Combo · ENGINE

316.8.b.1.a - a bloodless conquer is not safe: one body moved in during the Non-Combat Showdown turns it into a Combat

4 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Ride the Wind ×3 OGN-173 · enabler · chaos

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Move a friendly unit and ready it.

• Overzealous Fan ×1 SFD-128 · payoff · chaos

  When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base.

Payoff

Deck

• Both cards are mono-Chaos, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend carrying Chaos. The census run against data/cards.json on 2026-09-12 gives sixteen names; among them Unforgiven (OGN-259), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Gloomist (UNL-193) and Heart of the Tempest (VEN-155).
• Neither card is Signature (data/cards.json, signature=false on both) and neither appears in data/legality.json in either format - checked 2026-09-12.

Prerequisites

• 316.8.b.1.a WAS UNCITED AND IT REOPENS A WINDOW THIS CATALOGUE TREATS AS CLOSED. The rule: 'These Showdowns are called Non-Combat Showdowns. During the proceedings of a Non-Combat Showdown, units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is ongoing. This will cause the Showdown to become a Combat Showdown in the following cleanup.' 344.1 says it from the Showdown side and is also uncited: 'If a Showdown is already ongoing at that Battlefield, it will become a Combat Showdown and a Combat will initiate there.' So the bloodless conquer that 344.2 and 348.2.a hand a player for walking onto an open battlefield is not a fait accompli - the defender gets a say inside it.
• AND THE DENIAL IS ALREADY COMPLETE BEFORE ANY COMBAT RESOLVES. 348.2.a: 'If only one player's Units remain at the Battlefield, and if that player does not already Control the Battlefield, that player establishes Control over the Battlefield.' One body of yours standing there means two players' units remain, so the Non-Combat Showdown can no longer close into a Conquer at all; 348.2.a.1's 'This results in a Conquer if that player has not yet scored that Battlefield this turn' never fires. Everything after that is upside.
• THE WHOLE LINE RUNS ON [ACTION], AND 313.1.a IS WHY THAT KEYWORD IS NOT OPTIONAL. 316.8.c: 'A Showdown is a structured Window of Opportunity where Players may play cards and activate abilities with Action or Reaction.' 313.1.a says the same from the Focus side, and it was uncited: 'The player with Focus must obey any additional restrictions on which Discretionary Actions may be performed. Example: A player with Focus may not play spells or activate abilities that don't have the Action or Reaction keywords.' 345 gives Focus to the player who applied Contested - the attacker - and 313.3 ('A player who passes Priority retains Focus') is how it comes round to you.
• THE DESTINATION IS LEGAL BECAUSE THIS IS A DUEL, AND THAT IS A MEASUREMENT AND NOT AN ASSUMPTION. Both paragraphs that would forbid it are scoped by their own opening words to larger games. 447.2.a: 'In Modes of Play with more than two players, Battlefields with Staged Combats or Combats in Progress are Invalid Destinations for Moves of all kinds (Standard Moves or otherwise) by Units controlled by Players not involved in those Combats or who don't already have units at that Battlefield.' 462.1 repeats it word for word for Moves, 462.2 for plays, and 447.2.b is scoped to teammates. 485.1 puts two players at a Duel table, so none of them applies - and 447.2.c's fallback to a Recall never engages either.
• THEN OVERZEALOUS FAN EMPTIES THE ATTACK, AND 204.3.a NAMES HIM AS ITS OWN EXAMPLE. 464.2.c.1 makes the walker the Attacker, and 464.2.c.3 designates everyone standing there at the moment the Combat opens: 'The attacker and defender gain the Attacker or Defender designation now, as appropriate. Units at the Contested Battlefield controlled by the Attacker or Defender gain the Attacker or Defender designation now, as appropriate.' The Fan was moved in during the Showdown, so he is already present when the conversion cleanup opens the Combat - he is designated at the open and not by the late-arrival clause 464.2.c.3.a. Kill him to finalize it (204.3.a, whose worked example is this card verbatim) and move the attacking unit to its base. Nobody's units remain: 466.3.d is 'No Result' 'if neither player has units present during this task', and 466.5 establishes Control for 'the player with Units remaining here' - there is none.
• SO THE ATTACKER SPENDS A MOVE AND A TURN AND GETS AN OPEN BATTLEFIELD BACK. 170.11.c: 'Battlefields can be “open.” This means they are unoccupied and uncontrolled.' It was open before and it is open after. Two Chaos cards worth 4 Energy and 1 Power have cancelled a Conquer, which in a Duel is one of the two per-turn scoring events a conquer deck has (470 with 485.4).
• A MOVE CANNOT BE ANSWERED, SO THE ORDER OF OPERATIONS IS FIXED. 446.3.c: 'Moving does not use the Chain, nor is it able to be Reacted to.' Your Ride the Wind is a spell and CAN be answered while it is on the Chain; once it resolves, the Fan simply is there. The attacker's only counterplay is to remove the Fan before the conversion cleanup, which costs them a card in a Showdown where 316.8.c admits only [Action] and [Reaction].
• WHAT THIS DOES NOT DO, WHICH IS THE ENTRY'S SHORTFALL. It scores nothing and it does not take the battlefield: 466.5 gives Control only to a player with units remaining, and after the Fan kills himself you have none there either. It is pure denial, it costs you a card and a body each time, and three copies of Ride the Wind is three uses. The Fan can also be answered by a removal spell at Showdown speed before the conversion cleanup, in which case you have spent both cards for nothing.
• ITS PLACE BESIDE THE CATALOGUED FAN LINE. janna-overzealous-empty-the-attack uses the same body against an ORDINARY combat, where the opponent has walked into a garrison of yours and the Fan is already standing there. This line is the other case - the empty battlefield, where a Combat is never staged at all (323.9 needs units of opposing players present) and 344.2 hands the walker a free Conquer unless someone converts the Showdown. That conversion is the mechanism, and 316.8.b.1.a is the only paragraph that grants it.
• A BLOODLESS CONQUER IS NOT A FAIT ACCOMPLI, AND 46 OF THE 47 ENTRIES CITING 344.2 DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-12, #187 batch 25). **316.8.b.1.a**: during a Non-Combat Showdown *"units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is"*, which converts it to a COMBAT Showdown in the following cleanup - so the opponent can turn your uncontested walk-in into a fight. 316.8.c is the permission (a Showdown is a Window of Opportunity for [Action] and [Reaction] cards). **The answer set is THREE CARDS, swept on the ACTOR rather than on the destination**: `OGN-173 Ride the Wind` (Chaos, E2+1), `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` (Calm/Order, E3+2) and `SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit` (Fury/Body, E2+1) - twelve printings move a friendly unit, and nine of them send it to base or need a body already there. They span three identities, so **no identity is safe**; and `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` is the worst to walk into, because it STUNS your body on the way in, and 423.1.b removes a stunned unit`s contribution to the damage step while 423.1.c keeps its full Might as the price to kill it - one 3-Energy card takes the unit and the battlefield. **[Ambush] is not a fourth answer**: 822.1.b needs a battlefield where the player already has units, and the defining feature of that board is that they have none there. **THE REMEDY IS A COUNTERSPELL, AND A FIRST VERSION OF THIS NOTABLE SAID SOMETHING FALSE THAT IS WITHDRAWN HERE (corrected within the hour, 2026-09-12).** It said that because all three answers are [Action] and 358.4 admits an Action card only as the card that CLOSES the state, the attacker - who holds Focus by 345 and priority by 335.1 - could shut them out by playing any cheap Action card first. Every step is true and the conclusion is false, because **a Showdown is a LOOP, not a single window**: 346 - *"When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority"* - with 347.1.b and 347.2.a. Closing the state buys a lock-out lasting exactly that CHAIN; when it resolves the Showdown reopens, Focus passes TO THE DEFENDER, and they play their answer into an open Showdown after all. **The real sequence**: walk in, take Focus, **PASS** (acting first gains nothing); they play the answer, which closes the state as it is played; **you COUNTER it**, since 358.4`s other half now admits only [Reaction] and all eleven of the pool`s counters are Reaction, and 425.1.c refunds them nothing; all players then pass in sequence, 347.2.a ends the Showdown, and 348.2.a with 348.2.a.1 give you Control and the Conquer. The cheap counter is `OGN-045 Defy` (Calm, E1 + 1 Power, *"counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than one rainbow"*), which covers all three answers; `OGN-064 Wind Wall` is the unconditional one. **So the protection narrows to pairs containing CALM** - it is not the one-Energy insurance any deck can buy.

