Greetings!

I could not find a formal ruling on the interaction between Salsette Slums and Controlling the message.

If the runner uses slums on their first run to RFG an installed pad campaign. Can CTM fire and resolve for a second run that trashes an installed Jackson Howard?

My goal is to get something added to the next ANR FAQ or educate myself as to where the the formal answer is located.

thanks!

I looked at this FAQ first:

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/01/f0/01f0cd58-eed3-4f6d-a43d-738ccb2156b6/adn_faq_40.pdf

I then read through this entire 3rd party forum post:

https://forum.stimhack.com/t/salsette-ctm-discussion-thread/7955/108

The answer is in the "Ordinal Events" clause of the FAQ.

"When an ability refers to a specific ordinal instance of something happening (e.g. “the first time”, “the second time”, etc.), it refers to that instance and only that instance. If a replacement or prevent ability happens, the game still counts it toward the number of times the replaced or prevented event has occurred."

Since you chose to trash the PAD Campaign in step 5.5.3 of the run in which you accessed it, that checks off the "first time" clause of CtM's trigger. However, because the trash is then replaced with a Remove From Game effect, the triggering condition of actually putting the card in archives (i.e. The glossary definition of "trash") CtM does not trigger.

But when you then run on Jackson Howard, the game knows this is the second time you are taking the Trash option when you get to step 5.5.3.

(The reason it's very difficult to find is it's perhaps the most bizarre and non-intuitive interaction in all Netrunner history and few people really understand it, and even fewer think it's really the way it ought to be. The Ordinal Events rule in the FAQ was originally written purely to justify "the designer said this is how he intended these cards to interact.")

@Grimwalker Thanks for taking the time to answer this. I will accept that this is how the devs want the game to work. I hope that someday that it makes it into a FAQ beyond just the "Ordinal Events" section you referenced.

Now if we go into fantasy land for a moment...

I wish this actual Slums phrasing...

Quote

Once per turn, when you pay the trash cost of an accessed card, remove that card from the game instead of trashing it.

was worded like this revised text...

Quote

Once per turn, when you access a card, you may pay credits equal to that card's trash cost, to remove that card from the game.

and that there was no replacement effect.

I will end in this poorly written poem to put this subject to bed.

"To be trashed, and yet to have never been trashed. All subsequent trashings, will never be quite like the first time."