If Yellow Darius is buffing a recruit, and both take damage in combat where Darius takes lethal damage and the recruit takes 1 damage (which would be lethal without Darius's buff), does the recruit survive?

Ruling: The recruit survives when damage is dealt during combat. Darius dies first, then combat healing occurs before the recruit would be checked for death again.

Sequence:

  • Step 2 of cleanup occurs, checking for units with lethal damage
  • Darius dies in this step, removing his buff
  • Combat healing is inserted (step 2a) and heals all units
  • The recruit is healed before a second iteration of cleanup would check for deaths
  • The recruit survives

Nuances:

  • This ruling only applies to combat damage. With non-combat damage, the recruit would die because there is no combat healing step inserted after the first cleanup iteration.