Staff of Stoms. What does "you" mean

[Biblofilter]

So i just got my hand on the promo Card: Staff of Storms 

"Each upkeep Phase place a storm token on Staff of Storms up to a maximum of 4. Whenever you make a wind or lightning attack, during the Roll Dice Step you may remove any number of Storm tokens to roll 1 additional attack die, and gain +1 to the effect die roll, per token removed"

Who is "you"? or rather will this only work for my mage attacks or for all my creatures, equipment and conjurations?

Examples:
[mwcard=MW1C40]Whirling Spirit[/mwcard]

[mwcard=MW1Q08]Elemental Wand[/mwcard]

[mwcard=MWSTX1CKJ02]Wizard's Tower[/mwcard]

[mwcard=FWC13]Selesius, the East Wind[/mwcard]

Finally: How would [mwcard=MW1A02]Chain Lightning[/mwcard] Work?
I understood it as 9 dice then potentially 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, but i´ve seen it explained somewere as 9-4-3-2-1

Edit: What about enchanments/damage barriers?:

[mwcard=MW1E06]Circle of Lightning[/mwcard]

[DaveW]

"You" and "your Mage" are the same.

It seems pretty clear... the Mage has to cast an attack spell (red spell) of one of these types to get the benefit.

Edit: The Mage would have to make the attack.

As to what happens on Chain Lightning: It is the same for all other +1's... the bonus applies to the first attack only. Your second attack would be one less than the original (without the storm token) attack.

Edit: Removed this bit due to difference in timing of the bonus determination.

The Mage is not casting an attack spell when it comes to damage barriers, so Circle of Lightning would not benefit from the expenditure of a storm token.

None of the other spells are attack spells being cast by the Mage, either... so none of them would qualify.

[Zuberi]

DaveW is pretty much spot on except that it doesn't have to be an attack spell. It just has to be an attack from your mage. Currently there aren't any mages or weapons that do either lightning or wind damage, so this is mostly a moot point except for the promo card Lightning Strike. Any melee attack made by your mage while under the effects of Lightning Strike could benefit from Staff of Storms.

Also, if your mage casts a spell that is spellbound to Elemental Wand, it does count as your mage making the attack and it would benefit, but attacks originating from Conjurations, Non-Mage Creatures, Autonomous Equipment, and Damage Barriers would not.

Chain Lightning would be 9-4-3-2-1 like DaveW stated. Almost all attack bonuses only apply to the first attack in this game.

[Gregstrom]

This is a rather oddly applied bonus effect though.  The bonus is specifically applied during the roll dice step, and it's implicit that it only applies during that particular roll dice step.  However, you don't have to use all the dice at once and the "may" implies that you don't have to remove any if you don't want to.  And... Chain Lightning has, if I understand correctly, up to 5 roll dice steps.  So presumably, depending on when you chose to remove the counters, the Chain Lightning could do 9-4-3-2-1, 6-5-4-3-1, 5-4-3-2-5 or any other configuration of spending those 4 +1 bonuses.

[Zuberi]

That is true.

[Gregstrom]

Cool!  That's a pretty nifty niche use for the staff too - a potential 5 dice of damage at a target 5 squares away.

[V10lentray]

Cool!  That's a pretty nifty niche use for the staff too - a potential 5 dice of damage at a target 5 squares away.

How are you attacking that far away?

[Gregstrom]

Chain Lightning.

[V10lentray]

gotcha.

[wtcannonjr]

This is a rather oddly applied bonus effect though.  The bonus is specifically applied during the roll dice step, and it's implicit that it only applies during that particular roll dice step.  However, you don't have to use all the dice at once and the "may" implies that you don't have to remove any if you don't want to.  And... Chain Lightning has, if I understand correctly, up to 5 roll dice steps.  So presumably, depending on when you chose to remove the counters, the Chain Lightning could do 9-4-3-2-1, 6-5-4-3-1, 5-4-3-2-5 or any other configuration of spending those 4 +1 bonuses.

