Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 2

Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 2

Welcome back to the second issue of Quill & Tankard Regulars.

First of all, a huge thanks for all the great feedback on our first Issue! This week we're kicking off our second major series of articles - like Citadel Custom, this one will also be quite a common sight here at the Inn.

So, grab a seat, it's time for some riddles...

Beware the Sphinx - Aeron Damphair

Beware the Sphinx is a series of articles concentrating on important cards with several peculiar, complex or unintuitive interactions. An emphasis is kept on both new and competitively relevant cards. Remember, the Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler.

The release of the first Chapter Packs from the Beyond the Narrow Sea cycle has brought us our first LCG charagendas – characters that can dynamically change into agendas. However, their introduction has raised quite a lot of questions on how they interact with other agendas, control changes, the deadpile, moribund etc. In order to address those questions arising from this new card type, we're using our inaugural Beware the Sphinx to tackle one of the ones already out and available.

So, without further ado, looking like a wet scandinavian rock star, here's Aeron Damphair.

[lightbox='got/aeron-damphair-vm.jpg']got/med_aeron-damphair-vm.jpg[/lightbox]

Aeron's ability states:
”If Aeron Damphair would be killed, instead attach him to your House card as your only agenda with the text: 'Response: After a Greyjoy character is saved, draw 2 cards.'”.

Now, what does this mean? In rules terms this is a replacement effect that changes the destination of the character when it is killed. The ability first checks for play restrictions (in this case: "as your only agenda”) and then if these are met, it puts the character in a moribund:agenda instead of a moribund:dead state. One important thing to understand about replacement effects like this is that they only change the moribund destination of the card in question, but for all other purposes the card still counts as having been killed.

NOTE: For a more exact explanation of moribund, go have a look at our previous week's Citadel Custom on Plots.

While the principles related to the ability are quite straightforward, the actual implications can be less obvious:

• Like any other character, if Aeron Damphair ends up in your dead pile in any way (Aegon's Hill (TTotH), Visenya's Hill (SaS) or blanked by Meera Reed (TftH) and hit with No Quarter (TBC)), then you cannot play another copy of him.
• Now, if one copy of Aeron becomes your agenda, then you do not have a copy of Aeron in play (agendas are considered to be out-of-play). If you do not happen to also have a copy of Aeron already in your dead pile, then your are free to play a new copy of Aeron as a character.
• If you have a copy of a card named Aeron Damphair - be it Aeron Damphair (KotS) or Aeron Damphair (VM) - in play or in your dead pile, then you cannot play another copy of a card with the same title, even if it is a different version.
• If Aeron dies and goes to moribund:agenda, you can still use his death to trigger Response: effects with the play restriction After a character is killed, such as Harrenhal (ODG).
• After Aeron is killed, like any other card leaving play, he is still moribund until the end of the current Framework or Player Action window. This means, for example, that if someone plays Valar Morghulis (Core) killing your Aeron Damphair, you cannot use his ability to draw cards from saving other characters during the same Plot phase Framework Action window. Essentially, he is on his way to becoming an agenda, but not quite there yet.
• If you already have an agenda (another copy of Aeron that has become your agenda, or you are running another agenda) and Aeron is killed, then the play restrictions are not met, the replacement does not happen, and Aeron goes to the dead pile like any other character would.
• If you have Aeron in play with a duplicate and he is killed, then you can either save him (and the replacement does not happen) or let him die (with him becoming your agenda and the duplicate being discarded).
• Once Aeron has become your agenda, his Response: cannot be cancelled, since according to the FAQ (§4.11, p.11), the effects of agendas cannot be cancelled.

Since all of the charagendas share a similar wording for their transition to an agenda, all of the previous points apply also for Ser Kevan Lannister (VM), The Kindly Man (VM) etc.

