Editor: Matthew Cline. Saturday 28th August 2004.
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Editor: Matthew Cline. Saturday 28th August 2004.
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 “Well Then … I’ll Blast You in the Face with My Ray-Thingy!!! or Breaking Down Vs Turn Sequences and Priority” What if the real world worked like Vs? Your wife/girlfriend puts a force-five hissy-fit on the chain because you forgot an important anniversary and then passes priority to you. Seeing that your life will soon not be worth living, you put a diamond ring on the chain. You both pass priority in succession and the effects resolve last in, first out. The ring negates the effect of the hissy-fit and all is good with the world. Ahhh … if only. With the $10K Tournament coming up and more and more Vs players entering into tournaments with higher rules enforcement, I think now is a good time to go through the turn sequence and the issue of priority. Even the more active tournament players among us have posted in the forums that they’ve run into rules problems. For the most part, I think the biggest danger is complacency. Vs is not Magic … but it is similar enough that sometimes it can seem intuitive to try to do things the same way in Vs that you would have in the other game. This simply doesn’t always work. There’s no worse feeling than thinking something in your deck is going to work a certain way, only to find that it doesn’t. For me that involved a Magic tournament a few years ago in which I thought the white instant Orim’s Chant would essentially “counter” a spell my opponent played if I played it in response. I was soon corrected. Oops. What I propose to do here is set out a turn “map” of sorts, which will outline when you can or can’t use effects. Those with good to excellent rules knowledge may find what follows simplistic and boring, so this mightn’t be for you. But if you want to make sure you don’t fall prey to complacency and false assumptions, you might like to read on anyway. Also, if you do choose to read on, prepare yourself for a butt-load of brackets (because I love using them sooooo much). I need to point out that pretty much everything in Vs creates an effect that uses the chain. The main exceptions to this are some actions done at various parts of the game and the flipping of locations. Flipping a location does not use the chain, but any effect (modifiers are not effects) it creates or can create by way of activation/payment, does. This could be important and is a rule worth remembering. I also want to quickly acknowledge my fellow Paradise member Psyclic, who is a level-one judge and a darned nice guy, for his assistance and specifically for going over this article prior to submission to check it and offer a second opinion. Hopefully, between the two of us, we won’t have steered anyone wrong. As we all know, there are four phases in Vs. Starting with the primary player (the player who started the turn with the initiative), each players goes through the actions for a phase/step and then passes priority to the other player (or to the next player clockwise in the case of games involving more than two players … from this point onwards, however, I’ll be writing based on two player games only). A phase/step does not finish until both players pass on an empty chain. This final part can be important, because if you pass priority to your opponent but still want to play an effect for some reason (for example, you expect him/her – note, for the sake of my sanity, this will be the only time I use this politically-correct monstrosity, not because I’m sexist or don’t think women might play this game, but because I hate slashies … sorry ladies – to play an effect and you want to play one in response), if they then pass you will miss that opportunity. Onto the nitty-gritty … The four phases are called the Draw, Build, Combat and Recovery phases. Of these, the Build and Combat phases are further broken up into steps, with the Build Phase consisting of a Resource Step, Recruit Step and Formation Step for each player and the Combat Phase having an Attack Step for each player. There are opportunities to play effects – namely times when you have priority – during each of the phases, however, there are rare times during a game when you simply cannot play effects (no one has priority). There are certain universal processes that players go through for each of the different phases and steps. I’ll go through these processes first. Unless the phase or step requires or allows some action at the start of it (and many do), the following process is the first thing done – any effects triggered by the start of the phase/step (that is, those that say “at the start of X phase/step …”) are added to the chain, with the primary player putting effect that he/she controls on chain first (he gets to choose what order they go onto the chain in any cases of there being more than one) then the other player. After triggered effects are put on the chain, the primary player gets priority. This means, at the start of every phase/step, both players will have an opportunity to play effects. The process for priority can be a slightly confusing one, but I’m going to try to explain it here. At the end of the article, I will attempt to distil this process and the others that will soon be discussed even further, into an even simpler summary … I hope you make it that far. The primary player or the player who owns the step has priority first and can play an effect or pass. If he plays an effect, he retains priority and once again has the option to play an effect or pass. When he does pass, priority moves to the other player who goes through the same process. If both players pass then the last effect