Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I'm interested to hear some people's take on what happens to an Ambushed Hero after an End the Battle card is played.

Example: Ahimelek the Hittie is face down from Ambush and enters battle. The defender blocks with Gomer banded to Proud Pharisee and uses PP's ability to play Gibeonite Trickery.

Does Ahimelek turn face up before he leaves battle? After he returns to territory? Not at all?

Ambush - Set aside a male Hero (face down) from your hand for one turn.  Hero returns to territory face down.  Hero enters battle face down with access to any site.  When opponent presents an Evil Character in battle, Hero is flipped face up.

Gomer - May band to a male Evil Character.  Cannot be negated unless Hosea is in play.

Proud Pharisee - If another Pharisee is in play, you may reveal your hand to draw two cards.  If you have played no Enhancements this turn, you may play an Enhancement.

Gibeonite Trickery - Each Hero in battle gains 0/4 and the battle immediately ends.  Ability can not be interrupted or prevented.

From the REG:

If there are pending abilities when an end the battle ability occurs, the pending abilities never take effect.

That pretty much means it's not turned over as a result of Ambush.  Could it be turned over by game rule for battle resolution?  You know nothing about a face down card except whatever was necessary for it be face down (male hero, in the case of Ambush), so if it's not turned over, is it just a stalemate?

"Ignoring" a face down character might be the best solution, just in case there's a way to get an additional character into battle.

I don't think he's stuck face down - either Ambush gets a second chance, or he defaults to the standard and is flipped immediately on entering battle.

Archer only survives because his ability is interrupted, if it wasn't then he would die. So I would suggest that Ahimelek will flip over during battle resolution.

Interesting thought, and while it starts correct, I would disagree with the conclusion.

Archer is not the same type of ability: it is designed to trigger after the battle, and as such is not treated the same as something that is pending but not yet had a chance to activate.  The reason he survives is because the interrupt makes him pending, and thus it cannot reactivate, and you are correct that he would die if an EtB is used because his ability is designated to trigger after the battle ends already.

However, that does not mean that this ability is treated the same way.  Ambush is designed to trigger "on block," just like other abilities trigger "on draw" or "on search."  Once the blocker is presented, it is then pending, waiting for its chance to activate.  However, if the battle ends, it is still pending and thus does not get to actually activate.  He does not flip at all.

The phrase "When opponent presents an Evil Character in battle, Hero is flipped face up" does not mean "the next time it is blocked" but really "whenever it is blocked," and so it would be able to flip in a future battle.