Combo · ENGINE
718.2 makes an attached Equipment's text unusable and 718.5.b keeps the card KILLABLE — which is why an [Action] gear kill answers an Equipment BURST inside its own combat
Pieces
- Salvage ×3
OGN-224 · payoff · order
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) You may kill up to one gear. Draw 1.
- Zaun Punk ×3
SFD-160 · engine · order
You may kill a friendly gear as an additional cost to play me. When you play me, if you paid the additional cost, kill a gear.
Payoff
Deck
- Both cards are mono-Order, so 103.1.b.1 is satisfied by any legend with Order as one of its two domains. Neither is Signature, so 103.2.d.2 imposes nothing.
Prerequisites
- THE TWO HALVES OF ATTACHMENT, AND THEY POINT OPPOSITE WAYS. 718.2: 'While in this state, the card's printed Rules Text is Inactive', and 721.2 adds that an Inactive Ability 'cannot be activated' — so an attached Equipment can never pay its own [Equip] to escape. 718.5.b: 'Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached' — so it is still a legal target for a gear kill. An Equipment on a body is text you cannot use and a card the opponent can still take away.
- AND KILLING IT TAKES BACK EVERYTHING IT WAS LENDING. 137.3.a: a Might Bonus 'is applied while Attached and stops applying as soon as the card with the Might Bonus is no longer Attached'; 718.3 and 719.1 append the Effect Text only 'for as long as they remain Attached'. So one kill removes the Might Bonus AND the appended trigger in the same action.
- WHICH IS THE ANSWER TO THE EQUIPMENT SCORING FAMILY, AND [ACTION] IS WHY IT ARRIVES IN TIME. 806.1.b: '[Action] grants the corresponding card or effect permission to be played or activated during Showdowns, even when it is not the Controlling player's turn.' So Salvage kills `SFD-115 Trinity Force` before its 'When I hold, score 1 point' can be placed, or kills `SFD-059 Svellsongur` before the copies it was lending are counted — and 465.2.c reads Might at assignment, after the Bonus is already gone.
- IT REACHES AN UNATTACHED GEAR TOO, AND THE DISTINCTION MATTERS FOR ONE CARD. `SFD-186 Spinning Axe` prints '[Temporary] (If this is unattached, kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase...)', so an Axe knocked loose by the carrier's death is already on a clock; killing the carrier and letting 816.1.b finish the job costs nothing at all.
- SALVAGE IS NEVER A DEAD CARD. 'You may kill up to one gear. Draw 1.' — with no gear on the board it is a 2-Energy cantrip, which is what makes it maindeckable against a field where only some decks carry Equipment. 055's 'ignore impossible instructions' is not even needed; the card says 'up to'.
- ZAUN PUNK IS THE MAIN-PHASE HALF AND ITS COST IS 203.3-GATED. 'You may kill a friendly gear as an additional cost' — if you control no gear the additional cost cannot be paid (203.3: an impossible cost cannot be paid), the 'if you paid' clause fails, and you are left with a vanilla E3 3 Might body. Run it beside cheap gear you were spending anyway (a cashed Gold is not available — 187.5's ability kills it as its own cost — but `OGN-120 Seal of Insight` and a spent `UNL-161 Divining Shells` are).
- IT DOES NOT SCORE. Removing an Equipment is denial; the points still come from whatever the deck does with the board it clears.
Steps
- Keep Salvage in hand rather than casting it on sight; its value is the timing, not the effect.
- The opponent attacks or holds with an Equipment carrier. 464.2.c.3 designates the sides and 465.2.c will read each side's summed Might.
- In the Closed State, where 312.2.c gives priority, play Salvage (E2 + 1 Order Power). 806.1.b is the permission to do it in a Showdown on their turn.
- Kill the Equipment. 718.5.b is why it is a legal target even though 718.2 has made its own text Inactive.
- 137.3.a removes its Might Bonus at once and 719.1 stops appending its Effect Text, so the carrier shrinks and loses whatever trigger it was borrowing — before 465.2.c reads Might.
- Draw the card the spell replaces itself with.
- On your own Main Phase, Zaun Punk does the same job proactively: pay a spent gear of yours as the additional cost and kill one of theirs, keeping a 3 Might body.
How it ends
engine only — one gear killed per Salvage at Showdown speed and one per Zaun Punk in your Main Phase, three of each a game (103.2.b); Salvage replaces itself either way 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.
Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt. The content is that 718.2 and 718.5.b are complementary rather than contradictory — the abilities of an attached Equipment are Inactive, the card itself stays targetable — which is exactly what makes a gear kill the answer to the Equipment scoring family, and [Action] is what makes it arrive before 465.2.c reads Might. Trap check: 'up to one' is quoted so the card is never claimed as a dead draw; Zaun Punk's additional cost is gated by 203.3 and the fodder is named (a cashed Gold is NOT available, since 187.5 kills it as its own cost); the Spinning Axe case is called out because an unattached Equipment is a different object on a different clock (816.1.b).
Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16