Combo · ENGINE
Ripper's Bay pays whoever bounces a unit off it — and Pack of Wonders is the bouncer that comes back every Awakening instead of three times a game
Pieces
- Pack of Wonders ×1
OGN-181 · engine · chaos
Exhaust: Return another friendly gear, unit, or facedown card to its owner's hand.
- Ripper's Bay ×1
UNL-214 · battlefield
When a unit here is returned to a player's hand, that player may pay 1 Energy to channel 1 rune exhausted.
Payoff
Deck
- Pack of Wonders is mono-Chaos and Ripper's Bay is Colorless, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend with Chaos as one of its two domains. Neither card is Signature.
- The battlefield is not guaranteed: 485.4.a has each player provide three and 485.5 randomly selects one, and 103.4.c forbids duplicates of a name, so the Bay arrives one time in three.
Prerequisites
- THE RATE IS THE ENTRY. `rippers-bay-retreat-double-channel` uses `OGN-104 Retreat` and is honest about its ceiling: 'three casts a game (103.2.b)'. Pack of Wonders' cost is an exhaust, and 415.3.a — 'A player Readies all non-spell Game Objects they Control during the Awakening Phase on their turn' — hands it back every turn. One bounce a turn, forever, against three a game.
- AND THE PRICE IS ONE ENERGY, NOT TWO. Retreat costs 1 Energy and then the Bay asks for 1 more; the Pack's bounce is free, so the whole transaction is the Bay's 1 Energy for one exhausted rune.
- IT IS A REFILL, NOT A RAMP, AND THAT IS THE HONEST FRAME. 161.2.a fixes the Rune Deck at 'Exactly 12 Rune cards' and 430.3 channels 'as many as possible' when it runs low, while 315.3.b already channels two free every Channel Phase — so by the turn this matters the Rune Deck is thin and the extra channel is returning what 164.2.b's Power recycles put back (161.2.b sends a recycled rune to the Rune Deck, not the Main Deck). What it buys is a rune you CONTROL, which is the currency `OGN-288 Startipped Peak`'s partners are priced in, not raw mana.
- THE RUNE ARRIVES EXHAUSTED, so 164.2.a's '[E]: [Reaction] — Add [1]' cannot be paid from it this turn; 415.3.a readies it at your next Awakening. 164.2.b's recycle-for-Power has no exhaust in its cost, so the rune IS live as Power immediately.
- THE BOUNCE IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE VALUE. 'Another friendly gear, unit, or facedown card' — returning your own unit re-buys its play trigger, and returning a FACEDOWN card takes a hidden card back to hand, which frees the battlefield's single facedown slot (811.1.b allows one per battlefield). The unit has to be standing at the Bay for the Bay's trigger to see it.
- IT PAYS THE OPPONENT TOO. 'That player may pay 1 Energy' — so an opposing unit bounced off the Bay channels for THEM. Bringing this battlefield is a symmetric offer, and the asymmetry has to come from you having the repeatable bouncer.
- IT DOES NOT SCORE, AND A BOUNCE IS NOT A RECALL: 455 defines a Recall as relocation to the BASE, while this returns the card to HAND — so nothing here is protected by 456.3 and nothing is claimed about movement locks.
Steps
- Bring Ripper's Bay as one of your three battlefields; 190.6.d never switches it off, so it is live from turn one whether or not anyone controls it.
- Play Pack of Wonders (E2). It is gear, so 143.4 does not apply and its exhaust ability is available the turn it lands.
- Each of your Main Phases, exhaust it to return one of your own units standing at the Bay to your hand.
- The Bay's trigger fires on that return. Pay 1 Energy and channel 1 rune exhausted (430.2.a's default is overridden by the card's own wording).
- 164.2.b's 'Recycle this: [Reaction] — Add [C]' carries no exhaust, so the new rune is live Power at once; 415.3.a readies it, and the Pack, at your next Awakening.
- Re-play the bounced unit when you want its entry trigger again, or hold it as a card in hand the sweeper cannot reach.
How it ends
engine only — one rune channelled and one unit re-bought per turn for 1 Energy, forever, bounded by the 12-card Rune Deck (161.2.a, 430.3) and by the battlefield arriving at all (485.5); 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
- Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
- 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 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 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 #170, from `rippers-bay-bounce-channel`. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. The content is the rate: the existing Ripper's Bay entry pairs it with a spell capped at three copies, and an exhaust-cost gear is the same effect once a turn forever (415.3.a), for half the Energy. Trap check: the channel is stated as a REFILL against 161.2.a / 430.3 / 315.3.b rather than as ramp; the rune's exhausted state is priced against 164.2.a versus 164.2.b so no Energy is claimed this turn; the battlefield's symmetry ('that player') is stated as a real cost; 455 is cited so a bounce to hand is never confused with a Recall; 485.5 and 103.4.c are cited for the battlefield's randomness.
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16