Combo · BURST · 8 points

Nasus, Ascended under three Svellsongur — nine points on one Conquer

4 cards · calm · verified

Pieces

• Nasus, Ascended ×1 VEN-046 · payoff · calm

  [Deflect 2] (Opponents must pay 2 Power of any domain to choose me with a spell or ability.) [Empower] 8 Energy (8 Energy: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.) [Empowered][>] When I conquer, you score 1 point.

• Svellsongur ×3 SFD-059 · engine · calm

  [Equip] 1 Energy + 1 Calm Power (1 Energy + 1 Calm Power: Attach this to a unit you control.) As this is attached to a unit, copy that unit's text to this Equipment's effect text for as long as this is attached to it.

Payoff

Deck

• Any Calm legend. Nasus, Ascended and Svellsongur are both mono-Calm, so 103.1.b.3 admits the line under either half of any pair containing Calm, and neither card is a Signature card — this is not a one-legend line.
• Neither VEN-046 nor SFD-059 appears in data/legality.json, whose only non-banned row is the Wuju Bladesman starter legend, restricted in 2v2; both are legal in constructed and in 2v2. In 2v2 the Victory Score is 11 (489.3) rather than 194.3's 8, so nine points is two short there and the line is authored for constructed.

Run play

• each Svellsongur is worth exactly what the board is missing

Prerequisites

• WHY THIS EXISTS BESIDE svellsongur-copy-hold, AND THE TRADE IS THE ENTRY'S REAL CONTENT. Same gear, same layer arithmetic, different payoff face: that entry carries OGN-066 Ahri, Alluring ('When I hold, you score 1 point') and reaches seventeen points for 21 Energy and 8 Power; this one carries Nasus and reaches nine for 28 Energy and 7 Calm Power. YOU PAY SEVEN MORE ENERGY AND TAKE EIGHT FEWER POINTS, AND WHAT YOU BUY IS A PAYOFF THAT FIRES ON A BATTLEFIELD YOU DO NOT ALREADY CONTROL. 315.2.b.2 Holds only 'all Battlefields they Control', so the Hold twin is switched off by exactly the stalled board that makes a finisher necessary, while 469.1 defines a Conquer as gaining Control of a battlefield 'they did not yet Score this turn' — it takes ground instead of counting it. Compare ahri-trinity-svellsongur-hold, the same identity's other Hold-gated BURST.
• THE MULTIPLICATION IS SETTLED LAYER ARITHMETIC, NOT A NEW READING, AND IT COMPOUNDS. 434.1.c: 'The Top-Most card has all Effect Text of all cards Attached to it appended to its Rules Text.' 477.2.c puts that appending in Layer 2: 'Abilities of Effect Text of Attached cards are appended in this layer.' 476.1 stops recursion — 'Layers are applied in sequence. Each effect in them is applied as soon as able, and only a single time across all sequences.' 479.1 finds no Dependency because each copy alters the other, so 480.3 orders them by Timestamp, i.e. attach order. Each gear therefore copies the text as it stands after the previous one applied: 1 -> 2 -> 4 -> 8. Three gears are 2^3 = 8 instances, never 1 + 3. This is the formula svellsongur-copy-hold publishes, 1 + N x (1 + K), at N = 8 and K = 0 AS PUBLISHED - and **the reason this entry gave for K = 0 named the WRONG CARD, corrected 2026-09-12 by the #201 cross-audit.** It said `UNL-087 Blue Sentinel` is the only multiplier that could raise K and is Mind. Every clause of that is true of the HOLD twin and false here: this payoff is `VEN-046 Nasus, Ascended`, *"When I conquer, you score 1 point"*, and the Sentinel multiplies HOLD effects for holding here and cannot see a conquer trigger at all. **The conquer multiplier is `UNL-029 Red Brambleback`** - *"Your conquer effects for conquering here trigger an additional time"* - **and it is FURY, not Mind.** Both of this entry`s cards are mono-Calm, so adding it makes the union Calm + Fury, which is a LEGAL PAIR (`VEN-139` / `VEN-189 Rogue Assassin`), and UNL-029 has no row in `data/legality.json`. **So K is not 0 by rule, only by choice of board**: on this entry`s own formula, K = 1 is SEVENTEEN and K = 2 is TWENTY-FIVE, at E4 + 1 Fury Power per Brambleback standing at the conquered battlefield. The entry is authored at K = 0 and the nine it claims is correct for the board it declares; what was wrong was the reason. Found by asking what the PAYOFF was rather than by checking a citation or a quote - no validator can see this, and the audit swept the class: exactly two entries make an only-multiplier claim and the other states all three correctly, so the defect did not propagate.
• IT NEVER HAS TO PASS THE FINAL POINT CLAUSE, AND THAT IS ONE CLAUSE LESS FRAGILE THAN A CONQUER-ONLY FINISHER. 383.4.c.2.a puts the conquer abilities on the Chain 'after the Unit(s) these effects correspond to are present at a Battlefield when a player gains control of it and gains 1 Victory Point from Conquering' — so the Conquer's own point is the FIRST of the nine and the point that crosses the Victory Score (194.3, '8 points by default') is an ability Gain, not a Conquer. 471.1.b.1 gives the Final Point on a Conquer only to a player who has Scored every Battlefield this turn; 471.1.a.1 answers it — 'Notably, points Gained from sources that are not Conquer are not beholden to these restrictions.' The line would pass the clause anyway on a two-battlefield board; it never has to.