Steps

1. Keep Overzealous Fan on the board somewhere - your base or your own battlefield - and hold Ride the Wind with 2 Energy and 1 Chaos Power available on the opponent's turn.
2. The opponent moves a unit onto an open battlefield (170.11.c: unoccupied and uncontrolled). No Combat is staged, because 323.9 needs units of opposing players present; instead 344.2 opens a Showdown in the next Cleanup, and 316.8.b.1 makes it a Non-Combat Showdown.
3. 345 gives the opponent Focus as it begins. When priority reaches you (313.3 keeps Focus with them while they pass), play Ride the Wind - it is [Action], which 806.1.b and 316.8.c admit here - and move Overzealous Fan to that battlefield.
4. 316.8.b.1.a converts the Showdown to a Combat Showdown in the following cleanup and 344.1 initiates a Combat there. 348.2.a can no longer give anybody Control, because two players' units remain.
5. 464.2.c.1 designates the walker's controller the Attacker; the Fan was already standing there when the Combat opened, so 464.2.c.3 gives him the Defender designation at the open and his 'When I defend' trigger fires.
6. Pay its base cost - kill the Fan (204.3.a) - and move the attacking unit to its base. The damage step of 465 finds nothing left to assign on either side.
7. 466.3.d returns No Result and 466.5 establishes Control for nobody. The battlefield is open again and the opponent's turn is spent.

Per iteration

an opponent's free conquer of an open battlefield turned into a combat with no result, at the cost of one spell and one 2 Might body

How it ends

engine - one enemy Conquer cancelled per Ride the Wind, for 2 Energy + 1 Chaos Power and the Fan's own life; three copies is three uses. Nothing is scored and the battlefield is left open, because 466.5 gives Control only to a player with units remaining and after the Fan's cost nobody has any

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 2026-09-12, issue #187 - uncited Core Rules sub-rules 300-499 2026-09-12 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue