Combo · ENGINE

359.3.e.4 - a body that leaves the battlefield stops being a legal target, so the pool's two cheapest Reaction bounces are counterspells, and 359.3.e.12 makes the same bounce blank a Might-checking payload

6 cards · chaos · verified

Pieces

• Windsinger ×3 SFD-138 · engine · chaos

  Hidden (Hide now for 1 Power of any domain to react with later for 0 Energy.) When you play me, you may return another unit at a battlefield with 3 Might or less to its owner's hand.

• Gust ×3 OGN-169 · engine · chaos

  [Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Return a unit at a battlefield with 3 Might or less to its owner's hand.

Payoff

Deck

• Legend's Domain Identity includes Chaos (103.1.b.3); mono-Chaos runs both.
• For the free mode, a battlefield you control on an earlier turn: 811.1.b hides 'at a battlefield you control that doesn't already have a facedown card hidden there', and the play is available only from the next turn.

Prerequisites

• 359.3.e.4 IS THE PARAGRAPH AND IT WAS CITED BY NOTHING: 'If a target changes Zones to or from a Non-Board Zone and then returns to its original zone, it is no longer a legal target, because it's not treated as the same object.' Its first worked example is the general case and it is what makes a bounce a counterspell: 'An enemy unit at a battlefield is no longer a legal target if it is no longer an enemy, no longer a unit, or no longer at a battlefield.' 359.3.e.5 then says what happens: 'If any of the spell's targets are no longer legal, those game objects, players, or zones are unaffected by the spell as it resolves.'
• SO THIS ANSWERS THE LOCATION-CLAUSE HALF OF THE REMOVAL POOL FOR ONE ENERGY OR FOR NOTHING. Every removal spell that reads 'a unit AT A BATTLEFIELD' - OGS-012 Blast of Power, OGN-213 Hidden Blade, UNL-007 Smite, OGN-009 Hextech Ray among them - is answered by moving the body off the battlefield in response, and 340.1 resolves the newest Finalized item first, so the bounce lands before the removal does. It does NOT answer the other half: the pool prints ten Deal instructions and a longer list of kills that name 'a unit' with no location clause at all, and against those the bounce changes nothing but the zone.
• 359.3.e.12 IS THE SECOND HALF, ALSO UNCITED, AND RIOT'S OWN WORKED EXAMPLE IS A CARD THIS CATALOGUE ALREADY BUILDS ON: 'If the spell checks information about a target that is no longer legal or a card or permanent whose location, zone, or status has changed such that that information is no longer available, that check returns “null” and all calculations based on it are ignored.' The example is OGN-242 Baited Hook, by name: an opponent reacts by returning the friendly unit to its owner's hand, so it cannot be killed, its Might is null, and 'Baited Hook's controller looks at the top 5 cards of their Main Deck, but can't choose any unit from among them.' The whole payload evaporates and the cost is already paid. The Windsinger and Gust are exactly the cards that do that - the bodies a Baited Hook ladder starts on are small, which is precisely the range a 3 Might ceiling covers.
• 359.3.e.12.a IS THE COMPLEMENT AND IS WHAT KEEPS THE RULE HONEST: 'If the spell checks information about a target that is legal or a card or permanent whose location, zone, or status has not changed such that information is no longer available, that information is accessible.' And 359.3.e.13 is the other direction: a spell or ability that moves something to a different zone AS ITS OWN cost or effect can look back at what it was. So a Baited Hook that resolves undisturbed reads the Might of the body it killed; only an outside zone change nulls it.
• THE COUNTERPLAY IS PRINTED IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH AND IT IS ONE MIGHT. 359.3.e.4's second example is 'A unit with 3 or less Might is no longer a legal target if it is no longer a unit or if its Might is greater than 3.' Both of these cards carry that ceiling, so any +1 Might at Reaction speed makes THEM mistarget - and 477.3.e.2.a applies increases before decreases, so the pump always wins the race. A bounce with a Might ceiling is a counterspell that can itself be countered for one Power.
• AND THE THIRD EXAMPLE IS A WARNING FOR ANY FUTURE 'EXHAUSTED UNIT' LINE: 'Something that's exhausted is no longer a legal target if it is no longer exhausted. (It can't stop being “something.”)' The pool prints exactly two cards that name an exhausted friendly unit as a target, OGN-124 Arena Bar and UNL-201 Voidreaver, and a ready effect in response makes both of them mistarget.
• THE WINDSINGER CAN NEVER SAVE HIMSELF and the Gust can. His text says 'another unit', and 355.5.b puts the choice at the moment his trigger fires, with him already on the board - so he is a legal object for the sentence and the word 'another' is what excludes him, not the timing. Against a board where the threatened body is your only one, Gust is the card and the Windsinger is dead weight.
• THE FREE MODE COSTS A TURN AND A BATTLEFIELD. 811.1.b allows one facedown per battlefield and 485.4 puts two on a Duel table, so at most two hidden cards are live at once whatever the deck holds; and the hide and the play are a turn apart. 811.1.b also keeps the card hidden only 'for as long as you control that battlefield', so a garrison that walks off to attack elsewhere throws the Windsinger away.
• IT IS A BOUNCE, NOT A RECALL, AND THAT MATTERS TWICE. 455 defines a Recall as a relocation to the BASE; these send the card to its owner's HAND, so the saved body must be paid for again, and 355.10.a keeps it out of reach in a zone whose information is not Public. In exchange nothing dies, so 808.1.d.1 never fires and no [Deathknell] is erased, no 'would die' replacement is spent, and the body's own ETB is rebought.
• DISTINCT FROM black-market-broker-windsinger-free-bounce, which shares only the Windsinger and spends the free bounce on a value engine; and from academy-ezreal-gust-double-bounce and prodigal-explorer-two-choices-draw, which share only Gust. None of the three says what a bounce DOES to a spell already on the chain, and none cites 359.3.e.4, 359.3.e.5 or 359.3.e.12.
• IT SCORES NOTHING. Both cards are answers, so the class is ENGINE; 466.5 gives Control only to a player who did not already have it, and nothing here takes a battlefield.
• 355.5.b DEFERS the choice; **359.2 is what puts the card on the board before its own text runs** - *"A Permanent leaves the Chain and becomes a Game Object"*, 359.2.a *"Any passive abilities become active"*, 359.2.b *"Execute all rules text on the card, from top to bottom."* That is the mechanism behind the whole family: a body is ON THE BOARD when its own ETB chooses, which is why it can be a legal choice for its own trigger and why a *"another"* in the wording is the only thing that excludes it. Cite 359.2.b for the board state and 355.5.b for the deferral; neither alone is the argument. All three paragraphs were cited by nothing before.

