Saw this game in my FLGS today, picked it up and I’m in love. Finally the gateway game for my wife. Thank you SOM!!!
On to the question:
It involves the order of effects when Wraith plays Throat Jab against Baron Blade with Backlash Field up. After Wraith deals damage, does she suffer from the 3 points returned from Backlash before the Throat Jabs second effect, target cannot deal damage until the start of Wraith’s next turn, or does the no damage effect take place prior to the Backlash smacking her?
Reading through the forums, I suspect…Wraith does damage, Backlash does damage, Baron no longer can damage until the start of Wraith’s next turn, but I want to be sure.
I think your assessment is correct. The effects of Throat Jab are written as two different sentences, so since the Backlash Field is triggered by the first sentence, I believe it would go off before The Wraith’s second sentence takes effect.
Actually given the current text of the elbow jab card, which now reads as:
the wraith deals 1 target 2 melee damage. The target dealt damage this way cannot deal damage until the start of your next turn.
Coupled with the clarification of Tachyon's Hypersonic Assault card in the rules FAQ, it now seems rather clear that the intended effect would be for Wraith to deal 2 melee damage to Baron Blade, at which point Blade can no longer deal damage until the start of Wraith's next turn, so the backlash field would be prevented from dealing any damage in response.
... Which makes like no sense, since he's ELECTRIFYING her, which shouldn't expend physical effort...
Honestly, the Backlash Field should be a device, with its own HP. It would make a lot more sense, given its purpose as a distraction. His whole deck is distractions; giving the player the option of hitting Blade to stop the moon from hitting the Earth or hitting the shocky wall thing that keeps hurting you makes a lot of sense, given his deck.
Yeah I tend to agree that the backlash field would have been better served as a target device so that it delt it's own damage (it definitely makes more sense :)). I also noticed after I made the post that in the rules FAQ, further down, it mentions the throat jab/backlash field scenario specifically and basically states what I just said, so I think we can call this case closed .
Backlash Field is reactive, not something that is constantly there. If you read the FFA#1, Wraith kicks him and then the Backlash triggers. Also the name, Backlash kind of gives that away.
Fun fact, if Backlash Field was actually a target, it would be much easier to get rid of because anyone that deals damage can destroy it and not requiring Ongoing Destruction.
On Tuesday, I found Mister Fixer with a pipe wrench and a driving mantis form is a very great way to deal with Baron Blade with a backlash field. Strike Blade, causing the backlash field to activate, redirect that to Baron Blade, which causes the backlash field to activate again (this time directly against Baron Blade).
I did something similar to Chairman Pike once...I made him damage himself, so he retaliated against himself. Nobody said it was easy being a crimelord....you have to set an example while occasionally making one, and there just aren't enough hours in the day to find different people for these jobs.
I always like doing that with Synaptic, Everyone is so focused on trying to actually hit Tachyon that they don't realize until too late that she's suckered them into a crossfire.
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