Playing cards with no effect

[gameplan.exe]

So, let's say that I'm using Longshot and I'm facing a Dept H Team of Wolverine, Alpha Flight, Sabretooth, and Maverick...

If I draw Fortunate Accident (HL), can I still play it? Obviously, my opponent cannot have any Energy Power cards level 6-8, but that doesn't stop me from being able to use that card, does it?

[Jack]

There's nothing's stopping you from playing those cards.

[breadmaster]

are you sure about that jack?  it seems that it should be discarded as unusable to me

same as how dow has to be discarded if they use any heroes.

[Jack]

If the card said something about the opponent's grids like some HE specials then I would say it's unusable.

Let's bring up pictures of the cards...

[Oscorp]

I think that I'm going to have to go with Bread on this one.   Seems as though it would be an unusable in this situation.

[NickW]

I do not see anything in the Meta Rules that suggests that a Special card must be discarded as unusable if it would have no effect.  The closest one I can find is one that says the target must exist (#112), but neither of these examples (Longshot and Mandarin) targets a specific character of the opponent, they target the opponent which always exists.

DoW vs. Any Heroes is not the same situation.  DoW target's the Opponent's Battlesite.  If the Opponent has no Battlesite, then the target does not exist, Meta Rule 112 would apply, and DoW would have to be discarded as unusable.


I would say, no, it would not have to be discarded as unusable.  Yes, you can still play it even though it would have no effect on your opponent.  But, keep in mind that both cards are considered attacks, so you cannot pass with either one in hand to continue to use it as a bluff card.

Of course, I'm not exactly batting 1.000 lately with some of my rules answers...

[Palatinus]

There has to be a distinction between unusable and ineffective.  If not, cards like "Target character cannot play any specials . . . " would be a problem unless they had a special placed on them at the start of battle.  Otherwise, how do you know that there are any specials for that character to play this battle?  At the point where you have to start considering if a card will have no effect for discard reasons you've gone way too far and aren't making the game more playable.

[gameplan.exe]

There has to be a distinction between unusable and ineffective.  If not, cards like "Target character cannot play any specials . . . " would be a problem unless they had a special placed on them at the start of battle.  Otherwise, how do you know that there are any specials for that character to play this battle?  At the point where you have to start considering if a card will have no effect for discard reasons you've gone way too far and aren't making the game more playable.

That's exactly my point. Just because it won't affect any characters on my Opponent's team, doesn't mean I can't attack my opponent with it.

Also, DoW is NOT played against the Battlesite, it's played against the Opponent. Otherwise, you could avoid it with an AG. For that matter, if it was my turn first, and I saw my Opponent had DoW placed, I could offensively play BJ from my battlesite, to defend my Battlesite ahead of time (just as I could, defensively, if some one attacked it with any other targeting card). But, since DoW affects the Opponent, rather than the Battlesite itself, the BJ is ineffective, even if I play it ahead of time.

Having said that, I do not think it's legal to discard DoW when you draw it, just because your Opponent is using Any Heroes (otherwise you could abuse cards like Longshot's HM). It's not duplicate and it is usable against your opponent.

Similarly, I see no reason why I cannot play L'il Rogue (LS) when my Opponent is using Any Heroes. Again, it clearly states that the attack is on the Opponent, not on the Battlesite. So, it would have no effect, but it would still allow me a turn when I'm trying to bleed out my opponent's cards, or allow me to bluff up until the point that it's my last card (since it is still an attack, so I couldn't pass with it in my hand).

[AO user]

So was a consensus reached on no effect cards?  I wanted to play lil iceman to avoid passing but no FROB or FROG were in play/hits.  Would that ok?  And DOW issued seems open to interpretation .  Is it unusable ?

[breadmaster]

i don't know if a consensus was reached, but it seems accepted that players will discard dow if playing against an any hero team.

my thoughts are, that you can keep little iceman in hand if there are no relevant cards showing (that is, you don't discard it as unusable, similar to a character-specific AG), but you cannot play it if there are no cards affected by it