the Axe sleeps only while someone carries it, and the rescue has to come before the blow

Issue #264 (a slice of #200), 2026-10-05. Constructed, Duel (485). Rules version 2026-07-16. Card text verbatim from data/corpus_flat.txt; rules pasted from data/Riftbound-Core-Rules-2026-07-16.txt. Read the unopposed clock for the baseline this is measured against.

Subject: spinning-axe-factory-recall-inactive-temporary, the Fury/Chaos ENGINE in which SFD-186 Spinning Axe's [Temporary] sleeps while it is attached, and SFD-135 Factory Recall returns it to hand when its carrier is about to die, so [Quick-Draw] can put it on a new body for its play cost alone. The entry is right about the rules: 718.2 silences the drawback, 719.5 wakes it, 819.1.d makes the re-attach free. Walked as a game, the rescue has a narrow window. Factory Recall is an [Action], so on the opponent's turn it exists only inside a Showdown, which means before the combat damage that would kill the carrier — and a carrier killed by a spell in their Main Phase takes the Axe with it, because nothing you hold can be played before your Beginning Phase kills it.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs --unplayed, re-run on 2026-10-05 at 4925586, reads 771 entries, 262 with forced-ordering language, 102 in the queue and 77 of them with no play — unchanged from the issue. The pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play: this entry is rank 23 (hits on first and before), second in the list. The other entry of this slice is rank 22, played in the toll is paid in runes.

1. Needs

Legend	`SFD-185 Glorious Executioner` (Fury/Chaos), forced: the Axe is a Signature card tagged Draven (103.2.d.2)
First	a body to carry the Axe
Then	`SFD-186 Spinning Axe` (Fury/Chaos gear, E2 + 1 Power, +3 Might)
And	`SFD-135 Factory Recall` (Chaos, E1) in hand, with one rune left ready on the opponent's turn

The card text the play turns on:

Spinning Axe: "[Quick-Draw] (This has [Reaction]. When you play it, attach it to a unit you control.) [Equip] :rb_rune_rainbow: (:rb_rune_rainbow:: Attach this to a unit you control.) [Temporary] (If this is unattached, kill it at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.)"
Factory Recall: "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Return a gear to its owner's hand."

2. The order: the rescue comes before the blow

Attached, the Axe's [Temporary] is off — 718.2: "While in this state, the card’s printed Rules Text is Inactive." When the carrier leaves the board it is not — 719.5: "When a Top-Most Card changes zones from a board zone to a non-board zone, all Attached cards Detach from it, remaining in their current zones." — and the clock is 816.1.b: "At the start of this permanent's controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring, kill this."

On the opponent's turn, Factory Recall has exactly one kind of window. 806.1.c.1: "This can be played during showdowns on any player's turn." A combat is one — 464.2: "When Combat opens, it either opens with a Combat Showdown, or the current Showdown becomes a Combat Showdown." — and the damage comes after it closes, 465.2: "When the Showdown closes, Attackers and Defenders resolve Combat Damage at the Battlefield that was attacked, using their current Might." So the rescue is cast before the damage, and the carrier then fights at its printed Might, not with the +3 it was carrying.

After the damage there is no window at all. A removal spell on the chain is a Closed State, and 309.1.a: "Only cards and abilities with the Reaction keyword can be played or activated in a Closed State." Factory Recall is not a Reaction. Your own next turn opens with the Beginning Phase, where 335 gives nobody priority — "If there are no Outstanding Tasks, no pending Chain Items, no ongoing Showdown, and it is any other phase of the turn, proceed to the next substep, step, phase, or turn." — and the [Temporary] kill is the first thing in it.

The Energy has to be on the board, too. 167: "Every player's Rune Pool empties at the start of each player's Main Phase and the end of each player's turn." — and 415.3.a: "A player Readies all non-spell Game Objects they Control during the Awakening Phase on their turn." So the one Energy for a rescue on their turn is a rune you did not tap on yours.

