Nick Fury: Patch + Flying Car: Fly By

[rawtravel]

Nick Fury: Patch "While Nick Fury is active, your unblocked Avengers character dice deal double combat damage to your opponent."
Flying Car: Fly By "Target character die you control deals combat damage to the defending player as if not blocked (instead of to blocking characters). Then sacrifice it.

Scenario 1
I have Nick Fury and a different Avenger character active in my field. I attack with one Avenger character die only. My opponent assigns a blocker to the Avenger die. I use Flying Car targeting my Avenger die during global window, before damage is assigned.

Scenario 2
I have Nick Fury and a different Avenger character active in my field. I use Flying Car targeting my Avenger die during my Main step. I attack with one Avenger character die only. My opponent assigns a blocker to the Avenger die. ?

Questions:
1.) In either scenario, will the Avenger die deal double damage to opponent, because if Nick Fury's ability, or not, because the Avenger die is blocked?
2.) Is "as if not blocked" (from Flying Car) the same as "unblocked" (from Nick Fury)?
3.) Is the Avenger die then sacrificed, either way?

[dmrulesteam]

1.) In either scenario, will the Avenger die deal double damage to opponent, because of Nick Fury's ability, or not, because the Avenger die is blocked?

In both of these scenarios, the attacking Avengers die has been blocked. It’s just that the damage from the attacker is not assigned to the blockers. Therefore, Nick Fury’s ability is not applicable.

Flying Car’s ability modifies how a blocked target character die assigns its combat damage (the damage from the attacker is assigned directly to the defending player instead of any of its blockers) with a stipulation that the attacker would then go to the Used Pile because of the “sacrifice” effect.

2.) Is "as if not blocked" (from Flying Car) the same as "unblocked" (from Nick Fury)?

No. In this context, if the attacker is blocked, it does not deal damage to any of its blockers but directly to the defending player “as if not blocked”. The attacker is still considered to have been blocked for any other applicable abilities (like Nick Fury’s).

3.) Is the Avenger die then sacrificed, either way?

The attacker is only sacrificed if it deals combat damage to the defending player.

Flying Car: Fly By is an example of a cause and effect ability. Most abilities that have multiple effects connected with the word “then” denote a cause and effect relationship, i.e. if the first effect is not resolved, the second effect cannot be applied. These types of abilities do not follow the meta-rule “do as much as you can”. The general sequence would be ‘do X, then if able, do Y’: meaning initiate X (first effect), if successful, complete Y (second effect). If you cannot do X, you cannot complete Y. Also, you cannot do Y before doing X. Specifically to Flying Car’s ability, if the target character die cannot deal combat damage to the defending player (first effect or “X”), you would not sacrifice that die (second effect or “Y”).