Combo · ALT WIN

Vanguard Captain × Faithful Manufactor — eight bodies played straight onto The Grand Plaza

4 cards · order · verified

Pieces

• Vanguard Captain ×2 OGN-218 · engine · order

  [Legion] — When you play me, play two 1 Might Recruit unit tokens here. (Get the effect if you've played another card this turn.)

• Faithful Manufactor ×1 OGN-211 · enabler · order

  When you play me, play a 1 Might Recruit unit token here.

• The Grand Plaza ×1 OGN-293 · payoff

  When you hold here, if you have 7+ units here, you win the game.

Payoff

Deck

• Mono-Order: any Order legend. The Grand Plaza is colourless.

Prerequisites

• EVERY TOKEN SAYS 'here', so this line never touches #48's bottleneck and never needs SFD-171 Renata Glasc, Industrialist. Both Vanguard Captain and Faithful Manufactor place their Recruits at the location the unit itself was played to, so playing the three units to the Plaza puts all eight bodies there in the same Main Phase. Compare grand-plaza-recruit-vanguard, whose OGS-015 Recruit the Vanguard has to spell the permission out in its own reminder text.
• The [Legion] order is load-bearing and it is free. 812.1.c: 'As long as a card different than the one with the Legion ability has been Finalized by you on the same turn then the Dependent Ability is Active on the card with Legion.' Playing Faithful Manufactor first satisfies it, and 812.2 says one card satisfies every instance — so Captain #2 needs nothing further. Play the Manufactor last and the first Captain is a 3-Might body with no Recruits.
• Nine Energy and two Order Power against grand-plaza-recruit-vanguard's twelve Energy, which is the exact weakness its own REFUTE note recorded ('two Vanguards in one turn is 12 Energy, the whole Rune Deck'). The count is 8 units — Manufactor + Recruit + 2 × (Captain + 2 Recruits) — so one may die and the Hold still wins.
• Three of the eight are 2-3 Might bodies rather than 1-Might Recruits, which matters because the whole board has to survive the opponent's turn: 465.2.c makes the attacker assign damage equal to their summed Might and 465.2.c.3 forces lethal onto one unit at a time, so five 1-Might Recruits plus a 2-Might and two 3-Might units cost 13 damage to clear, not 8. CORRECTED 2026-10-27 (#495, from the run play docs/plays/2026-10-27-up-from-the-deep-puts-seven-on-the-plaza-by-turn-three-and-the-two-bodies-they-already-had-kill-five-of-them.md): clearing the board is not what stops the win. The Plaza needs 7 units at the Hold, so with eight the opponent has to kill two, and they choose which: 465.2.c, 'Starting with the Attacker, each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units.', with 465.2.c.3, 'Units must have lethal damage assigned to them in full before damage is assigned to a different Unit.', and 143.2.a, 'If a Unit ever has nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might, it is Killed.' None of the eight has [Tank] or [Backline], so nothing orders the assignment (465.2.c.6). Two 1-Might Recruits (187.1) die to 2 damage: any ready enemy body of Might 2 or more that attacks the Plaza on their turn leaves six, and the Hold does not win. The price of an N-unit Plaza board is the summed Might of its N - 6 cheapest units, here 2, not 13.
• The count is measured AT THE HOLD: 383.2.a.1 makes 'if you have 7+ units here' part of the Trigger Condition, so nothing can be topped up at that instant. Nothing here is [Temporary], so 816.1.b never fires.
• The Grand Plaza must be the battlefield in play — 485.4.a puts only 1 of your 3 into the game, randomly in Duel (485.5) and Skirmish (487.5), chosen in Match (486.5); 103.4.c and Tournament Rules 402.1 forbid three copies. And it is symmetric: an opponent who parks seven units on it wins the same way.
• UNL-077 Soul Shepherd (Mind, "Your token units have +1 Might") adds no bodies but doubles what the opponent must spend to clear them: 143.2.a + 465.2.c.3 make seven 1-Might Recruits cost 7 damage and seven 2-Might Recruits cost 14. He is Mind, so he narrows an all-Order line to Mind/Order (#161, 2026-09-06). CORRECTED 2026-10-27 (#503): those totals price a full clear, and a full clear is not what stops the Plaza. It needs 7 units at the Hold (383.2.a.1), so against seven the opponent kills one and picks which (465.2.c, 465.2.c.3; with no [Tank] nothing orders the assignment, 465.2.c.6): the Shepherd raises that price from 1 damage to 2, not from 7 to 14. The doubling stands; the totals do not.
• 1 ENERGY ANSWERS THE GARRISON THIS LINE NEEDS, AND THE BODIES ARE TOKENS SO NO uses[] ROW SHOWS IT. 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.". This line's garrison is Recruit tokens, whose Might is fixed by rule 187 (Recruit 1) rather than by any card in uses[] - which is why no ingredient row warns you. 143.2.a kills on marked damage at or above Might, so it kills every body at or below Might 1 SIMULTANEOUSLY however many there are: the binding constraint is MIGHT PER BODY, not the number of bodies, so going wider answers nothing. THE IDENTITY DOES HOLD AN ANSWER: OGS-013 Garen, Commander +1, SFD-089 Rumble, Scrapper +1 (Mech bodies only), UNL-077 Soul Shepherd +1 (token bodies only) - a permanent, garrison-wide +Might is the only thing that lifts every body at once, since a single-target pump is useless against a sweep that hits all of them. (A battlefield-based protection is NOT available here, because this line already requires a battlefield: 485.4.a gives each player three and "Only 1 will be used, chosen during setup", and 103.4.c forbids duplicate names, so two of your own battlefields never share a board.) WHEN THE ANSWER LANDS, AND IT IS NOT INSIDE THE HOLD. A Hold resolves at 315.2.b.2, which Holds "all Battlefields they Control", inside YOUR Beginning Phase - and 312.2.a gives a player priority only "When the turn is in a Neutral Open State during their Main Phase", i.e. their own. So the opponent cannot answer in the Hold window itself; they answer on THEIR turn, which is the turn immediately before it. The cost of that is yours, not theirs: your own Main Phase comes AFTER your Beginning Phase (315 then 316), so there is no window in which to rebuild the garrison. Holding up a [Reaction] on their turn is the only response this line has.
