Robb Stark KOW reads: "Any Phase: Name a Trait. Until the end of the phase, each character you control that has that Trait gets +1 STR (+2 STR instead if it is Winter). Limit once per round."

What kind of effect is this, and how does it affect cards that come into play? Example:

I have Robb in play, along with Sansa Stark, a lady. I use Robb's ability, and choose "lady." Now Sansa will be +1 all phase. Later in the phase I put Catelyn Stark (KOW) into play. Catelyn is also a lady, but was not "controlled" by me at the time I triggered Robb.

Is Catelyn STR +1?

The real question is - does Robb's ability happen once, giving out its bonuses (which last until the end of the phase), or does the ability sort of globally apply all phase?

Let's say you have a location sitting on the table that says "Lady characters you control get +1 STR." Does Catelyn get that bonus when she comes into play? Sure, because the locations effect is a continuous effect.

Robb's effect reads the same way, except that it is created by a triggered effect. Robb's triggered effect creates a continuous effect - although with a time limit/set duration. It applies to all characters that have the trait, whether they are in play when you trigger Robb or not.

How does this compare with "Restrict and Restrain"? (Play before any challenges have been initiated this phase. Any Phase: Kneel a Learned character to have each player choose up to 3 characters. Characters not chosen cannot participate in challenges this phase.)

Unless I'm mistaken, the ruling on that card was any card that entered into play later in the phase (such as LOW Catelyn) were NOT affected by the lasting effect, because they weren't in play at the time, and could participate in the challenge...

jmccarthy said:

If Robb said "Any Phase: Choose a trait, then choose all characters you control with that trait. Chosen characters get +1 STR until the end of the phase," then characters with the named trait that came into play later would not get the bonus because they were not around to be chosen. (Restrict and Restrain is essentially the same thing, but for the "not chosen" side of things; characters that come into play later were not around to be chosen, so they were not around to be "not chosen," either.)

And what about choosing a character not in play? Or perhaps is it that, because "choosing" is the same as "targeting" and you cannot target an out-of-play card, then you cannot choose it?

As always, card effects cannot interact with cards that are not in play unless they specifically say you can. So Restrict and Restrain, saying nothing about cards that are not in play, has nothing to do with out-of-play cards.

The way I see Restrict and Restrain working is that if the card designer intended on keeping characters that were not in play out of challenges at the time it was used, it would be better to have it read like "Choose 3 characters. These are the only characters that may participate in challenges this phase." This way any characters that enter play in the middle of the challenges phase would not be eligible to participate in any.

I think restrict and restrain is amazing. I am going to use it to kingmake in every melee game I play. That is so much fun for everyone.

Bomb said:

This is already how I read the current text. It doesn't matter that the newcomers weren't around to be chosen, the fact is that they weren't chosen. I see only 2 subsets of characters: the chosen ones and the others.