On your own turn it is cheaper still. A detached Axe has its printed text back, and 818.1.c.2: "Equip is functionally short for “[Cost]: Attach this gear to a unit you control.”" — one rainbow, against Factory Recall's E1 plus a replay at E2 + 1 Power. 381 confines that to your own turn: "All Activated Abilities can only be activated on the Controlling Player's Turn and during an Open State."

3. The turns, going first

Glorious Executioner. The opponent holds the other battlefield, B.

turn    runes   your turn                                                 at A
T1      2       Legion Rearguard (E2) at base                             —
T2      4       Spinning Axe (E2; the Power from a tapped rune, 164.2.b)  Rearguard M5
                attaches to the Rearguard at base. It walks to A,
                Conquer: +1. Two runes left ready, 3 on board.
their T2        They attack A. In the Combat Showdown: Factory Recall     (rescue, M2)
                (E1) the Axe home before damage — or keep it on and
                fight at M5.
T3      5       Hold A if the Rearguard survived: +1. Replay the Axe      a body + Axe
                (E2 + 1 Power) onto any body: [Quick-Draw], no Equip
                cost. Three runes left ready, 4 on board.

Two Energy and a Power is the price of every redeploy; one Energy and one untapped rune is the price of every rescue, and both buy the same +3.

4. Breaks to

The Axe breaks to SFD-011 Angle Shot (Fury, E2, "[Reaction] (Play any time, even before spells and abilities resolve.) Choose a unit and an Equipment with the same controller. Attach that Equipment to that unit or detach that Equipment from that unit. Draw 1."), cast in their own Main Phase. The attached Axe is a legal choice — 718.5.b: "Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached." — it is detached outside any Showdown, Factory Recall has no window, and your Beginning Phase kills it before you can [Equip] it. Two Energy, a card for them, and the Axe gone for good.

Outside Fury, it breaks to whatever kills the carrier in their Main Phase. OGN-213 Hidden Blade (Order, E2 + 1 Power, "Kill a unit at a battlefield. Its controller draws 2.") on the M5 Rearguard takes the body and the Axe, and 309.1.a keeps Factory Recall out of the Closed State it opens. You draw two; you lose a card and a Signature slot.

The cheapest is OGN-179 Acceptable Losses (Chaos, E1, "Each player kills one of their gear."), if the Axe is your only gear: 355.10.e makes you the one who chooses, and you have only one choice.

5. Verdict

The engine is real and its window is half what it reads. The Axe survives its carrier when the carrier dies in a combat you saw coming, at one untapped rune and the +3 in that fight, or on your own turn at one rainbow through [Equip]. It does not survive a carrier killed by a spell in the opponent's Main Phase, and it does not survive a detach there. Nothing here scores: the points are the contested Hold curve, one a turn from A.

6. Not verified

I did not walk a second Axe in hand played at [Reaction] speed after the first is lost, or 2v2. That a detached Axe's [Equip] is usable is read from 718.2 being scoped to "this state", the attached one; I found no worked example of [Equip] on a detached Equipment.

Leads

The entry's step 4 says "If the carrier dies first, 719.5 detaches the Axe on the board and its [Temporary] goes live: Factory Recall it before your next Beginning Phase." That is possible only if the carrier died on your turn or inside a Showdown on theirs. A carrier killed by a spell in their Main Phase leaves no window: 309.1.a bars an [Action] from the Closed State, and 335 gives no priority before your Beginning Phase.
The entry's step 3 window is the Combat Showdown, before damage (465.2), so the rescue costs the +3 in the very combat it is rescuing from.
On your own turn the cheaper rescue is the Axe's own [Equip], one rainbow (818.1.c.2), against Factory Recall plus a replay at E3 + 1 Power.
The entry names no answer. SFD-011 Angle Shot detaches at [Reaction] speed in their Main Phase and leaves the Axe to die at your Beginning Phase; OGN-179 Acceptable Losses takes it for one Energy.