Cactus Game Design Message Boards

1)  Mary the mother of James.  I think she is the one that starts the banding chain, right?  I don't have the card in front of me, but the owner had her AND the three other ladies mentioned on her card in his territory.  The wording on her card is just plain weird.  The owner though that he can band all 4 ladies together.  I was thinking that, the way it's worded, shed can band to Salome OR Mary Magdalene, and after making that choice then choose if she wants to add Joanna also.  In other words, I think it's a maximum banding chain of 3, not all 4.  What is the correct way to read her ability?

2)  Red banding chain versus Complainers versus The Might of Faith.  I did something like Asahel banded to Heldai banded to Amasai.  He blocked with Complainers and did the first part of the ability, which negated the banding chain and sent Heldai and Amasai back to territory.  Then he used the second ability of Complainers, to switch Asahel for a purple Hero in my territory because he knew I had no enhancements for that hero.  I had The Might of Faith in my hand, but my opponent thought that Asahel did not get intitiative to play it because I was being replaced with Hiram.  But I thought that I did have initiative because I was being removed from battle by the special ability of an evil character, so I figured I could negate it.  Can I negate my removal before the switch occurs?

Thanks for the help!

If complainers has initiative, then might of faith cant be played. If purple hero has initiative, then might of faith can be played. could someone please explain why?

Thanks.  The and/or for Joanna part seems out of place on Mary (to me at least), since it doesn't say and/or for Mary Magadalene or Salome.  It can be read as making the banding to Joanna somehow different than the banding mentioned previously.  I guess it was just written that way to shorten the ability.

I think X, Y, and/or Z is grammatically the same as X and/or Y and/or Z.  Of course, since it's a "may" ability, the "/or" is unnecessary.

Technically speaking, and/or is always unnecessary; as any logician (or computer programmer) knows, "or" is inclusive of "and". But yes, saying X, Y, or Z is the same as saying X or Y or Z (so it works for and/or as well).

However, I believe that if it just said "and" then you would have to band to all or none of them. It is a may ability, but there's only one ability associated with it: banding to all of the women. Just like a 1/3 Pharisee cannot band to just one Pharisee (if more are in play), if Mary said "and" she would have to band in all of the ladies, or none. So she should just say "or", but "and/or" means the same thing.

I think "or" may be intended to only allow you to band to one of the mentioned characters.  The Warriors cards (evil King Saul, Absalom, philistines) that say "or" specify "(not both)" at the end of the SA.  Kings evil King Saul and Dathan (10A) are the only cards I found printed since then that say "or" instead of "and/or".