Divine Intervention Problem!

[Drewfla]

After reading through some older threads, I found some people who agree and some who disagree, so I still don't have a solid answer to my question.

My friend got to Level 9 as a Cleric, then played his good old Divine Intervention card to win. He said he had this as one of his starting 8 cards. He could have picked it up while looting the room at any time and pretended he had it as one of his starting 8. Therefore I think the instructions on the card should be final, which of course says the card must be played immediately. Obviously if its in your starting 8 cards, it will have no effect because you hadn't become a Cleric yet, even if you also got a Cleric card to start. You'd have to play Divine Intervention first.

So should my friend have won this way? I don't see how having the card to start supersedes the instructions on the card itself. There's a section in the rules that says when there's a contradiction between the rules and a card, the card takes precedence. I threw that at him, and he said "well the rules also say the owner of the game has final say". Oh great, so as long as you bought the game you can do whatever you want, even though you're blatantly cheating -__-

So any thoughts here would help. My friend and I (not the one trying to win this way) both agree that the ruling on the Divine Intervention card should take precedence. If the card specifically said "... unless it is one of the cards drawn at the beginning of the game", then we would have no argument. But it specifically says it must be played immediately, regardless of how it is drawn. Would that not include being drawn as part of your starting hand?

[Clipper]

It was an illegal play. It says you must play it immediately and the FAQ specifically calls it out as you have to play this card if you get it in your opening hand:

Originally Posted by Munchkin FAQ

Q. What happens if a player gets Divine Intervention in his opening hand?
A. The player should show the card immediately. All players who can become Clerics may choose to do so and go up a level. Once everyone is done, the card is discarded.

[MunchkinMan]

Also, if you see a post by myself, Andrew Hackard, or Devin Lewis, it really doesn't matter what anyone else says or said: We give the official responses on this forum. I've been doing that since before the forums existed, so there is no post where I've given a ruling that isn't official. However, some rulings in the past have changed (though not on this particular issue) due to several different factors, so it's best to make sure you're looking at he latest.