Combo · ENGINE
An additional cost that returns a gear to hand is a discount when the gear re-attaches for free on the way back
Pieces
- Legion Quartermaster ×3
SFD-044 · payoff · calm
As an additional cost to play me, return a friendly gear to its owner's hand.
- Cloth Armor ×3
SFD-064 · engine · mind
[Quick-Draw] (This has [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.) [Equip] 1 Mind Power (1 Mind Power: Attach this to a unit you control.)
[Shield 2] (+2 Might while I'm a defender.)
Payoff
Deck
- Calm + Mind: Legion Quartermaster is mono-Calm and Cloth Armor mono-Mind (103.1.b.3), so 103.1.b.2 needs a legend covering both - OGN-255/OGN-303 Nine-Tailed Fox, SFD-189/SFD-244 Fire Below the Mountain, UNL-189/UNL-230 Bashful Bloom or VEN-145/VEN-192 Curator of the Sands.
- Neither card is banned or restricted in either format, and neither is a Signature card.
- A friendly gear on the board. The Quartermaster's additional cost is NOT optional - 203.3 means a board with no gear cannot pay it, and the card cannot be played at all.
Prerequisites
- THE COST IS MANDATORY, WHICH IS THE FIRST THING TO GET RIGHT. The clause reads 'As an additional cost to play me, return a friendly gear' with no 'you may', so 203.3 applies: 'If the game action associated with a Cost is impossible for any reason such that a player cannot perform it, then they cannot pay the Cost and they will not execute the linked Effect.' With no gear on the board the Quartermaster is uncastable - which is a real deckbuilding constraint and not a drawback you can decline.
- AND [QUICK-DRAW] IS WHY THE COST IS NEARLY FREE. 819.1.d makes Quick-Draw functionally short for '[Reaction]' plus 'When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control' - so replaying Cloth Armor costs 1 Energy and NO [Equip] cost is ever determined, because the attach happens on the play rather than through 818.1's Activated Ability. The gear goes to hand and comes back attached, to a unit of your choosing, at [Reaction] speed. Net cost of the Quartermaster's additional cost: one Energy and a card that was already in play.
- WHICH ALSO MAKES IT A FREE RE-ASSIGNMENT. 434.1.f detaches an Equipment from its current carrier when it attaches to a new one, and 434.1.g makes attaching to the CURRENT carrier a no-op - so the ordinary way to move an Equipment is to pay its [Equip] again. This route moves it for the price of replaying the card, and it moves it at Reaction speed, which an [Equip] cannot do (381 confines an Activated Ability to your turn in an Open State unless it carries [Action] or [Reaction]).
- THE OTHER THING THE BOUNCE SAVES. 719.5: 'When a Top-Most Card changes zones from a board zone to a non-board zone, all Attached cards Detach from it, remaining in their current zones' - so an Equipment on a body that is about to die is lost to nothing but time; returning it to hand first is a way to keep it. And 323.7's Cleanup recalls unattached gear at battlefields to base, which the hand does not.
- WHAT THE BODY IS WORTH. 4 Might for 3 Energy is above the domain's rate - compare OGN-049 Playful Phantom at 5 Energy for 5 Might, or SFD-037 Navori Scout at 4 for 4 with [Deflect]. The extra Might is exactly what the mandatory cost is paying for, which is why the pairing has to make that cost cheap rather than merely survivable.
- WHAT IT IS NOT. Nothing here scores; 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold. And this is a value pairing, not a loop: the Quartermaster is three copies (103.2.b) and each one bounces a gear once.
Bodies no card supplies
Have Cloth Armor attached to a unit - it got there for free on the play, since [Quick-Draw] (819.1.d) attaches on play rather than through an [Equip] cost
Steps
- Have Cloth Armor attached to a unit - it got there for free on the play, since [Quick-Draw] (819.1.d) attaches on play rather than through an [Equip] cost.
- Play Legion Quartermaster (3 Energy). Its additional cost is mandatory (203.3), so return Cloth Armor to your hand to pay it.
- You have a 4 Might body for 3 Energy and a 1-Energy gear in hand.
- Replay Cloth Armor (1 Energy) - at [Reaction] speed if you like - and attach it to whichever unit now needs the [Shield 2], with no [Equip] cost paid.
- Use the same route to move the Armor off a body that is about to die: 719.5 would otherwise leave it detached on the board.
Per iteration
a 4 Might body for 3 Energy, with the mandatory cost refunded for 1 Energy and the Equipment re-placed on a unit of your choice
How it ends
engine only - three Quartermasters by 103.2.b, one bounce each; 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-uncatalogued-calm-mind-order.md, batch 8) 2026-09-07 record
How this entry was audited
REFUTE = a refutation pass, with its date and verdict · WOUNDED = the pass found a flaw and the entry was rewritten · BUDGETED = the pass checked the recycle-and-draw ledger · lens = the hunt that proposed it.
HAND-WALKED 2026-09-07 (issue #188). The first entry to use SFD-044 Legion Quartermaster. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. Citations opened and quoted: 103.1.b.2, 103.1.b.3, 103.2.b, 203.3, 323.7, 381, 434.1.f, 434.1.g, 469, 719.5, 818.1, 819.1.d. The mandatory-cost reading is stated first because a reader who assumes 'you may' will build a list in which the card is sometimes uncastable; 203.3 is the paragraph. Ban check: neither card is banned or restricted; neither is a Signature card. No unruled reading.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16