I'd love to have the interaction between Explode and Armor Ward/Anvil Throne Warlord runes explicitly clarified.
The interpretation that my friends and I have universally agreed on is that if you successfully cast Explode, then an effect prevents the equipment destruction, that does NOT prevent the attack from occurring.
Nothing in the rules text for Explode indicates that the attack is conditional on the item actually being destroyed, it just has "Effect 1,
then Effect 2".
However, thematically that doesn't sit well with us. We previously assumed the attack is the
result of the item destruction (since it comes after, the spell is an incantation, etc.), but now they seem totally unrelated. If e.g. Forcefield blocks the attack (works on
Unavoidable attacks unless I'm mistaken), that doesn't prevent the destruction. If the destruction is blocked via a rune, that doesn't prevent the attack.