Can someone zap you right away at the beginning of the encounter and neutralize you until the end or do you have to try to use your power first before they can drop this artifact on you?

Thanks.

Larapio said:

The Cosmic Zap can only be used at the point in the encounter where the target's alien card says, " use this power".

It can be vague in some cases, such as when Macron's defending, you Cosmic Zap him once you've determined how many ships he's defending with (aim the gate at a planet during Launch, which is highlighted on Macron's phase timing bar).

Gotcha. Thanks. I just got the game and I'm running into a lot of timing issues that sometimes I'm not completely sure. Mainly two contrasting things happening at the same time, usually in the Resolution phase.

Make sure you know and use the timing conflict resolution rule in such cases, if no other interpretation suggests itself readily. The important thing is to move the game along and have a good time -- nobody likes a game that degenerates into a rules lawyer argument! (I'm talking to you , Tripler wild flare versus Mirror power!)