Greetings everyone,
I'll start this topic off with admitting that I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but my friends and I were playing yesterday with Prime Warden Captain Cosmic (base power: whenever a construct is destroyed until the start of your next turn, draw a card or play a card) paraphrased of course, however, onto the story. We were playing against Comsic Omnitron who knocked down two of our four intrepid heros. We were able to give Captain Cosmic two uses of his base power a turn to try and keep constructs in play. When the last round hit Omnitron primed his E.M.P (deal damage based on current health of this card). In desperation we gave Captain Cosmic a Dynamic Syphon. When Omnitron's EMP finally went off it dealt damage, first to the Dynamic Syphon, giving Captain Cosmic a third use of his power, meaning that Captain Cosmic could use his ability three times in one construct destruction, so everytime a construct was destroyed, we had three triggers of his ability. Keep in mind we had multiple other constructs on the field.
Based on the End of Days + Minion Portal ruling, https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/forced-deployment-end-days, we realized that when ever a new construct entered play Omnitron's EMP would still target it. This meant that we could feed constructs to Omnitron's EMP and continue to trigger Captain Cosmic's ability. We were able to get to the point that we could play every construct in Captain Cosmic's deck (remember we could draw either two cards and play one card or play two cards and draw one card for every Construct destroyed). The power's "when destroyed effect" stopping Omnitron's EMP damage continuation. So on top of that there is the card that allows Captain Cosmic to destroy a Construct and deal damage based on it's health plus one. This reactivates the destruction trigger and allows you to draw two and play one i.e. the construct and "spell" card go back into your hand because at this point you could have drawn your entire deck.
Now you may be saying, "This is a niche occurance, this can't always happen." Actually if you play Prime Warden Captain Cosmic, Greatest Legacy and Prime Warden Fanataic, you can give Captain Cosmic three uses of his power also Fanatic has a card called End of Days, thereby triggering the infinite combo.
I was curious if there was any ruling on this specific interaction. (My friends and I of course will be avoiding the combo to maximize enjoyment).
If the EPE is doing enough damage to kill a construct, Dynamic Syphon wouldn't trigger.
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Are you remembering that a particular instance of a power can only be used once per turn, regardless of how many power usages you get?
Also, Dynamic Siphon only goes off on damage, not destruction. I believe the current ruling is that if it takes enough damage to be destroyed in one shot, it doesn't trigger.
The issue is that CC's not using the power every time a construct is destroyed (or damaged). CC uses the power in three separate turns in the round previous to EMP going off. Then, each time a construct is destroyed, the power "triggers" allowing a draw or play. There are no extra power uses when constructs are destroyed.
I could be wrong, but I don't think PW Cosmic's power can stack. Once it triggers for the first instance, the construct is no longer considered destroyed, so the other instances won't trigger.
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More specifically, the power requires you to shuffle the construct into your deck instead of being destroyed in order to draw/play. The "instead" means that subsequent instances of the power use wouldn't be relevant because the card is no longer being destroyed.
That "paraphrased of course" is your undoing. The power reads: "Until the start of your next turn, whenever a construct card is destroyed, you may shuffle it into your deck instead and either draw a card or play a card." (emphasis mine)
Because of the "instead", the effects of the power cannot stack. When the effect happens, it causes the card to not be destroyed anymore, and so any remaining power usages cannot trigger from it.
edit: what they said =)
Lead Bit Flipper, Handelabra Games
Developer of Sentinels, Bottom of the 9th, and Spirit Island
Ah got it. We did not realize that the draw or play was conditional on the construct being shuffled into the deck, instead we believed the shuffle and the draw or play were seperate. Additonally the powers being able to stack comes from the SOTM video game and Omnitron-u's ability being able to stack.
As written, it isn't conditional. However, after the first instance of the power use, the Construct isn't being destroyed anymore so it isn't available to trigger other instances of the power use. By the time you get to instance 2, it's like there was never a Construct there to begin with.
Omnitron-U's power does not say "instead."
Lead Bit Flipper, Handelabra Games
Developer of Sentinels, Bottom of the 9th, and Spirit Island
And this infinite combo is at least part of the reason that PW CC's power is worded the way it is, rather than to allow stacking.
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