Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Not sure if all card abilities are now activated in printed order like with Revolt, but I found an interesting scenario with Goliath if his abilities are read in order.

Goliath - "Return all Heroes in battle to territory (except giant-slayers). Opponent may present a new Hero. Negate all band, draw, and play abilities. Cannot be negated."

If someone attacks with Abigail/David, or maybe Ishmaiah/Asahel, Goliath becomes an autoblock if his ability is read in order.  In both cases, Goliath kicks out all but one hero (David and Asahel), allows his opponent to present a new hero (which doesn't happen - a hero is in battle), and then he negates Abigail/Ishmaiah, thus kicking out the last hero for a CBN autoblock.

Ironically, this only works against a few heroes if they are banded in to battle, most notably giant-slayers and Asahel.

The order of operations still applies to characters as well as weapons held by and cards placed on characters. It just no longer applies to Enhancements.

Here's what was updated in the REG.

When one or more characters are played and have more than one special ability (including gained abilities, cards placed or held), perform the abilities in this order:

You would still add a character to battle. Even if it was just Goliath blocking David you'd get to band. Goliath is himself CBN and would not negate his own add a hero ability.

It's not that Goliath is negating himself, it's that by game rule another character cannot be presented if a character is already on that side of the battle.

If it's because it says "opponent may present," why is that CTR while "opponent may add to battle" is a band (yet CTR/B is apparently not a band)? And if it is a CTR ability, would it not just withdraw Giantslayers based on the rules of what CTR does?

Because this:

Default Conditions
● A player may only use a present ability if there are no characters on their side of the battle

"Present" abilities allow your opponent to add a character to their side of the battle IF they currently control no characters on that side of the battle.  CTR/B abilities are actually a combination of a Withdraw ability and a Present ability.

Present
Last Updated: 9/13/2012
Released: 10/10/2012

General Description
A present ability is always paired with an ability that forces a character to leave battle (most often Withdraw or
Return to Hand). Present abilities are most often on cards played by the opponent of the player who may use the
present ability.

How to Play
If a card allows a player to present a character, that player may add a character to battle from hand or territory.
A present ability targets the cards that are to be added to battle.
All present abilities are instantaneous.

Default Conditions
● Targets must be in a hand or territory
● A player may only use a present ability if there are no characters on their side of the battle.

Special Conditions
● If a card has an ability that forces characters to leave battle and a present ability, but not all characters on the
targeted side of the battle leave battle, the present ability does nothing.

Clarifications
● Phrases similar to "a new character may be placed in battle" that are paired with a Withdraw ability are
Present abilities.
● Cards that add characters to battle but do not contain an ability that forces previous characters to leave battle
are not Present abilities.