each Svellsongur is worth exactly what the board is missing

Issue #248 (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: nasus-svellsongur-conquer-burst, the mono-Calm BURST that puts three SFD-059 Svellsongur on an Empowered VEN-046 Nasus, Ascended and scores nine points on one Conquer. The turn clock reads it at T6 against a T5 baseline. Walked as the entry is written, from zero points, it is T7: the clock cannot see Nasus's own [Empower] cost or the three [Equip] costs. Walked as a game, with a free curve holding one battlefield beside it, it is T6 again, with one gear fewer — because every Svellsongur doubles the payoff, and the number of doublings the line needs is set by the score it swings from, not by the entry.

Why this line. scripts/sequence-pick.mjs measures a queue: entries whose steps carry forced-ordering language and whose terminatesIn is a bare quantity with no ordering word. Re-run on 2026-10-05 at 771 entries it reads 262 with the language and 102 in the queue, the same numbers as slice 5. From here the pick is by global rank, skipping entries that already have a play. This entry is rank 1 (three hits, before and first). Rank 2 is played in the Lab is paid before anything resolves.

1. Needs

Domain identity from data/cards.json: all five names are mono-Calm. None appears in data/legality.json. Steel Paws carries no [Unique], so 103.2.b's three copies apply.

The card text the play turns on:

• Nasus, Ascended: "[Empowered][>] When I conquer, you score 1 point."
• Svellsongur: "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." The entry derives the composition from 434.1.c, 477.2.c, 476.1, 479.1 and 480.3: v gears on one carrier are 2^v instances of his trigger.

The open question, priced both ways. OQ-SVELL-CAP, as recorded, is about a capped trigger: 383.3.e.1 reads "Such a Triggered Ability will only be performed the specified number of times each turn." Nasus's trigger carries no "the first time … each turn", so 383.3.e.1 never reaches it, and the catalogue's settled arithmetic (svellsongur-copy-hold) gives 2^v instances. The Draven play (the fight it does not need to avoid) priced the stricter reading, that eight identical appended sentences are ONE ability, for every sentence including the uncapped one. So the two plays agree, every total here is given both ways: per instance a Conquer pays 1 + 2^v; per ability it pays 2 whatever v is.

2. The turns as the entry is written, going first — 485.7 gives the extra rune to the player going second

R = runes on the board at the start of your Main Phase. A rune pays 1 Energy by exhausting (164.2.a) and 1 Power by recycling (164.2.b, whose cost is the recycle, so an exhausted rune still pays); the recycled rune goes to the Rune Deck (161.2.b), two come back each Channel Phase (315.3.b), capped at twelve (161.2.a). The schedule below is the earliest a brute-force search over every purchase order finds, with the two Steel Paws bought on T1 and nothing else spent on the side. [2026-10-24, #456: not the recycled rune. The Channel Phase's two come from the top of the Rune Deck (315.3.b, 430.1) and a recycled rune goes to the bottom (416.1, 416.1.b), so it is channelled again only when the deck reaches it: T7 at the earliest going first and T6 at the earliest going second with only the Channel Phase's two a turn (161.2.a, 485.7); each two more recycled push it a turn later, a card that channels more (430.2) brings it back sooner, and the next Channel Phase gives it back only once the Rune Deck is empty. The R column below already counts two a turn less every rune recycled, so no number in this play changes. The wording above is kept as history.]

       R   your Main Phase                                    spent     idle
T1     2   2x Steel Paws                                       E2        E0
T2     4   (nothing in the line is affordable)                           E4
T3     6   (Nasus is E8)                                                 E6
T4     8   Nasus, Ascended                       (R -> 7)      E8+1P     E0
T5     9   Empower Nasus                                       E8        E1
T6    11   3x Svellsongur                        (R -> 8)      E9+3P     E2
T7    10   3x [Equip] on Nasus                   (R -> 7)      E3+3P     E7
           Nasus walks to B; Conquer: 1 + 8 instances = 9

That is T7, not the clock's T6. The 28 Energy and 7 Calm Power in the entry's terminatesIn are right; the clock prices 17 Energy and 4 Power, because Nasus's [Empower] 8 and the three [Equip]s are activated abilities on cards already in play, not printed costs. Gear bought on the swing turn itself instead of T6 is the same T7 and uses all twelve runes.

3. The order the entry forces

Empower and all three Equips come before the move, in that Main Phase or earlier — never after. Both are Activated Abilities with no keyword (818.1 for [Equip]; Empower is printed as "[Empower] :rb_energy_8: (:rb_energy_8:: Empower me. Use only if not Empowered.)"). Once Nasus moves, the next Cleanup opens a Showdown at B — a Combat if a garrison stands there, 344.2's Showdown if it does not — and 308.1.a closes it to both: "Only cards and abilities with the Action or Reaction keywords can be played or activated in a Showdown State."

The two reorders cost different amounts, and the cheaper-looking one is the disaster:

• Equip after the move and the three gears copy nothing. The Conquer pays 1 + 1 = 2.
• Empower after the move and every one of the eight copies reads "[Empowered][>]" on a carrier that is not Empowered. The Conquer pays 1: the Score alone, eight gears' worth of text inactive. Per ability it is the same 1.

The schedule in §2 empowers on T5 rather than T7 for exactly this reason: it costs nothing (Nasus sits at base, and 441.1.b makes the state permanent) and it moves the 8 Energy off the turn where the Equips, the move and §6's counter all want it.

4. The gear count is the deficit

The entry swings from zero, so it needs 1 + 2^v ≥ 8, i.e. v = 3. On the contested board the deck does not swing from zero. Two Steel Paws cost 2 Energy on T1, one walks into empty A on T2 and Conquers it, and it Holds A every turn after (315.2.b.2). By the start of the T6 swing the deck has 5 points, so the Conquer has to pay 3, and one Svellsongur is enough: 1 + 2 = 3.

