If opponent has a damaged tech building and the 4 damage is enough to destroy it but his base is undamaged, the base will take 2 damage from the destruction of the tech building but none from the spell. This is due to that you never read twice the same sentence. So you deal 4 damage to the damaged buildings, which upon destruction cause the base to take 2 damage , but then you are at the “Deal 1 damage to all their undamaged buildings.” line and the base is no more an undamaged building. — Sirlin
In no other case do you do other things in the middle of resolving a spell - why would you deal 2 damage to the base when destroying a Tech building, prior to the “deal 1 damage to undamaged buildings”?
The 2 bonus damage to the base occurs simultaneously with the damage to (and destruction of) a tech building; it’s not a separate thing that occurs afterward. You would be correct if the card read “Deal 4 damage to all an opponent’s damaged buildings and 1 damage to all their undamaged buildings”, but because Earthquake is worded to have two distinct steps, the base damage occurs before the second step.
This sequence of events occurs because Tactician is a triggered ability, and dying from damage is just considered a part of taking damage. This matters because effects go on a queue in Codex. The second post of this thread has a good explanation of this in general, but here’s a detailed explanation of this example:
Play Shadow Blade, targeting Bugblatter (effects to be resolved: “bugblatter takes 3 damage” then “if bugblatter dies from shadow blade, its controller discards a random card”)
Put 3 damage chits on Bugblatter. As part of this action, Bugblatter dies and goes to the discard pile. Bugblatter’s effect and Technician’s effect go on the queue. (effects to be resolved: “if bugblatter dies from shadow blade, its controller discards a random card”, then “bugblatter’s controller draws a card” and “active player’s base takes 1 damage”)
Bugblatter’s controller discards a random card. Shadow Blade goes to the discard. (effects to be resolved: “bugblatter’s controller draws a card” and “active player’s base takes 1 damage”)
Next on the queue are two simultaneous effects, so active player chooses the order of:
4a. Deal 1 damage to the active player’s base
4b. Bugblatter’s controller draws a card
Queue is now empty, so active player is free to do whatever they want to do next
Agreed. This seems way less intuitive than “Earthquake deals 1 damage to your base if it was undamaged before it destroyed a Tech building.”
…though truth be told, it’s a difference of exactly 1 damage to base. Meaningful, sure. Annoying, yes. But ultimately not something I’m going to lose sleep over until it loses me Codex grand finals at FSX2017.
Hey guys my cousin is in need of clarification. Does abomination give -1 -1 in the form of runes. (My answer no). He is thinking it does therefore synergizing with plague lord
nope. Anything that gives out -1/-1 runes will explicitly say so like the Plague Lords “Put a -1/-1 rune on each opposing unit and hero.” Think of the abominations effect like a aura or something instead. The Abominations aura is a constant affect rather then something that needs to be applied, and it effects your own units.
Wait. I know Codex wordings are loose in the interest of sounding natural, but are you Seriously arguing that there is a meaningful distinction between the actual card text of “Deal 4 damage to all an opponent’s damaged buildings. Deal 1 damage to all their undamaged buildings.” and your hypothetical card text of “Deal 4 damage to all an opponent’s damaged buildings and 1 damage to all their undamaged buildings”…?
If the design intent is for it to work the way you suggest, then the card needs errata along the lines of
"Deal 4 damage to all an opponent’s damaged buildings. THEN, AFTER THAT Deal 1 damage to all their undamaged buildings"
Uh… yeah, I am arguing that. It really doesn’t seem that strange to me? They’re two separate sentences printed on two separate lines, indicating two separate abilities.
Again, to quote Shadow Blade:
“Deal 3 damage to a patroller.
If it dies from Shadow Blade, its controller discards a card at random.”
Those are also two separate sentences printed on two separate lines. By your logic, that would indicate two separate abilities, so there would be time for Technician to insert itself between them.
And don’t say, “No, the ‘If’ makes them into one ability despite the separate lines and the period.”
'Cause then you’re just making rules up arbitrarily.
They are two separate abilities. Technician can’t insert itself between them, because effects go on a queue, not a stack (see post #2). Technician gets triggered during Shadow Blade’s first ability, but isn’t resolved until after SB’s second ability is resolved.
Anytime you have multiple sentences (or only multiple sentence on separate lines?) you have separate abilities, and there is timing to trigger things between them.
There is not timing to resolve abilities between them, and patroller slot effects count as abilities?
(I have to dispute this part, because then Midori would never give +1/+1 to patrollers, because they would no longer be “units with no abilities”. Midori doesn’t make any distinctions between “printed on the card” and “acquired from patrolling”.)
Damage to base from a tech building popping is not merely a result of the tech building popping, but happens simultaneously with the tech building popping, and is not a triggered ability.
Aside from the problem with calling patroller effects abilities, I can at least see how that hangs together as a logical argument.
My argument would be that the patroller slot effects are not abilities, but are instead a separate class of game effect. From the Rules .pdf:
“Each of your five patrol slots gives a different bonus on opponents’ turns”
It specifically does not use the word “ability.”
Also: “Lookout: Gets resist 1.” Note how it doesn’t just say, “Resist 1”; a non-ability game rule effect is granting an ability to the unit. (Though I know this is less relevant as it is not triggered.)
And in my mind, I don’t see how the triggered bonus effect is different from a triggered damage effect (tech building pops: base takes damage). If one should happen simultaneously, so should the other.
