Ranger Taming and Transferal Potion (redux)

[Sabin]

My question is similar to the one asked here.

Ranger draws a weak monster and would easily win. Player B transfers it to himself. Can the Ranger still tame it?

We thought yes, because it is the Ranger's turn and it is a combat. But then we saw "instead of fighting it" on the power description, and changed our minds. Since the Ranger isn't fighting it (although it is a combat on his turn), can he still tame it?

Thanks!

[Clipper]

The Ranger card says "In combat on your turn", so the Ranger cannot tame the creature after he is no longer in combat.

Thus, this comes down to a matter of timing. The Ranger needs to discard cards to activate the ability. Player A needs to play Transferral Potion. If the Ranger discards cards before Transferral Potion is played, he can tame the Steed. If Transferral Potion hits the table first, it's now too late to tame the monster, unless the new player was losing and invited the Ranger to join in the combat as a helper.

[Brf]

"In combat" or "in your combat"?
It seems to me it might be legitimate since it is still the ranger's turn...

[Andrew Hackard]

A Ranger cannot tame a monster he is not fighting.

And, once again, please note that there are over 4,500 Munchkin cards -- we CANNOT write every card to cover every contingency. The case when someone else is in a combat on your turn is rare enough that we aren't going to distort language to deal with it. (In fact, I'm considering reversing the previous Magic Lamp ruling because I think I was prioritizing cute effects over fairness.)

[Clipper]

In any case, I think every ruling regarding the text 'in combat' requires you to be one of the players in the combat. The only card that I can find in my database of card text that uses the phrase 'in combat' but can be used in any combat is the Carnelian Cube of Karma. However, MunchkinMan argues in this thread that the card requires errata due to this wording. There are many other cards that use 'in combat' and require it to be your combat, such as Cleric (Turning), and Bard (Enthrall).

Thus, it's not really an issue with the "on your turn" part of the card.

Edit: And just to make it clear, I am not arguing against any previous ruling with this post. I'm just trying to show that nothing needs to be changed or revised, as the rulings are consistent in my view.

[Sabin]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

A Ranger cannot tame a monster he is not fighting.

And, once again, please note that there are over 4,500 Munchkin cards -- we CANNOT write every card to cover every contingency. The case when someone else is in a combat on your turn is rare enough that we aren't going to distort language to deal with it. (In fact, I'm considering reversing the previous Magic Lamp ruling because I think I was prioritizing cute effects over fairness.)

So then, the operative word for this question is the very first in the power's description, "In"! To be clear, I wasn't suggesting a rewrite or erratum. This answer, and Clipper's first response, are perfectly consistent with how we eventually adjudicated it in-game (after much philosopher-class debate), and I want to thank you both for the confirmation!

--aside--
Being a former DCI tournament judge for M:tG leaves me with old (and bad) habits of seeing things as Interrupts and stacks, the latter of which doesn't exist here and the former is exceedingly rare (e.g. Annihilation).
--/aside--

Thanks again, everyone!