One Shots = Items? and Cheat! card?

[charlistarr]

I am hoping to get an official ruling on this, as it is a constant argument between my boyfriend and I.

Here's the situation. I use the Cheat! card with a One Shot Item Card, as the Cheat! card works on an item card. So instead of it being a usable only once card, it is now a regular item card that stays out on the table. That seems like a perfect way to use the Cheat! Card. However, my boyfriend says that a one shot item card is not an item card and can not be used with the Cheat! card.

However, what makes an item card is that it has a title, it has an price amount and it has a bonus. One Shot card have all this. So it is up to the rulings whether a Cheat card can be used like this. Or better yet, if one shot item cards are indeed item cards.

[RevBob]

Originally Posted by charlistarr

I am hoping to get an official ruling on this, as it is a constant argument between my boyfriend and I.

Here's the situation. I use the Cheat! card with a One Shot Item Card, as the Cheat! card works on an item card. So instead of it being a usable only once card, it is now a regular item card that stays out on the table.

Official answer: No, Cheat doesn't do that. There's a nice long reference in one of the stickies, but as a rule of thumb: Cheat doesn't change card text. It just removes requirements, like you see at the top ("Not usable by X") or at the bottom left (Big, 1 Hand, Armor). That's it in a nutshell.

Originally Posted by charlistarr

That seems like a perfect way to use the Cheat! Card. However, my boyfriend says that a one shot item card is not an item card and can not be used with the Cheat! card.

Neat idea, sure - but (a) Cheat won't erase that "Usable once only" sentence, (b) the one-shot shouldn't have any requirements on it anyway, and (c) it's already been officially ruled that one-shots can't be Cheated. It's got nothing to do with the one-shot somehow not being an item; your logic on that front is perfectly sound. It's just that what Cheat does and what one-shots do don't interact with each other.

[charlistarr]

But that makes no sense then. Say if a card says Usable only by Elves that no longer matters. Technically it is erasing that wording so you can use it. Same should go for Usable only once, which is basically the same thing save for the last bit where it says "Elves" and change it to "Once".

I understand where you are coming from but that isn't logical.

[PK]

Originally Posted by charlistarr

But that makes no sense then. Say if a card says Usable only by Elves that no longer matters. Technically it is erasing that wording so you can use it. Same should go for Usable only once, which is basically the same thing save for the last bit where it says "Elves" and change it to "Once".

I understand where you are coming from but that isn't logical.

Actually, it is perfectly logical. Your "basically the same thing" reasoning is what's flawed -- it isn't the same thing, or even close. The card is very specific about what it does. It doesn't do anything more than that.

Look at it this way. A microwave heats food up. That doesn't mean you can use a microwave to heat a room. Having some similarity in application does not equate to being equivalent.

[Andrew Hackard]

The Right Reverends are correct: Cheat cannot be used to make a one-shot item permanent, just like it doesn't make Armor not-Armor. If the only Armor you're wearing is a Cheated suit, and you get hit with a Lose Your Armor curse, that's the Armor you have to lose.

This isn't a new argument, and the rulings have been consistent for the last eight-plus years. I'm sorry that it's not as potent a card as you'd hoped -- but it's still pretty good.