On page 12 of the new rules there is a box in the top left hand corner referring to the Extra Arms example.

what I can't understand is why the player should put one energy token on the card, when it has an energy of 3.

I just do not understand this example or what it is trying to explain. Is it trying to say you can put less energy token on a spell if you want to, thereby lessening the time it is there, but that can't be right, because the rules say you can dump a spell whenever you want to.

can anybody enlighten me ?

casting and maintaining a temporary spell

Please read the "Note" part again so that you might understand it better:
"Note: The energy value of “3” at the bottom of the card is ignored in this example because the player is choosing to use this card’s effect instead of using it to boost another..."

It means that you need to play another card with an energy value to boost your spells. When you play this card as the spell "Extra Arms", the energy value does not matter. Since in the example the player does not play another card to boost the spell, the "Extra Arms" has only one energy token.

Hi Angus

Thanks for that, I think I understand what you are saying now.

You're welcome. Glad that helps.

Yeah, when you play a spell card with an energy value, you choose to use it for the spell effect OR the energy, not both. If used as a spell, it still only gets 1 energy unless augmented with another card. It took some people in my group a while to understand this.

EDIT: lol didn't notice I was responding to a 5-months-dead topic.