Illustrious Plagiarist

Hello folks! Today, the rules team has a spoiler for you!
(The following is written by khift, with some input from mplain, Wayne Duyvestyn, and Paul Steiner)

Cool eh? Something quite unique here - a character that gains abilities of events! Well then, once you're done admiring the art, let's get to the peculiar rules interactions this card might cause!

- The order of cards in your discard piles matter. If you’ve gotten into the habit of not maintaining their order then you need to get out of that habit. However, if multiple cards go to the discard pile at the same time, such as from a multiple discard effect like Spies at Court or Restoration of Balance, the owner of the cards chooses the order they are placed in the discard pile, which can affect which card is available for Plagiarist to copy. (RRG "Discard Piles")

- If the topmost event in your opponent’s discard pile is a Reaction or Interrupt then Plagiarist’s ability does nothing and cannot even be triggered. You do not need to worry about Plagiarist copying your Display of Power, and thank goodness for that.

- The Plagiarist does not have to pay the fate cost of a copied event, but does have to pay costs listed in the ability. A copied Way of the Crab does not cost a fate, as you are not playing the event but instead you are using an ability on a character, but it does still require that you sacrifice a Crab character you control. Similarly, a copied Assassinate will still cost 3 honor.

- Targeting requirements and play restrictions must still be met when using a copied ability. A copied Way of the Crane can still only honor a Crane character you control. A copied Court Games can still only be used during a political conflict. Every part of the ability, both pre-and-post dash, gets copied by Plagiarist.

- However, some cards, such as Good Omen and Blackmail, have play restrictions printed outside of their action abilities – these restrictions get left behind and are not copied by Plagiarist, and so Plagiarist can feel free to copy Good Omen and use it even if your honor bid value is higher than the opponent's.

- The Plagiarist provides a sneaky way to get around maximums. Banzai!, for example, has a maximum of one per conflict. However, maximums are not per ability, but rather per card title. This means that you can play your own Banzai!, then copy and use an opponent’s Banzai! with Illustrious Plagiarist, as you still will only have played one “Banzai!” that conflict. However, a second Plagiarist would not allow you to use the ability a third time, because a card titled “Illustrious Plagiarist” has already used that ability once this conflict. (RRG "Max X per [period]")

- Cloud the Mind does not remove text granted to Plagiarist by his ability. Similar to Togashi Yokuni, if a card has already gained text by an ability then Cloud the Mind does not remove it because Cloud the Mind only blanks the printed text box and not the gained additional text. If you want to Cloud a Plagiarist’s mind, consider doing it in the draw phase action window; that way, even if he copies an ability before you Cloud his Mind, the ability he copied goes away before the conflict phase begins and will not be help win conflicts.

- If an Illustrious Plagiarist ever manages to acquire a Way of the Dragon (such as through Calling in Favors), then not only can he copy two abilities (they don’t even need to be different!) but each copied ability can be used twice. If you ever manage to pull this off then eat your heart out – just imagine a turn with four free Mirumoto’s Fury or Let Go!

- Illustrious Plagarist’s gained ability cannot be canceled by Voice of Honor or Forged Edict. Although the ability "originates" from an event card, it is now a character ability, and so would no longer meet the requirements for Voice of Honor and Forged Edict.

Hopefully this covers most rules questions you might have about this card. But if you have something we didn't think of, feel free to ask!