Query - Multiple targets hitting a specific target

Alrighty, so an incident came up yesterday in a game which we had some confusion over resolving due to wording. I will say it was a Cauldron deck which may be why the issue came up, since I don't recall this specific wording ever coming up in an official deck. I've done a fairly extensive bit of Googling to see if I can find an answer but haven't quite managed to resolve it.

So, what happened was that an environment card specified that all the current environment targets dealt damage to the hero with the highest hp, and we weren't sure whether to predetermine said hero and then deal all the damage to them, or whether the highest would keep being re-determined as the first hero stopped being the highest. We ended up playing it the first way since we were all low enough on hp that it was the difference between one hero being incapped and all of us being incapped (I mean, the other two were incapped shortly afterwards by something else, but anyway...).

The specific wording was "All Test Subjects deal the hero with the highest hp 1<type> damage". I can't remember the type but it doesn't matter for this issue. The nearest similarity with an official deck that I can find from my Googling is Siege Breaker, who hits the two highest and has them both determined before he deals said damage (though I'm not sure how they could change mid-damage unless hitting the first target causes another one to enter play which has more hp than the second target or something).

Thoughts?

Minor wording/rules issues like this are pretty common in the cauldron decks.... that's the main reason I don't break them out too often.

 

In this case, I think the intent was "each [target type] target deals the hero target with the highest HP 1 [type] damage." This would work as a bunch of independant attacks which would check for the highest HP target independently. The word "all" instead of "each" complicates it a little though.... anyway that's my thought, though I may need to consult a rules lawyer.

Proletariat has a card like this, it's Overwhelm the Mighty. It says "Each Proletariat deals the hero target with the highest HP 1 irreducible melee damage." They would all hit the same target.

Proletariat has a card like this, it's Overwhelm the Mighty. It says "Each Proletariat deals the hero target with the highest HP 1 irreducible melee damage." They would all hit different targets.

Or at least that's how it works in the video game.

From the Fireside chats

“Overwhelm the Mighty” re-evaluates the hero target with the highest HP after each attack.

Haven't read those in a while, think we discussed it during playtesting and at the time ruled it to all hit the same target as it made sense both thematically and mechanically but maybe more difficult for the video game to do that than it seems.

Villains Ambuscade has a card like that as well.

Yeah, Double Team. It has 2 targets hitting the highest hero and as the name and picture suggests, would make sense to both hit the same guy.

I really don't think it's a programming issue that made the change (if indeed it was a change).

Okay, so despite the wording, you do re-check each time damage is dealt because it's different targets doing the damage? Okay :). It didn't make a huge amount of difference in that game since the two of us who didn't get incapped by the attack (since we had only one hero take it - we were all around 3-6hp and there were about ten targets each dealing two points of damage) got taken out easily on the villain turn (the Chairman in this instance). Had the environment not played the card it did (something which made all the targets turn against the heroes instead of helping us out) we'd've had the Chairman flipped from the AE damage. Instead we got wrecked. Oh well.

Just to confirm, this has been asked of Christopher and if a card wanted to target the same person for multiple damaging attacks it would be worded something like

> Select the hero target with the highest HP. Each villain target deals that target 3 banana damage.
Double Team and Overwhelm the Mighty are not worded this way so each "attack" targets the highest HP, which can change for each attack.

And they don't deal banana damage! :C

Okay cool, that makes sense. Thanks, Matchstick :).