Cactus Game Design Message Boards

There has been much discussion about this sort of situation, and the question is whether there is a repairable game state, and that's what we encourage judges to look at.

In the situation you describe, generally the character comes back, as that is immediately repairable.  Do you get to draw?  No, that's optional, you missed it.

But what if it were a mandatory draw?  Or what if the opponent wanted to be able to target that hero with an ability already played in that battle?  This is where we get into what is repairable and what is not.  If you realize in the Prep Phase that you didn't trigger Areopagus, then everyone should draw one, you can repair that.  However, your Abom in a territory doesn't go off, because you missed the trigger for it.  Now it's Discard Phase and you realize Areopagus didn't go off...that's less repairable, because that would have influenced the battle and everything your opponent did.  Probably should rule that it doesn't happen that turn.  If your opponent played Plot in the battle and would have hit your Provisioned hero had they been back, is that repairable?  That's a tougher question.  It really depends on the game state and what a judge sees as they look at it.

Really, it's a judge's call, and it should be based on whether you can repair the game state without the correction being a major change to the game.  At Nats in T2-MP this past year, I had Abom put in my territory, and that person also laid down some Greeks.  I only noticed Demetrius because he is my bane (stupid Seized...), but they also had a Stoic I just didn't notice.  I Passover Hymn'd the Abom away, and we were two turns further into the round before the Greek player realized I shouldn't have been able to.  But my turn was past, during which I used 3-4 draw abilities since Abom wasn't a factor, and there was really no good way to go back and repair that game state.  Had Abom still been there, I should have had a lot blown up, but had it been there I wouldn't have used the draw.  The judge came by, and ruled it should stay discarded, it wasn't repairable.

If you're playing a friendly game, try to reach a consensus on what should happen based on the game state as above and what you can repair.  If you really can't agree and there are two options that make a decent amount of sense, roll-off.

But if you're going to go back and repair something like provisions you really have to repair the draw too because its impossible to choose not to draw if you haven't been given the choice. The same goes for abom.

You missed your chance to do something optional, we are past the point it could happen, so why should you have the opportunity?  I can see your concern in the cases where your OPPONENT doesn't do something (like if you have Abom in their territory and they had a character with First Fruits set aside), but we don't go back and repair optional things you just did not do.

If a player lays down cards in Prep Phase and didn't proc their Seven Years of Plenty previously, would you say they should get the chance then?  It's optional, they didn't do it, there's nothing to repair.  That's why we don't look at optional actions when deciding what to fix.  Only mandatory actions need repairing when they are missed (if it is possible).