Okay, two rules questions came up in my current game of Cosmic Encounter:

1. Tripler plays Attack 12, and the opponent plays Morph. Does Morph copy the 12 value, or the post-tripled 4 value? We ruled that Morph acts first (duplicating the 12 value), then Tripler affects the original card (dividing it by 3 to equal 4). This makes sense both from a gameplay perspective (that the alien power is more “unique”), and from a card-text perspective (since Morph duplicates the value “when revealed,” and Tripler adjusts the value “after you reveal an attack card”). Thoughts?

2. The same player used Precursor Seed to gain a second alien power, Calculator, which may be used to equalize the high and low card values. So, if that player attacks with 3, and his opponent plays 15, which happens first?

a) Tripler causes attack 3 to become attack 9, then can equalize to reduce 15 down to 6, so Tripler/Calculator wins 9 to 6; or

b) Calculator reduces 15 down to 12, then triples 3 up to 9, so Tripler/Calculator loses 9 to 12?

Personally, I think that A is the proper sequence of events, since the Tripler power is mandatory, and the Calculator power is optional. I would think that mandatory powers occur before optional ones, but I don’t know of a rule to support this.

Thanks!

1) Your interpretation there is correct. I think similar questions were answered in the FAQ but the Morph card copies the card that your opponent as well as it's value before any other effects take place to alter its value. So if your opponent plays a 6 and you played a Morph then you also played a 6 upon reveal and that's the face value which is then tampered with by your alien power.

2) This question is a little tricky, but I'm inclined to go with interpretation a) on this. The Calculator card says that if "both cards are revealed to be attack cards, the value of the higher card is reduced by the value of the lower card" - now since Tripler automatically "adjusts (the card's) value" upon reveal, effectively changing what the card's strength and face value is then the Tripler power should take effect first with Calculator taking effect with the new value of the card in question. It's still a little muddled and not exactly clearcut but that's the best that I can figure it out. (Mandatory powers do not necessarily take presedence over optional ones so that's not a viable way of gauging it in this case).