wmorgan
01-10-2007, 07:19 PM
Suppose I control 4 characters and my opponent attacks with just a Face in the Crowd. What happens if I play a Shocking Reappearance? I can see two ways to interpret it:
* This a case of "What if one effect overrides another?" from the rules 2.1. Since Reappearance is a more recent effect, Face in the Crowd is blocked. This doesn't sit quite right with me, because Reappearance doesn't have the word "can" anywhere on its text. You sort of have to read between the lines to think that one effect overrides another.
* "This card cannot be blocked" technically means something different, specifically, "defending player cannot choose any characters in step 5 of 'How to Attack.'" Since the character I picked with Reappearance is just added to the blocking party, Face in the Crowd is blocked. This explanation is kind of funny, too. If Face in the Crowd instead read, "characters can't block this card," then it would follow more directly, since it's clear what it means for a character to block. Imagine I'm trying to explain the situation to my opponent:
Him: "That card can't block."
Me: "It didn't block, it was added to a blocking party."
vs.
Him: "This card can't be blocked."
Me: "It wasn't blocked, I added a character to the blocking party."
Him: "Yeah, but it can't be blocked, and now it is blocked."
Me: "Hmmm..."
So which reason is it? Or is the answer something else entirely?
Edit: I just read the errata on Shocking Reappearance:
Shocking Reappearance
COST: Play this only while resolving a battle in which you were attacked. Pick a character in your discard pile.
EFFECT: Put the character into play under your control. Treat this character as a member of the blocking party. (You may play this card even if there currently is no blocking party.)
It looks like the change from adding a character to a blocking party to simply treating it as a member of the blocking party is key here, although I'm not sure why.
* This a case of "What if one effect overrides another?" from the rules 2.1. Since Reappearance is a more recent effect, Face in the Crowd is blocked. This doesn't sit quite right with me, because Reappearance doesn't have the word "can" anywhere on its text. You sort of have to read between the lines to think that one effect overrides another.
* "This card cannot be blocked" technically means something different, specifically, "defending player cannot choose any characters in step 5 of 'How to Attack.'" Since the character I picked with Reappearance is just added to the blocking party, Face in the Crowd is blocked. This explanation is kind of funny, too. If Face in the Crowd instead read, "characters can't block this card," then it would follow more directly, since it's clear what it means for a character to block. Imagine I'm trying to explain the situation to my opponent:
Him: "That card can't block."
Me: "It didn't block, it was added to a blocking party."
vs.
Him: "This card can't be blocked."
Me: "It wasn't blocked, I added a character to the blocking party."
Him: "Yeah, but it can't be blocked, and now it is blocked."
Me: "Hmmm..."
So which reason is it? Or is the answer something else entirely?
Edit: I just read the errata on Shocking Reappearance:
Shocking Reappearance
COST: Play this only while resolving a battle in which you were attacked. Pick a character in your discard pile.
EFFECT: Put the character into play under your control. Treat this character as a member of the blocking party. (You may play this card even if there currently is no blocking party.)
It looks like the change from adding a character to a blocking party to simply treating it as a member of the blocking party is key here, although I'm not sure why.