Combo · ENGINE

The Boss buys a buffed unit back from death and Showstopper walks it out again — one save per conquer, one buff per body

5 cards · body + order · verified

Pieces

• The Boss ×1 OGN-269 · legend · body/order

  If a buffed unit you control would die, you may pay 1 Power of any domain, exhaust me, and spend its buff to heal it, exhaust it, and recall it instead. (Send it to base. This isn't a move.) When you conquer, ready me.

• Showstopper ×1 OGN-270 · engine · body/order

  Buff a friendly unit in your base, then move it to a battlefield. (If it doesn't have a buff, it gets a +1 Might buff.)

• Sett, Kingpin ×1 OGN-240 · payoff · order

  [Tank] (I must be assigned combat damage first.) I get +1 Might for each buffed friendly unit at my battlefield.

• Cithria of Cloudfield ×1 OGN-139 · enabler · body

  When you play another unit, buff me. (If I don't have a buff, I get a +1 Might buff.)

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

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

Payoff

Deck

• Legend domains are exactly The Boss's own, Body and Order; every other card here is Body or Order.
• No battlefield of its own, so 485.4.a's random draw never enters the price.

Prerequisites

• 702.3 IS THE RULE THE HUNT NEEDED AND DID NOT HAVE: 'There can only be one Buff on a Unit at a time.' So the ammunition is not a stack of buffs on one body, it is the NUMBER OF BUFFED BODIES. That resolves the tension the hunt raised ('the same resource pays both halves'): every save spends exactly one buff, so Sett, Kingpin loses exactly 1 Might per save, and no more. 703 fixes the rate at +1 Might per buff.
• 808.1.d.1 APPLIES IN FULL, AND HERE IT IS A CHOICE. 'If the Permanent with the effect is not sent to the Trash, for example because its "killed" event was replaced with a recall, the triggered ability will be removed from the chain', and its worked example is this exact shape (Draven, Audacious saved by a Zhonya's Hourglass). So saving a body switches off its Deathknell. Unlike soraka-fiora-loop-shield, The Boss says 'you MAY pay', so the Deathknell is a decision each time and not a tax the entry pays blind.
• 455 IS THE SECOND TRAP AND IT IS SEPARATE FROM THE FIRST. 'A Recall is when a Permanent is relocated from anywhere to its Base without it being a Move.' The saved unit lands in your BASE, so any 'While I'm at a battlefield' text on it is off, and it also lands exhausted because The Boss says so outright. That is why Showstopper and Arena Bar are in the line at all.
• WHAT MAKES IT REPEATABLE IS 'When you conquer, ready me', NOT A ONCE-PER-TURN CLAUSE. The exhaust is inside the shield's cost, so one save costs The Boss's readiness; 415.3.a gives it back once, 'during the Awakening Phase', and every Conquer after that gives it back again for free. Saves per turn cycle = 1 + the number of Conquers. A legend IS readied by this: 107.4.c makes the Champion Legend a Game Object on the board even though 107.4.b says the Legend Zone is not a location.
• SHOWSTOPPER IS A MOVE BY EFFECT, WHICH IS WHY IT REACHES AN EXHAUSTED BODY. 420.3.a puts the exhaust cost only on the Standard Move and 144.4 only restricts its destinations, so 'move it to a battlefield' works on the exhausted unit the shield just sent home — the same fact #58 established, used here on the return leg. It also buffs it on the way, which re-arms the shield.
• THE ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. One full cycle: 1 rainbow Power + The Boss's exhaust + one spent buff (the save), then 1 Energy + 1 Power (Showstopper) to buff and redeploy. Two Power and one Energy per body saved and put back at a battlefield. With Cithria of Cloudfield, Sett, Kingpin and one more buffed body at his battlefield, Sett is a 5 + 3 = 8 Might [Tank]; each save drops him to 7 until the buff comes back.
• THE CEILING IS THE SHOWSTOPPERS AND THE CONQUERS. 103.2.b caps Showstopper at 3 per turn, and Arena Bar's own exhaust caps its re-buff at one a turn. This is an engine, not a lock: nothing here readies The Boss without a Conquer.
• OGN-151 LEE SIN, CENTERED COMPOUNDS HERE AND IS NOT IN uses ON PURPOSE (issue #111, walked 2026-09-06). 'Other buffed friendly units at my battlefield have +2 [M].' He is mono-Body, so 103.1.b.3 admits him under The Boss's Body/Order identity, and Sett, Kingpin is already at that battlefield. THE TWO EFFECTS STACK ON THE SAME BODIES BUT DO NOT FEED EACH OTHER: Lee Sin's +2 is a continuous Might modifier, not a 702 buff counter, so it never adds to Sett's own count and never collides with 702.3. 'Other' excludes Lee Sin himself, and he only counts FOR Sett if something buffs him — Arena Bar does it for free, since 143.4 leaves him exhausted unless the 805.1.a [Accelerate] cost (1 Energy + 1 Body Power) is paid. Price: E6, or E6 + 1 Energy + 1 Body Power to act the same turn. On the board declared above he takes the two 2 Might buffed bodies to 4 and the 8 Might Sett to 10. He stays out of uses because the card multiset is what the matcher and planDeck price, and a five-card line does not become a six-card line on the strength of a rider.
• ONE ENERGY AT REACTION SPEED ANSWERS THE BODY THIS ENGINE STANDS ON (Cithria of Cloudfield (M1 x1)). OGN-133 Flurry of Blades is Body, 1 Energy: "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Deal 1 to all units at battlefields." 143.2.a kills a unit whose marked damage equals or exceeds its Might and 142.4.b defines Lethal Damage as "a non-zero amount greater than or equal to that Unit's Might", so one damage is lethal to every body of Might 1 or less. RUNNING MORE COPIES IS NOT A DEFENCE: 370.1.a.2 makes events simultaneous when they "are all the result of the same Game Action", so the sweep kills every copy at once. And because it carries [Reaction], 813.1.c.1 lets it be played "during Closed States on any player's turn" - it never has to be cast a turn early the way the base-reaching removals do, and it can land in response to the very trigger this engine exists to fire. WHAT PROTECTS IT: this identity is fixed at body+order, so the following is the whole of what 103.1.b allows. already in this identity: OGN-243 Darius, Executioner ('Other friendly units have +1 Might HERE' - his battlefield only, and never himself); OGS-013 Garen, Commander (same clause as Darius, same limits) | colourless, so legal whatever the second domain is: OGN-294 Trifarian War Camp (colourless battlefield, 'Units here have +1 Might') - but 485.5 makes a battlefield you bring a 1-in-3, and 103.4.c forbids two of the same name. A single-target pump is no use against a sweep that hits every body at once, which is why only permanent, board-wide sources are listed.