The same brute-force search, with v as a variable:

Two gears is the build, not one: it lands on the same T6, and its spare doubling is exactly the insurance §6 prices — one gear answered still leaves 5 + 3 = 8. The third gear costs a whole turn and buys points the game no longer needs. So the T6 turn reads:

       R   your Main Phase                                    spent     idle   score
T6    11   2x Svellsongur, 2x [Equip] on Nasus   (R -> 7)      E8+4P     E3     5 (Hold A)
           Nasus walks to B; Wind Wall held open (E3+2P)
           Conquer: 1 + 4 instances                                          +5 = 10  WIN

Wind Wall's 3 Energy is the idle 3, and its 2 Calm Power fit: 11 runes pay 11 Energy and up to 11 Power in one turn if every rune is exhausted before any is recycled.

Per ability the swing pays 2 whatever the gear, the score is 7 after T6, and the next Hold makes it 8 on T7 — the gear did nothing and the free curve won. That is the conclusion that survives both readings: this deck reaches eight by T7 either way, and by T6 under the catalogue's.

Priced against the clocks: Calm's unopposed curve is T5 (Steel Paws is the cheapest unit in the pool), the contested curve is T9. T6 is one turn slower than the board where nothing was needed and three faster than the board it is for. The entry as written, from zero, is T7.

5. The fight at B

On the contested board B is garrisoned, so the move stages a Combat (323.9), not 344.2's bloodless Showdown. 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 and the Svellsongur add +0:

So the line does not need its removal package against a small garrison, and it does need one against a garrison of 8. Every instance carries his [Deflect 2] and 809.2 sums them: 8 with §4's two gears (four instances), 16 with the entry's three. That keeps every targeted answer off Nasus once the gears are on; it does nothing for him in a damage step.

6. Breaks to

A garrison of summed Might 8 at B breaks it for no card at all — the opponent simply has to already be standing there. Nothing in the five-card list moves a body off a battlefield.

The cheapest CARD is OGN-022 Thermo Beam — Fury, E5 + 2 Power, "[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Kill all gear." Cast in the Showdown the move opens, it takes both Svellsongur: the Conquer pays 1 + 1 = 2 and the deck stops at 7, one short, with the turn spent. It costs 5 Energy and 2 Fury Power and nothing else; 718.5.b — "Attached cards still can be chosen or targeted by game effects while Attached" — is not even needed, since it chooses nothing.

Of the mono-Calm counters, Wind Wall is the one that fits the T6 budget. OGN-045 Defy stops at "a spell that costs no more than :rb_energy_4: and no more than :rb_rune_rainbow:", and Thermo Beam is E5 + 2. UNL-044 Flurry of Feathers (Calm, [Reaction], "Counter a spell" as one mode) reaches it too, but costs E4 + 2 against the E3 the turn leaves idle. Under a Calm/Chaos legend UNL-131 Abandon and SFD-136 Hard Bargain also reach it. That is why §4's T6 turn keeps E3 + 2 Calm Power idle rather than spending it.

The single-gear answers only halve the burst, and two gears absorb them: SFD-011 Angle Shot (Fury, E2, [Reaction]) can choose a Steel Paws and a Svellsongur — same controller, and the Paws' [Deflect] costs one rainbow instead of Nasus's eight — and "Attach that Equipment to that unit", moving one gear off Nasus (434.1.f). Two gears become one: 5 + 3 = 8, still a win. SFD-005 Detonate cannot be cast at all in time, because the gear does not exist until the swing turn and Detonate carries no [Action].

7. Verdict

The entry is right at nine, and its gear count is a fact about a board with no score on it. Each Svellsongur doubles the payoff, so its value is exactly how far the swing has to carry. With a free curve holding one battlefield the swing carries three, two gears do it with one to spare, and the line lands on T6 for ten instead of T7 for nine — with Wind Wall open against the one card that answers both gears at once.

The ordering to remember is the Empower, not the Equips. Equipping late costs seven points; empowering late costs eight, and Empowering is the step a player is most likely to leave for the swing turn because it is the one that feels like setup.

8. Not verified

Per ability (OQ-SVELL-CAP read strictly) the gears are dead and the deck wins on T7 off the free curve; I did not walk that deck without them. I assumed perfect draws, and that the runes arrive in the domains the costs want (108.5.d keeps the Rune Deck's order secret): the T6 turn recycles six Calm runes. I did not walk the opponent removing Nasus at base on their T4 or T5, where he carries only his printed [Deflect 2], nor the one damage that removes a Might-0 Steel Paws from A.

Leads

• The clock prices this row at T6; walked from zero it is T7. The clock omits Nasus's [Empower] 8 and the three [Equip] costs — 11 Energy and 3 Power that sit on activated abilities, not on printed costs.
• The entry's steps say "ON THE TURN YOU SWING, and not before: attach" but never say the Empower must precede the move. A notable that 308.1.a bars an Empower in the Showdown, and that a late Empower leaves all eight copies inactive for a one-point Conquer, would carry §3.
• Of the mono-Calm counters that reach OGN-022 Thermo Beam, OGN-064 Wind Wall is the one that fits beside the two-gear T6 swing (Defy's ceiling is E4 and one rainbow; UNL-044 Flurry of Feathers costs E4 + 2). The entry names Thermo Beam as the answer and no counter to it.
• Nasus Might 8 against the garrison: the entry's "a garrison of summed Might 8 or more kills him" is right; the converse, that any garrison of summed Might 7 or less dies with no removal at all, would let a reader leave the removal package out of a small-garrison matchup.