Can i use the event card -before- revealing the plot?

Example for abuse:

Get such an event on mulligan

Use event before revealing the plots

Choose a plot - rule by decree, since you have 1 card less

following question:

If it's a mp game and the 2 other players both have 7 cards each. Who discards? (both, flip a coin etc…)

Yes, you can play stuff before plots are revealed, and there are multiple ways of thinning your hand to hit your opponent with RBD.

And as for the followup, if there are two players that tie for "most cards in hand", the plot fizzles.

Flint said:

Exactly. A nice Flame-kissed pre-plot out of a KotHH Targ deck would be a classic example. *Bam* - you kill a char and get your opponent's hand down to 4 right at the start of the game. Goes a long way to mitigate the lost setup from KotHH.

Flint said:

Are you sure about this? I had the same situation arise last time I played with my friends, where an opponent played Rule by Decree and I had tied a third player for most cards. I said it should fizzle because there isn't an opponent with the most cards, and he said that we should pick at random who gets hit by it. On a related note, if an opponent asks you how many cards you have in your hand, are you obligated to tell them if there are no cards in play that are affected by a player having more or less cards in hand (eg. Tribes of the Vale )?

J_Roel said:

I can't vouch for how sure Flint is about this, but I am very sure. RBD specifies "the player with the most cards in hand". If there is a tie, there is no "player with the most cards in hand". Neither on the card nor anywhere else does it say that you pick one randomly in case of a tie.

It's best to approach this game very literal-minded. Basically, you do what the cards and the rules tell you and don't make stuff up.

As for the other thing: the number of cards in your hand is open knowledge. Whenever an opponent asks you about it, you tell them. And then you think very hard on why the hell they need to know just now.

If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't provide an answer.

J_Roel said:

Essentially, since RBD specifies that " the player with the most cards in hand" discards down, it requires a single player meeting those criteria. Now, if it said that " a player with the highest number of cards in hand" discarded down, multiple players could meet those criteria. However, you wouldn't choose which of those multiple players discard down randomly. The controller of the effect would probably choose (it would depend on the full wording of the effect; it's possible that it could be worded in such a way that the First Player would choose, but that would be less likely).

Flint said:

No need for this kind of tone, I was just being careful so that I could confidently call my friend out on it next time it came up. Thanks for the responses everyone, that's what I thought was the case with RBD, though I'm surprised by the answer to my "hand size" question.

J_Roel said:

The only tone I read was that he was sure of his answer. ~Your "tone" however…

Also, since the "hand size" answer surprised you, here is some more "open knowledge":

(3.30) Dead and Discard Pile

You may not change the order of cards in your discard or dead pile. You may look at any player's discard or dead pile at any time.

This information can be important to other players, such as Targ who has a location to put into play a players dead pile under their control.

Slothgodfather said:

Yeah, that one I did know, but I thought (hoped) that I could conceal the size of my hand if I chose, making his Rule By Decree a bigger risk to himself