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Dominants don't count as the last played card for purposes of determining normal battle initiative. In the mutual destruction situation described the Hero should have initiative since the Evil Character was the last card played in battle. The Guardian just answered this in the first reply of the thread.
The person playing AotL created the Mutual Destruction scenario not the blocker. The blocker should have standard initiative.
I've always understood this to be "last card played in battle". Thus, in the OP's scenario, playing AotL would only pass initiative to the defender IF it causes the EC to be losing by numbers. A stalemate or mutual destruction would keep initiative with the hero.I'm guessing the REG is simply missing the words "...in battle".
InitiativeA player with initiative may play the next enhancement. Initiative is always given to the player who is losing the current bat-tle. The losing player cannot pass initiative.When there is a stalemate or a mutual destruction, the player who did not play the last card has initiative, but he must pass initiative if he does not play a card.- the RegIt's not missing anything imo. This has been standard since I picked up a starter deck for the first time.
Playing AotL is causing the EC to be transitioned into an alternate battle state. This seems so simply logical to me I'm struggling to understand why it would be ruled any other way. The Reg as currently worded supports my assessment. Saying "oops we forgot some words" (apparently for the last 5 or so years, at least) doesn't seem like an accurate ruling tactic.Nothing personal intended just stating my opinion on the matter.
I think it makes perfect sense for the blocker to respond to AoTL if it results in mutual or stalemate. Seems like an unfair combo to play AotL on one EC then allow the rescuer to also get rid of the other one with an enchantment but that's just my opinion..