CoE 97 wrote:In August, Jamie Pollock said, regarding Narya:
I'm revisiting this card I'm afraid, so buckle your seatbelts.
He went on at length about how he thought the CRF entry on Narya and the corruption check it causes is
incorrect. I will not quote it here, but here's the official response:
*** The CRF entry on Narya is correct. You cannot tap to support Narya's cc because the effect of
tapping only occurs when the tapping resolves (and that only happens when the cc resolves). Additionally,
Narya cannot be played on Gandalf if he has orcs or trolls in his company because Narya (a hero
resource) targets the company.
The CRF entry on Narya is correct but the CoE's statement on Narya and orcs is incorrect. The Orc/Troll restrictions in MEWH are:
- You may not play a hero resource permanent-event on a company with an Orc or Troll in it.
- A hero resource may not target an Orc or Troll character (e.g., Orc and Troll characters may not use Block, Escape, etc.).
- A hero resource that requires a character with a specific skill may not use an Ore or Troll charactei- to fulfill that requirement (e.g., Concealment, Many Turns and Doublings, etc.).
- An Orc or Troll character may not tap to initiate an effect from a hero resource (e.g., Praise to Elbereth, Great Ship, etc.).
- An Orc or Troll character may be the bearer of a hero item, but all bonuses and special abilities are ignored (all restrictions to movement
and playability still apply).
The CoE ruling states " Narya (a hero resource) targets the company." This is incorrect. The MEWH restriction (1) on "companies" with orcs and trolls only applies to permanent-events, and Narya is a short-event. Furthermore, neither "Narya" (the action of playing Narya) nor any of the actions in Narya's card text target the company.
The action of playing Narya targets Gandalf. The actions giving bonuses to prowess, body, and DI each target Gandalf. And the effect of "immediately untap all unwounded characters in Gandalf's company" does not target the company because a "company" cannot be tapped or untapped.
Even restriction (2) does not apply here because it states "A hero resource may not
target an Orc or Troll character" and the untapping effect of Narya is considered a non-targeting effect. While the untapping actions are "played out through" the Orc/Troll characters, these entities are not considered to be targeted because the effect states "all unwounded characters," instead of specifying the untapped entities by number -- "all" is not a specific number. This is like how Doors of Night's effect does not target ("all resource environment cards in play are immediately discarded").
Restrictions (3), (4), and (5) clearly don't apply.
So not only can you play Narya on Gandalf while he is in a company with orcs, giving Gandalf his bonuses, but you can also untap the orcs and trolls with Narya's effect.
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By the way, Narya was explained several times. It comes down to the fact that the Designers intended for resolution of supporting a corruption check to be delayed until the CC is made, as stated in the CRF: "The resolution of a character tapping to give +1 to a corruption check happens when the corruption check itself resolves." So the character will not still be tapped in support when the CC for Narya happens, thereby negating their support.
From: ich...@cstone.net (Ichabod)
Subject: [METW] New Netrep, New rulings
Date: 1996/11/07
To clear one thing up: the Corruption check on Narya.
No one can tap to aid Gandalf with the corruption check from Narya. This
is because of a rule which had been assumed but never stated. To wit:
tapping to aid a corruption check does not resolve in normal last in
first out order, its resolution is delayed until the corruption check
actually occurs.
How it works (or rather doesn't work) out with Narya is as follows:
0. Gandalf and Elrond untapping in a company with Frodo tapped.
1. Gandalf plays Narya.
2. Elrond taps to give +1 to the corruption check.
3. No other effects
4. Elrond would normally resolve now, but waits until the corruption
check.
5. Narya resolves, do things in order on card:
a) Gandalf recieves bonuses
b) Untap Frodo and Elrond.
(Note that Frodo cannot tap to aid the corruption check in the
middle of resolving Narya)
c) Gandalf makes corruption check. Elrond's tapping to aid is
cancelled because he is untapped [Annotation 5]