I have seen a lot of different opinion regarding how to exactly handle timing issues with attacks, and I wanted to try and clear things up.
“WOULD BE DEALT” VS “DEALT”
There has been a lot of speculation about how these two wordings affect the timing of attacks, and that “would be dealt” should trigger first. I understand that the wording can be confusing, but I want to emphasize that they do not have different timings, and we already know this.
Originally, all cards triggered in the order that they were played. However, after some problems, namely with Superhuman Durability and Fortitude, this changed so that you can choose which card takes effect first. Here are the text of the cards:
Superhuman Durability: Whenever Legacy would be dealt 5 or more Damage from a single source, reduce that Damage by 3.
Fortitude: Reduce Damage dealt to Legacy by 1.
Notice how Superhuman Durability says “would be dealt” and Fortitude says “damage dealt.” If these would have had different timings, then there would never have been an issue, since Superhuman Durability would always trigger first. However, since we had a previous ruling that says they trigger in the order they were played, we can clearly see what “would be dealt” and “dealt” do not have different timings.
If this is true, then why the different wording and the confusion? If you look at the cards, you can see that “would” is used in very specific situations that have nothing to do with timing. There are two types of situations where “would” is used:
When there is a conditional modifier. Consider the example above with Superhuman Durability and Fortitude. Fortitude doesn’t have a “would” because the modifier always applies when Legacy would take damage. The “would” in Superhuman durability is being used to show that the modifier is conditional, and that it will only trigger under the specified conditions.
When you are to replace a standard effect with a different one. The other time when “would” is used is when you would normally do one type of effect, but a card is telling you to do another type of effect instead. For example:
Amulet of the Elder Gods: The first time Nightmist would be dealt Damage each turn, you may discard 2 cards. If you do, you may redirect that Damage to a Target of your choice.
Here, NightMist should have taken damage, but the Amulet allows you to do another effect instead. When this “would” is used, the original effect is negated, and another effect happens instead.
In general, when the word “would” is used in SotM, it is being used in one of the two ways above, and it is not meant to indicate a different timing of an effect.
Dealing Damage Order of Operations
Now that we know that “would be dealt” and “dealt” do not have different timings, let’s go through the order of operations for dealing damage.
Determine damage type
Identify and apply all modifiers to dealing
Determine if damaged is dealt, and reduce hp
Apply effects based on damage being dealt
Determine damage type
The very first step when dealing damage is to determine the damage type. Based on the newest ruling, if there are multiple cards that change the damage type, you can choose the order of the effects and, essentially, choose what the final type will be. Determining damage type first, also explains how to interpret Imbued Fire. Even though the change of damage type comes after the damage increase in the text, since damage type is determined first, it will apply first, and the heroes will get the damage increase.
Identify and apply all modifiers relating to dealing damage
At this point, you should identify all modifiers that would increase or decrease the damage. It doesn’t matter if it says “would be dealt” or just “dealt.” It, also, doesn’t matter where the modifier is coming from. It could be from the source of the damage, the target, or something else. All modifiers are considered at this point.
Consider the following example using the following cards:
Stunbolt: Power: The Wraith deals 1 Target 1 Projectile Damage. Until the start of your next turn, reduce all Damage dealt by that Target by 1.
Localized Hurricane: Increase Damage dealt to Tempest by 1.
Power: Tempest deals up to 2 Targets 3 Projectile Damage each. You may draw 2 cards.
Power: Destroy this card.
Shielding Winds: Whenever a Hero Target would be dealt 5 or more Damage from a single source, reduce that Damage by 2.
Voss, Tempest’s nemesis (+1 damage) is attempting to deal 3 damage to Tempest, and was previously hit by Stunbolt. We have 4 different modifiers (with the nemesis bonus), and you can apply them in any order that you want. Here is how I would apply the modifiers:
Use Localized Hurricane’s modifier to increase the damage to 4.
Use the nemesis bonus to increase the damage to 5. Note that the first two steps can be switched.
Now that the damage is up to 5, I can now use Shielding Winds modifier to decrease it to 3.
Finally, I use Stunbolt’s modifier for a final damage of 2.
You do not have to apply the damage dealer’s modifier’s first, then the target’s second. Also, you do not have to apply “would be dealt” first and “dealt” second. Once you have identified all the modifiers, you can apply them in any order.
Determine if damaged is dealt and reduce hp
At this point, we can now determine if damage was dealt. If after all of the modifiers the total damage is at least one, then damage was dealt and you might reduce hp. A good rule for SotM is that “damage dealt = reduce hp”. If no hp is reduced, either because of modifiers that brought the damage below 0, or because a target is immune, then no damage is dealt.
Apply effects based on damage being dealt
Once you have determines that there is actually damage being dealt, then the final step of damage calculation is to apply any effects based on damage being dealt. If no damage is being dealt, then this step is skipped. There are two types of effects that can happen here:
Effects that apply after taking damage. There are many effects in SotM that happen after a target is dealt damage. When this type of effect applies, the target first takes the damage, then applies the effect. A common example of this type of effect, is a retaliation attack. For example:
Isothermic Transducer: When Absolute Zero is dealt Fire Damage, Absolute Zero deals 1 Target that much Cold Damage.
With Isothermic Transducer, Absolute Zero needs to actually take damage, have his hp reduced, to apply the damage to the other target.
Effect that apply instead of taking damage. With this type of effect, the target does not take the initial damage, but instead applies another effect. Often, the word “would” and “instead” on the card indicates that this is happening. For example,
Null-Point Calibration Unit: When Absolute Zero would take Cold Damage, he regains that many HP instead.
In this case, Absolute Zero does not take the initial cold damage, but instead regains that many hp.
Another type of effect that fall under the second type is redirection. In SotM redirection has its own keyword and meaning. Even though it might not say “would” it works in a similar way.
Note that even though the effect or target changes, there still has to be some damage “being dealt” (as per step 3) for this effect to take place. This is why NightMist can’t redirect damage while in Mistform. Since she didn’t take any damage, the effect wouldn’t trigger.
I know this was a long post, but, hopefully, it can shed some light on how to deal damage in the greatest co-op superhero game ever made.
