Thermal Shockwave says "X = the total amount of cold damage done by Absolute Zero this turn."
This seems straightforward enough, but there's one area of ambiguity. If AZ does 3 damage to a target with 1HP, does that count as 3 damage or 1?
That's a good question. Since it's been established that if no damage is taken by a target, then no damage was dealt to that target, and further that as soon as a target reaches zero hp, it's destroyed and can't take any more damage, I'd say that if AZ does 3 damage to a target with 1 hp, only 1 damage was actually dealt.
Yeah, that question has been a really big deal in several games with Fanatic as well. She has to deal 3 damage each turn to keep Zealous Offense out, but if he "overkills" a creature, does that count? We've always said it does count (as doing 3 damage) just because Zealous Offense is so hard for her to keep out, but I don't know if it's the right call. With the team in Germany this week, we may have to wait awhile to find out.
In rule:
"Whenever a target is reduced to 0 or fewer HP,..."
So I say it counts as 3, it does not matter that the target had fewer HP.
I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, how else would you reduce to them to fewer hp than 0....
Agreed. I retract my earlier uninformed opinion.
I agree that targets can be reduced to negative HP.
Where it gets weird is when targets have reactions that preempt them being put in negative HP. I've ruled in my games that the Operative and Apostate prevent their HP from being reduced, so no damage is dealt. However for all the cards which do something 'when X would be destroyed' I've ruled that the damage does actually get dealt putting it in negative HP, and only the card being destroyed is prevented.
(Thematically I could easily see how Apostate's relics were blocking the attack, but the Operative bothered me at first. Then I decided that she is actually smart enough to recognize her coming defeat and withdraw before being hit. Then this also let me justify the idea that a sucker punch can actually destroy her and remove the card from play.)
With someone like Apostate, you could say he goes down to zero hp but then stops at that point if there's a relic in play to save him. So only as much damage was dealt as was required to take him to 0hp. Both times I've faced him, we made sure to take out all relics before killing him, so he's never flipped.
While this would work for his front side, on the back side it is important that he does not take any damage from the blow that would have reduced him to 0 or fewer HP. Whatever he was at when that damage would have hit him is still his HP when he flips to his front side.
Ahh yes, because he flips back again if he gets knocked back to 0hp and still has any relics in play, doesn't he? I didn't think of that. Oh well, he'd only have bought himself an extra turn unless he had another relic left to soak up the damage on the next hit :D.
T_T you say that like that could never happen <hugs himself and starts rocking back and forth>. I seriously feel they are trolling us with Apostate's difficulty 
he does a lot of damage just on his own, and his relics keep coming back. He's super cool though, so that's ok.
Well, there were only two of us fighting him which may have had something to do with it ;). The relic that protects all the other relics (-2 to damage dealt...can't remember what it's called - the big runestone thingy) is really annoying so we focus on that one first. I expect Apostate is much less wimpy if you fight him with enough people that he actually starts dealing out damage ;).
Also, Runes of MAlediction + periapt of woe + Orb of Delirium + Condemnation + both Gauntlets is a BAD combination.
Runes of Malediction, that's what I was thinking of. There's two gauntlets? Ouch, does the other one boost his damage too? Only had one come up so far (and haven't looked through his deck to see what all his cards are), which boosted his melée damage by one. I think the most relics of his that we've had up at once was Condemnation, Runes, the Periapt, and the aforementioned Gauntlet. I think the Delirium thingy may have come up later on but we smashed it up pretty well, or maybe the Environment did...can't remember now ;).
Really? No Hate on the Tome? Tome of the Unknowable + Orb of the Delirium + Runes is also really really unfortunate.
Re Gauntlets: He has two copies of the same card, where every time he deals you Melee, you take extra from the Gauntlets (although thankfully not from him).
Does anyone else find it really Viscerally Pleasing when he and Fanatic are in the same game and they just start wailing on each other? For me it always turns into "Everyone kills all of his Relics, except Fanatic, who spends the entire game hitting Apostate in the face".
I don't recall whether the Tome ever came up. It may have done in one battle and been smashed to bits. What does it do? We've only fought him twice so far so I'm sure we haven't seen every trick he can throw at us just yet. But I'm quite sure the fact that in our games H - 2 = 0 is a major contributing factor in our repeated successful kicking of his arse >:).
This. A hundred times this.
Legacy: "We need to take out his relics, team! Here, have this ongoing damage boost and Galvanize."
Wraith: "Sure thing! PEW! PEW! PEW!"
Visionary: "I see dead people."
Fanatic: "Relics? Pssh. I'm going to punch that jerk IN THE FACE. 8 damage, heretic!"
the gauntlets don't boost his damage, they just do damage themselves. The Periapt of Woe is the big one, though. It changes his 2+2+3 or 3+3+3 to 3+3+4 or 4+4+4. That's pretty brutal, especially with the gauntlets dealing out damage themselves.
The tome isn't that big of a deal for me, since with only 3 health it usually dies. Unless the orb is there, of course.
Ahh, okay, I thought the gauntlet was the one that did +1 melée damage every time Apostate himself deals damage.
The Gauntlets don't do +1 damage, per se. They do 1 damage, which is resisted or boosted separately to Apostate's damage, and Fanatic can prevent them from doing damage with Zealous Offence.