L. Scott Johnson#
This has come up many time recently (by people e-mailing their
questions to me as a substitute for the error-filled, out-of-date
ques...@wizards.com and the over-absent official net.representaion),
and I've found that most are under a certain misunderstanding about
the nature of the card - perhaps even the person on the rules team
was under the same impression when the odd ruling was made.
To clarify, Blood to Water is *not* a strike.
If it were, then (as printed) it would only be usable at close range.
(Hence, the probable origin of the ruling).
No problem there, except that it isn't a strike - it's just a combat
card (like Weather Control or Nosferatu Putresence). Since neither
of those cards specify being able to be used at range, then they
are also only usable at close range (by the same logic behind the B2W
ruling).
This is trivial for Weather Control, which must be played before range
is determined anyhow. For NosPut, it has the same stilted feel as
it does for B2W, but is still workable (play before range is determined,
or after range if range is short).
So, a summary of the rules governing B2W:
Cannot be played on the first round (card text).
Can be played at any time during a round (by virtue of no restrictions),
so long as the range hasn't been set to long (yet).
Can't be played when the range is long (Rules Team)
Will have its effect immediately when played. (nature of non-strike cards)
The acting vampire gets first opportunity to play B2W (if the result is
that the blocking vampire no longer has enough blood to play his own B2W,
then he simply doesn't get to play it). (timing rules)
Only burns Allies - it cannot burn vampires (unless other factors, like
Anathema, are in effect). (semi-colon grammar rules)
Shawn, can we get a clarification on the "only at close" ruling here?
(Hopefully a reversal to allow the card to work as printed.)
--
L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) | One single fact can ruin a
http://www.math.sc.edu/cgi-bin/sjohnson/home | perfectly good argument.
Graphics Specialist and V:tES Rulemonger. |