Would Chain Lightening become the source of attack after the first attack and therefore the "you" no longer applies to further attacks in the chain?

[jacksmack]

I would say so.

If the wizard has staff of storms he can only apply 1 or more charges to the first hit.

[Zuberi]

According to the Official Rules and Codex Supplement, the "source" of subsequent attacks with Chain Lightning is the last target hit by chain lightning, but the object that first cast Chain Lightning remains the "original attacker." Unfortunately, the terms of "source" and "original attacker" don't seem to be well defined. I believe the point in this distinction is that the source is the location that the attack is coming from, but the original attacker is still the person in control and making the attacks. The actual attacker doesn't change, just where the attack is coming from.

Thus, I would say that the "you" does still apply and your mage can use the storm tokens on any of the Chain Lightning attacks. Admittedly, this is just my interpretation however. I do not like any other interpretations which would change the targets of Chain Lightning into the attackers for subsequent attacks, though, since that would result in situations where Chain Lightning would be affected by their Traits, such as reconstructing a Devouring Jelly who was hit prior to hitting a Corporeal Creature.

[Gregstrom]

The idea of casting Sniper Shot on an enemy creature to boost your own Chain Lightning is sort of funny though.

I think that Jacksmack is saying all of the attacks past the first should be treated as if the Chain Lightning were the source of its own attack though, which is somewhat recursive but would allow the bonus dice to be forced into the 'first attack only' mould.  You can still use Staff of Storms with Electrify if I understand this correctly, so trying to make it behave like +X ranged when it's a different ability seems odd.

[V10lentray]

back to [mwcard=MW1A02]Chain Lightning[/mwcard], it says after the first attack, each rolls one fewer dice. So if you use all 4 on the first rolling 9 dice, wouldn't the second roll 8, then 7, ...etc?

So theoretically, trying to add an additional dice to each roll removing one counter at a time, would have the same effect as removing all 4 at once. but instead of rolling 6, 5, 4, you would roll 9,8,7 - so why would it be better to remove one at a time versus all 4 at once?

[DaveW]

According to the Official Rules and Codex Supplement, the "source" of subsequent attacks with Chain Lightning is the last target hit by chain lightning, but the object that first cast Chain Lightning remains the "original attacker." Unfortunately, the terms of "source" and "original attacker" don't seem to be well defined. I believe the point in this distinction is that the source is the location that the attack is coming from, but the original attacker is still the person in control and making the attacks. The actual attacker doesn't change, just where the attack is coming from.

Thus, I would say that the "you" does still apply and your mage can use the storm tokens on any of the Chain Lightning attacks. Admittedly, this is just my interpretation however. I do not like any other interpretations which would change the targets of Chain Lightning into the attackers for subsequent attacks, though, since that would result in situations where Chain Lightning would be affected by their Traits, such as reconstructing a Devouring Jelly who was hit prior to hitting a Corporeal Creature.

I believe, by analogy to the Codex' comments on Burst of Thorns, we can show that the source of the attack matters when we talk about using storm tokens. From the Codex:

"The Vine marker is the source of the attack, not your Mage. Thus, Burst of Thorns is not affected by any traits or conditions on your Mage. For example, if your Mage has the Ranged +2 trait, it does not affect or increase the dice of his Burst of Thorns attack."

So, we see that the Mage is not the source of the attack in the case of Burst of Thorns, and the attack is not affected by "traits or conditions" of the Mage. While the use of a storm token is not a trait or condition, I believe that we can make the assumption that the Mage similarly could not use storm tokens on attacks where the Mage is not the source (such as the second attack in a Chain Lightning spell).

I would think that, while the second and subsequent attacks are sourced from the immediately prior target, the traits of those objects do not apply to those attacks; the object is not the caster, only the source of the attack. This can be likened to a damage barrier attack... the damage barrier makes the attack, not the creature, so the creature's traits do not affect that attack.

Edit: Even if the Mage casting the Chain Lightning spell was made to be a subsequent target, he could not apply storm tokens to the third target for the same reason as above.