Rules Roundup 2019-02-11

Questions

• Does Grimlock's bot mode’s extra damage count as attack damage? If it does, and assuming Grimlock has 5 or more extra damage, how much damage does it do in the following situations:
  A. Damage is assigned to a bit with Force Field equipped.
  B. Damage is assigned to Insecticon Skrapnel in bot mode.
  C. Any bot that is protected by Motormaster alt mode skill.
  The extra damage is not attack damage, so if you are redirecting to a bot-mode Skrapnel or a character with a force field on it, they will take the full additional damage. On the other hand, a damage-capping effect on the character you’re attacking will be relevant. So, if you have a Skrapnel in bot-mode with 5 damage on him and Grimlock attacks him for say 10 damage, that damage will be reduced to 3 by Skrapnel’s ability, 2 of it will KO him, and the last point will be assigned to another character of the defending player’s choice.
• Does Defensive Driving completely negate Decepticon Shockwave - Cybertron Commander's bot mode ability?
  Yes, each damage is individual and not a lump sum so it will be reduced to zero.
• If you have a Stealthiness attached to Headstrong in his Alternate Mode, what happens? Does Brave trump the Stealth or vice versa?
  The opponent can choose to attack any available target; they essentially cancel each other out.
• Do you check for KO as soon as you calculate damage or is it at the end of the attack phase? Is there a specific order for extra damage calculation outside the normal attack? This matters because of Reckless Charge potentially KOing both attacker and defender simultaneously. It also matters because of Electrified Spikes.
  We are constantly checking for KO. In the case of Electrified Spikes, it will deal the damage to the attacker before combat damage is assigned. If the attacker is Ransack in bot-mode, he will benefit from the additional damage and increase his attack by 1.
• Grimlock in Bot mode attacks with 10 attack. Insecticon Skrapnel in Bot mode defends with 0 defense and 1 hp remaining. What would the transferred damage be? Will it transfer 2 damage or 9 damage?
  Two damage!
• Does Bombshell - Decepticon Psy Ops' effect trigger before or after battle cards are flipped for the attack?
  You choose to use his ability (or not) before cards are flipped by either player. If you do and the defending character is KO’d, nobody flips.
• If Bombshell - Decepticon Psy Ops uses its ability to KO an opponent's character card, does the battle end, or do you get to select a new target for an attack due to the original target no longer being active on your opponent’s side of the field?
  The battle ends. Bombshell is still swinging at the air where the defender used to be standing.
• Does Predaking just have 5 weapon slots, or 5 weapon slots and the usual 1 utility and armor slot?
  All characters will have the default slots unless otherwise specified. He has 5 weapon, 1 armor, 1 utility.
• If a combiner is KO'd, do each of its individual components get put into the KO space, or does it stay a combiner? If it's the components, do they get KO'd in bot mode?
  It is KO’d in combiner mode. That is generally the end of the game, but in corner cases like Volcanicus and REDACTED this can come up.
• Can you play action cards in your opponents turn when you’re responding to their attack and secondly can you have as many battle cards in your deck as you want, as long as it’s a minimum of 40?
  No, you may only play Actions if you have an Action play which is generally during your turn before you attack. You can have as many battle cards as you want over 40 as long as you can reasonably manage them.
• So the board is 1 Grimlock on Player 1’s side and a Metroplex and Scamper on Player 2’s side. Player 1 attacks Metroplex since Scamper is untapped and unable to be targeted. Then Grimlock gets enough attack to kill both characters with skill since Metroplex is heavily damaged and Scamper has low defense and life. So, since the Grimlock attacked Metroplex while Scamper had Heroism, I assume that since Heroism only changes where the damage goes and not the actual attack that the damage a character takes through the effect of Heroism is effect damage and not battle damage. I want to know the ruling because if the damage IS battle damage then Grimlock’s skill does trigger and Player 2 loses, since Scamper would die as the rollover would kill Metroplex but if it is effect damage, then Grimlock’s skill wouldn't trigger and only Scamper would be KO’d.
  The damage redirected by Heroism is still attack damage. So Scamper would take enough to get KO’d and then Grimlock’s ability would trigger and the defender would have to assign the extra damage to Metroplex.
• Say I have one tapped character without Brave, and one untapped character with Brave. My opponent has two untapped characters, one of which is Bumblebee - Legendary Warrior in Bot Mode. If my opponent flips Bumblebee to Alt Mode, will they be forced to choose Bumblebee as their attacker targeting the Brave character? Or, can they choose to attack with their other character, attacking the normal tapped target?
  They do not have to attack with the Bumblebee. Brave is only relevant when choosing the target of your attack, not when choosing your attacker. If they do choose to attack with Bumblebee, they will need to choose the Brave target.
• If I have a character with Pierce 2 (for example), and equip it with an upgrade that gives Pierce 4, the Pierce would be the greatest one or the sum of both?
  Pierce stacks, so it would be 6.
• Let's say that my opponent has 1 single untapped character with 2 defense. It is my turn and I have 2 or 3 characters, so I will attack multiple times. During my first attack my opponent flipped 1 or 2 blue icons. The question is: During my second attack, my opponent's character will start the battling with 2 defense or with 4 defense? Also, the same may happen with the orange icon if I got a way to attack twice with the same player in a turn?
  The Battle Icons you flip are only effective for that individual battle. Attack and Defense increases will not carry over.
• Skywarp in bot mode defends and I flip a white card and choose to redirect the damage to another character with Force Field. If the redirected damage is more than 5, does the other character's Force Field come in to play and reduce it to 4? Or is the redirected damage not considered attack damage and the other character takes the full 5+ damage?
  Still attack damage, the Force Field will apply.
• Do you reshuffle when you need to draw a card or immediately after you draw/flip/scrap your last card from your deck?
  Immediately when there are no cards in your deck.
• If I attack with Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend in Bot Mode, flip Roll Out!, and choose to play it, will my Optimus’ damage be calculated on his starting Bot Mode, or resulting Alt Mode?
  Attack damage is calculated after you use this ability, so the base will be 6.
• If I have Shockwave in play and my opponent has 2 characters with 1 damage left each (say Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend with 13 damage and Nemesis Prime with 15 damage) and I play System Reboot forcing them to discard 2 cards, can they choose to put both damage on Nemesis Prime or must they put 1 damage on each?
  Each card discarded creates a new instance of 1 damage, so they will be forced to put one damage on each.
• Can you also go into more depth about the rulings for Megatron - Living Weapon and Insecticon Skrapnel? I found it very confusing that MLW can swap a Weapon in his Armor Slot via Swap Parts and that Skrapnel treats Metroplex's 1 Damage to all Opponents as Attack Damage.
  The Skrapnel ruling has been corrected. The 1 damage to all opponents is not attack damage. The Megatron question is a little ambiguous. If you play Swap parts on a Megatron with a weapon in his armor slot, you can move it to another character and put it into their weapon slot. If Megatron had two weapons, you would have to choose which one the other character kept. If you are swapping a weapon from the other character to Megatron in bot mode, you can put it into any of his slots. If you are swapping a weapon and armor from another character to Megatron, Living Weapon in bot-mode, the legal assignments are (Weapon in the weapon slot, armor in the armor slot; Weapon in the utility slot, armor in the armor slot; weapon in the armor slot, armor also in the armor slot, then one of them gets scrapped).