Combo · ENGINE
One mass buff, read as a keyword: Spirit's Refuge turns Peak Guardian's whole garrison into a Deflect tax
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.)
- Spirit's Refuge ×1
OGN-063 · payoff · calm
When you play this, buff a friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 Might buff.) Friendly buffed units have [Deflect] if they didn't already. (Opponents must pay 1 Power of any domain to choose those units with a spell or ability.)
Payoff
Deck
- Peak Guardian is mono-Order and Spirit's Refuge mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.1 needs a Calm/Order legend, and the census gives four names: OGN-261 / OGN-306 Radiant Dawn, SFD-197 / SFD-247 Emperor of the Sands, UNL-195 / UNL-233 Green Father, VEN-147 / VEN-193 Eye of Twilight. Neither card is Signature, so 103.2.d.2 imposes nothing and all four names are open.
Prerequisites
- 702.3 IS WHY A MASS BUFF IS THE RIGHT SHAPE. 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time', and 702.3.a: a second Buff on a unit that already has one 'is not placed'. So the currency here is BODIES, not repetitions — Peak Guardian buying six counters in one play is worth six single-target buffers, and a seventh buff on the same garrison is worth nothing.
- WHAT THE TAX ACTUALLY IS. 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]"'. So it is PER CHOICE, not per spell — a spell choosing two of the garrison pays twice — and 809.1.c.1 makes the extra Power any Domain, so it is never dodged by domain.
- AND IT IS PAID ON PLAY, WHICH IS THE TIMING TRAP. 809.1.d makes it 'a Mandatory Additional Cost on Spells and Abilities that choose' the object, so the keyword has to be on the board BEFORE the opponent acts; granting Deflect in response to a spell already on the Chain taxes nothing.
- THE HOLE IS THE WORD 'CHOOSE'. 355.10.d exempts a Game Object 'programmatically selected based on its characteristics rather than chosen', and 355.10.e / 355.10.f exempt objects picked by the OPPONENT's own instruction — so an effect that moves or kills a whole garrison by description, or that makes you choose, pays nothing. `UNL-107 Stare Down` walks straight through this; `OGN-234 Public Execution` pays.
- 809.2 IS THE UPGRADE PATH: 'the Deflect Value of all granted Deflect keywords is summed', so a second granted source stacks. Spirit's Refuge's own grant is written 'if they didn't already', which does not stack with a printed [Deflect] but does not stop a second GRANT.
- ORDER OF PLAY. Spirit's Refuge first, Peak Guardian second, or the Refuge's static simply catches up — the static reads the board continuously, so a body buffed later is covered the moment it is buffed. What is NOT recoverable is Peak Guardian's own play trigger: it fires once, and 355.2.a means he has to be played to a battlefield you control for the 'if I am at a battlefield' clause to be true.
- IT DOES NOT SCORE AND IT DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST COMBAT. Combat damage is assigned, not chosen (465.2.c), so [Deflect] is silent in the damage step.
Bodies no card supplies
Establish Control of a battlefield and stand a garrison there
Steps
- Establish Control of a battlefield and stand a garrison there.
- Play Spirit's Refuge for 2 Energy and 1 Calm Power. Its play trigger buffs one friendly unit; its second sentence is a static that from now on reads every buffed friendly unit.
- Play Peak Guardian to that battlefield — 355.2.a makes 'the controller's Base or a Battlefield the controller controls' a valid play location, and the 'if I am at a battlefield' clause needs the battlefield half.
- His trigger buffs him, then buffs all other friendly units there. 702.3.a silently skips any body that already carries a buff, so the count is the number of UNBUFFED bodies plus himself.
- Every one of those bodies now has [Deflect] from Spirit's Refuge. 809.1.d makes one rainbow Power an additional cost on any opposing spell or ability for each time it chooses one of them, and 809.1.c.1 lets the opponent pay it in any Domain.
- The tax stands for as long as the buffs do. 702.2.b removes a counter only when something SPENDS it, so any buff spender in your own deck (Wallop, Call to Glory, Monastery of Hirana) is switching your own Deflect off one body at a time.
How it ends
engine only — one rainbow Power of tax per opposing choice, across as many bodies as the garrison had unbuffed when Peak Guardian landed; it lapses only when a buff is spent, and 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 the buff-supply synergy rules; OGN-063 Spirit's Refuge was in ZERO entries. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. The content is that a 702 Buff counter is a READABLE currency and not only Might: three different payoffs read it, and this is the one that turns a single play into a standing tax. Trap check: 809.1.d is cited so the keyword is stated as pay-on-play and never as a response; 355.10.d / 355.10.e / 355.10.f are named as the hole, with the pool's actual walk-through card; 702.3.a is cited so the count is unbuffed bodies rather than 'the garrison'; combat damage is explicitly excluded (465.2.c assigns, it does not choose); produces is empty (issue #157).
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16