Yes, it does. When you encounter happens before evade even, because the moment you flip the card or place the summoned monster in front of you, the encounter has begun.
To help clear up the confusion over these terms, before and after the encounter are being renamed in Skull and Shackles.
To help clear up the confusion over these terms, before and after the encounter are being renamed in Skull and Shackles.
That's really helpful - I always found the "after the encounter this morning deals X damage" things odd - after the encounter, the card is back in the box...
They do have the attack trait. There is a little bit of discussion over here about them that is interesting.
Notice that there are lots of ways these kind of encounters can work out:
1. A monster that forbids "you" to play cards with the attack trait (Scarecrow Golem): The encountering character can't play it, but anyone else can. If it was already in effect, the effect would still apply.
2. A monster that has a Before the Encounter check that might prohibit "you" from playing cards with the attack trait (Goblin Warchanter): The encountering character and any other character can play it, because it would be played before the check that stops the Attack trait. If the encountering character failed, they couldn't play Swipe, but anyone else could.
3. A monster that had a Before the Encounter check that might prohibit anyone from playing cards with the Attack trait (Harpy): The encountering character and any other character can play it, because it would be played before the check that stops the Attack trait. Anyone that failed couldn't play Swipe.
4. A monster immune to the Attack trait: No one could play it on the encounter. But if it was already in effect, the effect would still apply (at least for the spells we've seen) since the dice that come from the spell don't have the Attack trait.
Because of how traits and immunity work. Here is the immunity rule:
If the card you’re encountering states that it is immune to a particular trait, players may not play cards with the specified trait, use powers that would add that trait to the check, or roll dice with that trait during the encounter.
When you play Toxic Cloud, the card has the Attack trait. But the traits of Toxic Cloud aren't added to the check, so only what traits are mentioned as being added in the power of the card.
Display this car when a character encounters a bane. Any character who encounters a monster this turn adds 1d6 with the Poison trait to her combat check. Discard this card at the end of this turn.
If you do not have the Arcane skill, banish this card.
So, looking at the rule:
1. Players may not play cards with the specified trait. Toxic Cloud was played earlier, so you aren't playing it now.2. Use powers that would add that trait to the check. Toxic Cloud isn't doing that either.
3. Roll dice with that trait during the encounter. Toxic Cloud's die have the Poison trait because the power told you that, but not the Attack trait. So this doesn't apply either.
So if a monster was immune to the Poison trait, you couldn't roll the die from Toxic Cloud. But the die doesn't have the Attack trait, so you can roll them if the card was already in effect even if the monster is immune to the Attack trait.