Cactus Game Design Message Boards

When in doubt,  check the Reg:

Play As: If blocking, you may choose to have your opponent capture this card to search your deck for a human Evil Character and add to battle the Evil Character.

When in doubt,  check the Reg:

Play As: If blocking, you may choose to have your opponent capture this card to search your deck for a human Evil Character and add to battle the Evil Character.

That's an errata and, as such, should be ignored.

Anything in the land of bondage that is not a site or placed enhancement is a lost soul. Period. Way it's always been done and that's how it works.

Demons in the Land of Bondage aren't lost souls. Cards face-down on (occupied) sites aren't lost souls.

REG, Instant Abilities, Capture, Default Conditions:

"If a card places a character in a players Land of Bondage, that character is considered captured. (see The Amalekite’s Slave)"

Problem solved.

Land of Bondage is an area in the Field of Play. The Land of Bondage can hold Lost Souls, occupied sites, captured Heroes and captured Evil Characters. See Player’s Card Arrangement.

That's from the REG, and is surprisingly helpful and unhelpful, depending on how you want to look at it. The big thing to note here is that it omits face down characters, however, because they are considered out of play, that might be why. Thus, we're left with occupied sites, Lost Souls, captured Heroes, and captured Evil Characters. The Amalekite's Slave certainly isn't one of the first three, which leaves option four. This then raises a further question, which is of course, the biggest question here: Does TAS capture itself, or is it merely a place ability? If the former (which I really do not think it should be, since it does not at any point say capture, and "place" is a recognized ability with a definition), then obviously, it becomes a Lost Soul, no problem. If it's the latter though, then we need to explore whether or not it becomes a Lost Soul in territory, since the REG is pretty specific about what is in the LoB and what isn't. Personally, I'd argue it's a Lost Soul either way, but I agree, this needs to be examined.

Demon's are an exceptional case, and Raider's Camp is not located in the land of bondage.

Under the restrictions of: is human, and is located in the land of bondage, every single rule points to it being a lost soul.  There is no precedence for anything else.  The play as is a simple clarification so that discussions like this don't need to take place.

The play as is to be disregarded regardless of what the actual ruling is. Regardless of what A Slave's ability actually is (capture or place), I believe it should be a Lost Soul. However, if it is ruled to be a capture ability, then the card should receive an official errata.

Possessed (AW)
Special Ability: Place one of your demons on a Lost Soul. While that demon remains, that Lost Soul cannot be rescued by a Hero. Discard that demon if holder loses two battle challenges. If the Lost Soul is taken out of play, discard that demon.

Before demons couldn't be rescued, did Possessed create a Lost Soul out of the demon it placed? Tim's quote says it should have, but I doubt anyone played it that way. Either way, it should treat it as a captured Demon, but afaik it doesn't.

Face-down characters are still characters, last I was told, so does the Lost Soul that places a character face-down on a site turn that character into a captured character (and a lost soul if it's human)? Apparently it should.

@Hanno - Precedent achieved.

That's twice today I've seen TimM accurately answer a ruling question by looking at the REG (and quoting it). Props to you Tim. It's great to have you here!

The statement Tim quoted is from the entry on Capture abilities. It's only referencing a card that places a character directly into a Land of Bondage, like TaS or Cupbearer. It doesn't say anything about characters placed on other cards in a Land of Bondage so they are not included.

Cards like Guards, Possessed and any other examples you find, that place a character on another card, which may happen to be in the Land of Bondage, do not cause the character to become a Lost Soul unless the card specifically says to capture the character (ex: Bad Decision).

I don't think it needs errata. "Place in Land of Bondage" is archaic for "capture" just as "prevent player" is archaic for "restrict player." Just because it had place in the wording doesn't necessarily mean it's a place ability, just as having "cannot be Ignored" does not make it a protect ability in spite of the definition of "protect" wording.

Pol is correct that "place in Land of Bondage" is archaic language for capture, as seen on many old capture cards. I'm disappointed to see that on such a modern card, but as you'll notice there were some language issues on the cards printed with the RoA release - Tas, Goshen, SPLIT ALTAR anyone? . (If I could -1 my own post for mentioning Split Altar I would).

While I believe that REG entry is accurate, it's obviously not the most clearly stated. Browarod, thank you for offering a solution.