Now, what really makes charagendas like Aeron truly worthy of being Sphinxes is the way they interact with control changes. If someone steals Aeron Damphair from you - say, via a combination of Ward (VM) and Forever Burning (Core) - and then that copy of Aeron dies under his control, what happens? The play restriction is checked from the player who controls Aeron, but any character leaving play goes to it's owners out-of-play area. Thus there are in fact three different possible outcomes:

• Your opponent has an agenda: Regardless of whether you also have an agenda, Aeron is placed in your dead pile.
• Your opponent does not have an agenda and neither do you: Aeron becomes moribund:agenda, and becomes your agenda at the end of the action window.
• Your opponent does not have an agenda and you do: Aeron becomes moribund:agenda. However, when he tries to attach to your House card, you already have an agenda and players cannot have more than one agenda (unless allowed by a card effect, like with the North agendas). Then, as the replacement effect has failed, he goes to your dead pile.

Did this Sphinx leave you with yet more questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments below, and we'll do our best to answer them.

Dear Archmaester

Dear Archmaester collects interesting, unusual and unexpected rulings from the FFG Rules forum.

Q: Dear Archmaester,
my opponent just burned my Maester Pylos (KotStorm) with his Flame-Kissed (Core)! However, I've got a Ser Davos Seaworth (TBoBB) and I'm not afraid of using him. Can I now save Flame-Kissed (Core) with Davos' ability to burn my opponent's Daario Naharis (WLL)?

A: Yes. It goes like this: Attachments always have to be attached to something. Whenever the card an attachment is attached to leaves play, the attachment is discarded. This discard happens as a passive effect (in step 4 of the Action Window, see FAQ p.18). There *is* an opportunity to save attachments that are discarded in this way - just like there is an opportunity to save characters from being killed by passive effects, like Condemned (TBC) or Fury of the Wolf (AE). Davos' effect doesn't specify whose attachments can be saved or whose characters the saved attachment can be attached to - and neither does Flame-Kissed (Core), so nothing stops you from saving it and moving it onto one of your opponent's characters.

Q: Wait a second... Last turn he blanked my The Laughing Storm (GotC)s textbox with a Nightmares (LoW) to remove his valiant Jousting Steed (TTotH). Could I also have used Davos' ability to save Jousting Steed (TTotH) by moving it onto Davos?

A: Yes. Jousting Steed (TTotH) needs to be attached to a Knight character. Since Nightmares (LoW) blanks the textbox including traits - unlike, for example, Milk of the Poppy (Core) - The Laughing Storm (GotC) was not a knight anymore. Whenever attachment restrictions like this are not met, the attachment is discarded (cf. FAQ §3.20, p.9). Since Davos does happen to be a Knight, he could have saved the valiant steed from being discarded and attached it to himself.

For further info, see the original thread here.

Antti Korventausta (WWDrakey) is a self-proclaimed Finnish AGoT philosopher and nitpicker, who also used to practice Quantum Mechanics, but found that it paled to AGoT in both interest and complexity. As a Stahleck regular and judge, he sometimes has oddly vivid dreams of understanding portions of the game. In AGoT, he'll play anything as long as it's suitably twisted... often ending up with something that has horns on it.

Helmut Hohberger (Ratatoskr) started playing AGoT in September 2010 and has never looked back (although his wife has, longingly). As a German, he loves rules - and I mean *loves* 'em. Try triggering a Response at the end of a phase on his watch, and he'll probably invade your country. He has actually read the FAQ, and was made a judge at Stahleck 2011 and at various other events. He sometimes answers rules questions on boardgamegeek and the FFG rules board. Some of his answers haven't even been contradicted, corrected or expanded upon by ktom - there is no higher accolade for a rules board morlock.

Every Maester needs a Raven on his shoulder. As a Finn, Iiro Jalonen (Ire) got pulled under the waves by Krakens years ago, and has never looked back. A self-inflicted Shagga and active member of the global AGoT community, he has always strived to know the rules of the game, in order to make them do ridiculous things.