Steps

1. Get a buffed unit to a battlefield — Showstopper does both halves for 1 Energy + 1 Power, or Cithria of Cloudfield buffs herself off any other unit you play.
2. When that unit would die, pay 1 rainbow Power, exhaust The Boss and spend the unit's buff: it is healed, exhausted and recalled to your base instead (455). Its Deathknell does not fire (808.1.d.1).
3. Conquer a battlefield: 'When you conquer, ready me' readies The Boss, so the shield is armed again this turn.
4. Re-arm the saved body: Showstopper buffs it in your base and moves it back to a battlefield (1 Energy + 1 Power), or exhaust Arena Bar to buff it where it stands for free.
5. Sett, Kingpin reads the buffed bodies at his battlefield and adds +1 Might for each.
6. At the next Awakening Phase 415.3.a readies The Boss again, so the floor is one save per turn cycle even with no conquer.

Per iteration

one buffed body saved from death and put back at a battlefield per cycle, for 1 rainbow Power + 1 Energy + 1 Power, plus one extra save for every Conquer in the turn

How it ends

engine only — saves are bounded by Conquers plus one per turn, and redeploys by the three Showstoppers; nothing here scores a point by itself

Sources

Published elsewhere

• Riftbound Core Rules, Last Updated 2026-07-16 (data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt) 2026-07-16
• Corpus de 8.307 listas de torneo — issue #89 (GitHub) 2026-09-06

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue