I haven't started reading yet, but there's a problem right there. What does "not available" mean? Is a Lost Soul in a site available? Is a Lost Soul with a Protect ability available? It would be much less complicated to say "A battle is a Rescue Attempt unless: no Hero in battle has access to a Lost Soul (in which case it is a Battle Challenge), it is a side-battle, or it began as a taunt."
I like your suggestion, Pol. I'm going to suggest we edit the entry like this:
A battle is a battle challenge while any of these conditions are met;
- No Hero in battle has access to a Lost Soul
- It began as a side-battle
- It began as a taunt
- A special ability created a battle challenge
The problem I have with the bolded part is that it has been ruled in the past that if a battle starts as a rescue, it is still considered a "rescue attempt" for the remainder of battle for the purposes of abilities already active, which can lead to confusion in the way the wording is suggested. The reason it had been ruled that way is because there are several cards that refer to rescue attempts and are continuous throughout the battle, causing inconsistent situations if we suddenly change the definition of the battle to "battle challenge" mid-way through without acknowledging that it was a rescue attempt.
Does Ark of the Covenant still discard an EC if the battle started as a Rescue Attempt but became a BC somehow?
"Regardless of battle outcome one Evil Character an opponent uses to block a rescue attempt is discarded at the end of battle. Limit holder to two such discards per game."
Does Chariot of Fire still shuffle heroes into deck if it the battle started as a Rescue Attempt but became a BC somehow?
"Following your rescue attempt, return all Heroes in your discard pile to your draw pile. Shuffle draw pile."
Does I Am Patience still convert if the battle started as a Rescue Attempt but became a BC somehow?
"At the end of your turn, if your rescue attempt failed you may convert one human Evil Character (except warrior class) to a green brigade Hero."
Does Lazarus's ability still go off if the battle started as a Rescue Attempt but became a BC somehow, and he is still discarded (say by the numbers)?
"If Lazarus is discarded and your rescue attempt fails, search discard pile for a good convert Enhancement and you may begin a new battle."
Note please that these are meant as real questions, not rhetorical, to try and hash out what the definition is
I'm having trouble finding multiple examples right now, but here are two posts from Prof A in a similar ruling
Yes. A rescue attempt fails anytime one is begun, and an LS isn't rescued.
So technically then, if I CM'ed your hero after you Angel'd my EC, you can still convert another human into a green hero? Why? I am not understanding why a rescue attempt changed to a battle challenge is considered a failed rescue. I would think failed is the sense of the hero losing the EC, being removed, captured, etc, NOT that the lost soul was rescued...
The main goal of a rescue attempt is to rescue a Lost Soul. This means that the success or failure of a rescue attempt depends on whether the LS was rescued. If it is, then the RA is successful. If not, the RA fails.
