I can try!
Without overpower/Stampede, killing something by deathtouch is only exactly lethal if it deals exactly 1 damage. Any other amount isn’t exactly lethal, because preventing 1 damage still sees them dead.
With overpower/Stampede, deathtouch effects are ignored when calculating how much damage carries over to an overpower target. This means that, if any damage carries over, the original target cannot have been dealt exactly lethal damage, even if it’s only dealt 1: if 1 damage was stopped, it would just reduce the overpower damage a bit instead.
Therefore, if any damage is carried over, Focus Master can’t help the original target. He can save the overpower target, however, if it’s dealt exactly 1 deathtouch damage.
This makes sense once laid out, I think, but you could easily think the Focus Master can save the original target, too.
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Oh, and I think this situation is also possible for Green, thanks to Blooming Elm: if an attacker has both sparkshot and overpower, you can only ignore the original target when choosing a target for overpower damage, not anything killed by sparkshot.
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Awesome!
Sounds like the reasoning there, if we’re being specific about timing, is that the regular attack damage, overpower damage, and sparkshot damage are all part of the attack and happen simultaneously. Is that correct?
Yes, that’s correct. The overpower text is rather vague, but it’s interpreted as “something attacker could target if original target wasn’t there”, not “something attacker can attack now that original target isn’t there”.
This also means you need 1 gold to overpower onto a backline Setsuki, but you don’t actually spend it.
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How does that work with Setsuki? How come the ruling doesn’t have to “pick a lane” and either say you have to pay or not?
Oh dude, reading up on that Setsuki thing. It’s just like the Flagbearer thing, eh? Where the “can be a target” wording includes economic issues that I would intuitively assign to be outside of the scope of targeting.
Yes, that is an excellent clarification reminder.
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You know it’s a good rule when someone’s reaction to it is “oh, dude”.
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My first reaction was “I can’t even”
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