Damage Through Cleanup

A 5-Might unit with 3 damage still has 5 Might. Ordinary lethal damage is a nonzero marked amount at least equal to current Might, unless an effect changes the lethal requirement. A 0-Might unit with no damage does not die simply for having 0 Might; at least 1 damage is needed for ordinary lethal damage.

Now reduce the damaged 5-Might unit by 2 Might. It has 3 Might and 3 marked damage, so it dies at the next lethal check unless a qualifying replacement changes that event. Increasing its Might instead can keep the same marked damage nonlethal. Neither change erased the damage; you changed the value against which it is checked.

Prevention is a replacement effect set up in advance to reduce the next damage it covers during its stated duration. Include applicable Bonus Damage in the amount, then reduce the incoming damage by the remaining prevention value, never below zero. Spend only the amount actually prevented from that tracked value. A value of “all” continues to prevent all qualifying damage until its duration ends.

A 4-Might unit has 1 damage and prevention for the next 3 damage this turn. A 2-damage event is fully prevented: mark no new damage and 1 prevention remains. A later 2-damage event loses 1 to the remaining prevention, so mark 1 new damage. The unit now has 2 damage, and that prevention is exhausted. Fully prevented damage is not dealt and does not create an ability that triggers when damage is taken.

After a resolving spell, complete its instructions and then make the required check. Units with lethal damage die; survivors keep their marked damage. You cannot insert a healing Reaction after the spell has finished but before that automatic lethal check. A legal earlier Reaction can change the eventual outcome, but it uses the response window before the damage spell resolves.

A 4-Might unit starts with no damage. A spell deals 2 and the unit survives ordinary Cleanup with 2 still marked. A later spell deals another 2. The next ordinary check sees 4 marked damage and kills it. Ready, Exhaust, Move and Recall do not by themselves clear that damage. An effect that says Heal does clear it at the indicated time.

Combat damage is assigned first and then dealt. Damage replacements, including prevention, apply during assignment instead of waiting for the later Deal step. Track the prevention used during that assignment; do not apply it a second time when the assigned result is dealt. For lethal assignment requirements, account for applicable prevention: a 2-Might unit with no existing damage and prevention for the next 3 damage requires 5 assigned damage to reach lethal after prevention.

The official FAQ compares prevention and doubling on one unit: the damaged unit’s controller, the player who controls it, orders those replacements during assignment, and the order can change both the damage that will be dealt and the prevention remaining. Keep the resulting assigned damage and the remaining prevention recorded through the later simultaneous Deal step. Assigning and dealing are distinct events even though the replacements have already been applied.

After damage is dealt, Combat Cleanup checks lethal damage and handles deaths before its added healing step. It heals all surviving units, including units elsewhere on the board. Then attackers are Recalled if defenders remain as specified. Thus a damaged survivor outside the current battlefield can heal here, but a lethally damaged combat unit cannot wait to be saved by that later healing. Resolve resulting Chain abilities before moving on to the Combat result.

End-of-turn effects happen before the expiration procedure. That procedure checks lethal damage, heals survivors, expires all “this turn” effects simultaneously, and empties every player’s Rune Pool. Changes can cause further ordinary checks, and handling cards or abilities on the Chain can require restarting the expiration step. The turn advances only after that required work.

A unit is temporarily at 5 Might and has 4 damage when expiration begins. It is not lethally damaged at the initial check, so it heals before the temporary Might increase expires; losing that increase afterward does not resurrect the old 4 damage. If it instead began that check with 5 damage, it would die before the healing step. If an expiration-created ability later deals new damage, that damage and any required checks must be handled in the actual sequence; “the turn is ending” is not permission to skip them.