Cactus Game Design Message Boards

If an enhancement is pre-loaded on Samuel, is it prevented from activating when Samuel enters battle?

Samuel (RA2)

Type: Hero Char. • Brigade: Green/Yellow • Ability: 4 / 4 • Class: None • Special Ability: Negate play abilities. You may search deck for King Saul or David and put it in play to draw 2. May band to a male I Samuel Hero. Cannot be negated. • Identifiers: OT Male Human, Judge, Prophet • Verse: I Samuel 7:16-17 • Availability: Rock of Ages Extended booster packs (None)

I wasn't sure.  My first thought was that this parallels a similar issue of the contrast between "protect from discard abilities" versus "protect from discard".  I guess it comes down to whether the triggered ability on Agur et al falls under the umbrella of "play ability", is its own specific ability, or is part of normal gameplay rules.  We can rule out the latter, so I guess we need someone to define the ability on Agur et al.

I believe it has been ruled that only the place ability is considered CBN, unless otherwise noted on the card.

The enhancement probably isn't a play ability, you wouldn't negate the preloading since it was most likely played in a previous phase (or more likely turn), since you can't negate stuff from previous phases you can't negate the "play" part of the set up.

I'd typically agree but a recent thread stated that playing is to place a card face up from hand, deck, discard, etc. so I don't think the placed enhancement is played when it turns face up.

I don't think pre-loaded enhancements are "play" abilities. They are placed on a character to activate later. I would agree with Lambo that they are "played" when they activate, but I wouldn't consider that a "play ability", merely a game rule that it gets "played" when it activates.