Combo · ENGINE

Hextech Gauntlets on Tryndamere — the excess-damage package finally scores, and the gear is free on the biggest body

3 cards · fury + order · verified

Pieces

• Tryndamere, Barbarian ×1 OGN-034 · payoff · fury

  When I conquer after an attack, if you assigned 5 or more excess damage to enemy units, you score 1 point.

• Hextech Gauntlets ×1 UNL-188 · enabler · fury/order

  [Equip] 3 Energy + 1 Power of any domain. This ability's Energy cost is reduced by the Might of the unit you choose. (Pay the cost: Attach this to a unit you control.)

  When I conquer, if you assigned 3 or more excess damage, draw 1.

• Piltover Enforcer ×1 UNL-187 · legend · fury/order

  When you conquer, if you assigned 3 or more excess damage, you may exhaust me to ready a unit.

Payoff

Deck

• The legend IS Piltover Enforcer (Fury/Order). Tryndamere is Fury and the Gauntlets are Fury/Order, so the identity is exactly the legend's own two domains (103.1.b.1).

Prerequisites

• THE GEAR IS FREE ON THE BODY THAT MOST WANTS IT, WHICH IS THE WHOLE INTERACTION. The Gauntlets' Equip reads '[3][A]. This ability's Energy cost is reduced by the Might of the unit you choose', and 356.6 says 'Energy and Power costs can't be reduced below 0'. On Tryndamere's printed 8 Might the Energy component is 3 - 8 -> 0, so attaching costs ONE rainbow. And what the Gauntlets give back is +3 Might, which under R28 = A is +3 EXCESS DAMAGE — the exact currency Tryndamere's threshold is priced in. The bigger the body, the cheaper the gear, and the biggest body is the one with the 5-excess threshold to clear.
• WHAT EXCESS DAMAGE IS, AND WHY 11 MIGHT IS THE NUMBER. R28 = A: excess damage is attacking Might that never got assigned, because 465.2.c has each player assign 'an amount of damage equal to their summed Might among the other's Units' and 465.2.c.4 forbids assigning a unit more than the minimum required to kill it. Tryndamere alone (M8) clears his own 5-excess bar only against a garrison summing 3 or less. With the Gauntlets he is M11 and clears it against a garrison summing 6 — which is the difference between answering one 3 Might body and answering two, or one 6 Might body. The Gauntlets' own 3-excess bar and the legend's are cleared far earlier.
• ONE ATTACK PAYS THREE TIMES. A single conquer with 5+ excess gives: 1 point (Tryndamere), 1 card (the Gauntlets' [Effect], which 136.2.b keeps active while attached and 136.2.d makes read 'I' as the wearing unit), and 1 ready (the legend). gauntlets-enforcer-conquer is the same two Fury/Order cards with no payoff at all — its whole terminatesIn is the words 'engine only' — and this entry is what #155 asked for: the card that converts the stream.
• THE LEGEND'S EXHAUST IS PAID AT FINALIZATION, NOT ON RESOLUTION, so it must be ready when the conquer trigger goes on the Chain. 383.3.b: a cost 'immediately following the "you may" ... that appears as the first part of the effect ... is treated as the base cost of the Triggered Ability'; 383.3.b.1: 'The cost must be paid in order to finalize the Triggered Ability to the Chain.' 315.1.b readies the legend every Awakening and nothing else in this line spends it, so it is — but spend the legend's exhaust earlier in the turn on anything else and the ready is simply lost.
• IT NEEDS A REAL ATTACK, WHICH IS THE TRAP THIS FAMILY IS MOST EXPOSED TO. Tryndamere says 'When I conquer after an attack', and there is no attack against an empty battlefield: 807.1.d, 383.4.e and 461 require the Attacker designation, which exists only inside a Combat with a garrison. A Non-Combat Showdown conquer (316.8.b.1, 348.2.a.1) scores the ordinary Conquer point but fires none of these three triggers, because no damage is assigned and therefore no damage is excess.
• ONE POINT A TURN, WHICH IS WHY IT IS ENGINE. 469.1 defines Conquer as gaining Control of a battlefield 'they did not yet Score this turn', so one body conquers one battlefield once; 485.4 puts two on a Duel table and Tryndamere has no [Ganking] (144.4 confines the Standard Move to base <-> battlefield), so reaching the second in the same turn costs two more exhausts the legend's single ready cannot cover. Eight points is eight conquers.
• THE READY IS BEST SPENT ON A SECOND ATTACKER, NOT ON TRYNDAMERE. Readying Tryndamere buys only the walk home (144.2), since the round trip to the other battlefield needs two exhausts and he has one ready. UNL-018 Yeti Brawler (Fury, E6 M6, 'When I conquer, if you assigned 3 or more excess damage, play two Gold gear tokens exhausted') is the natural second body in this identity and turns the same attack into 2 Gold as well; deliberately not in uses, because it is a fourth card and changes no mechanism.
• RED BRAMBLEBACK IS THE OTHER TRYNDAMERE ROUTE AND THEY ARE NOT THE SAME LINE. tryndamere-brambleback-conquer (BURST) and nasus-ascended-brambleback-conquer multiply the conquer TRIGGER with UNL-029 Red Brambleback's 'Your conquer effects for conquering here trigger an additional time'. This entry does not multiply anything — it makes the threshold reachable in the first place, and it is the only Tryndamere line whose other two cards are the Fury/Order excess package rather than a Fury multiplier.
• 818.1.c.4 IS THE PARAGRAPH THAT MAKES A REDUCTION APPLY TO AN EQUIP COST AT ALL, AND IT WAS UNCITED (upgrade 2026-09-12, #191 batch 25). This entry cites 356.6 for the FLOOR - *"Energy and Power costs can`t be reduced below 0"* - and never the rule that lets cost-altering text inside an [Equip] clause change that cost in the first place. It is the Equip twin of 827.1.c.3, which this project cites constantly for Empower, and `UNL-188 Hextech Gauntlets` is its ONLY reader: of the pool`s 40 Equipment clauses, 36 are the bare form and the other four carry three non-resource costs plus the Gauntlets` cost-altering text.
• 204.3.a IS THE FIRST AND CLEANER SOURCE FOR THIS, AND IT CARRIES THE WORKED EXAMPLE: "When Costs within Instructions appear as the first part of the effect in triggered abilities, the cost is taken to be the base cost of the triggered ability. It must be paid to finalize the triggered ability", with Riot's example being Overzealous Fan - "When I defend, you may kill me to move an attacking unit to its base" - and the note that "in order to finalize the ability to the chain, its controller must kill Overzealous Fan". 383.3.b says the same thing later in the book. The companion is 204.3.b: a cost appearing in a SPELL, in an ACTIVATED ability, or in a LATER part of a trigger's effect is paid on resolution instead, which is the 205 "pay X. If you do, Y" family and the reason the two look alike on the card and behave differently on the chain.

