5 replies to this topic

[mplain]

Marya Seaworth

 

Reaction: After a character is bypassed using stealth, pay 1 gold to kneel it. (Limit twice per phase.)

 

Stealth

 

Stealth is a keyword ability. When a player initiates a challenge, for each character with stealth he or she declares as an attacker, that player may choose one character without stealth controlled by the defending player. Each chosen character is considered bypassed by stealth, and cannot be declared as a defender for that challenge.

 

I have two attackers with stealth, and I choose to bypass the same character twice. I trigger Marya, my opponent plays Treachery. Can I trigger Marya again?

[ktom]

Best Answer

Yes. A couple of things to note here:

 

- Because the entire process of initiating an attack is considered to happen simultaneously, each character chosen as a stealth target is considered to be bypassed simultaneously. This means that there is no point in time where the character chosen by Stealthy Attacker #1 has been bypassed, but the character chosen by Stealthy Attacker #2 has not. (This should be evident in the fact that the same character can be chosen as the stealth target for two different attackers in the first place; if the bypass was not simultaneous, being targeted by #1 would make the character ineligible as a target for #2.)

- The upshot of this is that when two attackers with stealth choose the same stealth target, the defender's character has been successfully bypassed twice (at the same time), even though there is no practical game benefit in terms of Stealth effects on a character bypassed more than once.

- The triggering condition on Marya Seaworth is when a character is bypassed using stealth. As such, the fact that the character in this scenario is successfully bypassed twice (once each by two different attackers using stealth) creates two separate and independent triggering conditions for Marya's reaction.

 

So, since there are two separate and independent triggering conditions for Marya's reaction on a single character chosen as the stealth target for two different attackers in the same challenge, Marya's controller may trigger her ability a second time (in reaction to triggering condition #2) if their opponent cancels the use of her ability in reaction to triggering condition #1.

[mplain]

Although I cannot use Esgred to bypass the same character twice, right?

[Khudzlin]

Right. When targeting multiple entities with the same effect, you have to choose different ones.

[ktom]

The rules reference for Khudzlin's statement is found in the "Target" entry:

"If multiple targets are required to be chosen by the same player, these are chosen simultaneously."

 

Not being able to choose the same character twice for a high-claim military challenge is a specific application of this rule - albeit one that is actually spelled out in the rules for Military Claim. 

 

Note that this rule does not normally apply to choosing Stealth targets because stealth is considered to be applied independently for each attacking character with the keyword, and not as a collective application/resolution of multiple instances of the keyword at one time (as described in the FAQ). Therefore, "multiple targets" are not normally required when choosing a stealth target for a stealth attacker even when there are multiple stealth attackers - it's done on a one-for-one basis. Esgred is an exception to this because she actually is a single stealth attacker that chooses multiple stealth targets (i.e., on a two-for-one basis, so this rule applies).

[mplain]

Got word from Daniel Schaefer:
 

I have two attackers with stealth, and I choose to bypass the same character twice. I trigger Marya Seaworth, my opponent plays Treachery. Can I trigger Marya again? i.e. is the character considered to be "bypassed by stealth" twice, or is this status binary (true or false)?

Yes, you can trigger Marya again. Each character with stealth declares stealth targets independently and simultaneously, creating two separate triggering condition.