1) I understand that the shadow rules allow only one card to come out of shadows per phase, but I am curious as to whether or not that refers only to the "shadow opportunity" at the beginning of every phase. For example, would it be legal to bring a card out of shadows during the opportunity at the very beginning of the challenges phase, and then (for instance) use Mandon Moore's "challenges:" ability to bring him out of shadows mid-challenge phase?

2) When a character that has the ability to save another (ex. Maester Wendamyr) is killed, along with the character I would like to save, following Valar Morghulis, is it legal to kneel Wendamyr in order to save the other character (given that character is a Greyjoy). The way I understand this is that it is legal, given that both characters are effectively moribund, allowing Wendamyr to activate his ability prior his being moved to the dead pile.

3) Out of curiosity, is there an "official" way to settle ties for initiative, given that both players have equal power totals (for instance, on the first round)? Thus far, my play group has just been flipping a coin.

Thanks for any help, it is much appreciated.

Incuus said:

1) Yes, the rules only apply to the shadow opportunity. If a card has the ability to bring itself out of shadows via its own text, you can use that whenever the triggering condition on that card allows.

2) The situation you describe is legal, y es.

3) Nah. I've seen coin flips, rock-paper-scissors, "grab a bunch of tokens and guess odd or even", that sort of thing.

1) Keep in mind that this is true for any card effect that brings another card out of Shadows. It does not necessarily have to be on the Shadow card itself.

2) Your understanding of the result is fine, but your description of the mechanics is a little off. When you are dealing with saves, the whole point is that the saved card never becomes moribund in the first place. Saves interrupt the "action" and stop the character that should be killed from ever being killed at all. So when you are playing saves, no character is moribund yet. In your situation where Wendamyr and another character are killed at the same time, triggering Wendamyr's save to protect the other guy is perfectly legal - and really no different than if you had done it without Wendamyr being killed at all because when you use the save, he isn't dead yet. The trick is that, after saves, he himself is still slated to die because nothing protected him.

Now, here's the one that really trips up a lot of people, though. If you have 2 influence, you can actually save both characters in your scenario. But you have to do it in this order: First, you kneel Wendamyr to save himself and - as part of that save - exercise the option to pay 2 influence to stand him. That's all one effect. So he's saved, but he's also standing. That means you can kneel him again to save the other character, too. (And, if you have another 2 influence, use it to stand the second character.)

3) The "official" way to break the tie is just "randomly." There is no set "random" method.

Thanks for the helpful answers.

One more question, though.

If I were to use a card like He Calls It Thinking to cancel the "response:" effect of a duplicate, could a character card with two duplicates then activate the second duplicate to save the character? Or would that character die due to the initial cancel?

Each duplicate gives its card a separate save response, so you could use the 2nd duplicate to save the card (and the opponent could use another He Calls It Thinking to cancel it).