placed on the chain resolves and the first player receives priority again. Rinse repeat. If the second player, however, does play an effect, priority will eventually pass back to the first player and give him an opportunity to respond. Priority passes back and forth like this, with effects resolving whenever both players pass one after the other, until both players pass in succession on an empty chain. At this point the game moves to the next phase/step. So, for example, such an exchange might go like this … Tim is playing against Peter. Tim is the primary player and it’s the start of the Build Phase. There are no triggered effects, so Tim gets priority. He’s playing Arkham Inmates and has a hand full of junk. He has the character Harley Quinn in play and the plot twist Prison Break face down in his resource row. He decides to flip Prison Break and adds its effect to the chain. He doesn’t want to do anything else at this stage, so he passes priority to Peter. Peter thinks Tim having a hand full of junk is a great situation and doesn’t feel that any change to that situation can benefit him, so he flips Fizzle, discarding a GCPD Officer and targeting the Prison Break. Peter doesn’t want to do anything more, so he passes priority back to Tim. Tim’s got nothing, so much saddened, he passes and the Fizzle resolves, negating the Prison Break. Tim then receives priority again, but passes (he’s got a junk hand, remember). Peter also passes and they move into the Resource Step. On to more nittier-grittier stuff ... Starting from the beginning of the turn, the Draw Phase begins by putting a game-based effect on the chain that says “both players draw two cards”. Then triggered effects are put on the chain and then players receive priority to play effects. If you want to play an effect during the Draw Phase and you specifically want to do it either before or after you rip your two off the top, you’ll have to play accordingly. If you want to play an effect before drawing then you need to do so when you get priority in the first instance, prior to the draw effect resolving. If you want to play it afterwards, there will be an opportunity after the draw effect resolves, because once it does, the primary player then receives priority (and the other player will receive priority once the primary player passes). Once both players pass in succession on an empty chain you move to the next phase/step (this is standard for all the phase/steps, with the exception of the Recovery Phase which has a number of wrap-up actions, so to save repetition I won’t be repeating it from now on). It’s also important to remember that any triggered effects at the start of a phase/step will resolve before any game-based effects (such as the draw effect) because they go on the chain after those. This mightn’t seem too important right now, but it’ll be the one time that it is relevant that you’ll be glad you know this. On to the Build Phase. There are no effects or special actions in this phase, so players simply add any triggered effects to the chain and then the primary player gets priority. To the Batcave … sorry, I’m getting carried away. The Resource Step starts with the primary player having the option of putting one card from his hand into their resource row (this is not an effect and doesn’t go on the chain). Then triggered effects are put on the chain, before players receive priority to play effects. A reminder – steps are not shared, but rather are controlled by a single player, so the primary player must complete each of the steps in a phase before the other player commences and completes the same process. The game moves on to the primary player’s Recruit Step, at the start of which that player adds one resource point to his resource pool for each resource he controls (not an effect, so it doesn’t go on the chain). Triggered effects are then put on the chain, before players receive priority to play effects (this line may become repetitious before the end). The primary player can at this point spend resource points to recruit characters and/or equipment, however, this can only be done when the chain is empty (you can’t stack multiple recruitments). Once the Recruit Step is completed (something about both players passing in succession on an empty chain …), you move onto the primary player’s Formation Step. At the start of the step, he can rearrange his characters to create a new formation. While a player is rearranging his formation, none of his characters have a position or the characteristics “front row” or “support row”. While a character is being rearranged it retains other characteristics, such as “stunned” or “ready”. When a player is done rearranging his formation, each character must have a unique position (no putting Gambit on top of Rogue so they can get their freak on). Again this action is not an effect and does not use the chain, for this reason you or your opponent can’t play effects in the middle of this process … no one has priority. Then triggered effects are put on the chain and then players receive priority to play effects. Once the primary player finishes all of his Build Phase steps, the other player starts his, beginning with the Resource Step. You go through this process the same as before, only with the other player receiving priority at the start of each step (because he owns those steps). Ahhh … next is the Combat Phase – the gravy of this game. Where it’s at! It starts out boring enough, though – triggered effects are put on the chain, before players receive priority to play effects. Once this is completed, the game moves into the primary player’s Attack Step. Again, triggered effects are put on the chain and then players receive priority to play effects. For the player whose