Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I was writing up the part on instead for my Cheat Sheet, and I began to wonder something that I couldn't figure out.

Do instead abilities physically change the special ability of the card they instead, or is it still considered a separate ability? For example, does Herod's Temple physically reword Christian Martyr to "Opponent must discard a card from hand matching the brigade of target hero they own and control in play and must discard the top X cards of deck" or does Christian Martyr's ability remain unchanged and Herod's Temple insert itself in place of CM?

Implications of this include protections/prevents like Jerusalem Tower, etc. If it physically changed CM, then CM would be making the opponent discard from their hand/deck which several cards don't allow, so then would that player be unable to use HT's instead?

They should still be treated as separate, because here is how "instead" is used:
- assume ability says, "if A, then B instead"
- if you are protected from A then B does not happen to you either
- if you are protected from B, the ability defaults back to A

I agree with the Global Moderators and the Administrator. Just in case you weren't still sure about these high ranking people on the boards' opinions.