Combo · ENGINE

One play turns a buff into a permanent keyword — and 702.3 is why it can only ever happen once per body

4 cards · order + body · verified

Pieces

• Peak Guardian ×1 OGN-223 · engine · order

  When you play me, buff me. Then, if I am at a battlefield, buff all other friendly units there. (To buff a unit, give it a +1 Might buff if it doesn't already have one.)

• Bilgewater Bully ×3 OGN-125 · payoff · body

  While I'm buffed, I have [Ganking]. (I can move from battlefield to battlefield.)

Payoff

Deck

• Body + Order. Computed over the 94 legend base codes in cards.json, that is five legend names and nine base codes: OGN-269 / OGN-310 The Boss (Sett), OGS-023 Might of Demacia - Starter (Garen), SFD-205 / SFD-251 Grand Duelist (Fiora), UNL-203 / UNL-237 Keeper of the Hammer (Poppy), VEN-153 / VEN-196 Matriarch of War (Ambessa). Nothing here is Signature (103.2.d.2).
• A battlefield you already control, because Peak Guardian's second sentence is conditional on where he lands and 355.2.a's default play locations are 'the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls'.

Prerequisites

• CARRYING A BUFF AND SPENDING ONE ARE OPPOSITE USES OF THE SAME COUNTER, AND THIS ENTRY IS THE CARRY SIDE. 702.2.a: 'To Buff a Unit, a player chooses a Unit and then places a buff on it. That Unit is Buffed for as long as the buff remains on it.' 702.2.b: 'Spending a Buff removes a single Buff counter from a Unit.' Bilgewater Bully's [Ganking] lasts exactly as long as the counter does, so every buff-spender in the pool — Call to Glory, Albus Ferros, Fae Dragon, Sett Brawler's own +4 — switches it back off. A deck picks one side, and this one never spends.
• 702.3 IS BOTH THE CEILING AND THE REASON PEAK GUARDIAN IS THE RIGHT BUFFER. 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time', and 702.3.a: 'If a Buff is added, or instructed to be added, on a Unit that already has a Buff, it is not placed instead.' So a second Peak Guardian buffs nobody who is already buffed, and no amount of buffing makes the Bully more than M7 with [Ganking]. What Peak Guardian gives that a single-target buffer does not is BREADTH: one play buffs him AND every other friendly unit standing there, in one trigger, for no extra card.
• THE ONE PRINTED EXCEPTION IS NOT IN THIS LIST. OGN-078 Lee Sin, Ascetic prints 'I can have any number of buffs' and rule 002 makes card text beat rules text, so he ignores 702.3 — he is Calm, outside this identity, and is named here only so the cap is never restated without its exception.
• WHAT THE KEYWORD IS ACTUALLY WORTH. 810.1.c.3: '[Ganking] does not give additional abilities or activations of Movement, only new options for the Standard Move', and 144.4.c.1 is that option — battlefield to battlefield. So the Bully does not move twice; he moves ONCE, to a destination 144.4.a and 144.4.b would not have allowed, without the detour through his base. In a Duel (485.4) that is one alternative destination per turn, every turn, permanently, for a counter that was placed for free.
• WHERE PEAK GUARDIAN LANDS DECIDES WHETHER HE DOES ANYTHING. 'Then, if I am at a battlefield' is a condition on the second sentence: played to your base he buffs only himself. 355.2.a's defaults are the base or a battlefield you control, and 822.1.b's [Ambush] — which he does not have — is the keyword that would grant a battlefield where you have units but do not control it. So the Bully has to be standing at a battlefield you already control when the Guardian is played.
• COST, WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Peak Guardian E6 + 1 Order Power, Bilgewater Bully E6 — both are top-end bodies, and the entry's product is a permanent keyword and a garrison-wide +1 Might, not tempo. 143.4 makes each enter exhausted, so the Bully has to have been played a turn earlier to be standing where the Guardian needs him.
• WHAT REFUTES IT, AND THE CONTRAST WITH THE CATALOGUED LINE. (a) blind-monk-wizened-elder-bilgewater-bully already runs the Bully, but under OGN-257 Blind Monk (Calm/Body), whose legend hands out a buff every turn and whose identity admits BOTH 'While I'm buffed' statics. This entry cannot: OGN-065 Wizened Elder is Calm, and Calm + Body + Order is three domains (103.1.b). What it buys instead is the Body/Order identity, where the Blind Monk line is illegal. (b) One removal spell on the Bully undoes the whole payment. (c) The Guardian's trigger is 'when you play me', so 818.1's separation of playing from attaching is not in question here — but neither is there any way to fire it twice.

Steps

1. An earlier turn: play Bilgewater Bully (E6) and walk him to a battlefield you control (144.4.a; his exhaust is the cost, 144.2 / 420.3.a). He is M6 with no keyword.
2. A later Main Phase: play Peak Guardian (E6 + 1 Order Power) to that same battlefield — a valid location by 355.2.a because you control it.
3. His trigger resolves: buff himself (M5 to M6), then, because he is at a battlefield, buff every other friendly unit there. 702.2.a places one counter on each unbuffed body, and 702.3.a skips any that already carries one.
4. Bilgewater Bully is now buffed: M7 by 703, and 'While I'm buffed, I have [Ganking]' is live for as long as the counter sits.
5. From this turn on, his Standard Move may go battlefield to battlefield (144.4.c.1) instead of only to and from his base — one move a turn, to a destination he could not otherwise reach.
6. Never spend the buff. 702.2.b removes the counter and the keyword with it.

Per iteration

a permanent +1 Might and [Ganking] on the Bully, plus a +1 Might buff on every other body standing there, for one play and no card spent afterwards

How it ends

engine only — 702.3 allows one buff per unit ever, so this is a single placement per body; 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

• Synergy rule peak-guardian-buffed-payoff (data/synergies.json) 2026-09-06
• Hand walk 2026-09-07 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-07-rules-second-pass.md), issue #170 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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