Combo · ENGINE
Hextech Disc re-arms itself, so Matriarch of War readies a unit every turn for free
Pieces
- Matriarch of War ×1
VEN-153 · legend · body/order
When you empower something else, empower me. (I become Empowered if I'm not already.) Disempower me, 1 Power of any domain, Exhaust: Ready a unit.
- Hextech Disc ×2
VEN-087 · engine · body
[Empower] — Exhaust (Pay the cost: Empower this. Use only if not Empowered.) Disempower this, 1 Energy, Exhaust: Play a 3 Might Mech unit token to your base.
Payoff
Deck
- Matriarch of War (VEN-153) IS the legend; Hextech Disc is Body, inside her identity (103.1.b).
Prerequisites
- THE ENABLERS THE ISSUE NAMED DO NOT SUSTAIN IT. VEN-074 Legion Marauder and VEN-124 Escaped Grayback are one Empower per copy (827.1.c.1, 'Play only if not Empowered') and nothing disempowers them, so three copies of each is six Empowers in a whole game. Hextech Disc is the only Body/Order card whose [Empower] costs nothing but an exhaust AND that disempowers itself, so it is the only one that comes back every turn.
- One Disc alternates on a two-turn cycle: on the odd turn the Awaken (315.1.b) readies it, its [Empower] exhausts it, the Matriarch's trigger empowers her for free and you pay 'Disempower me, 1 rainbow Power, exhaust' to ready a unit. On the even turn the Awaken readies it Empowered, and 'Disempower this, 1 Energy, exhaust' makes a 3 Might Mech token, leaving it disempowered for the next odd turn.
- TWO Discs out of phase give both halves every turn: one unit readied and one 3 Might Mech token per turn, for 1 Energy plus 1 rainbow Power. Setup is 2 Hextech Disc = 8 Energy + 2 Power; the legend is free.
- Ceiling of one ready per turn on the Matriarch alone. Her payment carries her own exhaust, and 'Ready a unit' cannot reach her — a legend is its own card type, not a unit. CORRECTED 2026-09-06, and this is where the old text was wrong: it said the ceiling 'does not open up' because SFD-210 Hall of Legends was the pool's only untapper. There are two untappers legal here, not one, and the second is free. The pool's legend-readers are SFD-039 Royal Entourage (Calm, out of Body/Order), SFD-210 Hall of Legends (Colorless, tied to conquering and to that battlefield being the one drawn, 485.5), VEN-068 Jayce, Brilliant Inventor (Mind, out of Body/Order) and OGN-162 Miss Fortune, Captain (Body, legal here). VEN-150 Acceleration Gate does NOT count: it enumerates 'units, gear, and/or runes' and a legend is none of the three. Miss Fortune readies 'something else that's exhausted' the first time she moves each turn, and 144.2 charges that move only her own exhaust, so she doubles the Matriarch to TWO readies a turn for free — the ready reaches the legend because 107.4.c makes it a Game Object and 415.1 readies Game Objects on the board, even though 107.4.b keeps it out of any location. Rider, deliberately not in uses. It is still an ENGINE: two readies a turn is not a loop.
- What the ready buys: a body that already spent its exhaust — a second Standard Move in the turn (144.2 charges the move an exhaust) or a second use of an exhaust ability.
- Rider outside uses: SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist is a UNIT of Order, not a legend, so she is legal in Body/Order and makes the Mech tokens enter READY (R25 = A), able to move the turn they appear. SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper is NOT available here — he is Mind.
- Not an INFINITE, and the reason is printed: 441.1.a makes Empowered binary and 441.1.b forbids re-empowering, so every cycle has to spend a disempower, and every disempower in the pool that is repeatable also charges an exhaust.
Steps
- Board two Hextech Discs, one turn apart so they sit in opposite halves of the cycle.
- Odd turn for Disc A: activate its [Empower] (exhaust only). 441.2.a makes that a 'becomes Empowered' event and the Matriarch's trigger reads 'When you empower something else, empower me' — she is Empowered for free.
- Pay her: disempower her, 1 rainbow Power, exhaust her. Ready a unit.
- Same turn for Disc B, which is Empowered and was readied at Awaken: 'Disempower this, 1 Energy, exhaust' — a 3 Might Mech token to your base.
- Next turn the Discs have swapped halves. Repeat.
Per iteration
one unit readied and one 3 Might Mech token per turn, for 1 Energy + 1 rainbow Power
How it ends
engine — one ready plus one Mech token every turn, hard-capped at one ready by the Matriarch's own exhaust
Sources
Published elsewhere
- Hunt lens [Empower]/[Flow]/[Level N] — issue #34 (GitHub) 2026-09-05
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
Walked here, in this project
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 2026-09-05 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-05-escalation-empower-flow-candidates.md), issue #34. REWRITTEN AT THE ENGINE: the issue armed the Matriarch with Legion Marauder and Escaped Grayback, and both are one Empower per copy — six in a whole game, which is not a motor. The sustainable source came out of the walk's own disempower census (grep -i disempower, 12 cards, domains read off each): VEN-087 Hextech Disc is Body, its [Empower] costs only an exhaust, and its other ability disempowers it, so 441.1.b stops blocking every second turn. Two Discs out of phase is what makes it a per-turn engine rather than an alternating one. The one-ready-per-turn ceiling is unchanged from the issue and is correct: her payment carries her own exhaust and 'Ready a unit' does not reach a legend. Trap check: no attack; no [Repeat]; no [Temporary]; no recall; no rune recycled for Power; every payment is a Main Phase activation so 167 does not bite. Shares Hextech Disc with hextech-disc-defender-mech-token, which is a different legend (Mind/Body) and a different payoff. CORRECTED 2026-09-06 by the ready-lens walk (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-ready-lens-candidates.md), issue #56: the notable claimed SFD-210 Hall of Legends was the pool's only untapper for a legend. It is not — OGN-162 Miss Fortune, Captain readies 'something else that's exhausted' every turn for free and is Body, so she is legal here and takes the Matriarch from one ready a turn to two. Class, uses, quantities and steps are UNCHANGED; she is named as a rider, not added to uses.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16