Steps

1. Play Hextech Gauntlets (3 Energy) and Tryndamere, Barbarian (7 Energy + 2 Fury Power). He enters exhausted (143.4).
2. Attach the Gauntlets to Tryndamere: the Equip's Energy component is 3 minus his 8 Might, floored at 0 by 356.6, so it costs one rainbow. He is an 11 Might attacker.
3. From the next Awakening (315.1.b), Standard-move him to an occupied enemy battlefield, paying his exhaust (144.2, 144.4), and attack.
4. Assign damage: 465.2.c has you assign your summed Might, 465.2.c.4 caps each defender at the minimum needed to kill it, and everything left over is excess (R28 = A). Against a garrison summing 6 or less that is 5 or more.
5. Conquer. Tryndamere scores 1 point (194.1.c, R2 = A), the Gauntlets draw 1, and the legend — ready since the Awakening — exhausts to ready a unit as its trigger finalizes (383.3.b.1).

Per iteration

+1 point, +1 card, +1 ready per conquer with 5 or more excess damage

How it ends

engine — 1 point, 1 card and 1 ready per conquer, one conquer a turn; eight points is eight attacks

Sources

Walked here, in this project

• Hand walk 2026-09-06 2026-09-06 record
• Issue #155 — Engine × payoff: 'OGN-034 Tryndamere, Barbarian is the only Might/damage-to-point bridge in the pool', and the excess-damage family beyond it that scores nothing 2026-09-06

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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