Combo · ENGINE

The Armory puts a Recruit straight onto Dusk Rose Lab, the Lab eats it before scoring, and the Altar is already ready because Awaken runs first

3 cards · order · verified

Pieces

• Altar of Memories ×1 SFD-169 · payoff · order

  When a friendly unit dies, you may exhaust me to draw 1, then put a card from your hand on the top or bottom of your Main Deck.

• Dusk Rose Lab ×1 UNL-209 · battlefield

  At the start of your Beginning Phase, you may kill a unit you control here to draw 1. (This happens before scoring.)

• Vanguard Armory ×1 SFD-168 · engine · order

  Exhaust: Play three 1 Might Recruit unit tokens. (You may play them to different locations.)

Payoff

Deck

• Any Order legend: Altar of Memories and Vanguard Armory are both mono-Order (103.1.b.1) and Dusk Rose Lab is colourless. None is a Signature card, so 103.2.d.2 forces nothing.
• None of the three is banned or restricted in either format.
• Dusk Rose Lab is one of your three battlefields (485.4.a: three provided, 1 used; 485.5 makes it random in a Duel) and you must control it, since the Lab kills 'a unit you control here'.

Prerequisites

• AWAKEN IS A PHASE, NOT A STEP OF THE BEGINNING PHASE, AND THAT IS WHY THE ALTAR IS FREE. 315 lists 315.1 Awaken Phase ('The Turn Player readies all Game Objects they control that are able to be readied'), then 315.2 Beginning Phase, then 315.3 Channel and 315.4 Draw. So every readying has already happened when the Lab's kill fires 'at the start of your Beginning Phase', and the Altar's exhaust — its trigger's BASE COST under 383.3.b, paid to finalize under 383.3.b.1 — is always available for this death. A payoff with an exhaust in its cost is free once every turn against a scheduled Beginning-Phase death.
• ARITHMETIC WITH THE QUANTITIES DECLARED. Per turn, after setup: exhaust the Armory for three Recruit tokens and put at least two of them on the Lab; at the start of your next Beginning Phase the Lab kills one and draws you 1; the Altar sees the friendly death, exhausts, draws 1 and puts a card from hand on top or bottom. Net: TWO cards drawn, one put back, so +1 card into hand and one card of top-of-deck selection, every turn, for zero Energy and zero Power. Setup is 9 Energy + 1 Order Power across the two gears.
• PUT TWO ON THE LAB, NOT ONE — 323.6 IS WHY. 'Players lose control of any controlled Battlefields without their Units occupying them if the turn is in an Open State and there is no Showdown or Combat ongoing there.' The Lab's kill makes a Cleanup Outstanding (319.6); the Altar's trigger holds the state Neutral Closed (310.2) so 323.6 is false at that Cleanup, but once the Altar resolves and the Chain empties, 319.5 makes another Cleanup in a Neutral Open State (310.1) and that one takes the Lab off you — before 315.2.b.2 Holds. A second Recruit standing there keeps both the Lab and its Hold.
• THE ARMORY'S TOKENS DO NOT HAVE TO WALK. Its reminder text is '(You may play them to different locations.)', which is a printed play-location permission, so 355.2.a's default never comes up and no Standard Move is needed. They still enter exhausted (143.4), which costs nothing here — the Lab kills one and the other is a garrison, and neither job needs them ready.
• THE ALTAR IS A FILTER, NOT A SECOND CARD. 'Draw 1, then put a card from your hand on the top or bottom of your Main Deck' leaves the hand the same size; the value is the selection and the known top card for 315.4.b. The +1 card a turn in the arithmetic above is the LAB'S draw, not the Altar's. Do not double-count it.
• AND THAT IS ALSO WHY IT NEVER BURNS YOU OUT ON ITS OWN ACCOUNT. 431.1.a makes a draw past the last card of the Main Deck a Burn Out and a point for the opponent (194.1.d); the Altar puts a card back before you get there, so only the Lab's draw shortens the deck — and the Lab's kill is a 'you may', so it can be declined once the deck is thin.
• THE RECRUITS ARE UNITS AND THEY NEVER COME BACK. 185.2.b and 185.2.d make them real bodies for the Lab's 'a unit you control here' and for the Altar's 'a friendly unit dies'; 186.1 makes a killed token cease to exist on reaching the trash, so nothing reanimates it and 185 with 416.1 keeps it out of every recycle cost.
• 204.3.a IS THE FIRST AND CLEANER SOURCE FOR THIS, AND IT CARRIES THE WORKED EXAMPLE: "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", with Riot's example being Overzealous Fan - "When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base" - and the note that "in order to finalize the ability to the chain, its controller must kill Overzealous Fan". 383.3.b says the same thing later in the book. The companion is 204.3.b: a cost appearing in a SPELL, in an ACTIVATED ability, or in a LATER part of a trigger's effect is paid on resolution instead, which is the 205 "pay X. If you do, Y" family and the reason the two look alike on the card and behave differently on the chain.

Bodies no card supplies

Bring Dusk Rose Lab as one of your three battlefields (485.4.a) and take control of it

Steps

1. Bring Dusk Rose Lab as one of your three battlefields (485.4.a) and take control of it.
2. Play Altar of Memories (2 Energy) and Vanguard Armory (7 Energy + 1 Order Power).
3. Each Main Phase, exhaust the Armory and play three 1 Might Recruit tokens, putting at least TWO of them at Dusk Rose Lab (its printed 'different locations' permission).
4. At the start of your next Beginning Phase the Awaken has already readied the Altar and the Armory (315.1.b).
5. The Lab's trigger fires before scoring: kill one Recruit standing there and draw 1.
6. That death triggers the Altar; pay its base cost by exhausting it (383.3.b.1), draw 1 and put a card from hand on top of your Main Deck.
7. A second Recruit is still at the Lab, so 323.6 does not strip it and 315.2.b.2 still Holds it. Refill with the Armory in the Main Phase and repeat every turn for nothing.

Per iteration

one net card into hand and one card of top-of-deck selection every turn, plus two spare Recruit bodies, for zero Energy and zero Power

How it ends

engine only — one Lab kill and one Altar activation per turn (both capped by their own once-a-turn shape), unbounded in turns until Burn Out (431.1.a) on the Lab's draw alone; 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

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