Ruling · 900.5
Does a unit killed this activation still count?
This rule is part of the Comprehensive Rules, where every cross-reference resolves in one page.
- Question
- A post-damage rider counts enemies with some status. The hit just killed the only one. Is it counted?
- Answer
- No. Every count reads living, targetable units at the moment the clause resolves.
- 900.5aCounts are never snapshotted at the start of an activation. Each counted clause samples the board when it resolves.
- 900.5bThe candidate pool for any enemy or ally count is filtered to units that are alive, not Entrapped, not Dormant, and not untargetable. A unit that died to this activation's damage fails the first of those.
- 900.5cPost-damage riders resolve after the hit, so they see the post-hit board. That is the whole point of the lane — Cull relies on it.
- 900.5dThe same filter means Tools and Hubs are never included in a unit count, even when they are adjacent and alive. A clause that wants Tools must count adjacent Tools explicitly.
- 900.5eThe practical consequence is a common trap: a card that applies a status and then scales a payoff off units carrying that status gets nothing when its own hit removes the last carrier.
Rules 400.3 "Per" clauses and counted values 400.7 When a printed line resolves