Count R Spell Question

[Majobasil]

Can you pay 2 and cancel a curse that’s already been stuck? Not in the act of it being cast but rather, say, a turn later once the curse has been in effect for a turn.

Edit: also, can Trollolol do the same? I feel like cards that say squish target stuck card or squish target curse indicate that one should not be able to cancel a mischief that’s already gotten through. In my opinion, cancel implies cancel in the act of being cast, not cancel something that’s already stuck.

[Majobasil]

Response please!

Where’s Aleph when you need him?!

[Andrew Hackard]

Please don't bump threads. We're all wearing several hats right now and Aleph's is one of the biggest, since he's effectively our CTO. He'll get to your post when he has a moment.

[Malkavman]

Sorry, Andrew. As the other half of the match this question arose in, we just get overexcited at times, and we just didn't want our query to languish. We very much respect that there many hats worn by many folks, and a bump is not meant as a sleight, merely as a gentle reminder.

*rolls diplomacy*

[Majobasil]

Thank you both!

[Aleph]

Sorry for the delay, I've been deep in GenCon prep work.

From the Rules

Cancel:
An interrupt ability. The cost for a canceled ability is still paid, but that ability does not activate. If the ability is on a card already in play, that card remains in play. When a card being played from your hand is canceled, that card is moved to the discard pile.

So you can see that we can use a Cancel ability on an ability coming from a card that is already in play, such as a Curse. This does not remove or Unstick the curse, nor does it negate it permanently. You would use the cancel when the Curse ability triggers and comes into effect, cancelling that instance of the ability.

For example, if you were cursed with The Final Countdown, which causes you to take 1 damage each time you draw a card, you could:

1. Draw a Card, then
2. Use Count R Spell or Trololol as an Interrupt to Cancel the ability of The Final Countdown. (The Final Countdown does not leave play or become Unstuck)
3. Not take damage as a result for drawing the card
4. Draw another card
5. Take 1 damage from The Final Countdown for drawing a card

Originally Posted by Majobasil

Can you pay 2 and cancel a curse that’s already been stuck? Not in the act of it being cast but rather, say, a turn later once the curse has been in effect for a turn.

Edit: also, can Trollolol do the same? I feel like cards that say squish target stuck card or squish target curse indicate that one should not be able to cancel a mischief that’s already gotten through. In my opinion, cancel implies cancel in the act of being cast, not cancel something that’s already stuck.

[Malkavman]

This is not an option I had not considered. Interesting.

To further clarify, this means that if an ability lets a player draw more than one card for the same effect(Some Pain, Elf Commune, Bone Depot, etc.), then all of the damage can be avoided by one use of Count R Spell, correct?

And using one of these powers doesn't protect from multiple instances of The Final Countdown, right?

[Aleph]

Originally Posted by Malkavman

To further clarify, this means that if an ability lets a player draw more than one card for the same effect(Some Pain, Elf Commune, Bone Depot, etc.), then all of the damage can be avoided by one use of Count R Spell, correct?

This is not correct, at least in the case of The Final Countdown. If you look up Draw in the Glossary section of the rules:

Draw
A player draws by moving a specified number of cards (one or more) from the top of their deck directly to their hand without revealing them to their opponent. When a rule or ability enables a player to draw multiple cards at once, it counts as a single draw event, rather than multiple individual draw events.

• If an ability triggers when a player draws, the ability triggers once for each draw event.
• If an ability triggers when a player draws a card, the ability triggers once for each individual card drawn.

The Final Countdown specifies that the Hero takes 1 damage each time they draw a card. So you would have to cancel its ability each time it triggered.

Originally Posted by Malkavman

And using one of these powers doesn't protect from multiple instances of The Final Countdown, right?

Correct, your cancel abilities in this discussion all specify a card as the target, so you have to choose one.