Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Dull's ability is a may so you can skip it and in a tournament I would rule that in the situation that you describe that you had skipped it.

Yes

Yes, it doesn't have to be a card played in the battle, it just has to be any good search used while a battle is happening. If you play SC into dull but get SoG and negate dull with it, it does force them to put the card back that they searched for.

We're here is a follow-up question to the first question am I even allowed to put an evil character in battle while my opponent is searching? Or does his special ability have to complete before I put an evil character in the battle?

Abilities always complete before anything else can happen with the only exception being SI. So the search would happen, you would have the option of activating any triggered abilities caused by his searching, then you block.

His special ability must complete (even if you intend to negate it).

Once it completes you would have the opportunity to use Dull. After that you have the opportunity to block.

Where this gets tricky is when you insert dominants into the equation.

Let's say he attacks with Woman with Child and grabs The Second Coming.
You plan to block with King of Tyrus because you want to negate that. However, he can play The Second Coming before you block to search for another dominant. At this point, TSC is CBN so negating Woman w/ Child really doesn't do anything at that point.

Being protected does not stop a character from being negated. King of Tyrus would negate TWwC (unless she searched for SoG to gain the CBI modifier).

A protect ability can always be negated unless it has CBN/CBI.

What if it says protected from your opponents cards?

Protect stops opponent's cards from targeting it but negate targets the card's ability not the card itself.