Steps

1. On an earlier turn, hide SFD-138 Windsinger face down at a battlefield you control for one rainbow Power (811.1.b). Keep OGN-169 Gust in hand.
2. The opponent plays a removal spell naming a unit at a battlefield, or activates an ability that will read that unit's Might.
3. Respond in the Closed State their spell opens (312.2.c hands out priority there, 813.1.c.1 admits a [Reaction] card). Play the Windsinger from face down for 0 Energy, or Gust for 1.
4. Return the threatened body to its owner's hand. 340.1 resolves your item first because it was Finalized last.
5. Their spell resolves and finds an illegal target: 359.3.e.4 says the body is no longer at a battlefield, 359.3.e.5 leaves it unaffected, and 359.3.e.12 nulls any check their card makes on it.
6. Replay the bounced body on your own turn and take its play trigger again - it is a card in hand, not a recalled permanent (455).

Per iteration

one targeted removal spell or one Might-checking payload blanked, for 0 Energy (Windsinger from face down) or 1 Energy (Gust), with the bounced body's play trigger rebought

How it ends

answer only - it scores nothing, both cards carry a 3 Might ceiling that any +1 Might in response defeats, 103.2.b caps each at three copies, and 811.1.b allows one facedown per battlefield against 485.4's two

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 2026-09-12, uncited Core Rules sub-rules 300-499, batch 6 2026-09-12 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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