• 470 IS SPENT ON ONE POINT AND CANNOT SEE THE OTHER EIGHT. 470: 'A player may only Score, from either method, once per Battlefield per turn.' 469 defines Scoring as Conquer or Hold only, so the cap lands on the Conquer alone; Nasus's printed 'you score 1 point' is a point Gain by ability under 194.1.c (R2 = A), which is why eight instances pay eight times at one battlefield.
• [Deflect 2] IS COPIED TOO AND IT SUMS TO 16, SO THE UNIT IS EFFECTIVELY UNREMOVABLE — AND THAT PROTECTION DOES NOT REACH THE GEAR. Svellsongur copies the unit's text, keywords included, and 809.2 sums them: 'If a Game Object has Deflect, or has been granted Deflect, and is granted Deflect by an additional source, the Deflect Value of all granted Deflect keywords is summed.' Printed 2 plus seven granted 2s is Deflect 16, and 809.1.c prices it as 'an amount of Power equal to [Deflect Value] more to play as an additional cost for each time they choose'. The same composition that pays the points pays the defence — the identical shape this catalogue already prices as Shield 8 on three Svellsongur over VEN-138 Shen. But Deflect is a characteristic of the object that carries it, and the three Svellsongur are separate Game Objects: 718.5.b, 'Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached.' Nothing taxes a spell aimed at the gear.
• SO THE ANSWER IS A GEAR KILL, AND UNLIKE THE HOLD TWIN THIS LINE PAYS IN A WINDOW THE OPPONENT CAN REACH. A Hold resolves at 315.2.b.2 inside your own Beginning Phase, where 312.2.a gives the opponent priority only 'When the turn is in a Neutral Open State during their Main Phase' and the Closed State the Hold trigger opens admits only a [Reaction] — and no gear kill in the pool carries one. A Conquer is a Main Phase event, and 806.1.c.1 makes [Action] short for 'This can be played during showdowns on any player's turn': OGN-022 Thermo Beam (Fury, E5 + 2 Fury Power, 'Kill all gear') and OGN-224 Salvage both reach the showdown this line's move opens, and Thermo Beam answers all three gears with one card. THAT IS A REAL COST OF THE CONQUER FACE AND IT IS THE PRICE OF THE CREDENTIAL, not an oversight: the plain-spell answers (SFD-005 Detonate, VEN-003 Brittle Steel) are confined by 155 to their controller's own turn, so they must be cast a turn early and are telegraphed, but the two [Action] cards are not. Attaching in the same Main Phase as the swing (see the steps) is what keeps the exposure to a single turn.
• THE GARRISON IS THE OTHER COST, AND IT IS WHY THE LINE WANTS A BLOODLESS CONQUER. 465.2.c: 'Starting with the Attacker, each player assigns an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units.' Nasus is Might 8, so a garrison of summed Might 8 or more kills him, and 719.5 then detaches all three gears ('When a Top-Most Card changes zones from a board zone to a non-board zone, all Attached cards Detach from it'), collapsing the whole board. Two routes avoid the damage step entirely: against an UNCONTROLLED battlefield, 344.2 opens a Showdown with no combat at all and 348.2.a / 348.2.a.1 establish Control and 'This results in a Conquer'; against a garrisoned one, clear it first and 466.5 / 466.5.d do the same. yasuo-remorseful-svellsongur-nasus-conquer is the repeatable removal package and is mono-Calm, so it composes with this line card-for-card rather than competing with it.
• VEN-089 WILD CLAW IS THE BODY HALF, CUTS SIX ENERGY, AND IS A DIG RATHER THAN A TUTOR — WHICH IS WHY IT IS HERE AND NOT IN uses. Body, E7 + 1 Power: 'Look at the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. You may banish a unit or gear from among them and play it, reducing its Energy cost by 5. Recycle the rest. Then you may do this: Empower it.' It plays Nasus at 3 Energy (356.6, 'Energy and Power costs can't be reduced below 0'; the discount is Energy-only, so his 1 Calm Power is still paid) AND Empowers him without ever paying his printed [Empower] 8 Energy, because 441.1 makes Empowering 'the act of rendering one or more Game Objects Empowered' — an ability that performs the act directly never determines the target's Empower cost. Net 22 Energy instead of 28, and it makes the deck genuinely Body/Calm. It stays in notable because it looks at five cards rather than fetching a named one, so it is a probability and not a certainty, and uses is what matchDeck and planDeck price. See wild-claw-nasus-ascended-empowered.
• THE EMPOWER IS PAID ONCE FOR THE GAME. 441.2: 'Empowered is a state for Game Objects on the board that other game effects and abilities can reference', and 441.1.b ('An Empowered Game Object can not be Empowered') means the copied [Empower] 8 Energy abilities the three Svellsongur also bring are dead letter rather than a repeated cost. Each copy reads '[Empowered][>] When I conquer' and 053.1 makes 'I' the unit — the carrier, Nasus — so one Empowered state switches all eight instances on at once.
• 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.

