Redirections and Reductions

We had as situation come up recently, and I wanted some opinions. We were playing against Baron Blade, and one of my buddies was playing Mister Fixer. He had Pipe Wrench (out first) and Driving Mantis. Baron Blade got out a Backlash Field. Thus the question arose… when Baron Blade deals 3 backlash damage, can you have the Pipe Wrench reduce it by 1 (to 2) and then redirect it with Driving Mantis? The order of processing effects (since Pipe Wrench was down first) seems to make this ok, but somehow I thought that all redirections and stuff happened first, and then reductions didn’t happen until you were actually taking the damage.

What are ya’ll’s thoughts?

I had a long conversation with Christopher about this back in Feb and the results weren’t conclusive. That being said, my general impression is:

• Determine Source
• Determine initial target
• Determine increase/reduction based on source
• Determine increase/reduction based on initial target
• Determine redirect and, if so, final target
• Remove increase/reduction based on initial target
• Determine increase/reduction based on final target

So, given your directions, it would go like this:

1. Source is Baron Blade
2. Initial target is Mister Fixer
3. No increase or reduction
4. Reduce damage by 1 to 2
5. Driving Mantis lets you redirect to someone else (say, the Baron)
6. Remove the reduction, so 2 becomes 3
7. No increase/reduction

So in the end the Baron Blade takes 3 damage?

Pipe Wrench is a static effect while Driving Mantua is a trigger effect. I will play it exactly as arenson9.

Yup