I'm under the impression that cards with responses re coming out shadows only applies to cards brought out at the start of each phase

i.e.

Queen of Thorns - After a card comes out of Shadows, The Queen of Thorns claims 1 power. (Limit once per phase.)

Alchemist's Guild Hall - Limited Response: After a card comes out of Shadows, kneel Alchemist's Guild Hall to choose and kneel a character or location that does not have the [shadow] crest. (Limit 1 limited response per round.)

Is this correct or can I also trigger these responses when card use their own response to come out of shadows at other times

i.e.

Meera Reed - Any Phase: Bring Meera Reed out of Shadows and into play by paying th rest of her gold cost

I done some searches but I cannot find any confirmation - only details re cost reduction which only apply when cards come out of shadows at the start of each phase … which suggest to me that "bring your card out of shadows" is a specific, framework related term

i.e. Hidden Chambers - If it is Winter, reduce the cost to bring your cards out of Shadows by 1.

How do you describe the action that cards such as Meera Reed is doing when it "comes out of shadows" by paying the gold cost any phase?

The distinction here initially confused me, but doesn't anymore.

The point of note here is that with Meera Reed, you're paying the gold as part of triggering her (at the time of triggering) character effect, NOT to bring her out of shadows. The "reduce the cost to bring out of shadows" applies only to the "bring things out of shadows" step at the beginning of each phase, because all other opportunities involve paying a cost to trigger an effect (that happens to bring them out of shadows).

In other words, you can trigger any of the "After a card comes out of shadows" responses from Meera Reed's Any phase ability, because a card *did* come out of shadows. You can claim a gold from Tower of the Hand, but you cannot reduce the cost with Hidden Chambers.

Does that help?

Thanks Istaril - I think that clears up the confusion

Meera was a general example but you have provided the reasoning behind not being able reduce the cost

I think I picked up the comment that the cost could not be reduced and sort of translated that to mean the card was not really coming out of shadows … and hence confusion with other cards such as Queen of Thorns

So basically, any card coming out of shadows area, at any time, by any mechanism would still allow responses by QoT etc.

HastAttack said:

It's similar to the fact that a character can "come into play" as the result of either "playing" it from your hand with the game mechanic in Marshaling, or with a card effect that "puts it into play" from some out-of-play location. (So a Response that says "after a character comes into play" can be used no matter how the character entered play, but a Response that says "after a character is played" or "after a character is put into play" looks at the method used.)