Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I would say that your opponent would have to lay Harvest Time beffore the Evil Character gets Discarded, because when the Evil Character gets discarded the battle would be over, right?

This is a great question.  I honestly don't know.  If you can't Harvest Time, why?  If an opponent can play Burial, why can't a player play Harvest Time?

Two players agreeing that the EC dies means that the battle has been conceded and Battle Resolution has already begun. An EC that dies by the numbers is only discarded in Battle Resolution.

Using Burial to avoid giving up a Lost Soul means that the battle has not been conceded and Battle Resolution has not begun.

I think this is a matter of being consistent with how we handle the end of battle. If a blocker intends to use Burial after realizing he can not win the battle, then Burial would have to be played before the EC is discarded.

If a blocker intends to use Burial after realizing he can not win the battle, then Burial would have to be played before the EC is discarded.

This is exactly correct in the case where an EC is discarded by the numbers (which was RTSManiac's example). If the EC is discarded by a special ability (say the hero plays AoC), then the blocking player can still play Burial after the EC is discarded.

EC discarded because of numbers is the definitive signal that the battle is over.
EC discarded because of SA does *not* signal that the battle is over.

I know YMT and the Maniac know this, but it is worth re-iterating for any players who haven't run into this question before.

On a related note, I am of the opinion that this ruling should have a bit of flexibility (grace?) in MP games--particularly in instances where a player is not aware that discarding the EC means that no dominants can be played.

For my part, I always try to emphasize to less experienced players that they should always make it clear that "I can do nothing else to stop the rescue" before discarding their EC and/or surrendering the LS.

There is massive benefit to allowing a character to die by the numbers, then playing Burial or CM.

There is massive benefit to allowing a character to die by the numbers, then playing Burial or CM.

Would you be willing to elaborate on what the benefit is over simply playing the card before you die? To make it easy for me, let's pick a simple case... I have a single Lost Soul available and my EC is being killed outright (i.e., not a mutual destruction situation). What advantage would accrue to me discarding my EC and then playing Burial as opposed to playing Burial before discarding my EC?

I am not arguing--I just don't see any massive benefit.

If you are being killed by a good enhancement and can't do anything about it, then what lets you play a dom before you get discarded? That's just like letting the dom be able to interupt the battle?

If you are getting killed by a good enhancement you *can't* play a dominant before you get discarded. In that case, however, you are allowed to play a dominant after you are discarded. The above discussion applies only to playing dominants when your EC is being discarded by the numbers.

Mutual destruction, play Great Image. Opponent decides to take the hit instead of Negating because he gets the Soul anyway. EC dies, too late to Negate now, Burial is played. This situation goes for pretty much any mutual destruction situation, especially WS+TD. This is the biggest and most advantageous situation. Also, opponent CTB's his EC, you have CM. Let his EC die by numbers, then CM.

So the benefit is for the most part limited to mutual destruction (where I had the option to play a card and chose not to) and CtB (where I have already made the decision that my EC is nothing more than cannon fodder)? OK, I'm not sure that I would call that a massive benefit--given that the vast majority of by-the-numbers deaths have nothing to do with mutual destruction or CtB or any of the other specialty cases where any of this matters--but it is an advantage. (I would also point out that making you have to think about whether or not to play a negate because I may or may not hold a dominant would add yet another bit of strategy, which I think would make the game better over-all. The CtB doesn't really add in this way, because burning the CtB ability is far worse than losing or not losing an EC.)

So here is my beef...Every single player early on learns that you can dom-block after being discarded by SA, and (I am guessing at numbers here) 100% of those players draw the conclusion that you can dom-block after being discarded. (Seriously, the first time you play a CM after a new kid plays AotL, does anyone spend any time explaining to the new kid how CM wouldn't work if the EC was discarded by the numbers?) This will color how they play--they would waste their enhancement in the mutual destruction situations for example--which gives yet another built in advantage to the player who has run into this before. And, of course, it always seems to come to a head at a tournament when the players loses a block and wastes a defensive dominant.

Anyway, I understand what the ruling is. I understand why it is ruled the way it is. I just disagree that it is a particularly useful rule, especially since it has an extremely technical basis and no one knows the rule until they get burned by it

@ Hobbit, Of course I know that, but have you been following what this thread is about?

@MJB, it's not extremely technical. There would be no basis for the EC being discarded if the battle weren't over. What you're suggesting is a return to bottom-up rules rather than the mechanisms and top-down rules that have been slowly improving Redemption for the past few years. If you haven't entered battle resolution, what caused the EC to die?

@ Hobbit, Of course I know that, but have you been following what this thread is about?

I was trying but these statements confused me.

There is massive benefit to allowing a character to die by the numbers, then playing Burial or CM.

This is the biggest and most advantageous situation. Also, opponent CTB's his EC, you have CM. Let his EC die by numbers, then CM.

I didn't see how this is massively advantageous if my opponent gets the lost soul.

I think you and Pol are on the same page.

Agreed. Hobbit, Pol is saying that if you did change the ruling so you could play dominants after discarding an EC by the numbers that such a change would provide a massive benefit to the defense (and he is providing examples of why this would be so). For this reason and apparently "top-downedness" he doesn't think the ruling should be changed.

I am claiming that I don't see the advantage from such a change as being all that large and--more importantly--it would accrue to all players equally. My reason for preferring the rule be changed is that I feel having btn discard act differently than the other battle outcomes in the game (which is what we have now) you are choosing to preferentially advantage the more experienced players who least need the benefit.