Rules Roundup 2019-02-18

Questions

• When Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend returns a card from your scrap pile to your hand, does your opponent get to look at the card being returned?
  Yes.
• If I play I Still Function! and bring a character back from the K.O Area and you have other untapped characters, is the character you returned from the K.O Area required to take its turn first or can you use it after some of your other characters have had their turn?
  If you’re attacking with multiple characters, you can attack in any order. I Still Function! doesn’t give you an extra attack by itself.
• What counts as Attack Damage and what doesn't?
  Attack Damage is damage dealt by the attacking character as a result of an attack. Any other damage, including damage dealt during an attack because of an ability, is non-attack damage.
• Do Triple Changers start the game in a specific Alt Mode or do you get to choose which of the two you start in?
  They start in Alt Mode 1.
• Say I use Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend's Bot Mode skill to use a Focus Fire and I also had 2 Focus Fires in my hand. Since I technically played the Focus Fire I flipped, would I then be able to play the 2 in my hand right after?
  Yes, but bold would not have any impact on that attack.
• If I use Treasure Hunt with 2 cards left in my deck, if both are weapons, what happens?
  Scrap the top two cards according to instructions, shuffle all the other cards in your Scrap Pile (not including the two you just scrapped) into your deck, then scrap two more cards from your deck, for a total of four. Then follow the rest of Treasure Hunt’s instructions.
• If I play Cornered! on an opponent's Triple Changer, do they get to decide which Alt Mode it converts to?
  Yes.
• If my opponent has a combined Volcanicus in their K.O. Area, and I flip Dirge to Alt Mode, does Dirge get +1 or +5 attack?
  +1. Volcanicus counts as 1 character.
• I attack with Starscream - Decepticon King in Bot mode, who is equipped with Recon System. I flip battle cards and flip a Decepticon Crown. If I use Recon System to scrap Decepticon Crown, does Starscream still get its effect since Decepticon Crown was flipped, despite it being scrapped later?
  Yes.
• Say for instance that you were playing a full team of Aerialbots, with four planes in vehicle mode. Your opponent played a Strafing Run last turn and spread one damage to each of your characters. Your opponent has a Defensive Driving attached to one of their characters. You play a Bombing Run to move one damage from each of your planes to that character. What happens? Is all damage from Bombing Run dealt with a single damage at a time, per plane you have, or is the damage tallied and then moved in a single chunk? In other words, does that character take three damage from Bombing Run thanks to Defensive Driving, or none at all? Does Defensive Driving block Bombing Run at all, or is "moving" the same as "taking damage"?
  Moving damage counters does not count as repairing or taking damage. So Defensive Driving would not block damage in this scenario. Maybe take a look at Bumpers!
• Related to that point, does Motormaster block Bombing Run?
  No.
• What happens if for any reason I`m unable to reshuffle my deck in the middle of an attack
  Do as much as you can. If you run out of cards in your deck and scrap pile during a battle, stop flipping and resolve that attack.
• Can Chop Shop (Bot Mode) take upgrades that normally couldn't be equipped to him?
  No. You must be able to put said upgrades on Chop Shop legally.
• Do effects on upgrades that trigger "when equipped" activate if Chop Shop (Bot Mode) takes them?
  Yes.
• If I manage to draw my entire deck into my hand, is my deck in constant reshuffle?
  No. You need to actually shuffle cards in to have a successful shuffle.
• Say I have 21 cards in hand, I flip Autobot Cosmos and scrap my entire hand and then draw the same amount. If I only have 6 cards in my deck, do I draw the 6 cards, reshuffle because I had already scrapped my hand and then draw out 15 more?
  Yes.
• Say I attack with Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend with a Rapid Conversion in my hand and flip a Brainstorm for the attack. If I play the Brainstorm and play the Rapid Conversion from hand to target Optimus, am I able to play the action that he retrieves from the graveyard as the second action for Brainstorm?
  No. You must fully resolve Brainstorm before the ability from his flip triggers.
• Does each damage counter moved by Dinobot Sludge's Alt Mode ability create a new instance of damage, or does the total amount you want to move count as one instance?
  Neither. Moving damage counters does not count as repairing or taking damage.
• What happens if you have 2 Aerial Recons on Dreadwing? Do you scrap the top card or not?
  Any time more than 1 triggered ability triggers from the same action, do them in any order. For the first Aerial Recon, if you leave the card on the top of your deck, it will still be there for the second Aerial Recon.
