as long as there is a soul S attached, it will not die from ephemeral at EoT.
Abilities trigger only once.
[Blood] demonology finesse is interesting to me
Crashb still has just 2 hp, tho. Is hard for it not to die from the defender’s attack.
That said, try it and let us know 
I for one have much confidence in my [present]/feral/truth :^)
Right, the stars need to align for it to work
(crashbarrow+discord+soulstone)
Ephemeral means that things die at the end of every turn, including your opponent’s. So it’s tricky to get them to stick around (I guess Second Chances could do it though?)
6 Likes
D: I totally missed that!!!
I didnt realize that ! My Ephemeral will survive end of my turn but die at end of opponent turn.
sad crashbarrow.
Another question with Focus Master
Does his ability trigger only in the controller’s turn ?
If I have FM and my opponent deals exactly lethal damage to my SQl does he have to remove a focus rune from my FM to save my patroller?
I’m pretty sure it applies on opponent’s turns too. FM’s text includes the word “whenever”, so there’s no choice involved. If one of your units takes exactly lethal damage, and you have a FM in play with any runes on, you must remove one to save the unit.
So basically if opponent deals exactly lethal to two units of mine at the same time (sparkshot) and my FM had only 1 rune left, the opponent will be able to choose which unit dies and which unit is saved…
Oh, no that wouldn’t happen - it’s a general rule that opponents can’t make choices for you on their turn.
That’s an interesting edge case. I guess that in that case the FM wouldn’t be used to save either unit - but it’s an interesting one for @sharpobject to enlighten us on 
i think that in that case, like for second chances the one saved by the last rune is just random
1 Like
Except that second chances explicitly says “(choose randomly if multiple leave at once)” - there is no similar text on FM.
I await the official ruling, but I was reasoning by analogy with things like Garth’s maxband. If one of your heroes dies on your own turn, you can choose to give the free levels to the opponent’s Garth, and if that maxes him the ability fizzles because it involves a choice.
1 Like
No, it specify it on Second Chance. This time a choice need to be made and since no choice can be made, it fizzle and both thing die.
2 Likes
That doesn’t seem right either… For example, if your hero dies, and your opponent has two heroes in play who could get levels, you as the active player need to decide to give one of them two levels - you can’t say “oh this is a choice that you would otherwise make, so it fizzles.”
I don’t see why Focus Master’s ability would be excluded from that same treatment. It’s a similarly bounded choice from very few options: one these two (or three) things dies. Compare that to a choice that does fizzle, like Geiger’s maxband, which has the ability to pick any unit on the board, friendly or not, has the target symbol, etc.
@sharpobject could you clarify the types of decisions which are required to be made by the active player, and the types that fizzle? Is it simply that the latter have a target symbol and the former don’t?
3 Likes
That’s an interesting summary. I don’t think I agree though - I thought that anything involving your opponent having to make a choice on your turn “fizzles”. (It certainly seems arbitrary to say that a choice from 2 or 3 things is OK, but one from say 5 units that the Geiger player controls is “unbounded” and therefore different.)
You raise the issue of one of your heroes dying on your turn, but for that one the rules explicitly state that the active player (whos hero has just died) gets to make the choice. This is a global game rule, not something due to a card effect. I think all card effects specify that it is the player controlling them who makes the decision.
I’m very far from certain though, so I await the official clarification.
1 Like
Actually, I think my line of argument is incorrect in the comment above, but still think that Focus Master still gets to activate and it is the active player that chooses which damage is prevented. The reason is that the active player determines the order in which simultaneous effects are resolved.
So exactly lethal damage is assigned to two targets simultaneously. Focus Master has one rune and activates, active player decides which point of lethal damage gets seen “first”? The reason I distinguish between Focus Master and Geiger’s maxband is that the latter’s ability is worded as a clear choice, whereas Focus Master’s is passive. It happens to result in this situation in a choice needing to be made, but it’s worded as a dumb “if X always do Y” effect, so it feels more incorrect (to me) to say “it doesn’t happen at all”, compared to “this is how you determine what happens.”
Again, still not 100% confident in this line of reasoning, and hope that it can be answered from on-high and added to the card specific rulings in the database.
5 Likes
Also I believe a clear reasoning for this is that it doesn’t refer to “you”, unlike all of the abilities that fizzle during your opponents turn.
4 Likes
I think this is similar to a different case. If I kill three units at the same time while Reteller of Truths is out, which two go back to hand? I’ve always ruled this as active player chooses which two actually die ‘first’. This is a case of simultaneous effects, not of an ability being triggered that requires a choice. The Reteller never gets to choose which units come back to hand, and the Focus Master doesn’t get to choose which units he saves.
In other words, when the ability itself has a choice involved, only the controller can make that choice, but for Focus Master and Reteller of Truths, the ability triggers automatically, so the ‘choice’ only exists because the active player needs to determine the order of simultaneous events, and that is a game rule choice, not an ability choice.
7 Likes
The ability of focus master does not require any choices, it simply happens. No target choice, no whether or not it happens choice.
I look forward to hearing the official reasoning, but my suspicion is agreement with the idea that active player orders events that are definitely going to happen. Fizzles only happens to abilities that need to happen on the owners turn in order to work. Focus master ability is entirely designed to work on your opponents turn.
2 Likes