Just to clarify, you can cancel the "Response:" text of cards that come out of Shadows, correct? For example, if my opponent plays King's Landing Assassin ("Response: After King's Landing Assassin comes out of Shadows, choose a character with no attachments. Until the end of the phase, that character gets -2 STR and is killed if its STR is 0."), can I cancel this response with something like Lord of Light, Protect Us or He Calls it Thinking?
Canceling shadows responses
Yes. Response effects on Shadow cards can be interrupted/canceled.
Was there any particular card or situation that had you thinking it might not work that way? If so, it could be instructive to look at it.
No, actually, the situation was exactly as presented - my opponent played King's Landing Assassin and I wanted to cancel with Lord of Light, Protect Us. He said that there was no opportunity to cancel Response effects on Shadows cards, and I wasn't inclined to argue, since he has vastly more experience with the game than I do, and it was a friendly game anyway. But it seemed wrong to me, so I wanted to clarify.
And in retrospect, it was dumb to accept the ruling, since Nate was sitting right next to me. LOL...
Delobius said:
He said that there was no opportunity to cancel Response effects on Shadows cards, and I wasn't inclined to argue, since he has vastly more experience with the game than I do, and it was a friendly game anyway. But it seemed wrong to me, so I wanted to clarify.
Your opponent may have been confusing the "begin phase" framework window (where cards are brought out of Shadows) with the "end phase" framework window (where absolutely no Response effects - including cancels - can be triggered).
Specifically, I think you get the opportunity to respond to a card coming out of shadows before he gets the chance to (use King's Landing Assassin). So you can play an ordinary response, and then cancel his response, if it suits you.
This happened a few months ago when I was running shadows Bara vs shadows Lanni (in the most framework intensive game I have ever played). My opponent brought Shadowcat or Syrio or something out of shadows at the start of the Challenges phase with the hope of firing off Tyrion Lannister. Because I had the first chance to respond, this let me use Margaery Tyrell to blank Tyrion, and this prevented Tyrion from being able to respond to Syrio coming out of shadows.