From: "Chad Martin" <chad@th...>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 5:45 AM
Subject: [NetRep] Rulings Digest #59
My opponent has Star of High Hope (resource environment) and Gates of 
Morning in play.
For my first hazard I play Doors of Night. My opponent does not respond 
with anything.
So Doors of Night resolves. This creates a passive condition and effect 
of cancelling all resource environments in play. However, my opponent 
chooses to play a second Gates of Morning in response to this passive 
condition. (I know that the playing of the second Gates is legal,because 
of the CRF ruling that cards which cannot be duplicated can be played if 
currently targetted for discard). Therefore the second Gates cancels my 
Doors of Night's effects and the card itself, leaving one Gates of 
Morning and one Star of High Hope still on the table.
Is the above resolution correct?
***  No.  Doors of Night reads: "Environment. All resource environment 
cards in play are immediately discarded, and all resource environment 
effects are canceled. Cannot be duplicated."  When it resolves, all 
actions on the card are carried out in the order listed, so the Star of 
High Hope and Gates of Morning are discarded.  Doors of Night actually 
has no effects that are triggered by passive conditions.
--------
Same scenario as above, but my opponent chooses to respond to my playing 
of the Doors of Night card itself with another Gates of Morning. Gates 
of Morning resolves first, cancelling any hazard environments in play, 
but not cancelling my Doors of Night because my Doors is not actually in 
play yet (it hasn't resolved).
***  I am going to defer judgment on this one.  The NetRep team will 
circle the wagons, and I'll let you know what decision is made.
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Can a player voluntarily decide to move characters out of direct 
influence during the organization phase so that his general influence is 
exceeded? If so, at the end of the organization phase must the player: 
a) discard characters until his general is resolved Or b) return 
characters to hand until his general is resolved?
***  You may move the character(s) as you describe, but at the end of 
the organization phase, you would have to first return any characters 
played during that phase to your hand, then, if you are still over your 
GI, discard characters until you are legal again.
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The rule is you can play resources that 'help with corruption checks', 
which IIRC led Wim to the statement that a Marvels Told can be played if 
it zaps a corruption card, but not to zap a To Get You Away that is 
holding Galadriel in order to get those MP's. Even though that Galadriel 
could now tap in support for a corruption check, if you happen to have a 
company at the rescue site. Now I am not one to doubt Wim's judgement in 
this... I just think it is a pretty weird definition ;-)
What is correct?
***  CRF, Turn Sequence Rulings, Free Council, etc.:
Only resources that directly affect corruption checks may be played 
during the Free Council. This includes cards that reduce a character's 
corruption point total or prevent a character from being discarded.
So, To Get You Away cannot, in fact, be zapped.
--------
 > Can you use hero 'test' cards like Wizard's test to test a minion 
gold > ring?
 >
 > ***  No.
This might be true for heroes (even though I think that you may play it, 
but the ring is just discarded by the test card and no actual test 
happens, as the diceroll effects on the minion ring card are blanked), 
but should be YES for fallen wizards (see MEWH rules insert for details)
***  I checked the MEWH rules insert, and it states that on a successful 
ring test, the ring special item played can be of either alignment.  The 
insert also states that hero resources cannot target minion resources. 
Therefore, I have to humbly disagree with you about Fallen Wizards.
--------
A few questions about when an agent taps to make creatures playable at 
his home site:
Does this attack occur during the movement hazard phase or the site phase?
***  Movement/Hazard Phase, unless the creature is placed on guard.
--------
Can multiple creatures and creatures of different types attack?
***  Yes.
--------
Do these creatures count against the hazard limit?
***  Yes.
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Can the agent teleport back to his home site when the player sees his 
opponent's company moving there, or to a different home site if he has 
multiple home sites?
***  As long as you have the available agent actions, etc., to do so, yes.
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One played Eyes of Mandos when his deck had ONLY ONE CARD in it.  What 
happesn?
***  The one card is drawn, it is put into that person's hand, and Eyes 
of Mandos is discarded.  After Eyes of Mandos is resolved and discarded, 
the deck is considered exhausted.
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I found a disturbing clause in the WH rule booklet which reads:
"Tournament Rules: Starting Stage Cards: When the Character Draft is 
used, treat the starting stage cards as if they were characters."
The WH booklet previously mentions that you must treat them as 
characters when they are "revealed" which makes sense. But does the 
above statement also mean that the starting stage resources count as 
part of the 10 character pool? Furthermore, does it mean that the 
starting stage resources are not considered part of the 30 card minimum 
resources needed in your play deck?
***  No and yes.
--------
I have believed that these starting stage cards must be fixed for 
tournament decks.
***  They are.  No part of your deck/sideboard/starting 
characters/starting resources/whatever can vary from round to round.