Steps

1. Play Nasus, Ascended for 8 Energy + 1 Calm Power. He enters exhausted (143.4) at your base or a battlefield you control (355.2.a).
2. Empower him with his own [Empower] 8 Energy. 441.2 makes Empowered a permanent state of a Game Object on the board, so this is paid once and his '[Empowered][>] When I conquer, you score 1 point' is active from here on.
3. Play three Svellsongur, 3 Energy + 1 Calm Power each. Gear does not enter exhausted — 143.4 is written for units.
4. ON THE TURN YOU SWING, and not before: attach all three to Nasus, 1 Energy + 1 Calm Power each. 818.1 makes [Equip] an Activated Ability and 381 confines it to 'the Controlling Player's Turn and during an Open State', so all three attaches happen in your Main Phase before the move. Attaching late is deliberate — an unattached Svellsongur copies nothing, so the eight-instance stack exists for one turn instead of sitting through an opponent turn as three gear-kill targets.
5. By 434.1.c, 477.2.c, 476.1, 479.1 and 480.3 the three copies compound in attach order: Nasus's Rules Text now carries 8 instances of the conquer trigger, 8 instances of [Deflect 2] summed by 809.2 to Deflect 16, and dead copies of his [Empower] (441.1.b).
6. Standard-move Nasus to a battlefield you do not control. 450: 'The Destination becomes Contested if it is an Uncontested Battlefield not controlled by the controller of the Unit or Units that moved.'
7. Take the battlefield without a damage step. If it is uncontrolled, 344.2 opens a Showdown at the next Cleanup and 348.2.a establishes Control, which 348.2.a.1 makes a Conquer. If it is garrisoned, clear the garrison first and 466.5 establishes Control with 466.5.d making it a Conquer.
8. Score the Conquer: 469.1 with 471.1 gains 1 point, and 383.4.c.2.a then puts all eight conquer abilities on the Chain. Eight ability Gains follow (194.1.c), for NINE points in one scoring event against a Victory Score of 8 (194.3).

How it ends

burst of nine points in one Conquer — one Score plus eight ability Gains — for 28 Energy and 7 Calm Power, or 22 Energy through Wild Claw

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-12, issue #200 synthesis lane 2026-09-12 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

Match a deck list against the whole catalogue