Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Remind me:
Scenario:

5/5 blue hero banded to 5/5 white hero.
Opponenent blocks with an 8/8 brown EC and plays a brown enhancement to discard my blue hero.
Now I have initiative with my white hero, but the only negate I have is blue. Can I negate the capture before being discarded or must the ability complete before initiative is checked?

That's what I was thinking. I assume that is on the grounds that the blue guy is being taken out of battle.
Folllow up question:
Same scenario, but a 4/4 brown blocker. After discarding the blue hero, the brown guy would still have initiative due to numbers. At this point, is a blue interrupt still allowed to be played? What about if the brown guy plays another enhancement? Can I still play a blue interrupt?

See that's what I was thinking but it doesn't really make sense. In the first example (the 8/8 guy), if blue is discarded and so its numbers don't count for determining initiative, how can I still play on it? If it's still "in battle" and thus I can interrupt, I should not have initiative to do so because my numbers would be higher. Am I the only one that thinks this doesn't make sense?

Can you cite a source like the REG or the rulebook for that?

My reading of page 21 in the Collector's Edition rulebook seems to indicate that even in the 4/4 EC situation, the blue hero can negate immediately. This not only clears up the seeming contradiction I pointed out above, it also seems to be what the rules say:

"A hero is losing by removal if the hero is being...removed from battle by an opposing special ability. YOU HAVE INITIATIVE, but may only play an enhancement that has an interrupt or negate special ability."

This seems to indicate that if a hero is being removed from battle, they get a chance to interrupt regardless of the numbers of the remaining characters in battle.

Or I'm crazy. But I'd like someone to point out an alternative.

In the second example the Heroes are not losing the battle (because the remaining Hero is still winning by the numbers) and therefore the rule of having initiative does not apply in that situation.

If both Heroes were being taken out of battle together (i.e. Wrath of Satan) then they are losing and can interrupt.

Insta-posted 13 seconds later...

Alright that helps. Two things though.
1. Not really that clear in the rules. To be fair, banding is like the most confusing ability ever when it comes to stuff like immunity, initiative, etc.
2. It still seems like there is a contradiction to me. In order for my blue hero to have initiative to interrupt, he has to already be out of battle (his numbers don't count when determining init). So how can he still interrupt? I get the whole "this is an instant ability unless you interrupt" thing, but it seems like you have to let it resolve to get the chance to interrupt, and by then it is too late.