Rules Questions thread

If that’s how both players having a Flagbearer in play works, then I think so, yes. The alternative is that the ability is activated without being played by anyone, which doesn’t seem right. But then, Flagbearers triggering opposing Flagbearer’s effects like that doesn’t seem right either.

My personal take is that the active player proceeds as if the flagbearer’s werent there. I do not believe your own flagbearer is intended to force you to make decisions about your own units, even if there is a flagbearer on the opposing side. That said, Orpal’s maxband is a pretty narrow case for “opponent’s ability with choices made by active player” so I really dont have any idea.

I think that is the reasonable interpretation, yes. I’m only doubting it because the Flagbearer text is curiously specific. If it’s a mistake, it’s one that takes more effort to write than the correct version.

@sharpobject, your thoughts?

That is a shockingly good point. I can’t find anything in the rulebook or this thread that says Orpal’s maxband (or any other “triggered” ability like “Attacks:”) is actually “played.”

The only time “played” is referenced is in the context of playing cards and abilities in your own main phase. So, Drill Sergeant’s ability would be “played” but Bamstamper Lizzo’s is not, since it triggers on Arrival, not voluntarily.
That would imply that triggered abilities are never affected by flagbearer text (although resost and untargetable would still work, since they don’t reference “playing”)

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Another Orpal interaction question. If midband Orpal tries to sacrifice an Illusion (without Macciatus), does he target that Illusion and cause it to die, therefore failing to sacrifice it? My thinking is no, because I assume the targeting applies to the ability’s effects rather than its cost, but I have no solid basis for that opinion at this point… just my own intuition.

That is correct. Paying costs (stuff before the arrow) never :target:

Taken from the Sirlin Games Discord server:

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Not what I expected, but makes sense! Thanks to all involved.

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@dreamshade if you’re still updating the revised rulebook, this would be a good clarification somewhere.

If Rook with Two Lives is attacked with Overpower the excess damage doesn´t go to the “resurrected” Rook but to something else. But if I attack Rook with two units and the first one takes his first live: does the second unit attack Rook again with his second life or can/does it have to attack anything else?

And another question: If I assimilate the Bird’s Nest and have a Rook by myself: can I keep the nest in this case?

2nd unit does have to attack Rook. Unlike indestructible, two lives doesn’t exhaust upon lethal damage.

We can infer that you do get to keep Bird’s Nest in that scenario from this ruling…

If you use this to steal an ongoing channeling spell such as Two Step, but you don’t control the appropriate hero to channel that spell, it’s immediately discarded. — Sirlin, 03/11/16

… because otherwise there would be no need for the qualifying clause “but you don’t…” in the ruling.

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Each unit attacks as a completely seperate thing, so Nekoatl is correct.

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Do Jurisdiction and Graveyard require you to pay the cost of, e.g., Polymorph: Squirrel or Crashbarrow, if Guargum, Eternal Sentinel or Pirate-Gang Commander allows you to play those cards for free? I’m thinking no, as G,ES and P-GC don’t specify how or from where you must play the cards in order to be able to do so for free, but I didn’t find any official ruling on general consensus on this point.

Related question, does Guargum allow you to bypass resist when targeting? This seems less clear to me. If the resist cost is part of the cost of playing the spell, then I’d think yes, but if the resist cost is separate, then no. So, I ask, is it legal to play a spell if the only thing that spell can legally target has a resist cost and you don’t have the gold? E.g., let’s say I have River Montoya in play, channeling Harmony and the only unit in play is my opponent’s Pirate Gunship. I have $1 and Deteriorate in hand. Can I play Deteriorate, have it fail to apply -1/-1 to anything due to lack of a legal target, but get a Dancer from the Harmony proc? If so, then I’d think Guargum doesn’t bypass resist, but if not, I’d think he does.

No, you don’t have to pay. I know for sure because the combo graveyard-maestro is often use to replay your virtuosos for free. PGC and guargum work the same, but you’d admit that having a tech 3 unit is much less likely than Gy+maestro.

Maestro is worded differently; it doesn’t let you “play for free”, but instead reduces the cost to $0. So, technically, the player is paying $0 to play the Virtuosos. I think the result is the same, but the details to get there are different.

Found an answer in the history of this topic:

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Guargum does not let you skip paying the reisst cost. The "free’ designation has more to do with “readable” rules text than it does with the actual function. Maestro and Guargum both function identically, as does Rich Earth. Free sets the current cost to $0, and then other effects can increase it back up, like the map rule increasing the cost of workers, or resist cost increasing the cost of a spell.

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If I trash Fading Argonaut with Max Geigers Max-Ability: Does he return to play with 3 time runes? I knew it but don´t find it anymore.