I have 3 Amber, my opponent has 4.

I play Neuro Syphon: "Play: If your opponent has more Amber than you, steal one Amber and draw a card." It also gives an Amber when it's played.

So, the first thing that happens is, I get the one Amber. When I played it, I had less Amber, but now our Amber totals are equal. Do I get to steal one and draw, or not?

I'd say no

Play is on every action. It is what happens when the card resolves, not when it actually leaves your hand. So in this case you gain one aember from playing it, but then do not get to steal, or draw a card.

Yup. Order of playing a card is 'direct aember, then card text' so if the aember affects the card text, it always happens first.

Because you gain the aember first then check if you have less it is actually a more useful card imo because it closes a larger gap. 2 to 4 becomes 4 to 3. That feels like a nice swing for one card. It does require some thought on when to use.

On 11/21/2018 at 1:25 PM, tacomental said:

Because you gain the aember first then check if you have less it is actually a more useful card imo because it closes a larger gap. 2 to 4 becomes 4 to 3. That feels like a nice swing for one card. It does require some thought on when to use.

Uhm...Not really. If the rules were reversed and you stole first and THEN got an amber from playing the card, the exact same thing would happen.

Compare a 3-4 aember count witht he valid rule and the hypothetical reversed rule:

Valid rule means you to 4-4 and you would not steal one and you would not get to draw a card.

The hypothetical rule where you resolve "Play:" text before you get the aember icon aember would mean that the 3-4 score would first turn into 4-3 when you stole one. You then got to draw a card. THEN you get to 5-3 when you get the aember for playing he card.

So, the exact opposite of what you said.

:-)

"When a card with an Æmber bonus is played, the first thing the active player does is gain that much Æmber"