relating to this thread:
if you have concussion bombs with a inactive charge, are you free to elect to drop another device (such as a proximity mine or what have you) during the systems phase, preventing you from dropping a concussion bomb that round?
this is similar to the question about spending a lock to reroll all of your blank results during dice modification, preventing commander malarus's ability from resolving. the main difference being that the ability queue is not used for dice modification - and spending a lock for its default effect is not considered an ability.
or in other words, how do we interpret and treat the term "must"? i know that some people have previously argued that mandatory effects are always resolved before other abilities, but that argument really doesn't make any sense under the current rule set. in fact, all abilities that do not use the word "may" are mandatory. "must" is just used to reiterate that.
from page two of the RR:
to be honest, it's hard to have an opinion. on one hand, there is no precedence - and RAW i cannot find anything that would prevent you from using a may-ability before a must-ability, even if that prevents the must-ability from resolving. on the other hand, must means "is required to" - and from a design perspective, i feel it would be better for the game if must abilities would take precedence in the ability queue over abilities or effects that would prevent them from resolving.
your thoughts and comments are most welcome.