--------
Re: Legendary Hoard
If the Dragon is inverted, does that mean it no longer has any effect on
play? Its special effect is gone and there's no longer an extra
auto-attack at the site?
*** Consider the inverted dragon to be "off to the side." This card
was written before putting cards off to the side became a rule. So,
yes, the at Home dragon's effects are no longer in play.
I found this answer in the CoE 46 archive.  But I'd like a clarification
and or justification for this.  "was written before putting cards off to 
the side became a rule", but that off to the side has been around since 
Wizards because Sacrifice of form has the term. So the current ruling 
seems a bit off.
***  You are correct, but "off to the side" was formally defined in the 
ME:DM rules insert, and was used infrequently and somewhat informally 
before that.  This card could be abusive in combonation with some dragon 
at home effects, so the NetRep team decided to just consider it off to 
the side.
--------
Given that Legendary Hoard is in play with Smaug at Home:
The real question is to know what to do if another player plays Smaug at
Home. Is this copy put into play with the other? Is it played, and then
Discarded? Having to remove a card from your deck may be a good thing
for A player...
***  The ruling is that the dragon is treated off to the side, so it is 
in play for the purposes of uniqueness, so the play of another Smaug at 
Home is illegal.
--------
You have 3 copies of your ringwraith in the deck (say the witch king), 
how are the other ringwraiths treated, are they as standard minion 
characters, so they count against the 10 limit for characters going into 
your deck, or are they treated differently?
***  Nope.  They're treated like wizards.  You can only have three in 
the deck, and one of each in your sideboard that aren't already in your 
deck.
--------
My wife asked whether it's possible to bring in characters at their home
sites if no-one is there.
e.g. Bring in a Blue Mountain Dwarf, play a faction, discard the dwarf, 
or another similar situation.
***  This is legal, given that your wizard/ringwraith/etc. is not in play.
--------
Is tapping an Agent for Pilfer (or a sage for Marvel's Told or scout for 
concealment) considered part of the "cost" for declaring the play of the 
card?
***  CRF, Rulings by Term, Active Conditions:
Annotation 5: If an action requires an entity to tap as a condition for 
the action's main effect, that entity must be untapped when the action 
is declared; else, the action may not be declared. Tap the entity at 
this point; this is considered synonymous with the action's declaration; 
i.e., it is not a separate action. When it comes time to resolve the 
action in its chain of effects, that entity must still be in play and 
tapped or the action is canceled.
--------
I assume this is correct, including the fact that one must choose 
targets upon declaration?
***  You are correct about choosing targets.  CRF, Rulings by Term, 
Active Conditions:
Annotation 8: An action that requires a target is considered to have the 
active condition that the target be in play when the action is declared 
and when it is resolved. An action may not be declared if its target is 
not in play. However, dice-rolling actions may always be targeted by 
other actions declared later in the same chain of effects.
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If my opponent enters a site which has text saying that the second 
auto-attack may be a creature from hazard player's hand, must I reveal 
this creature as soon as he enters site, or I can reveal the creature 
after the first auto-attack?
***  You reveal it when the automatic-attack comes up, which is after 
the first.
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If you thought that the answer was yes, I can reveal it later, then how 
would this affect cards already in play like Forewarned is Forearmed?
***  For Forewarned is Forearmed, the hazard player would declare which 
automatic attack the resource player has to face, as usual, and if the 
attack chosen involves revealing a creature from the hazard player's 
hand, do so.
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Old Friendship:
Diplomat only. +5 to an influence check against a character...
What does "against a character" mean?
***  The bonus applies when you are trying to influence one of your 
opponent's characters away.
--------
Re: Old Friendship:
Is it possible to influence an opponent's item with that card? ... What 
about allies?
***  No and no.
--------
Balrog can move normally to various under-deeps sites and Moria (surface 
site) without supporting cards right?
***  Correct.
--------
Balrog can't have followers normally but can form a company with other 
characters under GI right?
***  Correct.
--------
Re:  Orc Mail
You can play the same site as the minion company when they reveal it. 
So, if they are sent back to their site of origin, you are still at the 
new site, correct?
***  Correct.
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Re:  Orc Mail
If you play this on a Dwarf/Hobbit company, are you able to later add 
non-Dwarves/Hobbits to the company without discarding the card? Does it 
continuously check playability?
***  You may add non-Dwarf or non-Hobbit characters to a company that 
has Orc Mail played on it without causing Orc Mail to be discarded.
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Re:  Orc Mail
Is there any way to remove this card other than the roll stated on the card?
***  No.  Why would you need to?
Chad Martin
chad@th...
Official Council of Elrond NetRep
http://www.feinus.com/ccg/elrond.htm
Assisted by: Nigel Buckle, Wim Heemskerk and Travis Took