Combo · BURST · 8 points

The Calm/Fury loop finally buys something — nine points in one Conquer

5 cards · calm + fury · verified

Pieces

• Nasus, Ascended ×2 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.

• Red Brambleback ×3 UNL-029 · engine · fury

  [Accelerate] (You may pay 1 Energy + 1 Fury Power as an additional cost to have me enter ready.) Your conquer effects for conquering here trigger an additional time. When I conquer, [Buff] a friendly unit. (Give it a +1 Might buff if it doesn't have one.)

Payoff

Deck

• A Calm/Fury legend — Nasus is Calm and Red Brambleback is Fury (103.1.b.1). Calm/Fury is a printed legend pair, and it is the identity of both loops below.

Prerequisites

• THIS IS THE FIRST POINT ROUTE EITHER CALM/FURY INFINITE ENGINE HAS EVER HAD, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE REASON IT IS AUTHORED. Measured over the current catalogue by running generateVariants and counting, for each of the 14 INFINITE engines, the domain-legal variants headed by a BURST, CHAIN or ALT_WIN: threshold-reveler-infinite-energy and reveler-svellsongur-jhin-infinite-power both scored ZERO. Both are Calm/Fury, and Calm/Fury is the one identity with no in-turn repeatable point ability — SFD-088 Renata Glasc, Mastermind is Mind, OGN-122 Time Warp is Mind, VEN-067 Bottled Constellation is Mind. Everything else in the pool hangs on a Hold or a Conquer, and 315.2.b.2 puts the Hold in the Beginning Phase, which is BEFORE the Main Phase where the loop's Energy exists (167 empties both pools at the end of the turn). So the Conquer is the only window a Calm/Fury loop can spend into, and this is the card that pays for it.
• SAME CARDS AS nasus-ascended-brambleback-conquer, DIFFERENT needs, AND THE CATALOGUE ALREADY DOES THIS. dragonstorm-brambleback-trinity-conquer and brambleback-trinity-skyfall-conquer carry the identical uses (UNL-029 x2, SFD-115 x3, SFD-030 x1) and are two entries because one declares needs ['infinite-energy','infinite-power'] and the other declares none. The distinction is real rather than bookkeeping: the standalone entry is a 44-Energy investment spread over several turns that the opponent can see coming, and this one is the same nine points paid for in a single Main Phase out of a loop.
• THE LEDGER FOR THE COMBO TURN, ITEM BY ITEM. Two Nasus are already on the board from an earlier turn — 143.4 makes units enter exhausted and 144.2 makes the Standard Move cost that exhaust, and Nasus has no [Accelerate], so he cannot be played and moved the same turn. Empower both: 8 Energy each, 16 Energy, and the [Empower] cost carries no exhaust, so an exhausted Nasus can still pay it; 441.2 makes the state permanent. Play three Red Bramblebacks with [Accelerate]: 3 x (4 + 1) = 15 Energy and 3 x (1 + 1) = 6 Fury Power. Move all five in together — 144.3 makes multiple Standard Moves ONE game action with a shared destination (144.3.a) and simultaneous exhaust costs (144.3.c). TOTAL ON THE COMBO TURN: 31 Energy and 6 Fury Power, plus the 2 Calm Power the Nasus cost on their earlier turn.
• WHY needs IS infinite-energy ALONE AND NOT infinite-power TOO. The 6 Fury Power is inside the 12-rune ceiling (161.2.a) — eight recycles at 164.2.b cover it with room, and 164.2.b carries no exhaust so a rune already tapped for Energy still pays. That matters because it connects the entry to BOTH Calm/Fury loops: reveler-svellsongur-jhin-infinite-power produces Energy and Power, while threshold-reveler-infinite-energy produces Energy only. Declaring infinite-power would have left the second one with zero routes again.
• THE FORMULA, CHECKED AGAINST THIS ENTRY'S OWN QUANTITIES. Points on the Conquer are 1 + N x (1 + K), where N is Empowered Nasus present and K is Red Bramblebacks present. N = 2, K = 3 gives 1 + 2 x 4 = NINE, and 194.3's Victory Score is 8, so 194.2 ends the game there. 383.4.c.2.a is the rule that requires every one of the five bodies to be present: 'The Conquer Abilities of Units are put on the Chain as Pending Items 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.' R1 = A with stacking gives the 1 + K multiplier; R2 = A keeps the eight ability Gains outside 470's one-Score-per-battlefield cap (194.1.c), and 471.1.a.1 lets the eighth land because points Gained from sources that are not Conquer are outside 471.1.b. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#472, the follow-up PR #471 listed for #464): the formula counts every Nasus and every Brambleback as present at the Conquer, and steps 5 and 6 take it in a combat, after which a dead one is not. 383.4.c.2.a: 'The Conquer Abilities of Units are put on the Chain as Pending Items 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.' 365.1: 'Passive Abilities of Permanents are typically only active while on the Board.' The defender picks the deaths: 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. Example: If a player has 5 damage to distribute among four 3 Might units, they may not choose to assign 2 damage to one of the units and 1 damage to each of the remaining 3. They must assign at least 3 damage to one, and the remaining 2 to another.' So the count is 1 + (surviving N) x (1 + surviving K). The board attacks with two Nasus at 8 and three Bramblebacks at 4, 28 in all. Against a garrison of summed Might G with no damage marked and nothing else changing Might in the combat, the defender choosing the deaths that cost most, N=2 and K=3 score: G 1 to 3, 9; 4 to 7, 7 (a Brambleback dies); 8 to 11, 5 (a Nasus, or two Bramblebacks); 12 to 15, 3 (three Bramblebacks); 16 to 27, 1 (both Nasus die and the Bramblebacks conquer alone); 28 or more, 0 (both sides die, or the garrison survives, and 466.5: 'If no Showdown or Combat is staged at this location, the player with Units remaining here Establishes Control if they didn’t already control this Battlefield.'). Re-derived on 2026-10-26 from the rules above. Nothing in this line reads 'after an attack' or 'excess', so the open-battlefield route its twin nasus-ascended-brambleback-conquer names (344.2, 348.2.a, 348.2.a.1) also pays nine with nobody dying (316.8.b.1: 'Showdowns that occur as a result of a player moving to an empty Battlefield are a stand-alone Phase and do not create a Combat.'); these steps do not take it. THE DECLARED QUANTITIES STILL REACH 8, so the class stays BURST: nine in one Conquer, against a garrison of 1 to 3 summed Might or on an open battlefield.
• IT MUST WIN THE COMBAT, AND IT DOES SO ON MIGHT RATHER THAN ON A TRICK. Two 8-Might Nasus and three 4-Might Bramblebacks sum to 28 attacking Might (465.2.a), against a Duel garrison that is rarely half that. This is deliberately NOT one of the bloodless-conquer lines: those clear the garrison with removal so no damage is assigned, which is fine here too, but the excess-damage family is irrelevant either way because nothing in this entry reads 'excess'. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#472, the follow-up PR #471 listed for #464): winning the combat is not scoring nine. 28 Might beats any garrison under 28, but the garrison's own damage kills bodies before the Conquer, and only a garrison of 1 to 3 summed Might leaves all five alive (the formula notable). A garrison 'rarely half that' (14) already costs six of the nine points.
• IN 2V2 IT IS STILL SHORT. 489.3 sets the Victory Score at 11 against 194.3's 8, so nine points does not end a Magma Chamber game. The entry is authored for Constructed.
• THE THREE PAYOFF BATTLEFIELDS ARE IRRELEVANT HERE, WHICH IS AN ADVANTAGE WORTH NAMING. 485.4.a gives each player three battlefields and uses only one, chosen at random by 485.5, so OGN-293 The Grand Plaza, SFD-214 Power Nexus and OGN-286 Reckoner's Arena can never be relied on together — issue #63 measured that constraint across the whole payoff lens. This line needs no particular battlefield at all: any battlefield you do not control, with a garrison you can beat, is the target.

