EDIT: I somehow missed that melt armor does damage, it all makes sense now and clearly works exactly as it should. I had an oppenent play Melt Armor on me the other day, my character discarded his armor and then succesfully rolled for Hard To Pin Down. I'm assuming that its a bug that the card discards armor before it checks for blocks. However if this is the intended design, shouldn't it just be given Unblockable? It seems that it shouldn't be able to remove armor and use up a block!
The Melt Armor. A plays Melt Armor. B immediatly discards his oldest armor card. Then system checks for blocks. 1-your case 2-Melt armor isn't blocked and B takes one damage unless he has a second armor that can prevent the damages (or the unit that played the Melt Armor was buffed like with an unholy wellspring. If you check War Cry, it has the key word immediatly too and not unblockable. But as all block cards are discarded, you can't block this one.
OH! I'm an idiot. Didn't even notice it had damage! Was thinking it was like dissolve armor, but only effected one piece of armor. Thanks guys, this one's a little embarrassing!
Don't worry dude. It's really confusing. I definitely had a thread during AotA testing where I was like "what's the difference between Dissolve and Melt Armor, besides range?" And Jon explained that Immediately occurs before blocks. Seems weird, like an unnecessary distinction in this case at least. I'd rather Melt Armor be Unblockable, and in the case of cards like Staggering Blow the rules text should detail when the discard happens (e.g. "Target discards the two oldest revealed cards in its hand before it can block.")
Ummm so I'll tell you the difference. Melt Armor can draw a block AND remove armor. I had a match (playing 3 D-wiz of course) I lost my reliable mail and my block. This is a total rip off. So I didn't take 1 point of damage... woo-hoo. I think it is a broken card. The idea of blocking the secondary effect but not the primary is ludicris. The only reason more people are not pissed about this is that there is only 1 item with melt armor (although could be very useful against the AotA dragon). I really really really think this should be 0 damage and unblockable.
Actually, I frequently use armor destruction (especially this item) to draw blocks, particularly Reflect Missile and Reflecting Block.
Again I think it is great to have an unblockable armor destruction and I think drawing out blocks is an important strategy... BUT being able to destroy the armor AND remove the block... that is a card advantage and a play mechanism that just doesn't make sense. It is literally the unique card that you hope your block fails against and that has a significant effect.
