bosquet wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 7:46 am
So, am I right if I take an Assasin as an ally with
Ready to his will even if
Forearmed is Forewarned is in play?
I understand that the effects of Forearmed are passive... so they don't trigger before RthW. The attack of the Assasin has not been cancelled, it really hasn't occured.
Ready to His Will can be used to make an Assassin an ally even if Forewarned is Forearmed is in play. This is because (A) the effect reducing the number of attacks, and making the 1 attack unable to be canceled, does trigger using passive conditions, meaning that you are able to declare and resolve Ready to His Will before FiF comes into effect. And (B) even if you let FiF resolve, just because an attack cannot be canceled doesn't mean that other non-cancellation effects are negated and cannot resolve.
(A) Forewarned is Forearmed states: "
Any creature or other hazard with more than one attack is reduced to one attack of the hazard player's choice (this attack cannot be canceled)." You can tell that this operates using passive conditions because (i) there is an action and (ii) is applies to a class of entities.
(i) Creatures have attacks, usually just 1, some more. Assassin has 3 attacks. This is listed on in the card text itself. Forewarned is Forearm's effect reduces the number of attacks. This modifies an attribute of card in play, and so it is an action.
(ii) FiF's effect to reduce the number of attacks applies to
any creature or other hazard with more than one attack. This applies to a class of creatures/hazards as they come into play. So clearly the action is triggered by that class (which is the passive condition).
The Timing is:
1a: Declare assassin
1b: Resolve assassin, creating 3 attacks to be faced, the attacks triggering the effect of Forewarned is Forearmed.
2a: Declare FiF's triggered action to make the attack uncancellable
2b: Declare FiF's triggered action to reduce Assassin's attacks to one attack.
2c: (Optional) Declare Ready to His Will (in response to FiF's effect).
2d: (Optional) Resolve Ready to His Will (the effects of FiF are not even in play yet)
2e: Fail to resolve FiF's triggered action to reduce Assassin's attacks to one attack. This action fails because Annotation 9 states "
The passive condition must exist when this resulting action is resolved in its own chain of effects, or the action is canceled". Here the passive condition is the "Any creature with more than one attack." The creature does not exist because it is now an Ally.
2f: Fail to resolve FiF's triggered action to make the attack uncancellable. The creature created the attack. But the creature is no longer in play. Therefore, the effects of the creature (the attack) are no longer in play. An action cannot be applied to a non-existent entity.
(B) However, even if you let Forewarned is Forearmed resolve, Ready to His Will can still be played. RthW states: "
All attacks of the creature are canceled. The creature becomes an ally under the control of any character in the company that now taps."
There are at least 3 different actions. One or more actions to cancel each attack, another action to make the creature become an ally, and another action to place the once-creature-now-ally under control of the character (with the character tapping as an active condition for the action of placing the ally under its control). FiF's effect of "
this attack cannot be canceled" would only prevent resolution of the attack cancellation action. It does not prevent resolution of making a creature become an ally, nor does it prevent resolution of the ally being taken control of.
If Ready to His Will was intended to fail because an attack could not be canceled, it would have specified as much by stating "
the creature becomes an ally, unless the attack cannot be canceled" or similar. And even if RthW did state this, the "cannot be cancelled" effect would have to already be in place. Which, as decribed above, FiF's effects would not be in play if RthW was played in response.