Foes Shall Fall - Making a Dragon playable

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Eyelid
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 5:11 pm
Location: Belfast, United Kingdom

Hello to all,

The first part of Foes Shall Fall reads:
Corruption. Playable on a non-Wizard character facing a strike from a Dragon or Drake hazard creature attack. If the strike is defeated, discard this card. If the strike is not defeated, place creature's card with Foes Shall Fall-creature is considered off to the side. Target character's company faces an attack from creature at the start of each movement/hazard phase if creature is playable.
I was wondering if the following was possible. If at the beginning of my opponent's movement/hazard phase there was a Dragon stored under Foes Shall Fall that is not playable, would I be able to play, say, a Dragon's Desolation (provided of course my opponent is moving to a Ruins and Lair with at least two Wildernesses (or one if Doors of Night is in play) in its site path) before the effect of Foes Shall Fall kicks in in order to make the Dragon playable?

I'm thinking this won't work because the last part of Dragon's Desolation says "...one Dragon hazard creature may be played on a company at that site this turn." (Underline mine.)
The Dragon under Foes Shall Fall is not actually "played" at the beginning of the movement/hazard phase - Rules Digest #35 even clarified that this attack does not count against the hazard limit since the creature is not "played".

So, am I correct in saying this won't work?

Thanks.
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." Ford Prefect
"If you believe in Eternity, then life is irrelevant". House M.D.
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Konrad Klar
Rules Wizard
Posts: 4484
Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:35 am
Location: Wałbrzych, Poland

1.
I think that primary problem is: when start of movement/hazard phase ends?
CRF, Rulings by Term, Passive Condition, Annotation 9: wrote:[...]The passive condition must exist when this resulting action is resolved in
its own chain of effects, or the action is canceled.[...]
A start of movement/hazard phase my trigger multiple actions caused by passive conditions. That actions are then declared and this is a first chain of effects of the movement/hazard phase.
If assume that after anything has been declared it is no longer a start of a movement/hazard phase, then Foes Shall Fall (and Bring Our Curses Home) will always fizzle; at resolution of the action the passive condition "at the start of each movement/hazard phase..." would not exist.
It is up to consideration of NetRep Team, but now I think that "Start of a movement/hazard phase is period that lasts up to the moment when first chain of effects triggered by passive conditions existing at beginning of the phase fully resolve." is reasonable option.

Regardless of resolution of above question: if before declaring any action in a movement/hazard phase, a creature in question was not playable it is too late to successfully trigger the action from Foes Shall Fall (or from Bring Our Curses Home) by making the creature playable.
Even if appropriate conditions will be produced in first chain of effects (assuming that it is still start of M/H phase) of a movement/hazard phase, the action will be declared in next chain of effects and could not resolve (because at the moment when the action should resolve there is no longer start of M/H phase).

2.
A Dragon/Drake associated with Foes Shall Fall is not played when it attacks. Foes Shall Fall however checks whether a Dragon/Drake is playable. So if Dragon's Desolation was played against Company A moving to a [-me_rl-] it may later trigger action from Foes Shall Fall in Company B moving to the same [-me_rl-].
We will not speak of such things even in the morning of the Shire.
Eyelid
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 5:11 pm
Location: Belfast, United Kingdom

Thanks for the comprehensive analysis, Konrad. I hadn't considered the timing issue with regard to "at the beginning of the movement/hazard phase".
And thanks for pointing out the possibility of Dragon's Desolation having an effect on a different company travelling to the same site.
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." Ford Prefect
"If you believe in Eternity, then life is irrelevant". House M.D.
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