Ran my first League tournament game at the FLGS last night, and the rulings I made on Demented Caretaker still worry me a little.

Demented Caretaker says: "FORCED RESPONSE: After Demented Caretaker comes into play, choose and exhaust a character with skill 4 or higher or sacrifice Demented Caretaker."

When Demented Caretaker came into play, he chose the opposing Cthulhu for exhaustion. That exhaustion was cancelled by a Hastur disrupt card. Is Demented Caretaker sacrificed in this situation? Did he fulfill the "choose and exhaust" forced response before the cancellation, or did the disrupt cancellation happen 'before' the exhaustion? I ruled that he would NOT be sacrificed.

Then the surviving Caretaker's player argued that since it was a FORCED Response and had not been carried out, he MUST choose and exhaust a different character before continuing. That is an interesting argument. I ruled that the Forced response triggered only once.

Was I right or wrong in each case, please?

Chick

chicklewis said:

Hastur can't cancel the 'exhaust' - it has to cancel the entire ability. And yes, Hastur can cancel a forced response with some cards. Forced Responses are triggered effects. You can't cancel part of an ability, you either cancel all or nothing.

I thought Disrupt cards completely cancelled the event they were disrupting.

That would indicate the Demented Caretaker Forced Response was cancelled completely by the Hastur DIsrupt and there was no opportunity to select a character to exhaust OR to sacrifice.

If the Hastur card was another Forced Response then the Demented Caretaker Forced Response would have to complete, then the Hastur Forced Response would kick in.

Do I understand the timing correctly?

Thanks.

Thanks, Marius, concise and insightful.

So, I made the correct call(s) but using the wrong logicial foundation. I'll settle for that !

Chick

It might be worth mentioning though that Power Drain can't Disrupt Forced Responses. Only Responses and Actions. If that was the card they were using, then the point is really moot cause it shouldn't have happened.