Combo · ENGINE

The Arena Bar is the only buff source that names an exhausted unit — and 702.3 is why Simian Ancestor needs Wallop to spend the buff back off him

5 cards · calm + body · verified

Pieces

• Simian Ancestor ×1 SFD-047 · payoff · calm

  When you buff me, ready me.

• Arena Bar ×1 OGN-124 · engine · body

  Exhaust: Buff an exhausted friendly unit. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 Might buff.)

• Wallop ×3 OGN-146 · resource · body

  [Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) As you play this, you may spend a buff as an additional cost. If you do, ignore this spell's cost. Ready a unit.

Deck

• Calm + Body: Simian Ancestor is mono-Calm, Arena Bar and Wallop mono-Body (103.1.b.3), so the legend must hold both and the pool prints exactly four names — OGN-257 Blind Monk, OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter, SFD-193 Grandmaster at Arms and UNL-191 Wuju Master (103.1.b.2).
• OGS-019 Wuju Bladesman - Starter is RESTRICTED in 2v2 (data/legality.json), a cap and not a ban; the other three legends are unrestricted. None of the three cards in uses[] is banned or restricted in either format, and none is a Signature card.
• Simian Ancestor must already be exhausted when the Arena Bar buffs him, or the ready is worth nothing.

Prerequisites

• A READY IS ONLY WORTH SOMETHING IN THE MAIN PHASE, AND THIS IS THE CASE THAT SATISFIES IT. 315.1.b readies everything you control at your own Awaken, so a ready trigger that fires in the Beginning Phase or on a Hold is a no-op — the refuse-by-rule bucket the first matrix pass wrote down. The Arena Bar is an Activated Ability with no [Action] and no [Reaction], so it fires in your Main Phase, AFTER Simian has paid 144.2's exhaust for his Standard Move. That is the one window where 'ready me' buys a second action.
• 702.3 IS THE CAP, AND IT IS WHY WALLOP IS IN uses[] RATHER THAN IN A NOTE. 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time' (702.3), 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 the Arena Bar can buff Simian exactly ONCE, ever, unless something removes the buff — and with no buff placed there is no 'when you buff me', so no ready. 702.2.b defines Spending a Buff as removing the counter; Wallop spends it as an additional cost and, having done so, costs nothing ('ignore this spell's cost') and readies a unit anyway. Without a buff-spender this is a one-shot, not an engine.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Per turn, once the pieces are down: Simian standard-moves or otherwise exhausts; the Arena Bar exhausts to buff him (0 Energy, 0 Power); his trigger readies him, so he acts a second time; later in the turn Wallop spends that buff for free and readies a second unit as well. Net per turn: TWO readies for zero mana, on the turns you have a Wallop. Three Wallops (103.2.b) means three such turns; after that the Arena Bar's buff sits on Simian and the cycle stops.
• THE BUFF IS ALSO +1 MIGHT WHILE IT SITS THERE. 703 makes a Buff exactly +1 Might, so a buffed Simian is a 6, and spending it takes him back to 5. If he is a Might-4 body's neighbour in a Grand Duelist deck the crossing matters (709 is an EVENT), but Simian is printed at 5, so he is Mighty already and 709's second worked example applies to him verbatim: a unit already Mighty does not 'become' Mighty.
• READYING A READY UNIT DOES NOTHING. 415.1.b: 'A Unit that is already Ready cannot be Readied again', and 415.1.c: 'If a Unit is instructed to be Readied while it is already Ready, nothing additional happens.' So the order inside the turn is load-bearing — exhaust Simian FIRST, then buff him. Buffing him while ready throws the ready away and still consumes the Arena Bar's exhaust and the 702.3 slot.
• WHAT THE SECOND ACTION IS ACTUALLY FOR. Simian has no printed activated ability, so his ready buys exactly one thing: another Standard Move (144.2, 144.4). Combat does not read exhaustion — 464.2.c.3 and 465.2.b do not filter by state — so readying him adds nothing on defence. Price it as mobility for a 5-Might body, not as extra damage.
• PRODUCES NOTHING, AND THE BLANK IS A DECISION (2026-09-09, #157). Every other one of the 714 entries carries at least one outcome value; this one is deliberately empty. Its whole product in its own words is two readies a turn for zero Energy and zero Power, and SFD-047 Simian Ancestor reads IN FULL 'When you buff me, ready me' with no exhaust-cost ability anywhere - so CLAUDE.md’s refuse-bucket E applies exactly: a ready is one extra Standard Move, and NOTHING AT ALL if the unit has no exhaust to spend. Tagging it unit-delivery would have been reaching for a name to avoid a blank field. Do not fill it without a second product; it is also the first entry to re-examine if unit-delivery is ever made consumable, since a consumer wanting bodies moved would be satisfied here by one body moved one step.
• 745.2 IS WHY AN UNQUALIFIED "SPEND A BUFF" CAN ONLY TAKE ONE OFF YOUR OWN BOARD, AND THE 741-749 BLOCK WAS CITED BY NOTHING (upgrade 2026-09-12, #191 batch 26 - diagnosed five days earlier by #187 batch 2 and never applied). The cards that print this cost say *"spend a buff"* with NO owner stated, and none of them has ever had to, because the rules say it: **745.2** - *"In order to spend a Counter, the spending player must control the Game Object the Counter is placed on."* It is the general form of the 702.2.b.2 this project cites fourteen times, and its neighbours finish the picture: **749** (*"Counters do not have a controller"*) and **748** (*"Game Objects that change zones to a non-board zone lose all of their Counters"*), which is the real rule behind buff recovery rather than the 702.x usually cited. Measured consequence from the same walk: a change of CONTROL is not a zone change, so **a buff survives a theft and becomes the thief`s to spend** - the exact complement of 718.5.f, under which an Equipment`s Control does NOT follow its carrier while a buff`s spendability DOES.
• 426.1.c IS THE PARAGRAPH A READER CHECKING THIS ENTRY ACTUALLY WANTS, AND IT WAS CITED ONCE IN THE WHOLE PROJECT (upgrade 2026-09-12, #187 batch 16). This catalogue cites 702.3 **488 times** and 702.3.a 131 - the one-buff-per-unit cap is its most-cited fact - and 426.1.c, which says what that cap does to the REST of the sentence the buff was written in, appears once. Its text: *"Units with Buff Counters can still be chosen for actions that Buff units, but will not be Buffed as part of the execution"* - and its SECOND worked example is this card`s sentence verbatim, a unit reading *"When you buff me, ready me"* whose ability will not trigger if it is chosen while already buffed. 702.3.a is the CAP; 426.1.c is the CONSEQUENCE.

Steps

1. Play Simian Ancestor (5 Energy + 1 Calm Power) and Arena Bar (3 Energy) on earlier turns.
2. In your Main Phase, exhaust Simian for whatever you need him to do — usually a Standard Move (144.2).
3. Exhaust the Arena Bar and buff Simian, who is now an exhausted friendly unit and therefore a legal choice for it.
4. His trigger fires: 'When you buff me, ready me.' He is ready again and takes a second Standard Move the same turn.
5. Later in the turn, play Wallop and spend Simian's buff as its additional cost: the spell costs nothing and readies a unit of your choice.
6. Simian is unbuffed again, so the Arena Bar can buff him next turn and the cycle repeats — three times, once per Wallop (103.2.b).

Per iteration

two readies a turn for zero Energy and zero Power — a second Standard Move for Simian, plus a free ready from Wallop

How it ends

engine only — three Wallops a game, each consumed, and without one the Arena Bar's buff is stuck on Simian by 702.3 and the ready never repeats; 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 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue