Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Scenario:

Players X,Y, and Z have Golden Cherubim active. Player X attacks player Y who blocks with an evil character, draws with Two Thousand Horses, and plays Forgotten History .

Question #1:
Do players X and Z get to search for a card? Does player X search for a card and only player X? Or is there no search because forgotten history ends the battle?

Well, I would say that GC gets to respond to 2kH before Forgotten History is played, and X and Z get to both search. That's just my opinion.

My vote would be that both players X & Z's Golden Cherubim would trigger once 2KH completes, but never gets to because FH ends the battle before the trigger.  But there is the possibility that it does still trigger but after battle resolution.  I do know it does not get to respond before FH because you have to let abilities complete before doing anything else.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation in this thread regarding how ITB+Play+End the Battle affects instant abilities

The reason that archers are not discarded in the Archer+Horses+FH situation, is because the discard of Archer is conditional, and therefore ongoing.  ITB interrupts all ongoing abilities, including this one.  When FH hits the table, no suspended ongoing abilities are able to reactivate.

However, instant triggers are very different.  While this trigger cannot insert itself in other abilities, it is still triggered and waiting for the chance to do the search.  Ending the battle does not stop this card from doing so:  It is not dependent on the battle continuing, it is not dependent on characters remaining in battle (such as for being able to play an enhancement), it is not interrupted by the ITB, etc.

Therefore, once all other abilities complete (including the end of the battle for FH), the searches proceed because they were triggered.

as long as the search cards can't be played in battle, I am fine with this interpretation. But neither other player can play a dominant they have searched for after forgotten history is played. Isn't the the point of end the battle cards in the first place?

Correct.

From the REG:

Special Conditions
 If there are pending abilities when an end the battle ability occurs, the pending abilities never take effect.

I'm not sure if this applies to the situation but wouldn't this suggest that the 'pending' ability of GC wouldn't take effect or am I misunderstanding this?

According to the REG quote:  Either Archer (discarding  a hero)+ FH= Archer lives, or "After battle" pending abilities activate regardless of 'end the battle' abilities and he dies.

Assuming the former is true: I have never heard of someone playing that way and I have never seen it played like that or argue otherwise. This leads me to believe that quote is a bad simplification of end the battle. It implies that any end the battle card nullifies all triggers that fire after battle like Ark, I am Justice, Habakkuk etc. Maybe I am wrong but I have never heard of it played that way.

Assuming the latter is true: Why can't Golden Cherubim activate after battle like Archer, Habakkuk, Ark etc... It is an artifact and its ability is always active.

Consider this scenario:

Blocking player plays Siege to band all characters into battle. He decides the order in which character abilities activate. If he choose to start with a character holding a weapon who then plays an "End the battle" enhancement, none of the other character abilities get to activate.

Correct, but pending character abilities never "work" after battle unless those abilities have already activated and have triggers that are pending activation.

This situation is not the same for a few reasons:
1) Artifacts are always active and work through phases  (if they are not discarded)
2) Those pending character abilities are indeed pending because they never activated. Golden Cherubim's trigger is pending not the activation.

This leads me to believe GC allows you to search after battle.

Golden Cherubim is active, was triggered, and is ready to carry out its action because it is always active.

Don't abilities like Ark and Great Image already take place in battle resolution anyway? I feel like only abilities that refer to "the end of the battle" or "following a rescue attempt" can be resolved once the battle has ended.