Okay - so I've come across a few other questions I wanted to ask the venerable players of this forum, but not enough to warrant a second 10-question spread posting yet (I'll probably do another one of those later this week when I've assembled questions on some other cards which me and my friend will likely be using in our games this week).

So I'll keep this relatively short:

Pulled Under : - Cthulhu Event: Action: Exhaust a character with at least 2 (Terror) icons to choose and destroy an exhausted non-Ancient One character.

- My first thought is this is a pretty good/powerful card for Cthulhu faction....however...it is even more ridiculous (strong) if I am able to choose an OPPOSING character with at least 2-Terror icons - Exhaust THEM - then still get to choose and destroy...

So my questions on this card are in 2-parts:

Part-1: Can I actually target Enemy characters with at least 2-Terror icons as part of the "activation cost" for Pulled Under ?

Part-2: If - Yes - to the above....then am I actually able to immediately destroy THAT SAME (just-exhausted) Enemy Character ? - or have FFG / common way-to-play this card said that there has to be ANOTHER enemy character (still exhausted, of course) - to actually select with the "destroy" effect ?

The general idea of the card seems to be that you would exhaust someone like Dagon...then play this card...and destroy one of your enemies' characters that are exhausted (maybe from being commited to a story that round). But if you can use it as I've described above, then it becomes even more ridiculous / powerful (assuming your foes would be using characters with at least 2-Terror Icons).

So what is the "correct" way to handle this card ?

* - also if you cannot choose the "just exhausted enemy character" (assuming you can even do that, based on my above example) - as the target for the Destruction effect....then does this mean Pulled Under really has no effect at all if the Opponent has only 1-single character on his side (who is not exhausted prior to you playing this card) ?

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Second issue - Timing - can you play this card immediately after your opponent commits characters to a story (turning them sideways to signify they are Exhausting to join the story) - before you announce any of your characters going to oppose the enemy guys .... because those characters would be exhausted at that moment you are playing the card ?

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Third issue - general thoughts on targeted destruction effects like this one ..... it seems pretty clear that Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth (more through sacrifice effects like Cursed Skull), and most specifically, Agency - all excell at "killing things outright" - through various cards / effects like Pulled Under, Deep One Assault, Shotgun Blast, etc ....

...my question is....how do they (FFG) balance some of the direct damage // death-effect cards with others that are similiar ? Are they really all balanced ? An example is Shotgun Blast (Agency) ...which costs X-based on the targets Skill (almost always going to be 2-or higher if you are actually using this card on them, as most lower than that are easily beaten in normal combat in the Story).

Compare this to the (IMHO- from games we've played so far) very powerful Short Fuse (3-cost // must play in your Ops Phase // give any target 7-wounds!)

Yes, you must play it in your Ops Phase...but in most cases Shotgun blast will cost you at least as much, and maybe more depending on the targets skill you are aiming at...but only deal a single wound....while Short Fuse will kill off anything in the game that CAN actually be wounded (non-Invulnerable).

It seems odd the way they costed these things in relation to each other ?

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Twila Katherine Price - Queen of Unknown Kadath : - Her text says "after you succeed at a story at which TKP is committed, exhaust TKP to look at the each opponent's hand, and choose 1 card to discard from those hands."

My question is...if she's been committed to a given story....how can she NOT be exhausted ...(at the success checks) ....or are they saying (essentially) the only way you could ever use her ability is if you have won the Arcane struggle...and chosen HER to be the person who "readies" as a result of that effect....THEN you have to instantly Exhaust her again...just to utilize the card discarding effect/power on your foes ??

If so...wouldn't that make her one of the crappier cards out there, given all that has to "go right" just to use her main ability...and if you do choose to utilize it...then she ends up being exhausted anyways when your opponents turn has rolled around, meaning 1-less person you have to send out in Defense ?

If I am mis-reading her or otherwise missing something that makes her awesome, please let me know.

Thanks for any / all help you guys can provide on these few questions.

Rosh87 said:

If you need to pay the price for something, in this case "exhaust a character", you need to control that character.

Rosh87 said:

You can use Pulled Under during ANY Action window (text "Actions may be taken") from the turn sequence chart on page 13.

Rosh87 said:

Yep, Arcane Struggle is pretty much the key element here, with TKP having AAA, you should be solid for Arcane Struggles.

For your first question, part 2, the answer is "no," I think. I am not entirely sure here - I can't find some quick reference in the rules. But I think because you exhaust to choose , the implication is that you have to have a target before you do the exhaustion.

Your first question, part 1, I think you can choose an opponent's card to exhaust, but I could be wrong.. There are plenty of cards that exhaust opponent's cards. Let's look at two of them. Hard Case says

After Hard Case enters play, choose and exhaust a character with printed cost X or lower. X is the number of domains you control.

I think it is clear that you would typically choose an opponent's character to be exhausted.

Also let's look at Bringer of Fire. His text says

Exhaust all copies of Bringer of Fire you control...

Why put in "you control"? Well, to make it clear that you are not allowed to exhaust opponent's copies. Which means that without the language you would exhaust opponent's copies.

The point made that the exhaustion is a cost for the action is correct. I didn't do a comprehensive search of the rules - it could very well be that you can't pay the cost by exhausting an opponent's character, but I do not see that requirement with my quick search.

For you second question, yes. You can use Pullled Under to get rid of a character that just committed (because it is now exhausted).

And your third question was answered correctly as well.

Rosh87 said:

They're all fairly balanced as all this cards give you different options. Let's look at the cards in your example, shall we?

Shotgun Blast - it gives one wound, has varied cost depending on your taget, can be played at any action window.

Short Fuse - it gives 7 wounds, has a fixed cost of 3, can only be played during your OF.

This are 2 cards designed to deal with different things. SB is great for dealing with low cost stuff while SF excels at killing off high-toughness targets (some monsters and ancient-ones usually).

Personally I've stopped using SF for 2 reasons:

1) You can only play it in your OF, which leaves it without the "surprise, surprise!" effect and limits your possibilities.

2) 7 wounds is usually excessive as it is pretty rare for things actually hitting the table to have so many wounds.

Also, I just love to use SB to deal with pesky little stuff that just doesn't want to come to the stories but can be crucial for the enemy (Patsy, Priestess of Bubastis and the like come to mind). In such cases SB is much better as the cost is lower than SF and you can use it from turn 1 on.

Another similar card, although more powerful than both mentioned, would be Deep One Assault, which can target basically anything on the table and it destroys stuff (suck it, invulnerable dudes!) instead of wounding. It is however balanced by the Loyal trait, which makes it much less effective in mixed decks.