Rules Questions thread

Pretty sure it’s targeting the base.

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That seems downright unnecessary. Thanks!

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That symbol on a unit means that the unit has an ability that targets something, and therefore might have to pay extra if that something gains resist, or can’t target a thing if that thing is invisible or untargetable (unless you have a detector or tower). Also, if a targetting ability is used on an illusion, the illusion is destroyed.

Many spells also target, as do many hero abilities. Interestingly, there are spells that affect specific units/heroes but don’t target (like Chaos Mirror) and won’t pop an illusion or incur resist surcharges.

It is weird, though, since I can’t think of anything that affects targeting of bases… Mind-Parry Monk only affects effects that target units/heroes. I agree that it does seem unnecessary. Anybody else have any ideas of a time when a base’s being targeted would matter for game purposes?

It is somewhat consistent, though. Pirate-Gang Commander gives units a targetting ability that also can only target bases, and Bugblatter’s ability targets as well. The PGC ability is particularly weird, since it “targets,” but there is no choice to be made: it always targets all opponent bases.

Extra weird: Firebird does not target (and therefore can’t pop illusions) when it does 1 damage to every unit and hero the opponent controls. So why does it not target, while PGC’s granted ability does target (each opponent’s base)? Shuriken Hail is similar to Firebird.

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It is, as @ARMed_PIrate points out.

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@sharpobject

Can a unit with 0 ATK attack (say, for the purposes of suiciding to rack up Blatter or PG Commander base damage)?

Thanks!

Yes, you can attack even with things that have 0 ATK. Might of Leaf and Claw is written a specific way because of this.

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Then I apparently have mis-remembered things for a while now. Sorry for causing confusion. @ARMed_PIrate

I guess it is because of Law Gryphon? It cant target a flying base?

There is no restriction on targeting a flying base. Flying only prevents attacking the base, not using an ability on the base.

I like to think that at some point there was consideration for giving buildings resist. That would affect general’s hammer, doubleshot archer, wrecking ball, detonate, assimilate, and nature reclaims

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Does obliterate resolve before Swift strike if Swift strike would kill?

Yes, obliterate uses the same timing as stuff like “attacks: You may play a non-ultimate Fire spell from your hand or codex for free.”

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Does “played from hand” resolve at the same time “Arrives”, and do I get to order them?

E.g. Sirius quince mirror max level copy of drill sergeant.

  1. Does the drill sergeant get a +1/+1 rune when it arrives?
  2. Does the mirror copy of drill sergeant get a +1/+1 rune on it when the drill sergeant that is being copied is played?
  3. What if I transform a mirror copy of drill sergeant into another arriving unit? Does the mirror get the +1/+1 before it becomes a copy of the new unit?

AFAIK played from hand and arrives are 2 dinstinct events.
U can play from the hand a knight of conclave and get the +1 rune for DS and the card from a garrison, while for making a copy of it via quince maxb it needs to arrive (remove all forecast runes).
So your answers are:

  1. no, that effect happens only after the DS is arrived, cannot check for himself.
  2. no. The mirror is already on the field, plus it does not arrive from hand. so mirror copies DS only after it has arrived, hence no rune.
  3. That is a violation of the rules [quote] If you use the middle ability or max level ability to make of your Mirror Illusions a copy of something else, you can’t use either of those abilities again the same turn on that same Illusion. The reason is that the ability refers to your “Mirror Illusion” but after your Mirror Illusion copies a Squirrel, for example, you have an Illusion Squirrel, not a Mirror Illusion. You can use these abilities on ANOTHER Mirror Illusion you control though. — Sirlin[/quote]
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“Played from hand” happens before “Arrives”. I haven’t thought so far about whether triggered abilities that look for “Played from hand” have to go before the triggered abilities that look for “Arrives”, but imposing an order here would be consistent with the rest of the rules (for example, with the way I’ve said Final Smash works).

Here’s what this looks like if you have Quince, a Mirror Illusion, a Drill Sergeant A, and you want to play Drill Sergeant B:

  1. Pay 3 gold and play Drill Sergeant B from your hand.
  2. Enqueue all abilities that triggered as a result of playing Drill Sergeant from your hand in the order of your choice. (Drill Sergeant A’s trigger)
  3. If there’s no Jail or anything like that, Drill Sergeant arrives.
  4. Enqueue all abilities that triggered as a result of Drill Sergeant arriving in the order of your choice. (Quince’s trigger)
  5. Unless your Drill Sergeant just died to Abominations or your Inverse Power Ninja just died or something, you can probably start executing the first triggered ability you enqueued now. That’s Drill Sergeant A’s trigger. So Drill Sergeant A gets a +1/+1 rune.
  6. When that’s done you do the next ability from the queue ok. So that’s Quince’s trigger. Your Mirror Illusion becomes Drill Sergeant C if you want.
  7. Probably you are out of triggers at this point and go back to the game state where you can play cards, make workers, declare attacks, etc.
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I just realized there’s an invisible building that would interact with some of these, Fox’s Den School. Still, a spell or effect to grant resist to anything seems like it could exist.

Apologies for the non-sequitor.

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Can Drill Sergeant remove a +1/+1 rune from another unit or just himself? Friendly or both sides?

Drill sergeant pays a cost, removing a rune from himself. While the cost is not explicitly a “rune on this unit”, it is implied, and conforms with conventions of many card games.

Short answer, its just his own runes.

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Would “Unless specified otherwise ‘->’ means no other card can pay for your ability” be a good way to describe the cost arrow?

e.g. sacrifice another unit would be specifying another card

Setsuki’s middle ability says “this turn”. Does that refer only to the turn she leveled up?

No, it says “Attacks: X” when Setsuki attacks, she activates the ability until the end of the turn.

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