Attack Step it is, effects that he can play include proposing an attack. Like the Recruit Step, a player can only propose an attack if the chain is empty. When the attack proposal effect resolves, then the game enters an Attack Sub-Step. I figure you guys have this one already pretty much figured out (as you probably do all the crap I’m going on about here). Someone, somewhere might write an article like this just on combat … bet you’re looking forward to that one. As each of the individual fights resolve, the player whose Attack Step it is can propose another attack. Once they have no more attacks and both players pass … blah, blah, blah. Then it’s the other player’s turn for his Attack Step (if they have any worthwhile attacks available – muh ha ha). Finally, we reach the Recovery Phase, perhaps the most convoluted of all the phases. First off triggered effects are put on the chain and then players receive priority to play effects (I’ve got this copied and am just pasting it when necessary, for those who are wondering why they are suffering déjà vu). Unlike every other phase, however, the game does not move onto the next phase/step after this point. Instead the players move into a set of wrap-up actions to finish the turn. Furthermore, no player get priority while these actions are taking place or between these actions. The game starts off this process by checking all players to see if there is a loser (and therefore, in a two player game, a winner). If there isn’t, the primary player may choose one character (the rules say “object” … so they might be leaving something open there) he controls with the stunned characteristic. Notice also that selecting a character is optional. Then the other player has the option of selecting a stunned character. Each player simultaneously recovers his chosen character and KO’s the rest. Each player then readies all objects he controls and all modifiers with the duration “this turn” lose their effect. Finally, the initiative passes to the player who did not have the initiative this turn and the next turn begins. Just
before I finish up, on Psyclic’s recommendation, I going to briefly
address
the contradiction rule as well as the “can”/“can’t” phenomenon, which
might be another potential pitfall for experienced TCG players.
The contradiction rule is a familiar one and simply means that
whenever a
card’s text contradicts rules outlined in the comprehensive rule, the
card
text supercedes the comprehensive rules. Trickier
is the “can”/“can’t” situation. This
rule states that if an effect states that something cannot happen it
overrides
any effect that says it can happen, regardless of time stamp.
Comprehensive rules reference
103.2 “When a modifier instructs that [something] can't happen, and
another
modifier attempts to make [something] happen, the "can't" modifier
will always overwrite the "can" modifier, regardless of timestamps or
dependencies. For example Burn Rubber
reads: "Target
character you control has reinforcement this turn." Blind Sided
reads:
" Target character loses reinforcement and cannot have reinforcement
this
turn." A character affected by Blind Sided
first, and then by Burn
Rubber,
will not have reinforcement this turn That’s it. Useful or a waste of time? I hope it was the former. Just to wrap-up, I’m going to provide a very brief summary (I love tautology), which can be used as a quick glance road map to the structure of the turn and priority. Also, it pretty much makes everything written up to this point redundant (I hope this isn’t completely true)…I’m such a sadist. Turn
Sequence and Priority at a Glance Draw Phase begins – “draw two cards effect added to chain” – triggered effects added to the chain – players gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Build
Phase begins – triggered effects –
players
gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually
progresses
to Primary Player’s Resource Step begins – primary player can play a resource – triggered effects added to the chain – players gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Primary Player’s Recruit Step begins – primary player add resource points to his resource pool – triggered effects added to the chain – players gain priority (the primary player has the option of recruiting characters and equipment whenever the chain is empty), then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Primary Player’s Formation Step begins – primary player can rearrange his formation – triggered effects added to the chain – players gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Other Player’s Resource/Recruit/Formation Step begins – see above. Combat Phase begins – triggered effects – players gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Primary Player’s Attack Step begins – triggered effects added to the chain – players gain priority (the primary player has the option of proposing an attack whenever the chain is empty, whenever such a proposal resolves the game enter the Attack Sub-Step), then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to … Other Player’s Attack Step begins – see above. Recovery Phase begins – triggered effects – players gain priority, then effects begin to resolve and the turn eventually progresses to the wrap-up actions … neither player has priority and therefore has no further opportunities to play effects for the rest of the turn – check to see if there is a loser – if not, the primary player can pick a stunned object to be recovered, then the other player can pick one – each player simultaneously recovers the selected objects and KO’s the rest – all objects ready – modifiers with the duration “this turn” stop – the turn finishes, initiative passes to the other player and the next turn begins. |
