If the combo is broken, why does that interpretation make sense?
It’s not really that broken. It requires two heroes and one spell to remove one unit, or two heroes and two spells or one spell and one unit to remove two units. It’s hardly a winning strategy except in a few edge cases, specifically at a Tech 3 race.
My initial instinct was your interpretation as well, but I’m not sure how much more “broken” it is than any of two dozen other combos in Codex. It’s also supported by a plain reading of the text (not to mention it doesn’t require assigning abilities to things that have been “trashed”, which is defined as “removed from the game” so how could they have abilities?)
I just went through Google Cache of the old forums site, and all of the discussion there reflected @Metalize’s interpretation as well.
It’s “broken” in a sense that it’s the only mechanic in Codex that allows you to deny opponent a Unit forever for the rest of the game.
In an actual game it’s very edge case for this to really matter compared to simple “destroy a tech 3 unit” which many things already do. Technically, you can aim this combo at Tech 2 or lower unit, but the setup is so complicated that it’s hardly worth it.
And even if you manage to, your opponent can counterplay this by suiciding his hero, giving Prynn maxband again, then killing her and receiving his trashed unit back. Now, there are ways to deny this too, like Origin Story on your own Prynn, but at this point the amount of resources you’ve spent to achieve this unique effect justifies your reward.
Everything is broken. Therefore, nothing is.
When I read through the cards for the first time a couple weeks ago, Might of Leaf and Claw caught my attention. How could a card like that even exist??? As time went on, I discovered many, many other things that were similarly scary. Some were much scarier. Forget cross color synergies, most specs had plays that were just as devastating all by themselves. As I came to understand that lots of things had the power to end the game quickly or cripple an opponent, I came to judge them not mainly on power, but on how fast you could set them up, how many resources it took, the complexity of the plan and how vulnerable the pieces were to the many, many powerful defensive effects in the game.
My thinking now is that the challenge is not in finding a strategy powerful enough to win. They abound. In fact, I think just about every tech 3 is intended to be one, so you don’t even have to be clever. The challenge is in finding a strategy appropriate for the opponent such that its weaknesses don’t align with their defenses. And in finding one you can execute fast enough that it goes off before theirs does.
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If you Free Speech a player who has Prynn, doesn’t Prynn lose fading as well? It seems like if somehow the last fading rune was removed while you were silenced (maybe via Tinkerer or Seer), that Prynn would not die. Also, during your upkeep, she wouldn’t lose a rune. Is that correct?
Prynn would not lose a rune at upkeep, but if her last rune gets removed by something else, she still dies. Fading is two separate abilities:
- Arrives: Put X time runes on this. When the last one is removed, sacrifice this (even if this no longer has Fading).
- Upkeep: Remove a time rune from this.
side note: “Dies from fading” means “dies as a result of ability #2 removing the last time rune”
Ok, so since the Arrives trigger put the condition on her at a time when you were not silenced (when she hit play originally), you still can’t get around it? That seems to make sense.
Why would this be true? While she’s under Free Speech, she doesn’t have Fading, which means she ought not have the lose-last-rune-equals-death “ability”. So if you take a rune from her, it should have no effect.
It’s not just that she doesn’t have Fading. She should have no abilities while under Free Speech at all.
Here’s the real question: What if you summon Prynn while Free Speech is in effect? She comes into play with zero time runes… but still suffers from fading if later she attacks and gains one!
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I think that’s correct, and she would still die the turn after attacking. However, this doesn’t fit with what @EricF said above. Any official clarification?
I don’t see how a silenced Prynn would still die if tinkerer or something removes the last rune. There is effectively no fading ability on prynn at the time that tinkerer removes the rune.
I also agree with Bomber’s scenario.
ok, so Fading is 3 abilities?
- Arrives: put runes on this
- Upkeep: remove a rune
- “when the last time rune is removed from this, sacrifice it”
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That seems reasonable to me 
Also, both shimmer ray and yesterday’s golgort have ways to add time runes, so you could, for no good reason I can think of, add time runes to a mirror copy of them. Not sure how to get the mirror to revert to being a mirror with a time rune on it without dying, though.
“When the last one is removed, sacrifice this” is only present while the thing has Fading. If it is removed by Free Speech and you use Tinkerer to remove the last rune, she just gets to stick around forever I guess.
Yes, she will still suffer from fading. It won’t do anything to her if she never attacks though.
In regards to hero level up: If both you and the opponent have 2 active heroes each, and one of your heroes attacks with one of his heroes resulting in both heroes dying; do both of the remaining heroes get +2 or just the person who’s turn it is?
The rules state that any time a hero dies, an opposing hero levels up +2, so that would strongly suggest that the remaining hero on each side gets that two-level bonus.
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This is correct, both remaining heroes will level up, assuming they aren’t max already or affected by nether Drain or something.
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Question: does skeletal lord effect stack? i mean if i play a second SL all my skeles become +2/+2, right?