• A BLOODLESS CONQUER IS NOT A FAIT ACCOMPLI, AND 46 OF THE 47 ENTRIES CITING 344.2 DID NOT SAY SO (added 2026-09-12, #187 batch 25). **316.8.b.1.a**: during a Non-Combat Showdown *"units controlled by a different player may become present at the Battlefield where the Showdown is"*, which converts it to a COMBAT Showdown in the following cleanup - so the opponent can turn your uncontested walk-in into a fight. 316.8.c is the permission (a Showdown is a Window of Opportunity for [Action] and [Reaction] cards). **The answer set is THREE CARDS, swept on the ACTOR rather than on the destination**: `OGN-173 Ride the Wind` (Chaos, E2+1), `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` (Calm/Order, E3+2) and `SFD-184 Relentless Pursuit` (Fury/Body, E2+1) - twelve printings move a friendly unit, and nine of them send it to base or need a body already there. They span three identities, so **no identity is safe**; and `OGN-262 Zenith Blade` is the worst to walk into, because it STUNS your body on the way in, and 423.1.b removes a stunned unit`s contribution to the damage step while 423.1.c keeps its full Might as the price to kill it - one 3-Energy card takes the unit and the battlefield. **[Ambush] is not a fourth answer**: 822.1.b needs a battlefield where the player already has units, and the defining feature of that board is that they have none there. **THE REMEDY IS A COUNTERSPELL, AND A FIRST VERSION OF THIS NOTABLE SAID SOMETHING FALSE THAT IS WITHDRAWN HERE (corrected within the hour, 2026-09-12).** It said that because all three answers are [Action] and 358.4 admits an Action card only as the card that CLOSES the state, the attacker - who holds Focus by 345 and priority by 335.1 - could shut them out by playing any cheap Action card first. Every step is true and the conclusion is false, because **a Showdown is a LOOP, not a single window**: 346 - *"When the last item on the chain resolves and the turn returns to an Open State during a Showdown, Focus passes, and the next Player gains both Focus and Priority"* - with 347.1.b and 347.2.a. Closing the state buys a lock-out lasting exactly that CHAIN; when it resolves the Showdown reopens, Focus passes TO THE DEFENDER, and they play their answer into an open Showdown after all. **The real sequence**: walk in, take Focus, **PASS** (acting first gains nothing); they play the answer, which closes the state as it is played; **you COUNTER it**, since 358.4`s other half now admits only [Reaction] and all eleven of the pool`s counters are Reaction, and 425.1.c refunds them nothing; all players then pass in sequence, 347.2.a ends the Showdown, and 348.2.a with 348.2.a.1 give you Control and the Conquer. The cheap counter is `OGN-045 Defy` (Calm, E1 + 1 Power, *"counter a spell that costs no more than 4 Energy and no more than one rainbow"*), which covers all three answers; `OGN-064 Wind Wall` is the unconditional one. **So the protection narrows to pairs containing CALM** - it is not the one-Energy insurance any deck can buy.
• OPPONENT BOARD AND KILL PRICE - ADDED 2026-10-27 (#503). THE BOARD IT WINS ON: nothing of theirs ready in their base on their turn that can Standard Move to the Plaza (144.4.a, exhausting it, 144.2) with 2 or more Might in total; units at their own battlefield cannot reach it (144.4.a, 144.4.b) unless they have Ganking (144.4.c.1), and units they play that turn enter exhausted (143.4) unless [Accelerate]. The Hold counts the eight when it happens (383.2.a.1). The price is in the 2026-10-27 correction in notable[3]: with eight units the attacker kills N - 6 = 2, two of the five 1-Might Recruits (187.1), 2 damage, not the 13 of a full clear.

Steps

1. Control The Grand Plaza (190.1 → 190.3.a.1 → 344.2 → 348.2.a → 348.2.a.1, the ordinary Showdown Conquer).
2. One Main Phase: play Faithful Manufactor to the Plaza (3 Energy). Its play trigger puts a Recruit there — two units.
3. Play Vanguard Captain #1 to the Plaza (3 Energy + 1 Order Power). [Legion] is Active because the Manufactor was finalized this turn (812.1.c), so two Recruits land here — five units.
4. Play Vanguard Captain #2 the same way (3 Energy + 1 Order Power): eight units at the Plaza, for 9 Energy and 2 Order Power total.
5. Survive the opponent's turn with seven of the eight still there.
6. Your Beginning Phase: 315.2.b.2 Holds the Plaza, the Trigger Condition finds 7+ units here and rule 195 wins the game.

How it ends

win the game on the next Hold, for 9 Energy + 2 Order Power in a single Main Phase

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Walk of the unwalked partners of the 66 proven synergy rules, rule grand-plaza-unit-tokens 2026-09-06 record
• Run play 2026-10-27, issue #491 2026-10-27 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue