Combo · ENGINE

Fortified Position chooses for free every time you defend — so the Spirit Wheel's one draw a turn costs a card and no deck slot

2 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Spirit Wheel ×1 SFD-144 · payoff · chaos

  When you choose a friendly unit, you may pay 1 Energy and exhaust this to draw 1.

• Fortified Position ×1 OGN-279 · battlefield

  When you defend here, choose a unit. It gains [Shield 2] this combat. (+2 Might while it's a defender.)

Payoff

Deck

• Any legend with Chaos among its two domains (103.1.b.3) — 16 names: Loose Cannon (OGN-251), Unforgiven (OGN-259), Swift Scout (OGN-263), Bounty Hunter (OGN-267), Dark Child - Starter (OGS-017), Glorious Executioner (SFD-185), Blade Dancer (SFD-195), Prodigal Explorer (SFD-199), Battle Mistress (SFD-203), Bloodharbor Ripper (UNL-185), Gloomist (UNL-193), Scorn of the Moon (UNL-197), Voidreaver (UNL-201), Master of Shadows (VEN-143), Soul's Reflection (VEN-151), Heart of the Tempest (VEN-155).
• 1 Energy available on the opponent's turn, off a rune held ready (164.2.a) — the Wheel's cost is paid to finalize its trigger, not on resolution.
• One of your three battlefields is Fortified Position; 485.5 selects one of the three at random, so it is on the table one time in three.

Prerequisites

• THE ONLY CHOOSER IN THE POOL THAT COSTS NOTHING AND REPEATS. Every other partner in the Spirit Wheel's row of twenty-seven is a spell you cast (a card and Energy) or a unit or gear whose choose is tied to a play or an activation. Fortified Position's 'When you defend here, choose a unit' fires by itself whenever the opponent attacks that battlefield, spends no card, and lives in the battlefield zone — 103.4.c and Tournament Rules 402.1 keep battlefields out of the Main Deck entirely, so it costs no deck slot either.
• THE DRAW LANDS ON THE OPPONENT'S TURN, AND 381 IS WHY THAT IS NOT OBVIOUS. 381 confines Activated Abilities to 'the Controlling Player's Turn and during an Open State', and the Wheel's text looks like one — 'pay :rb_energy_1: and exhaust this to draw 1'. It is not: the cost hangs off 'When you choose a friendly unit', so it is a Triggered Ability, and 383.3.c lets a Triggered Ability go on the Chain 'during Closed States or Open States on any [player's] turn'. Two gears can print the same words and only the one attached to a trigger works inside the opponent's combat.
• THE CAP IS THE WHEEL'S OWN EXHAUST, AND IT IS ONE DRAW A TURN. 415.3.a readies it 'during the Awakening Phase on their turn' — yours — so however many friendly units get chosen, the Wheel draws once per turn. Three copies (103.2.b) is three draws a turn but three cards and 6 Energy of setup; one copy is the honest build, and the entry is priced at one.
• 204.3.a is what makes the 1 Energy a commitment rather than an option: 'When Costs within Instructions appear as the first part of the effect in triggered abilities, the cost is taken to be the base cost of the triggered ability. It must be paid to finalize the triggered ability.' On the opponent's turn that Energy comes from a rune held ready through your own turn (167, 415.3.a, 164.2.a).
• The battlefield's own payoff is not nothing: [Shield 2] is 814.1.c's 'While I am a defender, I have +X [M]', so the chosen body defends at +2 and 465.2.b sums it. Choose a friendly unit — the Wheel needs a FRIENDLY one, and the [Shield] is wasted on an enemy anyway.
• 190.6.d does not bite: it blanks a battlefield's 'you' only while the battlefield has no Controller, and 464.2.c.2 makes the Defender 'the player who did not apply the Contested status' — the one who already controls it (323.11.a). You are defending there, so you control it, so 'you' resolves to you.

Bodies no card supplies

Bring Fortified Position as one of your three battlefields (485.5 selects one at random at setup) and take control of it in play

Steps

1. Bring Fortified Position as one of your three battlefields (485.5 selects one at random at setup) and take control of it in play.
2. Play Spirit Wheel (2 Energy) at your base.
3. Keep one rune ready when you pass the turn.
4. The opponent attacks Fortified Position. Its trigger fires: choose a friendly unit there; it gains [Shield 2] this combat (814.1.c).
5. The Spirit Wheel's trigger fires on that choice. Tap the ready rune (164.2.a) and pay 1 Energy, exhausting the Wheel, to finalize it (204.3.a).
6. Draw 1 — on the opponent's turn, which 383.3.c permits and 381 would have forbidden had the same cost sat in an Activated ability.

Per iteration

+1 card, +2 Might on one defender this combat, for 1 Energy

How it ends

engine — one card per turn the opponent attacks that battlefield, for 1 Energy and no card spent; capped at one draw a turn by the Wheel's own exhaust. 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 #169 — matrix families rows 6-18, second pass 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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