The "Forced" text of this card states that "After Hummerhorns engages you, deal 5 damage to a single hero you control."

My reading of that is that the damage is only dealt if the enemy becomes non-optionally engaged with you. In other words, and by contrast, if the player optionally chooses to engage the enemy, than Hummerhorns has not engaged the player and therefore the "Forced" text doesn't trigger.

Is this a hypertechnical reading of the rule, or do you think my ruling is correct?

Thematically, I think my view makes sense. If the enemy engages with the player, they receive this initial benefit (which thematically you might think of as "surprise", "getting the drop on your opponent", "initiative", etc.), but if the player engages them, there is no surprise (at least by the enemy) and therefore no benefit.

Thoughts?

mshieldsdunn said:

this is a commonly asked question and the answer is it works both ways - you get the damage if you engage it or it engages you. the same is for similar cards that state 'when x engages you'

rich

richsabre said:

Thanks for the quick response and apologies that I was not able to find another thread on point before posting.

mshieldsdunn said:

oh its no problem, happy to help