Combo · ENGINE

Warwick kills what is DAMAGED, not what is dying — so one point off an Iron Ballista is lethal to any Might

2 cards · body + fury · verified

Pieces

• Warwick, Hunter ×1 OGN-159 · payoff · body

  I enter ready. When I attack, kill all damaged enemy units here.

• Iron Ballista ×1 OGN-017 · engine · fury

  This enters exhausted. Exhaust: Deal 2 to a unit at a battlefield.

Payoff

Deck

• Body + Fury, so four legend names (103.1.b.2): Relentless Storm (OGN-249), Purifier (SFD-183), Pridestalker (UNL-183), Butcher of the Sands (VEN-141).
• The Ballista played a turn early — it enters exhausted and 415.3.a only readies it in your next Awakening.

Prerequisites

• THE KILL IS BY EFFECT AND IGNORES MIGHT ENTIRELY, WHICH IS THE WHOLE CARD. 143.2.a kills a unit when 'nonzero damage marked on it equalling or exceeding its Might' — that is death BY DAMAGE. Warwick's 'kill all damaged enemy units here' is a kill instruction that reads only whether damage is marked, so two points from a 3-Energy gear kill a 10-Might body exactly as dead as a 2-Might one. The Ballista is not chipping toward lethal; it is applying a marker.
• AND THE MARKER HAS A SHELF LIFE OF ONE COMBAT. 466.1.a.1 inserts '3c. Heal all Units.' into the combat cleanup, so every combat wipes the marked damage off the board. The ping and the attack therefore have to happen in the SAME Main Phase, in that order: exhaust the Ballista first, move Warwick second. A ping applied on the opponent's turn is healed away before you ever swing.
• WARWICK ARRIVES ABLE TO DO IT. 'I enter ready' is 143.4.a's exception to 143.4 ('Units enter the Board exhausted'), so 144.2's exhaust is available the turn he lands and he can move into the attack immediately — but note it is a play-time property, not a ready (415.1 marks a Game Object already on the Board), so nothing else can be readied by it.
• 383.2.a.1 and 464.2.c.3 fix WHEN the sweep is measured: an attack trigger is placed at the Attacker designation, and its condition is checked then. So the Ballista's damage must already be marked when Warwick is designated — a ping in response to the designation is too late for this combat.
• The Ballista is once a turn (its own exhaust, 415.3.a) and 381 confines it to your Main Phase in an Open State, which is exactly where you want it anyway. Three copies (103.2.b) is three marks a turn and therefore three bodies of any size dead to one attack.
• 417.6.b.2.a names the Ballista as its own worked example — 'This damage is dealt both by a gear and by an ability' — so it is spell-and-ability damage for anything that cares (a blanket Prevent stops it; `unyielding-spirit-challenge-unit-damage` is the entry on the other side of that line), and Bonus Damage raises it, since 713 scopes Bonus Damage to Deal actions and Annie's static reads 'spells and abilities'.

Steps

1. Play Iron Ballista (3 Energy). It enters exhausted, so it is live from your next Awakening (415.3.a).
2. Play Warwick, Hunter (6 Energy + 1 Body Power). 'I enter ready' means he can act the turn he lands (143.4.a).
3. In your Main Phase, exhaust the Ballista: 2 damage to an enemy unit at the battlefield you intend to attack. Its Might is irrelevant.
4. Move Warwick there (144.2, 144.4). 190.3.a.1 applies Contested and 464.2.c.1 makes you the Attacker.
5. His attack trigger is PLACED at the Attacker designation (464.2.c.3) but READS the board when it EXECUTES (359.3.f.2, whose worked examples are Yasuo, Remorseful mistargeting after his target moves home and reading his current Might). Nothing here turns on the difference, because the Iron Ballista mark is applied back in the Main Phase - but the distinction is load-bearing elsewhere: a ping trigger placed SECOND under 383.3.d resolves FIRST under 340.1 and can mark damage this kill then sees. Phrasing corrected 2026-09-07 after a later walk showed the loose reading would have refused a legal line.
6. The combat cleanup then heals everything still standing (466.1.a.1), so next turn's mark has to be applied fresh.

Per iteration

one enemy unit dead regardless of its Might, for the Ballista's exhaust and Warwick's move

How it ends

engine — one enemy unit of ANY Might killed per Iron Ballista activation, once a turn, as long as Warwick attacks that battlefield; nothing here scores

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 2026-09-07, issue #173 — the uncatalogued Fury / Body / Chaos cards 2026-09-07 record

Walked against Core Rules 2026-07-16

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