I'm trying to improve my grasp of the definitions of abilities and effects in the game. FAQ 3.8 states, "If any card effect has the text "character gains…," any ability (traits, keywords, icon modifiers, or STR modifiers are not considered abilities) following the word "gains" is considered to now be a character ability. However, that effect is not assumed to be a part of that character's text box. Any effect that blanks a card's text box is assumed to blank that card's printed text box."

I used to believe this meant that if a card A had its text modified by card B's effect, subsequent blanking of card A's text would not affect any of the modified portion of its text box. Reading the section now, I am unclear how to treat the second sentence. Does "that effect" mean any effect with "character gains" in it, or only those effects where what is gained is considered a character ability?

It seems pretty clear that if a card modifed by The Dragon's Fire [Challenges: Choose 1 Dragon character. Until the end of the phase, that character gains: "While this character is attacking, defending characters get -1 STR and are killed if their STR is 0."] is blanked, it could still trigger the effect.added to it's text box.

sabrefox said:

Another way to look at it is that Devious Intentions says that the "attached character gains infamy, stealth, and an INT icon." It does not say that the "attached character gains 'infamy,' 'stealth,' and an INT icon." Without those additional quotation marks, the gained keywords are really not even part of the text box, printed or otherwise, at all. So blanking a text box, printed or otherwise, would never reach them to begin with.

sabrefox said:

sabrefox said:

The really important part here is "Any effect that blanks a card's text box is assumed to blank that card's printed text box."

That means that if Card A gains anything through effect B, and Card A's text is blanked, it still benefits from anything Effect B is doing to it.

The distinction of whether what Card A is gaining is a character ability, or a trait/keyword/icon/etc is only important for things that care if it's a character ability (like Immunities), NOT for blanking.

The "that effect" is referring to Effect B giving things to Card A. The things gained through Effect B are not considered part of the character's text box.

So, yes in your Dragon's Fire example, blanking the character's tox would still result in that character having the passive ability that causes defender characters to get -1 STR, and be killed at STR 0 when it is attacking.

Likewise, in the Devious Intentions example, an attached character who is blanked would still gain the infamy, stealth, I icon, and the +1 STR for each power on it.

KristoffStark said:

What happens if you use Orphan of the Greenblood (discard to remove each challenge icon from a character) on a character that has Devious Intentions? What if they had the INT icon without the DI attachment?

Slothgodfather said:

Orphan specifies that the chosen target looses "a Military, an Intrigue, and a Power icon," 1 of each. If the character in question was only getting their Int Icon from Devious Intentions, they would no longer have one. However, if they had one already, then Orphan would get rid of one, but the character would still benefit from the other.

In short, you go through the standard "combine all the modifiers, then apply the result" process.

Ok, I thought so but wanted to make sure. Thanks.