revealing enchants. guards.

[Hectorius]

hello everyone!

new to the game and I love it. but there are so many confusions.. I hope to may ask one questions:
"one can reveal an enchant at the end of any of the eight steps of an attack"
ok, say I have Cobra Reflexes hidden under one of my creatures. someone declares the attack on it. can I wait until the end of step 3 (roll dice) to see how large the sum of the dice is and then decide to reveal Reflexes (and directly roll for the chance to dodge)??
it would be much smarter than to insta reveal after step 1 (the declaration), would'nt it? (but also seems unfair)

[ACG]

hello everyone!

new to the game and I love it. but there are so many confusions.. I hope to may ask one questions:
"one can reveal an enchant at the end of any of the eight steps of an attack"
ok, say I have Cobra Reflexes hidden under one of my creatures. someone declares the attack on it. can I wait until the end of step 3 (roll dice) to see how large the sum of the dice is and then decide to reveal Reflexes (and directly roll for the chance to dodge)??
it would be much smarter than to insta reveal after step 1 (the declaration), would'nt it? (but also seems unfair)

Defenses are only rolled during the "Avoid Attack" Phase (step 2). So the latest that you could reveal it and still gain the benefit is after step 1 ("Declare Attack"). If revealed after step 2, you will get the defense but will no longer be able to use it for that attack.

[Hectorius]

thank you Sir, that makes much sense and helps me in some other cases too! 

[Zuberi]

ACG is correct. Although you could wait until after Step 3 to reveal Cobra Reflexes, it is past the point where you could use a Defense. However, your trick would work with Rhino Hide in order to see if the extra armor would be worth it or not. You could also wait until after Step 3 to reveal Bull's Endurance and survive a blow that would have otherwise killed you.

Remember, there is no "stack" or other means in Mage Wars that allows you to go back to previous steps or events. Therefore, you have to figure out when is the latest time you can reveal an enchantment and have it's effect still make a difference.

[Hectorius]

trick would work with Rhino Hide

thank you! that's exactly what I was thinking about and was about to ask. with Rhino Hide, it would work. waiting a little bit and then see if the dice are worth revealing the extra armor 

as a beginner, may I also ask here 3 more (interesting) questions?
1.stun token says "is removed at the end of the creature's action phase".
so, 2 options: when I stun a creature that is still active, I guess it will skip the turn. just flipping the action marker over.
but what when I stun a creature that in inactive (already made the action)? is it wasted and stun token is removed later the round or will it stay until next round to have him skip his action there??
2. "Guard markers are always removed at the beginning of a creature’s Action Phase".
but I chose when it's a creature's action phase. when I put a creature on guard last round and was not attacked, it will still guard next round until I chose to activate it, right? (so I could activate it as the very last action to still have it guard all the time).
3. does "Bull Endurance" work on mages? so do you actually move the black max-life marker up??

[sdougla2]

1. The stun condition is removed at the end of a creature's action phase. It is not removed at the end of the round, so stunning a creature that has already acted will still stop it from doing anything during it's action phase in the next round.

2. A guard marker doesn't fall off at the end of the round. It falls off when the creature is activated, attacked, or becomes incapacitated (stunned for example). So as long as the guard marker is not removed through some other method, you can activate that creature last and have it standing there on guard for pretty much the whole round. The way you asked the question I was just unsure whether you were aware that a guard marker was removed after the guard is attacked.

3. Yes, Bull Endurance works on a mage and increases their life.

[Hectorius]

thank you very much sdougla2!

The way you asked the question I was just unsure whether you were aware that a guard marker was removed after the guard is attacked.

yes, but no worries. you helped me a lot. my girlfriend was very frustrated when I had 2 guards up (not attacked) and they were still guarding next round - and active(!). I waited until the end of that round to decide what to do with them.
needed some confirmation if I did alright because it seems indeed a powerful game mechanic.

3. Yes, Bull Endurance works on a mage and increases their life.

wow, I guess if your max life is 32 (as priest) and you got Bull Endurance and your damage marker is at 33, then you are one Dispel away from instant death x)

[Zuberi]

There are several ways to deal with guards, if you want some pointers for yourself and your girlfriend on how to deal with that particular aggravation.

First, guards can be broken by attacking them. If you have enough creatures, you could use your less powerful ones to break the guards, and then use the more powerful ones to hit your intended target. Unfortunately, this is not incredibly efficient and if the guard has not been activated it can then be put back on guard after you break it. A better solution is to use Sweeping attacks. That way, if it's only a single guard you will still do some damage to your desired target, while if there are multiple guards you will be able to break 2 with a single attack. Much more efficient.

Another option is to incapacitate the guard. This can be done with effects like Slam, Stun, and Sleep, as well as spells like Knockdown. Applying the Restrained trait to a guard can also be useful. Restrained doesn't remove their guard token, but it does allow you to ignore it when selecting a target.

