Several of Lu Chen's foundations add themselves or other foundations to the card pool.

Pillar of Heaven reads:

"R Add this card to your card pool: After your attack played as a reversal deals damage, add the top card of your opponent's deck to their card pool face down.

Lu Chen R Discard 1 momentum: Before you clear this card from your card pool during the End Phase, add this card to your staging area ready."

However, according to the current Advanced Rules, I believe any foundations in the card pool are added to the staging area during the end phase, unless they were played as blocks. So Pillar of Heaven (and any other foundations added to the card pool) will always return to the staging area at the end of the turn.

That being the case, what purpose does the Lu Chen R serve?

Relevant AR section:

"9.3 Any card played as a block will be placed in the discard pile.
9.4 Any face down card in the card pool will be placed in the discard pile.
9.5 Any action card will be placed in the discard pile.
9.6 Any asset will be moved to the staging area.
9.7 Any foundation that was played will be moved to the staging area."

EDIT: Just took a close read. 9.7 says "Any foundation that was played" and I guess in this case the foundation wasn't played... But I couldn't find anything about cards that were added to the card pool without being played. How do we clear them?

ARMed_PIrate said:

Everything gets discarded unless stated otherwise. It is where you clear your card pool.

For further discussion, check out:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=30&efcid=5&efidt=105083&efpag=0

8)

Actually under the current rules those cards will stay there forever (or until something else clears them) as will any card artificially added to the card pool.

There is no proviso in the current rules for dealing with cards like these as far as I can tell.

aslum said:

Please go read my last response. It stands.

The next version of the AGR will be clearer.

I never said that wasn't the case, just that the RULES say one thing (or rather don't say anything), which isn't the way things have been ruled to work.

Yay for abitrary abitration.

aslum said:

This isn't arbitrary arbitration at all. This is a well thought our ruling based on the current lack of explicit rules in the current rules document. Based on their previous discussions with the designer, they have deemed that it does not make sense to have cards stay in the card pool forever. As such they have made this ruling which in my humble opinion follows very well what the designers intended. Until we have an update to the rules document. This will stand. It's not abitrary in the slightest.

First:

I didn't say it wouldn't stand, nor that it wasn't a sound and good ruling. It is however arbitrary.

There where two practical possibilities to pick from (as well as the third, impractical but technically correct option, that would be very silly to use) eg either unplayed foundation clears to discard or to staging area.

The choice for which zone to put it in is arbitrary by definition, as it isn't defined in the rules.

Second:

He is a rules arbiter, so his decision is an arbitration.

I like alliteration. I like words, and I know how to use them.