Hello. A situation came up in one of our CE games today when a deal was quashed and Tick-Tock was in game (played by yours truly).

I wanted to remove a token from my sheet since the Tick-Tock's text - "each time [...] a successful deal is made between any two players" - seems to imply that his power is used right as the deals is made, therefore taking precedence to Quash which can only be used "after a succesful deal was made" and only retroactively affects the deal itself (not effects deriving from it), but all other members voted against me, prefering a more general interpretation of the whole process and saying that if the deal didn't ultimately hold out then it shouldn't count for Tick-Tock either.

While I don't necessarily mind their interpretation, I tend to favor mine because the timing sounds better and because it seems more balanced - it's hard enough to get rid of those tokens as it is (particularly with 3 players), Tick-Tock doesn't need another counter - and I was thinking wether or not there's an official ruling on the chronology of this particular scenario. This question is also directed to more experienced players - in your games, does Tick-Tock's token removal takes precedence to Quash, or not?

Quash means the deal never happened. It's not something Tick-Tock wants to hear, but that's how it goes.

Sounds like it could go either way, I have yet to use these two aliens but I think this might be an instance when a Timing Conflict occurs and since this seems to be a case of disagreement that is what I would use.

Timing Conflicts

When timing conflicts occur, resolve effects in the
following order:
1. The offense.
2. The defense.
3. Players who are not the main players, starting
with the player to the left

I think it's unfortunate that both Tick-Tock and Quash use the same language: when "a successful deal is made". I believe Tick-Tock looks at a successful deal as being both the agreement of the deal, and the carrying out of the terms of that deal.

Quash on the other hand, really should activate when a deal is agreed upon, but before it is carried out.

Using this distinction, It's easy to see why Tick-Tock does not get to remove a token if the deal is Quashed.