Ruling · 900.2
Crush and damage in the same activation
This rule is part of the Comprehensive Rules, where every cross-reference resolves in one page.
- Question
- A card reads "Crush N, deal damage". Does the damage land against the reduced Armor?
- Answer
- Yes. Ordinary activation Crush — and Smash with it — is hoisted to the front of the activation, before every damage clause and before the base hit.
- 900.2aActivation effects normally resolve in the order the card lists them. Armor setup is the exception: ordinary Crush and Smash effects are moved to the front, keeping their order relative to each other, and everything else stays in authored order behind them.
- 900.2bThis is deliberate — armor setup must land before the numbers it is meant to change. It applies whether the card lists the Crush or Smash first or last.
- 900.2cThe hoisted types are Crush on the target, Crush on a scope, Crush on all enemies, Smash on the target, and Smash on a scope.
- 900.2dCrush restricted to Frozen enemies is deliberately not hoisted. It stays in authored order so that a Freeze earlier in the same ability can establish which enemies qualify.
- 900.2eBecause Crush lasts 2 seconds, the reduction also covers post-damage riders and any damage-over-time tick that happens to land inside the window — though Burn and Venom ignore Armor anyway, so it does not help them.
- 900.2fRelentless blocks Crush, so against a Relentless target the hoisting happens but nothing is reduced.
See also Crush Relentless Freeze Tremor