The Tempest played Electrical Storm (1 electrical damage to every non-hero at start of the turn).
Baron Blade played Elemental Redistribution (Redirect electrical damage to the hero with the less HP).
I have the Elemental Subwave Inducer (at start of the turn, choose a type of damage, all the damage you do are of this type, you suffer -1 damage point from this type) in hand but cant figure how to use it not to get hurt by my own Electrical Storm.
As ESI will be played after the Electrical Storm his start of turn effect only work after the damage is made, that is I cant change the damage type of Electrical Storm. The ESI effect last until the Start of my turn meaning that even if I adjust the damage type afterward it will change back to Electrical next turn before being applied.
I should have played ESI first to be able to change the damage type of Electrical Storm.
Alas, it seems you are right. That's one of the reasons why I don't care the order cards are played for heroes : it makes some of them useless or even dangerous to play. Or you have to keep them in hand untill you find the proper card to play "first" (see also Superhuman Durability and Fortitude)
But officially, yes, I fear that this powerful card is useless in this case - if I have understood the rulings correctly..
The first turn you use the ESI to change the damage will not change the damage on Electrical Storm (Electrical Storm deals Lightning damage, then ESI changes your damage and you gain a DR of 1 to a type of your choice). However, the next turn your Electric damage will be whatever you declared your ESI's damage type to be, and the ESI will not resolve again at the start of your next turn until after your Electrical Storm (which will be, at this point, the damage type chosen by ESI). ESI will not be useful with Electrical Storm and Elemental Redistributor in play until the Start of the turn two turns after it has been played. It will be useful, but not for a while.
I'm pretty sure that "until the start of your next turn" is an event triggered before "at the start of your turn." I don't have any ruling or official statement to back this up, only that it seems to be correct to me, but then I don't see any ruling or official statement to back up the otherwise, other than it may seem correct to you.
Oh, wait. That makes more sense. My mistake! Oh well, at least that will allow Tempest to still deal different damage types against Omnitron when he has his Immunity Ongoing out!
At some point (hopefully in the very near future) I plan on creating a timeline of events for turns, rounds, and performing actions (such as playing a card or dealing damage and such) which would explain the order everything happens in, using my current knowledge of how I believe the game flows, filling any gaps with my knowledge of how structured stack based computer execution works (as opposed to queue based computer execution, as Christopher's description of how things work follow a stack based execution and not a queue based execution).
No Problemo, Rabit. I forget rules and fail at ordering correctly effects while playing, it's worse :)
In fact I find myself a little hypocritical (is it how you say this in English ?), as I keep on pointing these order problems while having houseruled them out of my games by using "hero choice" rather than "order of play" for all hero cards that could activate at the same time :)
But at the same time I understand why it is important to respect the rules-as-written-in the-book on these forums, as many players won't come here to see new rulings - so everything must follow the rules in the book, even if it sometimes give strange or inneficient results.
on the other hand it is also a cooperative game, so there is no reason why rules can't be tweaked a little in your area games to make it more fun - No one is being hurt by a bad rule call here, because either everyone wins or everyone looses - so as long as everyone has a good time, don't sweat the small stuff and just enjoy the game. Play what makes the most sense for fun rather than for technical rules calls
Especially because it feels so arbitrary when something like this prevents you from using a nice combo. It's counter-intuitive and frustrating for many players. I never enforce hero card order, because it takes away options from the players without adding much. If someone figures out a way to order effects that makes something cool happen, all the more power to him/her. It's coming up with stuff like that which makes the game fun.
And sure, it'll make the game a little bit easier, but really, in all the situations where it would matter, it would be a very unsatisfying way to increase the difficulty. (`No, you can't pull off this amazing game-winning combo, because, uhm, you played your cards in the wrong order 8 turns ago, and there's nothing you can do about it anymore'->player never comes back to the game again)
I think that, if "order the cards entered play" was so engraved in stone, we would have cards, powers or options allowing the heroes to change the order the cards were played a posteriori (" Chose a Hero Ongoing card, it will know activate first in case of ties"). The only card that could do that that I know of is Scrap Metal for mechanical golems.
But the "rule" was printed, and many players just have the rule book as a reference, so it won't be changed here. Maybe clarified in a future expansion/rule book, who knows
This. Villain and environment matter, but when it comes to Imbued Fire vs. Twist the Ether, well... I know which one I'll pick every time, no matter what order they were actually played in.
