For Immediate Release

Rules Summary Sept 2004

The following document is a rules summary from the Rules Team for September 2004. It outlines major changes to the rules with the release of version 1.2. This summary does not include corrections to typographical errors or minor changes in wording that do not change the functionality of the rules.

Some replacement modifiers had confusing interactions with reinforcement and team attacks. The rules for "can't" modifiers now make it clear that the event cannot happen, and so, the event that didn't happen can't be replaced. The wordings on team attacks and reinforcement have been changed to line up with this.

103.2 When a modifier instructs that [something] can't happen, and another modifier attempts to make [something] happen, the "can't" modifier will always overwrite the "can" modifier, regardless of timestamps or dependencies. "Can't" modifiers are not replacement modifiers. An event that can't happen never happens and can't be replaced.

602.5b … Team attacks attacking a character can't cause breakthrough endurance loss.

701.10c Characters attacking a character with reinforcement can't cause breakthrough.

The rules were unclear about adding a team attacker's ATK to a team attack if the team attacker’s ATK was below 0. The following rule makes this situation clear.

104.2 A team attacker's ATK that is 0 or less is treated as 0 for the purpose of combining its ATK with other team attackers. (See rule 602.5.)

The following clarifications to the resource step better describe the physical location of resources.

403.2 As the turns progress, a player builds each of his or her new resources to the adjacent right of the last resource he or she built.

403.3 Players cannot reposition a resource unless instructed to by the game. (See rule 706.3.)

The definition of move allows you to "move" the object to the same exact position.

512.3 Some one-shot modifiers will instruct a player to move an object in the in-play zone. That player picks up the object and then places the object in an empty position. These one-shot modifiers will usually have restrictions on which objects can be moved and to which rows they can be moved.

The following rules describe what happens when multiple actions occur at the same time requiring choices from players.

513.5b Some replacement modifiers will look to replace every instance of a designated event. If the designated event happens multiple times simultaneously, the controlling player follows rule 703.2.

703.2 If simultaneous events require simultaneous choices from a single player, that player makes all choices and then the events occur simultaneously.

Direct team attacks, and their interactions with characters that replace or trigger off breakthrough are clarified here.

602.8b A player's endurance total is simultaneously reduced by an amount equal to the ATK of each attacking character in the case of a team attack. This replaces ATK and DEF comparison.

602.8c All endurance loss caused by direct attacks is considered breakthrough endurance loss. Effects or modifiers looking for a breakthrough endurance loss value will use each attackers' ATK value separately.

The following rules about control changing have been added.

700.3 An object that changes controllers within the same zone is still the same object.

700.3a Modifiers to that object will still apply, within their durations, unless the modifier is dependant upon which player controls the object.

700.3b Restrictions on the number of times a payment power may be played will still apply to an object if its controller changes. (See rule 501.4.)

Which characteristics a card can and cannot have while it has this resource has been clarified.

701.11a Face-down objects with this characteristic have no name and can't have any characteristics other than resource, ready, and exhausted.

The rules are clearer on what happens when more than one event tries to stun a character simultaneously.

702.1b If more than one event stuns a character at the same time, the character becomes stunned only once, and so, stun endurance loss occurs only once. If an event tries to stun a character that has the stunned characteristic, the character will not become stunned. (See rule 502.6.)

The rules now make it clear how to determine what a character was stunned by.

702.2 A character has stunned another character if the first character has compared its ATK value to the second character's DEF value during combat, resulting in the second character becoming stunned. (See rules 602.5a and 602.5c.)

702.3 A character has stunned another character if the first is an attacker during a team attack which results in the second character becoming stunned. (See rule 602.5a.)

702.4 An object has stunned a character if the object was the source of a modifier that stunned the character. A character can stun itself.

Power-ups have been clarified. Cards like T-Jet now clearly trigger once for each power-up event. Power-ups now will have no effect if applied to a character that isn't controlled by the player that played the power-up.

707.4 Power-up is a keyword that represents a specific game event. To "power up" a character is to give it +1 ATK and +1 DEF this attack. The modifiers from multiple power-ups are cumulative. The modifier is not itself a "power-up modifier"; "Becoming powered up" is the act of applying the modifier. Effects that trigger on a character "becoming powered up" will trigger each time the modifier is applied.

707.4a The controller of the effect doing the powering-up must also control the character being powered-up, or else it has no effect.

707.4b Any player may play a game-based payment effect that reads "Target attacker or defender you control becomes powered-up if it shares a name with the discarded card." whose cost is discarding a character card that shares a name with the chosen target character. Since power-ups have "this attack" as their duration, players may play this game-based effect only during an attack substep.

The evasion keyword has been added.

707.6 Evasion is a keyword that represents a payment power on an a character that has the text "Stun this character >>> At the start of the recovery phase this turn, recover this character." Stunning a character in this way will result in its controller simultaneously losing endurance equal to its recruit cost. (See rule 702.1a.)

The rules now make it clear what a "protecting" character is.

Protecting

A character is protecting another character if it is directly in front of the other character and neither character has the stunned characteristic.

The rules now make it clearer that you can choose zero targets for effects with the phrase "up to."

Up To

Some text may ask a player to choose "up to <number>" of something. That player may choose any number from 0 to <number>, inclusive. For example, "up to two target characters" means the player can choose zero, one, or two target

characters for this plot twist or power.

The rules now make it clearer how the word "unless" functions when found between two actions on a card.

Unless

Some modifiers use the phrase '[Perform action] unless you [perform a second action].' This is the same as 'You may [Perform the second action.] If you do not, [perform the first action.]'

Example: Brother Blood reads: "Whenever Brother Blood stuns a character, KO that character unless its controller discards two cards from his hand." The stunned character's controller may discard two cards from his or her hand. If he or she does not, KO that character.

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