[Official answer] The Ring Draws Them + Frodo's cancellation

[wlk 9]

Just a small rule clarification from Caleb.

Nothing fancy, turns out this is how I played it, but I guess this might worth sharing in case someone's wondering:

 

I'm playing the Black Riders/the Road Darkens.
The One Ring is not exhausted.
The Ring Draws Them (BR) is revealed from the encounter deck.

Is it possible to cancel its effects and shuffle it into the encounter deck using Frodo Baggins (BR) response, considering it requires exhausting the One Ring ?
What is the correct timing sequence here ?

 

Great question. Since Frodo’s ability requires you to exhaust The One Ring in order to cancel the effects of an encounter card just revealed, you cannot use it to cancel The Ring Draws Them. You could initiate the Response, but at the time that you would actually cancel the treachery’s effect, the Ring would be exhausted and the effect on The Ring Draws Them would protect it.

[Nerdmeister 144]

[zeb 10]

I was surprised initially, but then I thought this was logical. Although Responses are abilities solved last (FAQ 1.37), "When revealed" effects have to be solved after them, otherwise you would never be able to cancel the "When revealed" effect with a response.

I need to stand corrected, as it is more complicated. Some responses can actually take place after a card has been revealed (and resolved their "When revealed" effect), so the timing may actually vary. This the case with Strider's path (see http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1235583/striders-path-passive-and-when-revealed-effects-lo).

So what is important is the timing of the Response: with Frodo Baggins it is triggered by the action of 'just' revealing The Ring Draws Them (BR), so the exhaustion of the One Ring takes place before resolving the When Revealed of that latter card. The "cannot" word applies after the One Ring has exhausted and is an absolute (FAQ 1.14), cancelling the cancellation.

Edited November 17, 2014 by zeb