Official Rules Question Thread

This is more about tournament regulations than game rules:

I would like some clarification on what you can ask a judge.

Per the Fundamental Event Document:

“Assisting players and spectators. The primary way that judges do so is by resolving
infractions or answering questions of the game rules and event regulations as they arise.”

and

“At Relaxed tournaments, answering hypothetical questions and assisting players to
understand their current game state in order to facilitate a welcoming environment.”

Questions:

  1. Can a player ask and should a judge answer a question about specific card text? Example: “Judge, what is the rez cost of Hokusai Grid?” At what levels is this appropriate?

  2. Can a player ask and should a judge answer a question about deckbuilding restrictions? Example: “Judge, is Hokusai Grid on the MWL?” At what levels is this appropriate?

I’d say definite no for 1 if the the other ice is non-bioroid, since it very similar to the ruling if the ice is trashed.

I’m leaning yes for 2, unless anyone knows any reason why swapping ice would confuse the passed ice trigger. I think it just looks at the ice that is currently in that position, but it’s pretty new territory, so I tweeted ANCUR:

I’m pretty sure both of those are open information and availlable to any player at any level if they ask an official at a tournament. Here it is clearly defined for card text:

However, a player may ask a judge for the official text of a card from CardgameDB during a match.

(Floor Rules, p. 17)

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Thanks!

If a judge goes to NetrunnerDB instead of CardgameDB, can I call the marshall?

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IANARL, but as far as I can tell, you never passed that bioroid, so AoT doesn’t even try to trigger. And in the opposite situation, in which you break and move a bioroid for a non-bioroid, I think it’s still the bioroid that you’re passing, wherever it happens to be.
(FWIW, we know that you can Inversificator Turing to another server and then trigger Prey at the reduced strength.)

With the usual caveat that I’ve not totally misunderstood the question, I would have assumed that in both cases, AoT would fire, because in order to use Inversificator’s swap ability, you must have reached Step 4 (Pass) in the run timing structure. Doesn’t AoT’s ability fire at this step as well and therefore doesn’t care if the runner used Inversificator to swap the passed Bioroid ICE with anything else, they still passed a rezzed Bioroid and so the ability fires?

Happy to be proven wrong by a ruling or FAQ though, would be a (somewhat) interesting one if the AoT ability is suppressed by some/all Inversificator swaps.

Follow-up question on this that I just thought of:

When a player is asking a judge for the official text of a card from CardgameDB during a match, how must they identify the card they are asking for?

Sounds uncontrovesial that they can ask “what is the text on Hokusai Grid?”

Can they ask “what is the rez cost that Jinteki region that does net damage with a successful run?”

Can they ask “what is the text of… hockey something grid???”

I assume if they ask “what is the text of that upgrade that damages you” that isn’t specific enough so they get nothing, rather than a list of all the upgrades that can do damage.

I imagine this is probably something where the level of play matters. At a GNK, I would probably answer even the last one.

I think that’s had to be cleared up with the T.O. (they have the power of discretion for anything that’s not spelled out), a thorough reading of the “spirit” of the floor rules, and/or cleared up with @FFGOP.

I would agree with you that it probably depends if it’s a “relaxed” or “premier” level. Most likely if they ask, their opponents will just tell them.

Ok, some ask that question :

Drive by:
Expose 1 card installed in a remote server. Trash that card at no cost if it is an asset or upgrade.

Aumakua:
Whenever you expose a card or access cards and do not steal or trash any of them, place 1 virus counter on Aumakua.

…in all cases ?
If Drive By expose an asset then trash it ?
If Drive By expose an agenda then doesn’t trash it ?

My opinion is Amaukua is pumped by the agenda expose + no trash, but not by the asset expose + trash, but we would need a confirmation because of a “or (…) and (…) or” precedence unclarified by a comma problem on Drive By.

Drive by doesn’t “expose then trash”.

Drive by exposes a card.
Drive by trashes that card if it is an asset, or upgrade.

Those are two separate events. Amaukua gains a counter from the first event due to nested trigger rules, of which we have numerous examples.

Drive By contains no comma. You probably mean Amaukua, which says:

“Whenever you expose a card or access cards and do not steal or trash any of them, place 1 virus counter on Aumakua.”

Given there is no card in the whole game which trashes during the expose step, while there is a well known trash step during access, the best interpretation is that any additional comma should be placed after ‘expose a card’, not ‘access cards’.

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This means the Turtle only triggers on either single expose or (multi access + no trash).
When I access one card, I don’t “access cardS”. I “access card”.

No; ‘accessing cards’ refers to the access step of a run (see multiple other cards for this usage, including Security Testing and Account Siphon).

I’d disagree there : “trash” on Salsette is meant to be the name of an instant, not of a § in the rules.
This was the main mess and disagrement with that card : if “trash” there meant “what is called the trash event” like it’s described in the rules, then CTM wouldn’t care.

There, “access cards” should also be the name of an instant, not of the §. Therefor, should only work in archives, or any kind of multiaccess if there were a comma.
Proper access happens one by one and therefor triggers “access card” multiple times, and this doesn’t trigger Aumukua multiple times.

I totally understand your point, and could totally agree with you if it is ruled like you say.
This is just how I could rule this if I were TO without any clarification on this - and I’m never TO so don’t worry.

That kind of card with points get back & forth rulings. See Scavenge triggering trash before reinstall or not and other effects.

Both cards being strong and in the same faction should call a rapid answer anyway :wink:

Does Aumakua gain counters when you access cards with Gang Sign? My feeling says it should, I don’t see any reasons why it shouldn’t. But it does not so on Jnet and people never seem to add counters manually, so maybe I’m wrong?

It does. There’s a ton of shit jinteki.net doesn’t do automatically; it’s not a big deal. And multiple gang signs will get you a counter for each one, so it’s a pretty fun time.

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I’m aware that JNet does not automate everything and that’s totally okay. I was just confused because I watched a couple of games and people never added counters manually.

I assume the answer is “no” but here’s my question:

If you use Ankusa to return a rezzed barrier to HQ, does that barrier count as having been “de-rezzed” for the purposes of Keros McIntyre?

No, because derez is a specific effect separate from returning to HQ.

Similarly an accessed card that is trashed does not count as rezzed, even though it goes to archives face up.

In addition, if Imp trashes ICE from HQ, that ICE is not counted as rezzed.

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My thought was that Drive By would trigger Aumakua using either interpretation of Aumakua’s text since Drive by has two phrases separated by a period. (Though aren’t there some cards with text separated by a carriage return? Is a carriage return interpreted differently than a period?) A corresponding determining question for Drive By is whether it would trigger Blackguard. If the answer is “yes” then Aumakua gets a counter. If the answer is “no” then it would depend on the “or…and…or” interpretation of precedent in Aumakua’s text.

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While we’re on derezzing…I’ve also wondered if Sapper is immune to Flashbang when being access-encountered rather than approach-encountered. I think there was a ruling on Archangel that says it isn’t rezzed when being access-encountered. If I’m correct, that makes Flashbang virtually unplayable except as a backup Killer.