So from what I know is that you can play actions no matter what and complete as much of the action as possible before you discard it. In the case of using Sloppy Labwork (Archive a card. Discard a card) while only having one card in hand, can you choose to archive or discard it? Or must you do the action in the order listed, thus archiving a card before discarding a card? I understand that most of the time you would prefer to archive the card, but under certain circumstances you might not. Such as when you have enemy cards' archived and would rather put into your discard pile to resurrect or shuffle back into your library when you cycle through your deck.

I suspect that in an effort to limit "atomic and's", creating cases where it would be confusing about dependencies for the "do as much as you can" rule, this card got broken into two parts. The two parts do not have a dependency, (Archive a card, if you do, discard a card), but there hasn't been a ruling about how multiple sentences should get resolved. (I have submitted a question about Positron Bolt for confirmation, which is similar, but have yet to get a response.)

I would interpret the card as "Archive a card and Discard a card" which means that yes, you would have a choice, because you are told to do two things at the same time and as the active player, you may choose which to do first.

Here's where it's going to get interesting, as there are two cases I'm going to use to support this interpretation.

First, I'm basing my interpretation of the two sentences on this card on the way I am interpreting the three sentences on Positron Bolt: http://aembertree.com/card/core/118

I suspect the three sentences in Positron Bolt should read "Deal 3[D] to a flank creature and Deal 2[D] to its neighbor and Deal 1[D] to the second creature's other neighbor." which would mean you deal three damage to the flank creature, 2 to its neighbor and 1 to the other neighbor ALL AT ONCE. However, if we go with the apply the effect of the first sentence then apply the effect of the second then the third, if the creature on the flank gets destroyed by three damage, there is no neighbor to it anymore, as that creature is out of play, and there's no sense of a neighbor to a card in an out of play state. So it makes more sense to read it with all 3 sentences coming into play.

Secondly, there's the case of Key Hammer. Key Hammer says "If your opponent forged a key on their previous turn, unforge it. Your opponent gains 6[AE]." In this case the first sentence is a conditional, but the overall text is not. So no matter what happens when you play Key Hammer, your opponent gets 6 Æmber. This supports that just because something is in a second place that it is still part of the totality of the action, and following the do as much as you can rule, your opponent gains 6 Æmber regardless of the outcome of the first sentence.

I would just do them in order. To suggest that you can do otherwise leaves players too much freedom in resolving cards as they please.

10 hours ago, American Jedi said:

So from what I know is that you can play actions no matter what and complete as much of the action as possible before you discard it. In the case of using Sloppy Labwork (Archive a card. Discard a card) while only having one card in hand, can you choose to archive or discard it? Or must you do the action in the order listed, thus archiving a card before discarding a card? I understand that most of the time you would prefer to archive the card, but under certain circumstances you might not. Such as when you have enemy cards' archived and would rather put into your discard pile to resurrect or shuffle back into your library when you cycle through your deck.

With only one other card in hand, you’d have to archive it.

I don’t see anything in the rules that lets you do the last part of a card text and then the first. Which makes perfect sense to me. So in this case archive first, no more cards? Don’t discard any.

Do as much as you can in the order on the card. If you only have one card you must archive it.

Just got confirmation from Brad that the three sentences on Positron Bolt take place simultaneously, even though they are three separate sentences on the card, which supports my argument that you should be able to choose. I'll submit a rules clarification request just to be sure. (Looks like current response time for those is about 3 weeks)

On 12/5/2018 at 9:22 AM, thespaceinvader said:

Do as much as you can in the order on the card. If you only have one card you must archive it.

That's not what the rule says. The rule says "do as much as you can". The question comes down to whether or not the abilities of "Archive a card" and "Discard a card" are granted simultaneously or not. As demonstrated with Positron Bolt, multiple abilities could be interpreted to be gained at the same time. If that is the case with Sloppy Labwork, as well, then the active player gets to make a choice as to what to do with that final card in their hand.

Furthermore, the rule book has a specific way to word the effect that you are describing: "Archive a card, if you do, discard a card." That would force you to archive a card first, then discard.