Advanced gameplay questions

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Matfurion
Posts:8
Joined:Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:57 pm
Advanced gameplay questions

Unread post by Matfurion » Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:57 am

Hey all,

I have some questions that I would like clarification on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1) Can a totem be exhausted to use it's payment power the turn it's summoned, as they are technically also allies? (fusion totem)

2) When you play an ability such as hurricane it states that heroes and allies can't attack etc. Does that mean you can't play abilities that says "your hero deals x dmg to whoever"? In other words do those abilities count as your hero attacking?

3) if an ally is summoned "at the start of the turn" can it attack that turn, since it was on the field since "the start of the turn"?

4) if you have two ongoing abilities that doubles your damage, if your dmg is normally 2 would it be 8 now? (legacy of the horde)

5) Can you play an ability like dark penance (destroy random ally, discard random card) if the opponent either has no ally or no hand? Likewise, can you play an ability such as mental anguish (opponent discards 2 cards) if your opponent only has 1 card?

6) at the start of your turn, you have an ability to make you draw a card and your opponent has an ability which makes you discard top card at the start of your turn. Which happens first?

7) last but not least, if you and your opponent both had an ally. And your opponent played an ability that targeted and would destroy your ally, and you played mind flip (switch ally's) . What would happen?

Thanks in advance for any help.
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Spass
Posts:34
Joined:Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:44 pm

Re: Advanced gameplay questions

Unread post by Spass » Fri Mar 31, 2017 12:44 pm

Hello. I will try to base my reply on World of Warcraft TCG Comprehensive Rules version 7.4
I'm not a rules expert, just a player, so if someone thinks I'm wrong, please correct me.

1) Small thing, allies in WoW TCG aren't "summoned", they're "played". Totems count as allies, so you can't exhaust them and use their activated power on the turn they come into play. I found no exception to rule 701.3 for totems.

2) That kind of abilities doesn't count as attack, so you can still use them.

3) No, allies that come into play at your start phase can't attack or use activated powers in that turn.

4) Yes, it would be 8 in that case. Rule 717.4 "If multiple modifiers are competing to replace the same packet, one is chosen and applied. Then, if one or more modifiers are still competing to replace the modified packet, another is chosen and applied, and so on."

5) Yes and yes. If that player is a legal target, you can target him with that abilities. In other words, you're targeting a player, not an ally or a card(s) in his hand, so the link resolves normally, because it has legal target.

6) By "discard top card" you mean "puts the top card of his deck into his graveyard"? Nonetheless, I think that's a priority case, little bit more complicated. So as a turn player you add your links/triggered effects to the chain ("you draw a card" and more if any) in any order you choose, then you pass priority to your opponent and he adds his links to the chain, then the chain (from the topmost link) resolves. So first link in that case is opponent's "puts the top card of his deck into his graveyard", then "you draw a card". Rule 410.4 and 410.5

7) You can't play Mindflip in response to the opponents ability, because Mindflip isn't an instant, so you can't play it when the chain is not empty.

I hope it helps. Cheers!
Matfurion
Posts:8
Joined:Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:57 pm

Re: Advanced gameplay questions

Unread post by Matfurion » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:11 pm

Yeah that's great, thanks. My terminology is certainly lacking but you got the jist of what I was asking. For the most part your answers reflected my opi ions with the exception of mind flip. I was under the assumption that you could add a basic ability to the chain as long as it was your action phase, I was unaware that you could only add instants to the chain. Thanks again for the clarification.

Two additional questions if you don't mind. Rule 305.3 states that totems can't be proposed as attackers, however, if a totem has an attack value and is a defender does it return damage to it's attackers? Also, in addition to question 5, totemic recovery, can it bring back 1 to 3 totems? Or can it only be played with a totem of each type in the graveyard?

Thanks again
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Spass
Posts:34
Joined:Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:44 pm

Re: Advanced gameplay questions

Unread post by Spass » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:19 pm

Your terminology isn't lacking, I play Magic too and I know that sometimes it's easier to explain things "the Magic way". But sometimes it could bring confusion, so I prefer to use WoW TCG phrasing whenever possible. This rule explains playing non-instant cards: 409.1 "A player can play a non-instant card only during his non-combat action phase while he has priority and the chain is empty."

Old ruling about totems was "Totems can’t gain ATK or health", but it was changed in the never sets (don't know when exactly, probably from Worldbreaker), so now you can add ATK points to them (with Primal Strike for example) and they deal combat damage to the attacker when defending as normal (I didn't found any rule that says they not). Which to be honest is kind of strange that "wooden stick" can possibly kill a big beast, but it is what it is.

Totemic Recovery is more complicated. I'm not 100% sure here, but it seems that you must have all the totem types in your graveyard when that ability resolves. According to errata (second part of it):
You can play this even if there are no Totems in your graveyard, or if you don’t have one of each of the four kinds in your graveyard. As it resolves, you must choose one of each kind that’s in your graveyard.
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