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I understand that there are many threads on interruption, and I do understand how it works.  However, I'm trying to piece together precisely what happens when interrupt is chained, and what will end up resolving.  For instance, from a playgroup game today:

1. I play Hunger (instant, not ongoing ability) to decrease all his heroes in play 6/6, which will kill all heroes in his territory.  It DOES give special initiative to the hero in battle as it will discard him too.

2. He plays a negate and discard an enhancement card to negate and discard Hunger.

3. I respond (with initiative) with Joseph in Prison to ITB (including his negate, as it is the last enhancement he played).  All cards in battle are removed from the game, and he is unable to interrupt it.


The way I read the rules, my ITB undoes the negate and discard, and Hunger is back, everything is removed, Hunger (not being negated) resolves and all the heroes explode.

There was some discussion, however, that my interrupt interrupted the state left by the negate card, and as all cards are removed from the game before another ability resolves, Hunger does not decrease all heroes.  Once again, interrupt and negation discussions hurt my head.


I did a search and was unsuccessful in finding a ruling to help me (it was a lot of threads and most of it just ended up with the definition of ITB), so if I could get some help making sure I understand the order of effect here, it would be appreciated

The way it was ruled (that your enhancement did not refire) is correct as I understand it. I'm not 100% sure of which of the following reasons is the correct one, if either, but i think it's one of them.

A) You did not negate his negation of your card. Therefore when the cards "refire" his negation of your card also refires.
'either that or
B) Your card removed all cards from the game before any of the other cards have the ability to kick back in. Card can't activate if it's not in the game.

It never really got 'ruled', just discussed as it was just a friendly game.  But, here is why I think that Hunger would reactivate (and hopefully more people explain the other side so that this gets hashed out )

(A) can't be right, as once the interrupt resolves, nothing is left for the negate to be PLAYED on (let alone that it is now removed from the game).  If I were to interrupt the battle and discard his only hero and he couldn't stop it, no negate would happen in that case either.

In case (B), that could be the case for ongoing abilities (help on that?), but this is an IMMEDIATE decrease, meaning that when it is no longer negated, the effect is there like nothing bad ever happened to it.  But this is what the voices against the hunger-splosion pointed to.


That's how I'm reading the ITB and negation rules, but if someone can refute that, I'd be grateful just to have a solid answer for future reference.

Someone is probably going to correct me on this but this is how i always thought of it.

Flow of Battle Step one:
Hero ability
EC ability
Hunger

Flow of Battle Step Two:
Hero Ability
EC Ability
ITB Negate
Hunger

Flow of Battle step three:
Hero Ability
EC ability
Joseph In Prison
ITB Negate
Hunger

So now the abilities activate in that order. So by the time it gets back to Hunger, no only is it no longer in play to activate but there is also no hero to play it on.

While I certainly understand the reasoning given, the statement that Hunger 'plays' after JiP does not seem accurate.

Hunger already triggered and resolved as an immediate ability.
It was negated. 
The negation was interrupted, therefore in that state the ABILITY was not negated.
Even if the card is no longer in play or discarded, the ABILITY was not negated and, as an immediate ability, resolves.

The question of Hunger having nothing to activate on or not being around at the end of the battle is moot, as the ability was never actually negated.

The negate was negated, yes, but the very same mechanism that negated the GE also removed Hunger from the game, giving it no time to activate.

Bold is not correct, as ITB only interrupts ongoing and last enhancement by an opponent, in this case the negation.  What I am saying is that it DID activate (which it did, just granting special initiative), and was never negated, and JiP would NOT interrupt it.

If all the cards in battle hadn't been removed from the game, the negated wouldn't have been stopped and Hunger would still have been negated.

The fact is that Hunger DID activate, and the negation DID NOT.  That is what I'm trying to say.  It does not matter what would have happened if all cards had not been removed, only what DID happen.

Essentially ITB ability interrupts the negate which would allow hunger to activate if only the negate was being removed, but because hunger is being removed at the same time as the negate hunger does not have the chance to activate.

I agree with Pol. Hunger does not have initiative to re-fire its ability between when JiP interrupts the negate and when JiP removes everything in battle from the game (because cards have to complete). By the time JiP finishes resolving, Hunger is no longer in play and cannot complete its ability at that time.

Under normal circumstances, yes. However, this is the way to look at this scenario: was it negated? Yes. Then a different card suspended its negation and removed both it and the card negating it from the game. Hunger does not take place.

I am not trying to be snarky, but proof please?  This is contrary to my understanding of the game.  This thread is long on opinion but short on sources.

Related example: You play a battle winner that's trying to remove my Egyptian EC from battle. I respond with Swift Horses followed by Wonders Forgotten. I didn't explicitly negate your battle winner, but by the time my enhancements resolve, the state of the battle/cards in battle is no longer correct for your battle winner to retry its special ability.

But in that case the battle winner is interrupted, in my scenario Hunger is not. 

That's what you're missing. Hunger IS effectively interrupted because cards have to complete (i.e., JiP has to interrupt AND rfg) before other cards can take effect.

I block with an Assyrian and play Captured by Assyria to grab the hero in battle and one in your territory. You negate CbA so I play Achan's Sin. CbA does not capture the hero in territory because it is rfg'd by the time it tries to re-resolve.

And that is what I want confirmation on, I have never heard or seen it ruled that way, and the REG is not much help.  If the card negating you is interrupted, you are no longer negated.  Maybe I am just obtuse today, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I'm with browarod here.  It seems to me that there is no time for Hunger to activate. JiP's ability would have to complete before Hunger could reactivate.  But since hunger gets removed from the game it can't reactivate.

I'll do my best to explain without rehashing this, but browarod and Pol are definitely correct. When Player 1 plays Hunger, it activates, granting special initiative to Player 2 in battle. Player 2 plays a negate and discard last enhancement (the first part is the only part that really matters here), effectively stopping Hunger, and granting Player 1 initiative. Player 1 plays Joseph in Prison. Now what happens is that when Player 1 plays Joseph in Prison, the last enhancement played (the negate and discard last) gets interrupted, bringing Hunger back into battle. However, Hunger cannot reactivate before Joseph in Prison's ability completes. The last half of Joseph in Prison kicks in, removing all cards from play, before Hunger is allowed to kick back in.

Emphasis mine, That is the part I don't believe is correct.  Hunger does not need to reactivate, it is not in a negated state, once the negate is interrupted it is like Hunger was never negated.  I would love to see the section of the rule book that specifies otherwise.  Look at the warriors spear ruling.  Did Hunger enter battle, yes.  Was it negated? At the end of JIP ability the answer is no(because of JIP interrupt).  Therefore it was played in battle and was not interrupted or negated, it happens.

it's still being interrupted until JIBs ability completes though...