Scour the Land

Frequently Asked Questions

Effect Rules

• If you change a Power's speed, which phase can you Repeat it in?
  Whatever matches the speed the Power was most recently set to, which will almost always be the speed of the original use of the Power.

  There are a few unusual cases:

  • If you use a Fast Power (or Power that was made Fast) in the Fast Phase, and then make that Power Slow with "Sky Stretches to Shore," it's now a Slow Power and can only be Repeated in the Slow Phase.
  • Fractured Days Split the Sky's "Slip the Flow of Time" Innate Power, the Air Marker of the Intensify Aspect, and a few Events ("Outpaced," "Ethereal Conjunction," and "Rouse the Spirits") all let a Spirit use a Power at a particular time without changing that Power's speed for any further uses of that Power.
  • The speed of a Power doesn't matter for Repeats immediately triggered by Relentless Gaze of the Sun's "Relentless Punishment" Special Rule, the Locus Aspect's "Strength of the Waking Island" Innate Power, or a "Repeat this Power" threshold — the power is repeated right after the original use no matter the current game phase.
    Tags: Repeat, Speed (Fast/Slow), Sky Stretches to Shore, Lightning's Boon (Lightning's Swift Strike), 22 more...

General Play

• When using a Power, can you ignore parts of its effect that you don't want to use (e.g., not adding Blight), or use a weaker version of them (e.g., Pushing only 1 Town with a "Push 2 Towns" instruction)?
  No, if you're using a Power at all, you must use all of it, and you must resolve the effects at the amount printed.

  That being said, players still have a lot of discretion for using Powers in ways were some of the effects won't happen or won't happen at full strength:

  • Spirits can target a land where some effects or possibly all of them won't do anything. (e.g., a Power with a "Push 1 Town." instruction doesn't need to target a land with Towns.)
  • If an effect is explicitly optional, it can be ignored. (e.g., "You may instead Remove 1 Blight." doesn't need to remove Blight even if there is Blight in target land.)
  • If given a choice for how many pieces to affect (e.g., "up to 3"), 0 pieces is a valid number unless a minimum amount is specified. (e.g., "Push up to 2 Dahan." can Push 0 or 1 Dahan even if 2 Dahan are present.)
  • If an effect checks how many Elements you have – usually as part of an Elemental Threshold requirement – you may choose to apply fewer Elements so long as you're consistent for the entire Power. (e.g., if you choose to use 8 Fire for a "1 Damage per Fire" effect, you also meet and must use an "If you have 7 Fire" threshold. But you could alternatively use only 6 of those Fire for the Power in order to deal 6 Damage and ignore the 7 Fire threshold.)
  • If a threshold requirement includes an Energy cost, you may choose not to pay it in order to skip that threshold. (e.g., "If you have 3 Fire and pay 2 Energy" does not require you to pay 2 Energy even if you have 2 Energy to spend and are using 3 Fire for the rest of the Power.)
    Tags: Elements, Resolving Powers, Firestorm (Heart of the Wildfire), Heart of the Wildfire, 72 more...

Scenarios

• When does Blitz reduce the cost of a Fast Power and when does Blitz refund Energy for a Power being Fast?
  When you play Power Cards by paying their costs {1}, total up the Energy cost of all of the Powers you’re playing and reduce it by 1 per Fast Power to determine how much you need to pay. If that number is negative, gain that much Energy as a refund.

  When using a Fast Innate Power that has the potential to do something for the first time each turn, gain 1 Energy as a refund.

  When you make a Slow Power Fast (via Swiftness of Lightning or similar) gain a 1 Energy rebate.

  If a Fast Power Card (or a Power Card made Fast) costs 1 or more Energy, also reduce its printed cost by 1 (e.g., for Repeating it with Gift of Strength or checking when it's played by Rhythmic Power Builds to a Cataclysmic Crescendo).

  {1} = This usually as part of the “Play and Pay For Power Cards” action in Spirit Phase, but sometimes a Power like Call on Midnight’s Dream tells you to do so.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Energy, Playing Power Cards, Blitz, Gift of Strength (Vital Strength of the Earth), 11 more...