I've encountered this argument in several seperate games of Cosmic: can a player use a card zap to stop himself from being hand zapped?

My friends argument is that the hand zap happens instantly so that the zapped player does not have the card zap in his hand to negate the effect of the hand zap because his hand had already been discarded.

My argument is that the card zap prevents the hand zap from occurring because the card says that it negates the effect of a flare or artifact card.

We have been resolving this argument with coin flips and, needless to say, the results have been…aggravating. Please give us your opinions in this situation so that it doesn't happen again. Help us forum users, you're our only hope.

The card zap is the weapon of a Cosmic Player. Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

I know I haven't played CE in a couple of months, but what is a hand zap?

A card zap negates the effect of another artifact or flare card. So, you are correct if the hand zap you refer to is an artifact or flare. The card zap "prevents" or negates any artifact or flare. The card is gone and nothing happens.

a hand zap is an artifact card that forces a player to discard his entire hand and draw a new one its exact wording is as follows…

"Hand Zap - Draw New Hand. Play at the start of any encounter and choose a player (even yourself). That player discards his or her entire hand and draws a new hand of eight cards. No cards may be played in response to this card except cards that cancel its effect."

my friend argues that the hand zap takes affect and therefore the zapped player has no card zap which he can use to negate the affect of the hand zap.

Card Zap's text states the following:

Negates Cards. Play at any time to negate a flare or artifact card just as a player attempts to use it. The flare or artifact must then be discarded.

Clearly, the Hand Zap does not take effect because the Card Zap negates it as it is attempted to be used.

Then what is the point of the Hand Zap in the first place? A card, thats main function is usually to bring down an opponent with a lot of cards, is basically useless, because odds are, in the selected players horde of cards, there will be several card zaps. All I'm saying is that FF might have intended a different result.

Actually the intention of the handzap is to get rid of someones hand whether it be large or small. maybe you know the other player has an attack 40 but you dont have a finder and you want to get rid of it. maybe he has bad cards and he's on your team and you're helping him get new ones. Maybe he just said something about your mother and you're just pissed at him.

Hand zap is not some sort of super artifact that is above the rules of the rest of the game. Earlier when we were playing you said that someone else could card zap it but not the player who's being zapped, because the hand zap already took affect and he does not have the card zap that was in his hand. But if that were true then the hand zapped players hand would be already gone so there would be no point in card zapping it. so by your logic hand zap is unzappable which is definitely not true because it says on the bottom of the card that it can be zapped and card zap says that is zaps cards. CARD ZAP WINS.

the only reason that we had to make our own forum was because the answer is SO OBVIOUS that no one else has raised the question.

TrollCat YOLO said:

Not a chance; the last line of Hand Zap's text makes their intention crystal clear.

TrollCat YOLO said:

I would ask "what's the point of Card Zap" if the target card takes effect before I cancel it?

See "Just_a_Bill"'s answer/ The Card Zap negates the Hand Zap as it is being used, thus it has no effect.

See "Just_a_Bill"'s answer. The Card Zap negates the Hand Zap as it is being used, thus the Hand Zap has no effect.