Undead taking double damage from Earth

[Alex319]

As discussed in this answer, because Earth Blade is in the "Healing" effect group, an undead creature whose card says "Takes double damage from healing" WILL take double damage from an Earth Blade enchanted weapon.

However, this response confuses me for a couple reasons:

1. The spell "Earth Storm" is also in the Healing effect group and also causes Earth damage, but this one explicitly states the damage is not doubled (ARB p.71 and p.116). Is it the intent that these are different, and Earth Blade doubles the damage while Earth Storm does not?

2. It is possible for a weapon to be swinging Earth damage even if no magic in the Healing effect group is involved, such as having an "Earth Aura" ritual cast on it. Will a weapon swinging "Earth" due to having an Earth Aura ritual also have its damage doubled? If not, how is an NPC being hit by a weapon swinging Earth supposed to know whether the Earth was provided by an Earth Blade (damage doubled) or Earth Aura (damage not doubled)?

 

[Polare]

Earth damage, as part of the Healing effect group, will generally do double damage to Undead no matter what the source.

Earth Storm has an explicit exception to this rule and will do exactly as the spell says.

We encourage players to consult the Alliance rulebook, and/or post questions in the Marshal Questions forum, before posting questions in this forum. Both of these answers can be found in the Alliance rulebook text.

Thank you,
Bryan Gregory
ARC