Maybe this is obvious for some but to me, coming from wow ccg and magic with the chain/stack mecanism, etc, this is so counterintuitive that I want to double check if we did correctly.

So here is the situation.

I win initiative. I finish my marshalling and it's his turn marshalling.

He plays Pyromancer's Cache. This ends his player action. Now if I understand this correctly since I have initiative it means I can do a player action each turn if I want before he can do his own player action. The first I passed and he played the cache. Once the cache is in play I play a Dragon Thief using 2 influences. Since the response is to the come into play event we should resolve the Dragon Thief + the response before anyone can do anything else? Which mean I can destroy the cache before he can use it to draw cards?

http://agot.dbler.com/index.php?view=card&arsenalid=20237

Thanks as usual.

eprieur said:

So what's happening here is all inside a player actions window in Marshalling (see Flowchart in the FAQ).

He is the active player, but you are the First player (so you get to act first in any action window). You pass, he plays a Pyromancer's Cache, you play a Dragon Thief (which you can do, because it doesn't cost gold to play). The Dragon Thief's response triggers, and will resolve before he can take an "Action" (he can still take a response or have passives trigger off the play of Dragon Thief, or the discarding of the location). He won't get a chance to trigger the cache itself.

First of all, there's a fundamental misunderstanding about Initiative. You compare Initiative in the Plot phase. The player with the highest Initiative gets to determine who will be the First Player for the current round -- the Initiative winner is not automatically First Player (but he or she can pick themselves if they so wish).

The opportunity to do Player Actions goes clockwise around the table, always starting with the First Player. The game moves on to the next stage after all players have consecutively passed on taking any further actions. For a detailed explanation of the timing structure of the game, download and read the FAQ (link in my signature).

As for the Marshalling phase, it works like any other phase in that the First Player has the first opportunity to do a player action, and then the opportunity goes clockwise around the table (back and forth in a two player game). However, only the active player may play cards from his hand. The First Player is the first active player during the marshalling phase, until they decide they do not wish to play any more cards from their hand.

But you recognized the fundamental structure behind the game, namely that each action fully resolves before any other action can be taken. So yes, after your opponent plays a card from his hand, the opportunity to initiate a player action passes to you. Bringing a card into play using Ambush is a player action, so you may do that. The response of Dragon Thief is part of resolving that player action, so you can discard his Cache before he has the opportunity to initiate its ability.

Saturnine said:

Of course you mean: only the active player may marshal cards. All players may play events.

Rogue30 said:

Yes and no. I meant "play", but I should have added "non-event cards."

Also, to be specific, you cannot play Dragon Thief by kneeling influence (also, there is no such thing as "paying influence"), but rather put into play via Ambush. Sorry to nit-pick, but I think it is important to remember the difference between play and put into play.