Finally, you can simply separate your desired target from it's guards. Either by Pushing/Teleporting the guard away, or by Pushing/Teleporting your desired target away. If you do this with your Quick Cast, you should be able to get in at least one attack before your opponent's creatures can reconvene. You can also make this more effective by combining it with Restrained effects or Walls.

[Hectorius]

thank you Zuberi! interesting thoughts there!
talking about guards, I got one question that I haven't found to be answered anywhere. following scenario:
Player A has 2 creatues in a zone (A1 and A2) and player B1 has 1 creature in there too, all 3 on guard.
I activate A1, remove the guard token, and attack B1. rolling dices, counting damage. then it comes to the counterstrike of B1. and now I am confused.. who does B1 has to attack now? 
- A1 since he is the original attacker.
- or A2 since he is a guard.

the rulebook says that a counterstrike follows the same rules like a normal attack, starting with declaring an attack etc.
so when I (B1 now) declare the (counterstrike)attack, I need to respect the other guard?

[Zuberi]

The key here is that the counterstrike can't target the guard because counterstrikes are restricted to only targeting the creature who initiated the triggering attack. If something is an illegal target for an action, then you can't be forced to target it.

So, the answer to your question is that guards have no effect on counterstrike and it would go off as normal.

[sIKE]

Counterstrike
If a creature is the defender of a melee attack, and it has a quick action melee attack with the Counterstrike trait, it may use that attack against the attacker during the Counterstrike Step of the attack. See “Counterstrike” on page 28.

[Hectorius]

thank you again Zuberi and sIKE! I understand.
I am happy to receive this friendly kind of help and appreciate it.

as I don't want to be too annoying, I wanted to ask 3 last questions:
1. Reverse Magic. it says:
"redirect it back to the caster, who now becomes the target of the spell".
does it mean I have to target the caster (so mage or familiar)? because I think I've read somewhere that I can then do what I want with the new spell.
i.e. he casts a teleport on one of my creatures (with the reverse magic), then I can either teleport him (the mage), or any other creatures (mine or his).
what happens if nothing is in spell-range of my mage?
(I am aware of the fact with the additional mana-cost-paying. ie. in case of Dissolve).
2. Moloch's Torment:
does it also count for hidden enchants or only revealed? (in the first case you would kinda tell your opponent that there is a curse under his creature).
3. Gate of Voltari:
1 mana for each action: playing and revealing an enchant, so for a total of 2 mana?

[ACG]

thank you again Zuberi and sIKE! I understand.
I am happy to receive this friendly kind of help and appreciate it.

as I don't want to be too annoying, I wanted to ask 3 last questions:
1. Reverse Magic. it says:
"redirect it back to the caster, who now becomes the target of the spell".
does it mean I have to target the caster (so mage or familiar)? because I think I've read somewhere that I can then do what I want with the new spell.
i.e. he casts a teleport on one of my creatures (with the reverse magic), then I can either teleport him (the mage), or any other creatures (mine or his).
what happens if nothing is in spell-range of my mage?
(I am aware of the fact with the additional mana-cost-paying. ie. in case of Dissolve).
2. Moloch's Torment:
does it also count for hidden enchants or only revealed? (in the first case you would kinda tell your opponent that there is a curse under his creature).
3. Gate of Voltari:
1 mana for each action: playing and revealing an enchant, so for a total of 2 mana?

1. Yes, you must target the caster. Some other similar spells work differently, but this one specifies that the caster is the new target. If the caster is an illegal target, then the spell is simply cancelled.

2. Only revealed enchantments count.

3. Revealing an enchantment does not count as casting a spell for any purpose. You only gain the mana when the enchantment is cast (i.e. played face-down). So 1 enchantment only gives 1 mana.

[Zuberi]

ACG is correct on this. I will add the following though.

1. Your confusion with [mwcard=MW1E35]Reverse Magic[/mwcard] might be the fact that you do get to make new choices regarding the effect of the spell, such as in your example you could choose a new zone to teleport the creature to. However, the creature you target has to be the one that initially cast the spell and if they are an illegal target then the spell is cancelled and discarded, like ACG covered.

3. [mwcard=MW1J07]Gate to Voltari[/mwcard] says it gets mana when your opponent casts and resolves a spell. The resolve part simply means that the spell cast has to be successful, as in it wasn't countered or otherwise cancelled in some way. Revealing an enchantment is not the same thing as casting, nor is it a part of casting. It is completely separate and does not generate additional mana for the Gate.

[Hectorius]

thank you ACG and Zuberi!
I got clarification on most of my problems now. I want to master all the rules since I love the game. probably best card game I ever played.

see you in the Arena!  .. (or forum if I got a question again  )