Choosing to block and Mask1000

Another question (I seem to be full of them ATM). This also happened in a game the other day... I bled with Zebulon, and the target said that he would attempt to block that with (er.. can't remember.. I'll call him..) Tariq. I said that I was going to Mask (at inferior) the action to Greger Anderssen. My prey then said that since the action was changed he can now choose not to block (even though at that time Tariq had the required intercept to block Greger), so that I wouldn't be able to cycle another card out of my hand (stealth). Q: Can you choose not to block after declaring your intention to block and while you still have the required intercept for the job? That is, does the statement of intent to block tie you to that course of action? The only place that I know of that has explicit text on this is on Dawn Operation, and it doesn't help in this situation at all, as the card explicitly allows you to back out (at inferior). A similar situation would be a Govern the Unaligned bleed that gets blocked, the acting Meth decides that he will burn a Threats to hopefully get a stealth card (and doesn't). The blocking Meth then says, "Now that you have changed the action, I choose not to block", Deflection. I know that choosing not to block doesn't prevent the bounce, but does choosing to block prevent it? Cheers!

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003 11:59:05 +1000, "Blargleman" <glen_r...@optusnet.com.au> scrawled: >Another question (I seem to be full of them ATM). This also happened in a >game the other day... > >I bled with Zebulon, and the target said that he would attempt to block that >with (er.. can't remember.. I'll call him..) Tariq. I said that I was going >to Mask (at inferior) the action to Greger Anderssen. My prey then said that >since the action was changed he can now choose not to block (even though at >that time Tariq had the required intercept to block Greger), so that I >wouldn't be able to cycle another card out of my hand (stealth). > >Q: Can you choose not to block after declaring your intention to block and >while you still have the required intercept for the job? That is, does the >statement of intent to block tie you to that course of action? The only >place that I know of that has explicit text on this is on Dawn Operation, >and it doesn't help in this situation at all, as the card explicitly allows >you to back out (at inferior). He is still trying to block. You'd need explicit text, such as that on Dawn Operation as you noted, to be able to back out. There are probably better references than this, but this is the first one i found: ***** From: LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) Subject: Re: [LSJ] Mask/Aching Beauty for the 1001st time... Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad Date: 2003-05-06 12:58:59 PST John Flournoy wrote: > Vamp A plays Blood Bond on a prey's vampire (Vamp X). > New turn: > Vamp B bleeds, is blocked by Vamp X, and the block is announced as successful. > Vamp A Mask1000Faces the action to become the acting vampire. > Is Vamp A blocked? If Vamp A has an Aching Beauty, does it activate? Yes. Yes. -- LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc. Links to V:TES news, rules, cards, utilities, and tournament calendar: http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/ ***** >A similar situation would be a Govern the Unaligned bleed that gets blocked, >the acting Meth decides that he will burn a Threats to hopefully get a >stealth card (and doesn't). The blocking Meth then says, "Now that you have >changed the action, I choose not to block", Deflection. I know that choosing >not to block doesn't prevent the bounce, but does choosing to block prevent >it? Choosing to block or not doesn't depend on whether the action has been changed or not. If he's trying to block, and you play a threats, he's still trying to block. Also, I beleive if he is trying to block, and you say 'no more stealth, block successful', i think the blocking Methuselah might be able to slip a deflection in, thus negating their block attempt (as they are no longer eligable to block). Hmmm: LSJ, what if, say Meth A bleeds Meth B. Meth B declines to block, Meth C's vampire plays Eagle's Sight and attempts to block. Can Vamp of Meth B now play deflection to change the target of the bleed to C? Is C still attempting to block? If C then deflects to D, is C's minion still attempting to block from the Eagle's sight, before D is allowed to attempt to block? (I'm guessing yes to all, but just to be sure, as the whole 'may now attempt to block' thing on deflection might muddy things a bit). salem domain:canberra http://www.geocities.com/salem_christ.geo/vtes.htm

[ quoted text not captured ] you can't chose to block after having declining, you can't decline to block after having accepted. But the fact you've played an action modifier on Zebulon authorize your prey to play a reaction card. Now you've masked Greger, Tariq may still block that action, as it is not yet at a stealth level he can't reach. And even if it was at +x level, Tariq would play +x intercept, because you've played n action modifier. Nagaraja

> I bled with Zebulon, and the target said that he would attempt to block that > with (er.. can't remember.. I'll call him..) Tariq. I said that I was going > to Mask (at inferior) the action to Greger Anderssen. My prey then said that > since the action was changed he can now choose not to block (even though at > that time Tariq had the required intercept to block Greger), so that I > wouldn't be able to cycle another card out of my hand (stealth). Block assignments are not changed when the action is modified. There is not such thing as a "new chance when something changes" <snip questions> Like Salem, however, I DO believe that if you modify your actions with an action modifier, you *can* choose to play a reaction card. Compare it to adding intercept with auspex reactions after an action has been stealthed up with obfuscate action modifiers. After you "change" the action with extra stealth, I can choose to add stealth, even though I decided to block and play no more cards before you played it. The fact that I can't block without the extra intercept doesn't matter. Similarly, I assign a block and assign a block. You play threats. I that case I'd rather deflect than blocking it, since it might very well oust my prey. So, you can't back out of blocking (except inferior Dawn Ops), but you CAN play reaction cards. In the case of deflection, it would negate you right to even block that action, so the block fails.

salem wrote: > Hmmm: LSJ, what if, say Meth A bleeds Meth B. > Meth B declines to block, Meth C's vampire plays Eagle's Sight and > attempts to block. > Can Vamp of Meth B now play deflection to change the target of the > bleed to C? No. Block attempts cannot be interrupted by Deflection. [ quoted text not captured ]

LSJ expounded: > salem wrote: > > Hmmm: LSJ, what if, say Meth A bleeds Meth B. > > Meth B declines to block, Meth C's vampire plays Eagle's Sight and > > attempts to block. > > Can Vamp of Meth B now play deflection to change the target of the > > bleed to C? > > No. Block attempts cannot be interrupted by Deflection. Can you play a deflection after declaring your own block? (eg: Meth B declares Block; Meth A plays Dawn Op (sup); Meth B plays deflection)

[ quoted text not captured ] Not until the block fails. Meth B. cannot use Deflection to "escape" the Dawn. [ quoted text not captured ]

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 09:12:12 -0400, LSJ <vte...@white-wolf.com> scrawled: >salem wrote: >> Hmmm: LSJ, what if, say Meth A bleeds Meth B. >> Meth B declines to block, Meth C's vampire plays Eagle's Sight and >> attempts to block. >> Can Vamp of Meth B now play deflection to change the target of the >> bleed to C? > >No. Block attempts cannot be interrupted by Deflection. Can they be interrupted by other things? for example, Draba at superior? Gideon bleeds for 1 at 0 stealth, Salbatore attempts to block, Gideon's meth says 'block successful', Sablatore's meth wants to 'slip in' a Draba at superior before tapping for the successful block, just to cycle the card. Legal? [ quoted text not captured ]

[ quoted text not captured ] Can't play Draba after the block is successful, no. You could slip it in before then, sure (but then you'd risk meeting with additional stealth from Gideon). [ quoted text not captured ]