City Watch

By snowfrost, in 2. AGoT Rules Discussion

City Watch:

Response: After you win a challenge in which City Watch is participating,choose an opponent. At the beginnig of the next phase,that player must randomly choose one of his or her cards in Shadows,and either bring it out of Shadows (paying any necessary costs) or discard it from play.

if I triggered this response multiple times in one challenge phase

1. what happens at the beginning of the next phase?Opponent chooses randomly one card after another and is forced to discard after he brought one out?

2.Opponent bring the card out of shadows,does Hidden Chambers work?

thanks~~

snowfrost said:

City Watch:

Response: After you win a challenge in which City Watch is participating,choose an opponent. At the beginnig of the next phase,that player must randomly choose one of his or her cards in Shadows,and either bring it out of Shadows (paying any necessary costs) or discard it from play.

if I triggered this response multiple times in one challenge phase

1. what happens at the beginning of the next phase?Opponent chooses randomly one card after another and is forced to discard after he brought one out?

2.Opponent bring the card out of shadows,does Hidden Chambers work?

thanks~~

1. Since it is not limited to "x times per phase," I'm of the belief that they would have to pick one at random for each trigger the next phase. Then, they bring any cards chosen out of shadows (if they have the gold), or discard them (if they do not have the gold). I say this, because the rules do not say that you "cannot" or "may not" bring more than one card out of shadows. They simply say that each player "…may bring one card out of shadows at the beginning…" Since the cannot absolute is absent from this, the golden rule applies, and, as long as they have the gold to spend doing so, you have given them an opportunity to bring multiple cards out of shadows.

2. I venture a yes to this. Since the wording on the Hidden Chambers and City Watch's response text both say to "bring a card out of shadows," (as opposed to Meera Reed's any phase action, which is explained in the FAQ to be restricted from being used with HC, since it's not the same action as described here) I'm pretty sure it would work. If I'm wrong, and someone can provide citations, I will gladly concede the point.

2. Of course, this could be a no for a similar reason why using it for Meera's blanking isn't allowed, due to the cards being brought out at the beginning of the phase instead of furing the shadows section (which is explained in the shadows mechanic rule to occur before any "beginning of the phase" occurrences)

I see it going one of 2 ways:

  1. It creates extra opportunities to bring cards out of shadows. Hidden Chambers (and City of Shadows) doesn't work, for the same reason it doesn't work on the extra card allowed by Young Griff (not being the regular shadows mechanic).
  2. It doesn't create extra opportunities. Hidden Chambers works, because the card is brought out of shadows with the regular mechanic.

This is another one of those cards where there seems to be a difference between the "intuitive" use and the actual use as worded.

The "intuititve" use would certainly be that this is supposed to modify the way that the player gets to bring cards out of Shadows at the beginning of the next phase. But that is not what it says. So, because instinct tells us one thing and the text tells us another, it is understandable that we all want to rebel against it and play it some other way.

However, as written, the effect creates one of those "delayed trigger" lasting effects. At the beginning of the next phase, the lasting effect initiates, requiring the player to randomly choose a card s/he has in Shadows and either pay the cost or discard out (one or the other). This has a couple of interesting "side-effects":

1. Because it is passively initiated "at the beginning of the next phase," and "start of phase" passives always come after the option to being a card out of Shadows, the "City Watch" effect will actually not take place until after the normal opportunity for players to bring cards out of Shadows that phase.

2. Because it is the (delayed passive initiation) lasting (card) effect that brings the card out of Shadows, not the normal rules-effect opportunity, Hidden Chambers (and the City of Shadows Agenda) will not apply their cost modification to the random Shadow cards hit by City Watch.

3. Because it is the card effect, not the rules-effect opportunity, the "only one per phase" rule is not applied (any more than it is applied to Meera Reed and Guardian Wolf in the same phase). If you have the cash, you could actually end up bringing a whole mess of cards out of Shadows in the one turn.