Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I couldn't find this question addressed in the Artifact Activation portion of the REG, so here it is.  When you deactivate an artifact that has an ongoing ability (say, Lampstand of the Sanctuary), does its ability continue for the remainder of your prep phase?

If so, then why isn't it played that way?  I have seen many people, myself included, deactivate Lampstand and then play DoN or Falling Away.  Some even deactivate Lampstand in a temple, play evil doms, then flip it up on their art pile when they are done.

If not, then can it be DoNned before it is deactivated?  Is it somehow active during the Prep phase until deactivation, which as far as I can tell has no implied negation of the deactivated artifact?

Another example:  I have Covenant with Death active.  Can I deactivate it during my prep phase, then play a bunch of TC enhancements and set aside cards during that same prep phase?

It seems like activating/deactivating artifacts needs its own phase after upkeep and before prep, if we play ongoing abilities of artifacts (that aren't negated) consistently with other areas of the game.  Either that, or for a short time period during a prep phase, a player can have 2 art abilities going at the same time.

From the REG:

"Artifact Activation

Only one artifact, covenant, or curse in the artifact pile may be active at a time. Once per turn, you may select one artifact, covenant, or curse to be activated and flip it face up on your artifact pile. The face up artifact, covenant, or curse becomes active and cannot be changed until your next turn. To change the activated artifact, covenant, or curse, you select a new artifact it and place it face up on the artifact pile and return the other artifact, covenant, or curse face down in the artifact pile. If you choose to have no artifacts, covenants, or curses activated, you may turn the top artifact, covenant, or curse face down.

Some artifacts, covenants, or curses have a limited number of times you can use them. When these come to an end, you must discard them immediately. Once such an artifact, covenant, or curse is activated, it must be counted as having been used. This is true even if other events duplicate the effect of the artifac, covenant, or curse during the turn."

As for switching to a different artifact and then playing evil Doms in the same phase, I'm not sure.

According to this REG quote, that would be illegal too.

Ongoing Abilities > Protect
Default Conditions

Protect abilities last until the end of the phase in which they are used.

AFAIK, you cannot decide to deactivate an ongoing artifact and reactivate it in the same Artifact Phase.  That is the moment that you decide what artifacts to use for the turn, and if you decide not to use Lampstand, then you can't reactivate it again later.

However, I agree with Megamanlan (marked on the calendar) that if you decide not to use Lampstand (deactivate it during Artifact Phase), then it actually never activated for that turn.  Therefore, there is no protect, not for that phase or for that turn at all.  It does not persist because it was never actually active.

That would be true if it weren't for the fact that you can have Gifts up from the previous turn, bring back Feast of Trumpets and draw off Gifts, then activate a different Artifact since you can perform prep phase actions in any order. It is possible and even common to use two Artifacts in a single turn.

Are you sure about that?

I asked that same basic question long before I was an elder, except the cards involved were Feast of Trumpets and Gifts of the Magi. I wanted to bring FoT back, use Gifts for extra drawing, then change my Artifact.

Much to my dismay, the ruling Bryon gave was that using the ability on Gifts during my prep phase was indicating that I chose that for my active Artifact for the next round, so I was not allowed to change it. I just did a quick search for that topic but apparently it's old enough to have been lost in "the great purge".

I haven't seen or heard anything this would change that ruling so I believe it still stands. In the rare instance that you can force an opponent to use the protect ability from an Artifact during their prep phase, like in Pol's example with $4, base on the previous ruling by Bryon, I would say it's a clever way to keep someone from changing their Artifact for a turn.

here, here.

This was not the most recent discussion on the topic.  This was the more recent one I could find, from the same time period.

We can discuss it more if need-be, but I can say that you cannot deactivate an artifact, take other actions, THEN activate artifacts later (including the one previously activated).  Also, a deactivated artifact does not persist, because that's the way artifacts work.  The default of protect abilities lasting until end of phase is just that: the default.  The way artifacts work defines a different end point for ongoing abilities on that card type (their deactivation).

Is the re-activating a deactivated artifact rule like the the unique characters under your control rule in that in can be done under no circumstances? Or could you deactivate your artifact (say lampstand) and then use a card like U&T or, during battle, Casting Lots or The Meal in Emmaus to reactivate that same artifact during that same turn?

Unique rules for Artifacts is only for those face up on the table, and is not based on activations per turn.  The special ability Activate An Artifact (defined in the REG) allows you to do activations beyond what is normally permitted (as special abilities generally do); my statements pertain only to the artifact activation that can occur by game rule during Prep Phase.

The things you describe are legal.