Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I was just told that Covenant of Prayer can only be activated on my turn.

The card states: "You may banish this card to add to hand your card that was banished by an opponent or a card from reserve."

Why can't you banish CoP, and do the ability on someone else's turn? How is this any different from a discard ability that you can do on someone else's turn (e.g. Gam's speech)?

Once you activate an artifact, it remains active in your territory, correct?

So, assuming you have CoP out and active in your territory, it would seem that you could choose to banish it at anytime as an instant ability, right?

Why is this treated differently from Holy Grail, which can be done at any time?

Thanks

Because artifacts, when activated, are resolved when they are activated. The only time you can do it any time you want is when the words "At any time, you may..." are preceding the benefit of the special ability, like how the second part to the Seventh Seal is worded.

You can use Holy Grail anytime once per round. KariusVega likes to activate on his turn and before or after a battle he can convert an EC on his opponents turn.

Exactly,
So, why not Covenant of Prayer - it would be great to grab a card out of reserve as an instant effect on anyone's turn?
(Or, even DURING a battle)
It also seems like you should be able to do that based on the card's wording.
Thanks.

Holy Grail and Darius' Decree are two artifacts that have been played "wrong" for years.  I don't know if the Elders are still looking into them, but I know a few months ago they were on their "radar".

Basically, if HG and DD were played properly, you could only use them upon activation.

Eric, as another example and something to keep in mind about older cards is that Covenant of Noah received an errata and had the words "At any time..." added to it. So on the surface this card reads as if it can only negate an evil enh when it's activated but it can be used at any time you wish.