SotM (DE) rules Q: How often are variable powers checked?

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
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How often (and when) do variable powers, such as Tempest’s Shielding Winds, check the variable?

So, for example, Tempest puts out Shielding Winds with two other weather cards (let’s say one of them is Thunderclap) in play, so the damage taken by hero targets is now -3.

In an effort to finish off another villain target, Tachyon or Wraith destroys the Thunderclap to get damage done to a target. Does Shielding Winds now only offer -2 to damage taken, or is the damage resistance buff fixed when playing the card?

Likewise, I know Nightmist (RCR) has an ongoing card (I don’t remember the name off the top of my head, sorry) that has both an effect when it is played and during NM’s next start phase based on the top card of her trash. Is it checked when resolving, or upon initial play only?

I’m not seeing anything in the rulebook that says one way or another, but it is entirely possible I’m just missing it.

Thanks!

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Variables are checked whenever they are relevant, not on play (or power use). So for Shielding Winds, that variable is checked when a target is being targeted for damage, not when you play Shielding Winds.

Definitive Edition doesn’t generally require you to remember anything beyond the current turn, as that would introduce fiddly tracking.

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They check constantly. Whenever the spell number or weather count changes, X changes too.

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The general principle here is that, in DE, the game state is supposed to be fully captured by the cards on the table at any given moment, and not “remembered” from some earlier state.

So for the example with Nightmist, whenever you do something that involves her symbol, you check what the top card of her trash is right then. That might be different from the symbol on top of her trash when she played the card, due for instance to another hero granting her a power use.