I've got more a puzzling curiosity than a real rules question.

This Card from the Core Set must go in the dead pile when used and can be drawn back from it by paying gold or influence.

But wouldn't it have been the same to make it normally discarded, and then resumed from the discard pile by paying the same amount of gold/influence? Am I missing some subtle play mechanic?

michel3105 said:

Say you lose the card "Forever Burning" to an intrigue challenge, or it is discarded from your deck by some card effect. You can't get it back because it can only be retrieved from the dead pile (and it can only get into the dead pile if you play it from your hand).

If it worked the way you suggest, you'd never have to worry about whether it was discarded from your hand or deck because you could always get it back. As is, you opponent could "eliminate" it by making you discard it. If you could get it back from the discard pile, your opponent wouldn't have the same opportunity to "eliminate" it by making it go to the dead pile because it is almost impossible (completely impossible with LCG card, I think) to get an event into the dead pile without Deathbound.

I would like to add that if you play Forever Burning and it gets cancelled, it doesn't go to you dead pile but to your discard pile. And you cannot retrieve it back from there.

This may happen more often than not now there is some neutral cancel available.

Comm said:

I don't think that's true. A cancel only stops the effect from happening. The card is still considered to have been played. Deathbound is not part of the effect of the card, it is a pasive replacement effect that simply changes the moribund state. Even if the effect of Forever Burning is cancelled the replacement effect still kicks in and the card goes to the dead pile.

ingsve said:

You're behind the times ingsve. Deathbound was updated at least as far back as the release of the LCG. In the Core Set rule book, the definition of Deathbound included the specific example. A canceled Deathbound event goes to the discard pile.

ktom said:

I tried to catch up and read the LCG FAQ but it didn't mention this exception. Seems like a strange change though. Was there some type of nasty combo that they wanted to avoid or something?

ingsve said:

The change isn't in the FAQ. It's in the basic rules themselves.

Not a nasty combo, just something in general, I think. Some of it may have been the "doom out" decks (it was kind of harsh to open yourself to the doom-out when your event was canceled). Some of it may have been the Loyalis (it was kind of harsh that canceling your doomed event powered up the Loyalist). Some of it may have been the beneficial kill combos in relation to the "My Life For..." events. And some of it may have been the near futility of canceling things like Forever Burning here. (The closest I can think of to a "nasty combo" was the Forever Burning, Dothraki Sea and a ton of influence thing. The change allows a cancel to shut down the combo instead of just taking a single -1 out of it.)

I thought it was done to weaken Defenders of the North. That way they had to be successful with the action to get a card into the deadpile rather than simply attempting assured of their increased reveal.

Either way it was a good thing.

dormouse said:

Ya, that could be a reason as well. Like the old Massing + Injurious Poison + Injurious Poison draw 1 card + reveal another 3.