I'll just throw out there, that I think there's actually a third way of looking at it. It could be seen as a modifier to the damage itself (like something which changes damage type or makes it irreducible). This way of looking at it would mean that it is applied as part of the damage and would even counter things like backlash field.
Not saying that's necessarily correct, it just seems within reason to me. (and makes a bit more sense thematically that they are actually stunned by the hit, rather than getting hit and then becoming stunned sometime afterwards).
Since you say it would be a reaction with the text 'if a target is dealt damage this way, …' but as Foote noted the debuff is dependent on the damage I think it implies the 'if a target is dealt damage this way, …' so it would be a reaction. I would say maybe they were saving space, but I don't think that card is particularly crammed.
I like the reacation interpretation. That is how we initially ruled it, but stopped playing that way against the Matriarch because we didn't want to screw the stats page by cheating on one of the hardest bosses. I think we will go back to how we played before… Tachyon just got even better!
Foote, you have nothing to apologize for. It's good to talk these things out. One of the reasons I like participating in these rules threads is we all understand it better at the end.
Well the old thread is kind of a separate question, which maybe I shouldn't have dragged up. Basically the question is, at what point does a target damaged by Hypersonic Assault stop being able to deal damage? The possible answers I see are:
1. As soon as their HP is reduced, before anything else triggered by their HP being reduced (Like say Backlash Field)
2. After all effects of their HP being reduced are resolved, but before Hypersonic Assault damages another target.
3. After all the damage from Hypersonic Assault has been resolved including anything triggered by that damage (Like the Matriarch reacting to Fowl being destroyed, Ambuscade's Reactive plating).
The answer would presumably also apply to Throatjab (the old question), Offensive Transmutation, and Ethereal Bonds, but since those only damage one target, the distinction between 2 and 3 does not matter to them. The general consensus there was that answer 1 is probably not correct.
So I guess the two examples are:
Baron Blade has Backlash Field in play, and Tachyon plays Hypersonic Assault. Does she take the 3 lightning damage?
Matriarch has a Fowl in play, and Tachyon plays Hypersonic Assault, choosing to damage first the Matriarch, then the Fowl. Does the Matriarch deal her revenge damage?
I would be very surprised if Hypersonic Assault ends up functioning differently from Throat Jab in the Baron Blade example. I would think that Tachyon would be hit by the backlash field just like Wraith would. I think with this example, the trigger conditions for Hypersonic/ThroatJab and Backlash Field happen at the same time, in which case they resolve in the order the cards were played (ie the backlash trigger takes precedence over our hero one-shots). So in a real game, it would work like this:
1) Wraith plays Throat Jab. Baron is the only target
2) Baron is targeted and has his HP reduced by 2
3a) The trigger conditions for both Throat Jab and Backlashfield are now met
3b) Backlash Fields triggered effect goes off first because it was in play first. Wraith's HP is reduced by 3
3c) Throat Jabs triggered effect goes off afterward because of play order. Baron can no longer deal damage
Substitute the word Wraith for Tachyon and Throat Jab for Hypersonic Assault, and it will read exactly the same.
They are all conditonal effects with a specific trigger. And I believe it has been officially stated that as soon as a trigger condition is met, that effect resolves immediatly (although someone correct me if I am wrong on that).
Given that, I think it is becoming a little less ambiguous that Hypersonic would in fact apply its debuff to Matriarch before moving on to damage additional targets.
I certainly wouldn't treat Hypersonic Assault any different from Throat Jab in terms of Backlash Field, and you could edit my first example to have Throat Jab in place of Hypersonic Assault. I included that possibility because there was no official ruling in the old case.
There was unanimous consensus that case 1 was not the correct order of effects, but the justification seemed to be because the first sentence of Throat Jab had to be fully resolved before applying the second sentence. That same logic applied to Hypersonic Assault means that case 3 is the correct order of effects, but that seems to go against how people feel it should work.
I have updated the pending question thread w/ dypaca's wording above. I actually think we already had the right questions in the pending question thread, but the extra context was helpful to me.