Combo · ENGINE

A hidden unit is a [Reaction] body with [Backline], and its Gold is minted on the opponent's turn by a kill you made at Reaction speed

2 cards · chaos + fury · verified

Pieces

• Pyke, Returned ×1 UNL-145 · engine · chaos

  [Hidden] (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) [Backline] (I must be assigned combat damage last.) Once each turn, when an enemy unit dies while I'm at a battlefield, play a Gold gear token exhausted. (It has "[Reaction][>] Kill this, Exhaust: [Add] 1 Power of any domain.")

• Shakedown ×1 OGN-033 · enabler · fury

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose an enemy unit. Deal 6 to it unless its controller has you draw 2.

Payoff

Deck

• Chaos + Fury, so five legend names (103.1.b.2): Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Master of Shadows (VEN-143).
• A battlefield you control with no facedown card already on it, if Pyke is deployed the cheap way (811.1.b).

Prerequisites

• A HIDDEN UNIT IS A [REACTION] BODY, WHICH IS THE HALF OF 811.1.b THAT IS EASY TO MISS. The keyword is functionally short for hiding the card at a battlefield you control and then, 'beginning on the next turn, this gains [Reaction] and you may play this, ignoring its base cost' — so Pyke enters mid-combat on the OPPONENT's turn for 0 Energy, already at the battlefield he was hidden at (811.1.d.1), and 319.6 with 323.2.a give him the Defender designation at the next Cleanup, inside that damage step.
• [BACKLINE] IS THE MIRROR OF [TANK] AND THE RULES NAME BOTH IN ONE EXAMPLE. 465.2.c.6: 'A player must obey all requirements and restrictions on damage assignment if able. Example: … a unit with Tank ("I must be assigned combat damage first."); a unit with Backline ("I must be assigned combat damage last."); and another unit without any abilities. That player must assign combat damage first to the unit with Tank, then to the unit with no abilities, then to the unit with Backline.' So a 3-Might Pyke behind any other body is the LAST thing the attacker may legally kill, which is exactly what a permanent whose trigger needs him alive at a battlefield wants.
• THE TRIGGER IS 'ONCE EACH TURN', NOT 'ONCE ON YOUR TURN', AND SHAKEDOWN IS HOW YOU CASH THE OTHER HALF. Shakedown carries [Reaction], so 813.1.c.1 admits it in any Closed State on any player's turn: an enemy unit dies at Pyke's battlefield during THEIR turn, and the Gold appears then. Over a round trip that is two Golds, not one — and nothing else in the entry costs a card.
• BUT THE GOLD IS NEXT TURN'S POWER, NOT THIS TURN'S. 187.5: 'A Gold gear token is a domainless gear token with "[Reaction][>] Kill this, [exhaust]: [Add] [rainbow]."' Pyke's text plays it EXHAUSTED, and an exhausted Gold cannot pay its own cost, so 415.3.a readies it only in your own Awakening. The catalogue records `SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist` as the card that fixes this ('Your tokens enter ready', R25 = A) — she is mono-Order and 103.1.b.3 keeps her out of a Fury/Chaos list, so this line simply banks the Power a turn ahead and says so.
• SHAKEDOWN IS A PUNISHER, SO PRICE BOTH HALVES. 'Deal 6 to it unless its controller has you draw 2' leaves the mode to them: against a body worth less than two cards they hand you the cards and Pyke gets nothing, and against a real threat they take the 6 and Pyke pays. It is never dead and it is never guaranteed — six damage kills all but the largest bodies in the pool, so a defended board usually pays the damage.
• IT CHOOSES, SO IT IS TAXED. Unlike the programmatic sweepers this catalogue leans on (355.10.d), 'Choose an enemy unit' is a target: 809.1.c charges [Deflect] an extra Power per choice, and `SFD-105 Ruin Runner`'s absolute 'can't be chosen by enemy spells and abilities' stops it outright (054.1). State it, because the two are different kinds of thing.
• 185.2.d IS WHY THE GOLD IS REALLY GEAR: 'Tokens have a type. They follow all rules for their type unless otherwise specified.' That is a benefit here and a liability against a symmetric gear kill — see `acceptable-losses-ravenbloom-prefect-gearless-gear-hate`, which this entry is explicitly anti-synergic with.

Steps

1. Hide Pyke, Returned face down at a battlefield you control for one rainbow Power (811.1.b).
2. From the following turn he is a [Reaction] card: play him for 0 Energy, at that battlefield, at any moment a Closed State gives you priority — including inside the opponent's attack.
3. [Backline] then makes him the last legal damage assignment there (465.2.c.6), so he survives behind any other body of yours.
4. On either player's turn, play Shakedown (2 Energy + 1 Fury Power, [Reaction]) on an enemy unit at his battlefield. They choose: 6 damage, or two cards for you.
5. If it dies, Pyke's once-a-turn trigger plays a Gold gear token, exhausted.
6. 415.3.a readies the Gold at your next Awakening; kill it then for one rainbow Power (187.5).

Per iteration

one Gold token per enemy death at Pyke's battlefield, capped at one per turn, spendable from your next Awakening

How it ends

engine — up to two Gold a round trip (once each turn, on either player's turn), each worth one rainbow Power a turn later, plus a punisher that is never a dead card; 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

• Hand walk 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record
• Rules readings R25, issue #11 (ruled 2026-09-04) 2026-09-04

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue