Using Paul Lemond's ability multiple times - - Limitations ?

[chicklewis 0]

Had a new player in our latest tournament use Paul Lemond's action three times in one story phase.

 

"Action: Pay 1 to choose a character. Until the end of the phase, Paul Lemond gains all of that character's printed icons. "

He paid 1, chose "A", one of his opponent's characters, then drained another domain to choose character A again, giving Paul Lemond a total of two of each of character A's printed icons. To top it off, he drained his third domain to choose his own character "B" giving Paul some terror icons.

His opponent argued that when a second or third character is chosen, the new icons replace the previously acquired icons. When I nixed that idea, the opponent argued that since Paul already had already acquired character A's icons, he couldn't acquire them again.

I read the card closely and ruled that the play was legitimate. Since Paul doesn't need to exhaust his ability can be triggered any number of times, and since it says Paul "gains" the icons, a single character can be re-chosen as often as desired, with the net result being the sum of all 'gained' icons.

How SHOULD I have ruled ??

Chick
 

[Amante 0]

I never thought about that before, actually.

[marius8 1]

The effect is always cumulative; So, yeah, he can gain loads and loads of icons this way....

[Amante 0]

Wow. I knew he was good but that makes him even more ridiculous.

[chicklewis 0]

Thanks, Marius, now I feel better about ignoring the grumbling.

Paul Lemond is a real monster.

Chick

[jhaelen 98]

Wow, that's another one of those things I never would have thought of... this is truly terrifying!

[PRODIGEE 0]

This is exactly how we used to play him, and ruled so in Tournaments.

Some players said he's a real monster ... but that's not really true. He's strong and may change a game if not handle carefully in early play.

Despite all that, I don't find him so humongous.

[Amante 0]

Yeah, he's not unstoppable, but he IS a 1 drop with a very powerful ability that you can throw spare points into, making him very, very effective if you get him out early.

[SuperKalelJorson7 7]

You guys have more experience at the game than I do, but it seems a little overly strong that a character could conceivably take on multiple ancient one icons for one resource apiece. We've always played that his psychich mind can read one at a time.

[Dam the Man 84]

On the other hand, even with a trillion icons, PL is still 1-cost, 1-skill character, i.e. cheap to eliminate/take control/etc. with cards and effects that are related to those.

[Muzar 0]

Indeed, even with 15 icons - Paul is very squishy with no Toughness, no Invulnerability, low skill and low cost.  And he ties up your available domains if you're using him multiple times.  Not nearly as game-breaking as, say, the pre-errata Ghoul Khanum. 

[StarBurn 1]

deep one assault...or a certain tome that lets you pay the cost of a creature commited to a story to send it back.

[Muzar 0]

Or a Shotgun Blast, Committed, Blind Submission, Intimidate, Primal Fear, etc, etc.