• Dreadwind and Blackwing are both in the K.O. Area. If you combine them, Dreadwing would still be K.O.'d. What happens if you play I Still Function! on one of them, then combine them?
  Dreadwind and Blackwing cannot be combined if they are both in the K.O. Area because their abilities won’t work. If you use I Still Function! to return one of them to the Battlefield, at end of turn, two abilities happen: I Still Function K.O.’s the character and the combining ability of whichever character you brought back happens. If you combine first, then I Still Function! still applies and will K.O. a combined Dreadwing. If I Still Function! K.O.’s the character you brought back first, the combining ability won’t do anything, and you’ll have Dreadwind and Blackwing in K.O. separately. Essentially, you can have Dreadwing in K.O. or Dreadwind and Blackwing in K.O.
• So what happens when your opponent is tapped out and you attack with Blackwing/Dreadwind and combine at the end of your turn? Your attack step is over, right? Can you not attack with Dreadwing the turn he comes into play in that case? Does your opponent take a turn and not attack because their characters are all tapped, or do you have to attack with Dreadwing the turn he comes into play since your opponent is tapped out?
  Because your turn is over and you’re past the attack and untap steps, you cannot attack again.
• Is keeping a weapon, armor, and utility a feature of combining or is it based on an action?
  It’s a feature of combining. Combiners have one of each slot unless otherwise specified.
• For Erratic Lightning, does the -1 defense apply to defense flips, or only to base defense? For example, the upgraded character has 0 base defense, and flips 2 blue pips on defense. Does the upgraded character defend for 1 or 2?
  It’s the sum of the flips, so you do all of the math first. The character in this scenario would defend for 1.
• Does Warpath/Acid Storm prevent the initial two battle flips for defense/attack respectively? In other words, are the initial two battle flips considered bold/tough?
  No.
• If Dreadwing is equipped with Combat Training and 2 weapons and/or armors, does Combat Training give Dreadwing bold/tough 2 since he has 2 weapons/armors? Same question can be asked for Predaking; Does he get Bold 5 if he has 5 weapons and combat training?
  No. A single Combat Training gives Bold/Tough 1 at most.
• If Autobot Mirage attacks in bot mode and I draw 3 whites so he's untapped, does my turn end with the attack, or do I attack again as no one would be tapped? Also, if I must attack again can I use someone else to attack?
  Mirage does not give you an extra attack. If your opponent has no untapped characters, you would continue attacking with all of your untapped characters in any order, including Mirage.
• Jazz in Alt Mode is defending against Megatron - Decepticon Leader in Bot Mode. They flip no extra oranges on attack, and I flip 4 white on defense. Does Jazz then take 3 (because of the Pierce 3 minimum) or 4 (because the Pierce completely nullifies the ability)?
  4. Pierce completely nullifies Jazz’s ability.
• Does Inverted! supersede other effects that look at pips? Or can the order be chosen? For example, Inverted! with Thermal Weaponry, could a blue pip add to pierce before changing into an orange pip?
  Battle icon colors do not exist simultaneously. When Battle Icons are made to change colors, it happens instantaneously.
• The rules state that when you play an action, you set it off to the side. When Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend plays an action as part of his attack ability, is that card set aside, thus removing the pip from counting attack damage? Example: Prime flips Zap and Supercharge during his attack. He chooses to play Zap. Is his final attack value 9 or 10?
  The Zap gets set aside, but the orange icon would still increase the attack.
• If there ever comes a time when I'm using Sunstorm and I manage to draw all cards and have no scrap pile, how will I do the battle flips?
  Do as much as you can. If you run out of cards in your deck and scrap pile during a battle, stop flipping and resolve that attack.
• What checks first when you have a Force Field on Jazz in Alt Mode? Would Jazz's ability reduce his damage to 2, or would Force Field reduce to it 4 and then Jazz's ability would reduce to 2 if he flips white pips?
  Jazz’s ability would keep him from ever taking more than 2 damage, so Force Field would not trigger.
• Does Peace Through Tyranny do damage to a character when it is K.O.'d or does it just move to the K.O. Area without doing damage?
  It K.O.’s the character without damage, but characters in the K.O. Area are assumed to have their maximum damage.
• If we play a game of sealed, that has a ton of bold shenanigans going on, and I flip my deck, shuffle up, scrap, and flip all of my new deck but am still owed more flips, am I just out of luck?
  Yes.
• Can you heal damage from Characters in your K.O. Area?
  No.