Combo · ENGINE

Jayce picks his keyword at Showdown speed instead of blind at the Awaken — and [Deflect 2] is the one option that has to be chosen early

4 cards · body · verified

Pieces

• Jayce, Hammer in Hand ×1 VEN-088 · payoff · body

  When I become ready, choose one to give me this turn — • [Assault 2] (+2 Might while I'm an attacker.) • [Deflect 2] (Opponents must pay 2 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) • [Ganking] (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

• Wallop ×3 OGN-146 · engine · body

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) As you play this, you may spend a buff as an additional cost. If you do, ignore this spell's cost. Ready a unit.

Payoff

Deck

• Any Body legend: both cards are mono-Body (103.1.b.3) and neither is a Signature card, so 103.2.d.2 forces nothing.
• Neither card is banned or restricted in either format.
• Jayce has to be EXHAUSTED when Wallop resolves. 415.1.b: 'A Unit that is already Ready cannot be Readied again', and 415.1.c: 'If a Unit is instructed to be Readied while it is already Ready, nothing additional happens' — so a Wallop aimed at a ready Jayce is thrown away and his trigger never fires.

Prerequisites

• WHAT THIS BUYS OVER THE AWAKEN. 315.1.b readies everything you control at your own Awakening Phase, so awaken-ready-body-triple-trigger takes Jayce's choice for free — but it takes it at the very start of your turn, before the opponent has done anything and before any combat exists. Wallop is [Action], and 806.1.b grants '[permission] to be played or activated during Showdowns, even when it is not the Controlling player's turn', so this ready happens with the board already resolved: you choose [Assault 2] once he is designated the Attacker, or [Ganking] once you know which battlefield needs him.
• AND THE OPTION THAT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY IS [Deflect 2]. 809.1.c: Deflect 'is functionally short for "Spells and abilities an opponent controls that target [me/this] cost an amount of Power equal to [Deflect Value] more to play as an additional cost for each time they choose [me/this]"' — an ADDITIONAL COST on playing. A spell already on the Chain has had its cost determined, so granting Jayce [Deflect 2] in response to their removal taxes nothing. [Deflect 2] is prophylactic and must be chosen BEFORE they act, which is the one case where the Awaken's blind choice is the right one; [Assault 2] and [Ganking] are the ones that pay for information.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Per turn: Jayce exhausts for a Standard Move (144.2) in your Main Phase, taking the Awaken's keyword with him; later, at Showdown speed on either player's turn, Wallop readies him for 0 Energy (spending a buff, 702.2.b) or 2 Energy, and he picks a SECOND keyword this turn and is ready to move again. [Assault 2] is +2 Might while he is an attacker, and 465.2.c reads Might at assignment, so a Might 5 Jayce assigns 7. Three Wallops (103.2.b) is three such turns.
• THE KEYWORDS DO NOT STACK ON THEMSELVES USEFULLY. 'Choose one to give me this turn' has no once-each-turn clause, so two readies in one turn are two choices — but picking the same option twice is worth nothing beyond the first ([Ganking] is a permission, 810.1.c.3, and [Assault 2] and [Deflect 2] would need the rules to sum two grants; 814.2 does that for [Shield] and says nothing about these). Take a different option each time.
• READYING HIM IS NOT WORTH ANYTHING ON DEFENCE BY ITSELF. 464.2.c.3 and 465.2.b do not filter by ready or exhausted state, so an exhausted defender fights at full Might (#61's finding). The ready buys a Standard Move; the KEYWORD is what the entry is for.
• WALLOP IS FREE ONLY IF A BUFF EXISTS TO SPEND. 702.2.b defines Spending a Buff as removing the counter, so the deck needs a buffer — OGN-136 Pit Rookie, OGN-141 Kinkou Monk and OGN-124 Arena Bar are all mono-Body — or Wallop simply costs 2 Energy, which at Showdown speed is still cheap.
• 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. Play Jayce, Hammer in Hand (4 Energy + 1 Body Power) to a battlefield.
2. At your Awakening Phase he readies with everything else (315.1.b) and his trigger fires once for free; take [Deflect 2] here, because it is the option that must be in place before the opponent plays anything (809.1.c).
3. In your Main Phase, exhaust him for a Standard Move (144.2) or whatever the turn needs.
4. When the combat or Showdown is open — on either player's turn (806.1.b) — play Wallop, spending a buff to make it free, and ready Jayce.
5. His trigger fires again with the board fully resolved: take [Assault 2] if he is the Attacker, or [Ganking] if he needs to be somewhere else.
6. He is ready again, so he can also take a second Standard Move. Repeat once per Wallop; three copies by 103.2.b.

Per iteration

a second keyword of choice on Jayce, taken with full information at Showdown speed, plus a second Standard Move, for 0-2 Energy

How it ends

engine only — three Wallops a game, each consumed, and every keyword is 'this turn' and expires at the end-of-turn Cleanup (317.2.c); 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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