Ethereal Conjunction

Frequently Asked Questions

Definitions

• When instructed to discard a card, which cards can you choose from? Where do those cards go?
  "Discard a card" without any other qualifiers means "put a Power Card from your hand into your discard pile." This most commonly occurs as part of paying for a Choice Event, but can also appear as a cost or detrimental effect.

  Some effects (most notably, the standard effects of Time Passes) discard Power Cards from play because they interact with a specific card that's in play or with cards in play in general. In that case, put the Power Card(s) from play into your discard pile. You can't discard a Power Card from play unless otherwise instructed to do so.

  If instructed to discard a card not controlled by a player, the card goes to that deck's discard pile. This most commonly occurs when gaining a Power Card, discarding the top card of the Event Deck on Turn 1, and when discarding a Minor Power as a randomizer.
  Tags: Discarding Powers as a randomizer, Choice Events, Turmoil's Touch (Wandering Voice Keens Delirium), Wandering Voice Keens Delirium, 19 more...

Effect Rules

• Can a triggered Repeat (like from "Relentless Punishment") repeat Powers resolved at an unusual time, such during the Invader Phase via the "Ethereal Conjunction" Event?
  Yes. It repeats the Power Card immediately, before moving on to the rest of the Event.
  Tags: Repeat, Timing, Resolving Powers, Relentless Punishment (Relentless Gaze of the Sun), 6 more...

Event Cards

• Can Shifting Memory of Ages use Long Ages of Knowledge and Forgetfulness to avoid Forgetting the Power Card it uses via Ethereal Conjunction?
  No, even if the Power Card was in hand at the start of the Event, it's in play by the time Memory has to Forget it.
  Tags: Forgetting, Shifting Memory of Ages, Long Ages of Knowledge and Forgetfulness (Shifting Memory of Ages), Ethereal Conjunction, 0 more...
• When using a Power Card via Ethereal Conjunction, can you hit its thresholds? Do its own Elements contribute to those thresholds?
  Yes and yes. You can use any Elements you have when you use the Minor/Unique Power, including the Elements on the Power Card itself.

  However, the Power Card will be Forgotten before you have a chance to use any Powers in Slow Phase, so it won’t help you hit the Elemental thresholds of those Slow Powers.
  Tags: Elements, Ethereal Conjunction
• Can a Spirit pick the top option for Visions Out of Time even if they don’t have 1 Energy or a Power Card that the Event can replace?
  Yes.

  Those are both effects of the choice, not costs, so just do as much as you can.
  Tags: Choice Events, Visions Out of Time, Ethereal Conjunction
• Does a Spirit have to pay for the Power Card played via Ethereal Conjunction?
  No, since the card is put directly into play without needing to pay its cost.

  However, the Spirit still needs to pay any costs associated with using the Power, whether that's a mandatory "Cost to Use" (e.g., for Absolute Stasis) or a cost associated with a particular choice (e.g., for Hazards Spread Across the Island). You can pick a Power Card with a Cost to Use that you can't afford; in that case, you fail to use the Power and then Forget the card.
  Tags: Cost To Use, Resolving Powers, Ethereal Conjunction, Absolute Stasis (Fractured Days Split the Sky), 3 more...
• When selecting Power Cards for Ethereal Conjunction, can you choose a Power Card made impending by Dances Up Earthquakes?
  Yes.

  The list of places on Ethereal Conjunction that you can choose Power Cards from is a reminder of where your Power Cards will usually be, not the complete list. Impending Cards are still Dances' Power Cards, so they can be chosen for this Event.
  Tags: Begin a Dance of Decades (Dances Up Earthquakes), Dances Up Earthquakes, Ethereal Conjunction

General Play

• When an effect lets you play a card, does that count against your allowed number of card plays?
  No. The number of card plays on your Presence track only affects how many cards you can play as part of the "Play and Pay For Power Cards" action in the Spirit Phase. Cards played any other way (usually in the Fast Phase when instructed to do so by a Power) are in addition to those limits.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Playing Power Cards, Spur on with Words of Fire, Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power, Gift of the Primordial Deeps (Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island), 14 more...
• When an effect lets a Spirit play a Power Card outside of the Spirit Phase, does the Spirit immediately resolve that Power?
  No, except in the rare case where the effect explicitly says the Spirit also gets to resolve the Power in addition to playing it (e.g. the "Ethereal Conjunction" Event). The vast majority of the time, the new Power Card works like any other: resolvable in the Phase in its "Speed" box when not in the middle of anything else.
  Tags: Playing Power Cards, Resolving Powers, Timing, Spur on with Words of Fire, 12 more...

Power Cards

• When you use a Power outside of its normal phase (e.g., during the Invader Phase via the Rouse the Spirits event), if Repeats have been granted to you (e.g., from Gift of Strength), can you use them then?
  Changed answer: Not to use the Power twice at that time. Unlike "Lightning's Boon" or "Sky Stretches to Shore," you're not actually changing the Power's speed, you're just using it (once) ignoring speed. Repeating a Power lets you use it again in the phase matching the Power's actual speed.

  The first-pass answer was "yes" based on the idea that these things changed the Power's speed, but that proved the wrong direction.

  In the uncommon case where the only reason you can't use the Power at the unusual time is having used it already, you can use a granted Repeat at that unusual time to get around the 1/turn restriction on using Powers.

  Note that this only applies when granted the option to Repeat a Power later in the turn, like with "Gift of Strength" or "Powerstorm." It does not apply to Powers that have "Repeat this Power" as one of their instructions; those can and must be Repeated immediately as an action triggered by the initial use (after any other triggered actions). Similarly, if using a Power triggers the option to Repeat it immediately (rather than later in the turn), you may do so.
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repeat, Events, Timing, Changed rulings, 9 more...

Scenarios

• In a Second Wave game, when can players play the Power Cards carried over from the prior wave?
  Any Spirit Phase after the game has first entered Stage III.

  If the Stage jumps around (e.g., against the Tsardom of Russia), the it does not matter if the game is currently in Stage III, so long as it has been Stage III at some point earlier in the game. (Note though that the early Stage III Card for the Kingdom of Brandenburg-Prussia does not put the game into Stage III.)

  Since the Power Cards don't belong to any Spirit that's still in the game, it's impossible to play them any time other than the Spirit Phase, e.g., with "Spur On With Words of Fire" or "Ethereal Conjunction."
  Tags: Timing, Second Wave, Tsardom of Russia, Kingdom of Scotland, 4 more...
• When playing Ward the Shores, if you play a Power Card not during the Spirit Phase, can you play it face-down to add a warding pattern?
  Yes, subject to the "once per turn" limit.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Playing Power Cards, Ward the Shores, Spur on with Words of Fire, Gift of the Primordial Deeps (Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island), 4 more...
• When playing a Power Card face-down in the Ward the Shores scenario, is the card still a Major/Minor/Unique Power Card for the purpose of abilities that care (e.g., the Immense Aspect)?
  No, a Power Card that's played face-down loses its prior type.

  To cover specific cases:

  • The Immense Aspect does not gain 2 Elements for playing a Major Power face-down.
  • The Intensify Aspect can't spend an Air Marker to use a face-down Minor Power during the Fast Phase.
  • During the Ethereal Conjunction Event, all face-down Power Cards count as non-Major Power Cards, and can be used by that Event to add a Warding Pattern.
    Tags: Rulings Under Examination, Ward the Shores, Immense Aspect (Lightning's Swift Strike), Intensify Aspect (Shifting Memory of Ages), 1 more...