I have 3 questions on this case:

*Hsien-Ko* (DS2P)

First F discard 2 momentum, add 3 cards from the top of your deck to your card pool face down: Each player returns their vitality to its maximum amount.

1.- To return, is considered to gain vitality?

2.- This ability can be affected by "The Master of Ostrheinsburg" ?

3.- This ability can be affected by Terrain " Ice Coffin of The Sleeping Ancient" ?

Thanks.

If I remember correctly, returning to your maximum amount is not gaining, per the Dan's Dragon Punch/Zhao Daiyu's Poison Touch ruling that does not allow you to spin the gain into a loss. I could be wrong here though. I can't really go back and get the ruling, but I can look into the AGR in a bit. This was the ruling I remember, atm, dealing with this issue.

-Tinman

EDIT: Just looked through the AGR. I could not find any difference in the definition of 'gain' and 'return,' mostly because there was not a reference to those things specifically. The Errata also does not hold an answer. In addition, for those that weighed in on the Paid to Protect/Reduction-Penalty bit, there is no defined Health penalty, so some of that same logic does not work.

Any reference to return any stat is considered a "reset" and neither a loss not gain. Examples of such are Revitalize, American Made and Holding Ground.

These cannot be responded to as having lost or gained vitality, speed or damage.

I am pretty certain that is not true for Holding Ground. It's not considered a Bonus or Penalty, but it considered a loss or gain.

For example w/ regards to Raging Gnome.

Except Raging Gnome uses 'increase' instead of gain, but that is just a bit of terminology swapping.

Holding Ground and Paid to Protect both 'reset' the value to its original value, and do not count as a penalty or gain. They can, however, be an increase or reduction in the value.

Basically, we need these 4 words defined in the AGR. Something like this:

Gain/Penalty: A gain/penalty is whenever a value on a card is changed by a set amount X. A gain is positive X, a penalty is negative X.

Increase/Reduction: An increase/reduction is whenever a value on a card is changed. An increase is when a lower number is changed to a higher number. A reduction is a higher number changed to a lower number. A gain is always an increase, an increase is not always a gain. A penalty is always a reduction, a reduction is not always a penalty.

Something like this. It sets a precedence for what can react to who (Persevering Despite Rejection -> Paid to Protect interaction), while clarifying other things (Holding Ground -> Penalty reaction).

-Tinman

We miss you Antigoth!