1. Reinforcing Defenders.

Does Reinforcement of a defender require a priority point?

701.10a The reinforcement characteristic can be gained at any time through a modifier created by an effect.

The question is, can this really be gained at *any* time as stated in the comp rules, or does it *really* follow the attack substep process?

602.4 Once both players pass on an empty chain, the attack concludes. (paraphase)

If the attacking player (hereafter AP) passes on his priority point after the 602.1c step, does the defending player (hereafter DP) *have* to declare reinforcement then? Or is it possible to allow the chain to resolve and then sometime between 602.4 and 602.7b?

2. Once per turn.
Examples: Oracle, Red Star, Penguin

In the example I would like to put forth, let's say Primary Player Jay has initiative for build phase. He lays his resource and already has a Oracle with a BatPlane in play. Is the 'once per turn' limitation per card of that name, and *that instance* of that card and/or *that instance of that card's turn in play*?

For example, if Jay pays one resource point to draw a card using Oracle, then KO's the BatPlane to return her to his hand, pays another two points to play Oracle and then pays another point to draw a second card. Legal? I said no, because it is the same instance of Oracle that he played twice, and my interpretation leads me to believe it is supposed to read once per turn for this character.

Second example, if Jay pays one resource point to draw a card using Oracle, then pays another two resource points to recruit a new Oracle, KOing the first Oracle, then pays another resource point to draw a second card. I am unclear on what my ruling should be on this, but it would seem to me to be legal.

Third question, players Mark and Jay are both playing Gotham/Arkham decks. Both players have Mad Hatter in play, but Jay has an Oracle in play as well.
Mark has the initiative since he is the primary player. On his recruit step, he spends a resource point to steal Oracle. Mark uses another point to draw a card using Oracle. Mark ends his build phase.

On Jay's initiative, he spends a point to return Oracle to his side. Can he spend another point to use Oracle's ability?

Does the controller of the card have an impact of the 'once per turn' effect?

If two Oracles are in play, can you even use his ability twice? The wording is 'use this power only once per turn' on Oracle. If the power has been used once by one player, can it be used by another player with a second Oracle, since that would be a duplication of that power? Or does the question answer itself? (I am assuming you can since I stated above I believe it should read 'use this once per turn with this character.')

One last question.

According to the comprehensive rules, there is no priority point between the top of the recovery phase when 'at the beginning of the recovery phase' effect trigger and the end of the recovery phase.

408.1 As the recovery phase starts, any powers or modifiers that trigger at the start of the recovery phase are added to the chain. Then the primary player gets priority.

408.2 After all players pass on an empty chain, all players must perform the following set of wrap-up actions to end the recovery phase. No player gets priority while these actions are taking place, or between these actions taking place.

The question, then becomes, can Oracle, having been stunned this turn, recover, ready and then use her ability while still in the recovery phase. My answer would be no, but I'd like to make sure I'm on the right interpretation here.

Thanks in advance,

Thanks in advance.

"Once per turn" applies to each individual object, not to other objects which come into play that same turn.

In your stolen Oracle scenario, she has already used her power that turn.

In the multiple recruited Oracles scenario, each one may use its power even if a previous Oracle has already done so.

As for reinforcement, a character can be reinforced any time it's controller has priority.

However, the act of reinforcing a character with another character must take place during an attack and prior to attack resolution.

Edit:

Once players begin choosing who to recover, no one has priority so no effects may be generated.

1-You have to reinforce before the attack resolves, so you would have to do it when you get priority after the attack is in progress. If both of you pass, the attack resolves and you are not reinforced.

2-When a card refers to it's name, it should be read as <this card>, so if you use Oracle's ability to draw a card, then return her to your hand and play her again, you could then use the ability again. When a card changes zones, it loses track of all prior information, so Oracle will not remember that it was in play earlier in the turn, or that it's power was used.

In your first two examples, two cards could be drawn. In the third example, regardless of who controls Oracle, her power can only be used once per turn so after it was used once, it couldn't be used again this turn by anyone. If you control two Oracles, you could draw two cards because each could only be played once.

After both players pass without adding to the empty chain in the recovery phase, they will not get priority again until the next draw phase, so you can't recover, ready, and use Oracle the turn she is stunned.

I see conflicting answers on the "reused and recycled" Oracle. Anything in the Comp about that? I can't find anything in particular in doing a spot check.

Zaxx,

Thanks for the quick response.

The clarification I was looking for in the first question about the Oracle changing zones is this: Does a card have memory when it changes zones?

And to be incredibly specific, does the card lose its memory when it moves from an in-play zone to an in-hand zone?

This leads me to a disturbing question if the answer is yes.

If Beast Boy has 5 counters on him and is KO'd, do those counters stay on when he moves to the KO zone? I do not believe there are any zone changing effects that force you to lose those counters.

And, then, do cards have memory from moving from the KO zone into the deck or resource zone? You can see the dangerous path this leads without concrete verbiage on these matters!

Thanks again for your expert clarifications!

No, they do not.

An object ceases to be an object when it leaves the in-play zone.

Should that card re-enter the in-play zone, it is a completely new object.

How so?

EDIT: nevermind. I thought one of your answers was referring to a different part of the question, when it actually applied to something else.

Could you point me to the line item in the comp rules that states this? It would help a lot for when I explain to my players :)

Most of my confusion here is how does it lose the object status? It cannot do so since it can only lose the character status, but must still retain its object property, otherwise cards like HarleyQuinn and Echo and Query wouldn't work (because they would not be objects and could not trigger their game text).

Also, does an object lose it's memory when transferring between in-play zones?
IE from my resource row to an opponent's resource row (which should technically be two separate zones, correct?).

And the question that comes after is whether someone like beast boy would lose all his counters if somehow transferred between those two zones.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Unfortunately, there is no one rule to point to.

Take a look at the rules concerning the different object types (rules 300 to 304).

You'll notice that each object type is referred to as a card in every zone aside from the in-play zone (character card in hand becomes a character while in play but a character card when it enters the KO'd pile).

In addition, the glossary defines an object as a VS. System card in the in-play zone.

It's also important to know that all three rows of all player's formations constitutes the in-play zone.

Moving from one row to another does not constitute changing zones.

The other zones are the deck zone, the hand zone, the chain zone and the KO'd pile zone (rule 212).

Objects cease to be objects when they leave the in-play zone and lose all characteristics (again, you'll have to read around as this is not explicitly stated).

This includes Beast Boy's counters or counters of any type on a card of any type (Xavier's Dream, the targets of Micro-Sentinels, etc.).

From the glossary

Object

An object is a Vs. System card in the in-play zone.

So, by there own deffinition, an Object is only an Object when it is in the In-Play zone.

Also please note

301.4 The character card represents the recruit effect on the chain. When the recruit effect resolves, the character card is put into the player's front or support row. It then becomes an object with the character type.

I'm not sure of your reasoning here, the cards spell out exactly how you use them.

There is only ONE In-Play Zone and all players share it. Objects that move from one players Row to another Players Row are still in the same Zone. Since the Object never leaves the zone it retains all modifers/counters etc.