Sky-Scraper's Giant form card got me to thinking… Though the examples I'll list for this are all going to be from the base set, so that those who don't have Wrath of the Cosmos can follow along here.
There's two cards I'm going to look at; firstly is obviously Visonary's "Twist the Ether", which I believe to be one of the best cards in the game- its versatility is unmatched for both offensive and defensive purposes, and the two of them can practically take down Dark Watch Gloomweaver on their own, making an otherwise difficult villain into a complete joke. Alternatively, paired with Flesh of the Sungod, it can make you immune It reads as follows:
TWIST THE ETHER
Ongoing
Play this card text to a target. Whenever that target would deal damage, the damage type changes to a type of your choice and is either reduced by 1 or increased by 1, your choice.
If the target leaves play, destroy this card.
Then the next card I'm going to use is sort of a double whammy as it allows me to ask both the questions I need to about Twist the Ether, and that is Haka's "Rampage":
RAMPAGE
One-Shot
Haka deals each non-hero target 5 melee damage and each hero target 2 melee damage.
Now, the questions this raises are as follows:
Haka would most certainly be dealing damage to multiple heroes this way, assuming no one is incapacitated. Assuming the team in question is Visionary, Haka, and Absolute Zero, you likely want to deal Cold damage to Absolute Zero, and increase that damage. But with Haka and Visionary, obviously you want to reduce it. Do the rules let you select separately for each target? I lean towards a no, it's an all or nothing with this one since it's only listed on the card as one source of damage, but I could easily see it being allowed nonetheless, due to the fact that each target has damaged calculated separately.
Assuming that I'm correct in 1's ruling, that raises another question: Can the 5 melee damage and the 2 melee damage be altered separately regardless? I would argue yes in this case, since they're listed on the card as two different types of damage. Though once again, I can see it being argued the other way. Logically, if I'm wrong on 1, then I must be right on 2 since each target is calculated separately, though I could be right on 1 and wrong on 2.
What are your thoughts? I'd especially love comments from playtesters or even better yet, the big three.
Yep, every instance of damage is treated seperately.
But Wait! There's more!
If the damage you alter is redirected, the damage resets to its original type and amount and you get to redo your alteration.
This is insane.
Take Mr. Fixer and Driving Mantis. You have TtE on a big bad thing that tries to deal our beloved Mr. Fixer 3 melee damage, you reduce it to 2 "Smell of burnt toast" damage, which he then redirects via Driving Mantis back at the big bad thing. Then it resets to 3 melee damage, you are now able to alter it to 4 "fluffy bunny" damage to the bad guy.
That is totally legal and the way the card is supposed to work.
(Changing damage to non-official damage types is not legal)
We always make up our own damage types, the fun is then having the group minus the player who came up with the damage choose the legal damage type that it counts as in game, if we feel like it.
Burnt Toast would be fire, Fluffy Bunny damage would be infernal.
