The Dirty Dozen: Part One

by Terence Jason Dorman

As the former Judge of Great Justice, I would frequently encounter players who were unaware of particular rules and had to be enlightened regarding their existence. Many times, multiple players would be unaware of the same rule, usually because it was one of the very specific rules that does not come up in actual gameplay too often.

Since this is the month of December, I've decided to take a look at the twelve rules in the Compherensive Rules Reference that, I have found, most players either do not know about, constantly forget, or frequently ask questions about. I've decided to name these rules the Dirty Dozen, and hopefully the existence of this article will help players all around the world understand The Spoils just a bit better.

Since there are twelves rules I am going to look at and I don't want to entice any "TL:DR" responses, I've decided to break up the Dirty Dozen into two parts. This week I'll look at the first six rules I've found, then in two weeks check back for the second half!

202.8

Every faction has a Develop Rule section in its rules text. It usually allows you to draw cards or play resources each turn.

This rule mostly affects new players, but it can catch veteran players off guard as well. Most games that having drawing and resource mechanics (Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft, etc.) usually allow you to draw a card AND play a resource each turn. I don't know about the rest of you, but The Spoils was the first game I encountered that forced me to choose between one of those.

Having played this game for six years now, I'm still surprised by how frequently I may screw up by both drawing a card and playing a resource on my turn. This usually happens immediately after I was playing one of the games that allow this, but still, it comes up!

204.5

If the damage a character receives in a single turn is ever equal to or greater than its life, destroy it immediately. (408.4)

While this rule seems pretty self-explanatory and basic, a lot of players (mostly new) don't seem to immediately grasp how this rule relates to characters with zero life. One time I had a player misinterpret this so hard that he was convinced a character that currently had zero life could not die if damage was inflicted to it. I wish I could remember how he came to that conclusion.

To clear this up (hopefully for forever), characters can certainly be destroyed when they have zero life. In fact, this is easily the time when they are most vulnerable as they die automatically. A character with zero (0) life and zero (0) damage has damage on it equal to (0=0) or greater than its life, which destroys it. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

205.2

When a tactic resolves, follow its instructions and put it into its owner’s discard pile.

I may be picking the wrong rule for this common problem, but this is the one that brought it to mind. When a tactic is being played, it goes to the being played area (as described in a later rule). The tactic itself is no longer in your hand, nor is it in your discard pile (yet). Even after all responses have been made and resolved, the tactic does not end up in your discard pile until its Effect has FULLY resolved.

I usually see this rule forgotten/misused with situations that arise due to Dark Awakening. An example I saw quite often when judging was players would use a Dark Awakening, picking a Wanton Wizard in their discard pile. The player would play the Wizard, triggering its enter play effect. The player would then attempt to put the Dark Awakening that is still resolving (the one that played the Wanton Wizard in the first place) face-down as a resource, even though that card is not yet in the discard pile.

307.1

If you are instructed to duplicate a tactic, an invisible copy is created. Its cost number is considered to be 0 and you don’t need to meet its threshold. The copy has all the rules text of the original, so you must still satisfy all its extra costs. If you can’t, the duplicate is terminated.

Duplicating tactics can be a lot of fun as you get to use them again without having to actually play it again, but it may not be as fun as you think it is if you are forgetting this rule. The most common cause of people forgetting this rule is how good Muddle seems. While Muddle is certainly good, ti may not be the powerhouse card that players may be using it as.

Duplicating a tactic requires you to satisfy all extra costs of the card to be duplicated. This includes any "Pay" costs that may be there and any restrictions on when the card can be played. This means that, if your opponent plays a Mau Party, you can certainly terminate it, but you won't get five cards and two influence out of it since you cannot satisfy the "play only during your turn" cost.

Also, if your opponent pays six for a Delectable Boon and you pay six to Muddle it, you do not get a free "six cost Boon." Instead, you have to pay AGAIN for however much you wish to use your duplicate Delectable Boon for.

These are obviously only a few examples of how this rule is relevant, but they are definitely the ones that I see come up most frequently in competitive play.

308.1

If an effect lets you play a card for free, then its cost number is considered to be 0 while you play it.

This rule sneaks up on people who are trying to play cards for free without realizing any of the potential downsides. While playing a card for free is certainly awesome, you run some risks if you are not careful.

First, and the most obvious risk, are cards liked Forced Recruitment and Patent Enforcement. These cards effectively allow your opponent to steal what you paid for free for the cost of two and zero respectively. This is because the cost of your "free" card is zero while playing it, which means it is zero while your opponent is responding as well.

The other risk you run is wasting a cost reduction effect like Senior Research Assistant or 1337!. If you time your cards improperly, you could end up reducing the cost of a free, zero cost card. Playing a card for free does not let these types of effects "carry over," even though that may be the case in some other games.

402.3

If a card does not specify the game area it affects, it affects only the in play game area.

The Billionaire is famous for bringing this rule to the forefront as players would frequenly ask if they could use The Billionaire to manipulate the opponent's Recur abilities or Vorpal Sword/Fired Hand. Simply put, no, The Billionaire cannot do that.

This rule is not specific to The Billionaire, though, and is extremely universal. Consider a card like Clandestine Resort ("All your characters gain 1 life"). This does not affect characters in your hand, deck, or discard pile, so a card that reads "search your deck for a character with 3 life or less" would not be affected at all.

While the Clandestine Resort example does not seem like a big deal, I can definitely see more cards in the future in which the limitations this rule provides will be much more serious. Right now, The Billionaire is probably the card that pioneers this rules existence, but I am sure there will be more to come.

To Be Continued....

Be sure to discuss your experiences with the rules above in the forums! Also, for fun, try take a stab at what rules will be in the second half of The Dirty Dozen. I'll give you a hint: the rules I've selected are going in order, so there will not be any rules before Rule 404 chosen for the article in two weeks.