Steps

1. Earlier turns: land two Nasus, Ascended (8 Energy + 1 Calm Power each).
2. Combo turn, Main Phase: start the loop and bank unbounded Energy (167 empties it at end of turn, so everything below happens now).
3. Empower both Nasus for 8 Energy each. The [Empower] cost carries no exhaust, so it works on an exhausted body, and 441.2 makes the state permanent.
4. Play three Red Bramblebacks paying [Accelerate] (1 Energy + 1 Fury Power each on top of their 4 Energy + 1 Fury Power) so they enter ready and can move this turn (143.4.a).
5. Standard-move all five bodies to an enemy-garrisoned battlefield in one action (144.3, 144.3.a, 144.3.c) and win the combat on 28 summed Might (465.2.a). CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#472, the follow-up PR #471 listed for #464): winning on 28 summed Might is the Conquer, not the nine. The garrison's damage lands first, and nine needs a garrison of 1 to 3 summed Might; an open battlefield (316.8.b.1) needs no combat and kills nobody (the formula notable).
6. 466.5 establishes Control and 466.5.d makes it a Conquer. Each Nasus's '[Empowered][>] When I conquer, you score 1 point' fires 1 + 3 = 4 times: 1 + 2 x 4 = nine points, and 194.2 ends the game. CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#472, the follow-up PR #471 listed for #464): four times per Nasus only if all three Bramblebacks are present, and nine only if all five are: a garrison of 1 to 3 summed Might, or an open battlefield. 7 from 4 to 7, 5 from 8 to 11, 3 from 12 to 15, 1 from 16 to 27, 0 from 28, and below 8 194.2 does not end the game from zero (the formula notable).

How it ends

9 points in a single Conquer, which is the game (194.2, Victory Score 8 by 194.3) — the whole 31 Energy paid out of the loop in one Main Phase CORRECTED 2026-10-26 (#472, the follow-up PR #471 listed for #464): against a garrison of 1 to 3 summed Might or on an open battlefield; 7 or less against a bigger garrison (the formula notable).

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06 (docs/phase0/walks/2026-09-06-engine-payoff-walk.md, section 24) 2026-09-06 record
• Issue #63 — the payoff lens: the 12 INFINITE engines priced, and the finding that the three payoff battlefields compete for one slot 2026-09-05

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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