So here is something that I have been wondering/ dreading to know the truth about:

I EVERY play-through I've seen, when a doomed card or surge card comes out in setup, they fulfill the keyword. But unless it has been changed, in the rulebook, it defines both surge and doomed as something like this: "when revealed in staging step, ect..." I would like to think that there is no erretra but if everyone else does it this way, maybe there is.

The FAQ says:

(1.01) Encounter Keywords

Surge, Doomed, and Guarded keywords should be resolved any time the card on which they occur is revealed from the encounter deck, including during setup.

Sorry man!

sad face. thanks anyway

From the developer's secret edition of the rulebook:

Ambiguity in the interpretation of card wording which creates false hop e confusion for the player is not undesirable Such ambiguity shall always be resolved in a manner that screws challenges the players."

lol! yah, I gave heard it said many times that if there are two different options rules wise, the creators probably chose the harder one so just to assume that.