How does the timing with discarding a card drawn through Val work, exactly?

There's a few ways I could envision this working, but was not sure which is the correct one:

1. You draw the card, and discard as soon as there is no way for you to legally play it.
2. You draw the card, and wait until your first Player Action opportunity (since this is the more allowing time limit). If you cannot play it then, discard it.

Why does this matter? Mainly due to possible interactions from actions on your opponents cards (say KotS Theon, or Icy Fisherman), or even another player helping you meet the costs for a character by some player action (since they have action opportunities before your next one).

Additionally, I started thinking about cards like The Weasel's Way that have more than one method of playing them, and started getting a bit more confused…

A continuation question: Is there anything preventing you from playing the card before your next action opportunity as a Response, but NOT during your first Response opportunity? Let's take Weasel's Way as an example here, since it's elligible regardless of which of the earlier ones is true.

Ha, you beat me to it.

Val's full text:

"Any Phase: Reveal and draw the top card of your deck. Play that card as your next response or action, if able. Otherwise, discard it."

There is also an FAQ entry explaining that when Val talks about "your next response or action," it means your next response or action opportunity . You are not allowed to hold the card you get with Val indefinitely, not taking other responses or actions, waiting for a better time to play the card. You either use it the next time you are allowed to take a response or action, or you discard it.

The mechanics and timing for discarding are more akin to your #2 than your #1. As soon as you have passed your next Response and action opportunity, if you have not played the card, you must discard it.

So yes, your opponents will all have 1 chance to jack you between you drawing the card with Val and you having the opportunity to play it. Use of the Fisherman or other player actions that mess with your gold can affect your ability to play the card.

The rare situation exemplified by The Weasel's Way is kind of interesting. Normally, event cards do not have both a Response and a standard action ability. But if they do, I would the following happens:

1. You get to your first opportunity to Respond - which is to drawing the card with Val. You must use the Response action if you can. If the event only has a Response action, you're pretty much done and the card would be discarded now. But since there is still a possibility that you could play the card as your next action, you keep it.

2. Other players take actions, creating other possible response opportunities. But these are not your "next" opportunities to play a response. Triggering Weasel's Way's Response effect now would therefore violate the conditions placed on the card by Val, and so Val's (still pending) "play or discard" effect prevents you from playing the Response effect on Weasel's Way to any of these other player actions.

3. You now get to your next action opportunity. If you have the 1 influence, you must use it to play the Any Phase effect on Weasel's Way. If you don't have the influence, you discard it.

(Normally, when dealing with Val, #1 & #3 are the only things to worry about. Weasel's Way just creates the #2 situation.)

Even if you could play it outside of the "next response or action" wouldn't the game discard it as soon as you try to initiate the attempt as the attempt to initiate triggers the "otherwise discard it" portion?

Ok, that sounds logical.

One further question here, just to check I got this right:

If I draw an event, with only a Response: (say, He Calls it Thinking) and my opponent plays Confession as her next player action, the Thnking would be in my hand for him/her to choose for discarding?

WWDrakey said:

1. After your first response opportunity, Val's effect tries to discard the card. If it was only a Response event, it's gone. If it is not an event (or an event that is not a Response), it stays and is discarded later (when this process starts all over again at the end of your next action opportunity). If this, the card would not be there.

2. Val's effect does not try to discard the card at all until after your next action opportunity. If this, the card would be there.

Personally, I go for #1 since Val's effect is worded as "or," allowing for 2 separate changes for "otherwise" to be true, but I can see where #2 would be preferred by others.

Regarding #1, does that mean as my first response action I can kneel or discard a reducer to play the card drawn by Val? And by extension I *have* to do that if I'm able?

Warren12 said:

No. Reducers are their own separate actions. In order to use a reducer on a card drawn by Val you must trigger the reducer before you trigger Val.

I think KTom's example 2 must be assumed if you take the logical OR in its purest form.

Even if the game checks twice to discard, the OR is incomplete. You would have or(NextResponse = False, NextAction = Undefined) causing the OR to return an error. You would have to wait for the next action window to complete if you take it in the most literal sense of an OR function possible.

It may not be the right answer in the context of the game, but in the context of the logic 2 is the more likely situation.