Forcepush and NOVICE SPELLS

[drmambo23]

I have two questions.  I just got mage wars and I have been reading through the rule book.  I read that if an attack is cast but the target moves then the attack is voided and discarded.  If a fireball was cast at one of my creatures could I force push that creature to the side to keep it from dying?  I doubt I would ever do this but if I needed to, could I?

Also, I read that all mages can purchase any novice spell for just 1 point.  Does this mean that a beast master can learn any level 1 spell for one point or do I still have to pay double because the spell is not of the nature school.  Also, it says that fire cost triple when building the spell book.  Would an dark novice spell cost me one point while a fire novice spell cost me three points?

Thank you

[sdougla2]

Force Push wouldn't work to cancel an attack because it cannot be cast during an attack sequence. Compare that to Divine Intervention. You can wait until after the attack was declared, then reveal Divine Intervention on either the target of the attack or the attacker and teleport them, thus canceling the attack. With attack spells in particular, you can use Divine Intervention to either counter the spell or to dodge the attack depending on whether you Teleport the creature during the spell casting sequence or the attack sequence.

If a Beastmaster wants to include a copy of Agony, that's going to cost 2 points because it is out of school. If he includes a Flameblast, that will be 3 points because it costs triple. If there were a fire novice spell, that would cost 1 point to include because Novice overrides the normal cost.

[iNano78]

Not all level 1 spells are "Novice."  They have to say "Novice" on them; e.g. [mwcard=FWI06] Power Strike[/mwcard] or [mwcard=MW1Q15]Leather Boots[/mwcard].  If it doesn't say "Novice," then normal in/out of school costs apply.

[drmambo23]

Thanks, and why is force push not an option if it can be a quick cast spell?  I'm just trying to figure out some of the game mechanics

[sdougla2]

It is not possible to cast a spell during an attack sequence. The quickcast marker lets you do 2 things in a row without giving your opponent a chance to respond except by revealing enchantments, but it cannot be used to interrupt another action. You can use your quickcast marker to cast a quick spell during the first or final quickcast phase, or immediately before or after a friendly creature is activated.

[Zuberi]

To clarify further, in order to cancel a spell or attack, the movement has to occur during the combat/cast steps. In the case of a spell, it would need to occur after step 1 cast spell and before step 3 resolve spell. In the case of an attack, it would need to occur after step 1 declare attack and before step 4 apply damage and effects. You can not perform an action during another action, however, as there is no "stack" in Mage Wars. One action has to be fully completed before another can occur.

Thus, the only way you can really utilize this rule is with an Enchantment, since those can be revealed in between the steps of combat or casting. Even they do not really interrupt anything, since you can not reveal them during one of the combat/casting steps, they just have a more precise window in which they may occur by revealing them after one step is completely finished but before the next step begins. You may want to review the rules for enchantments on page 19 of the English Rules v3.

For example: You could reveal the enchantment Divine Intervention to teleport during an attack sequence.

Technically, this rule for cancelling spells/attacks with movement would also come into play if you had something occur during the Avoid Attack Step or the Counter Spell Step that resulted in movement of either the attacker or the target. However, I'm not thinking of anything in the game that currently can do this. I could be forgetting about something though, and of course new things are always on the horizon.

To clarify the rules of the Quick Cast, you will want to review page 8 of the English Rules v3 and also page 11 for more details on actions in general. The most important part though is that you can use your Quick Cast marker before or after a friendly creature's action phase (in addition to the Quick Cast Phases). Thus, you can not use it on your opponent's turn at all, and you also can not use it in the middle of your own creature's action. It has to be used either before or after your creature's action.

Overall though, I think the most important thing for you to remember is that there are no interrupts in Mage Wars. Whenever you do something you must fully resolve it before moving on to something else. You can not perform an action in the middle of another action, and you can not reveal an enchantment in the middle of a step of a phase.