discard a gear) or +3 Might; the first move each turn costs nothing, each further one costs 2 Energy and a Smoke and Mirrors that replaces itself

How it ends

engine only — one free move a turn forever, plus at most three swaps in any single turn; nothing in mono-Mind readies Hwei repeatably

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Lente del draw — issue #59 (GitHub) 2026-09-06
• 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 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue