When the Mentor Aspect is the target of Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power, what happens?
Shifting Memory of Ages draws two Major Powers, gains them both, and forgets nothing. If they meet the threshold requirements, they can play one of the new Power Cards – since the identity of "the Major Power" is ambiguous, Shifting Memory of Ages chooses which one is being referred to.
While this tends to be pretty obvious when the cost is paying Energy, it's less clear if the cost is performing some other effect, like discarding a card or removing Presence.
While you must be able to pay the cost in order to get the bonus, ongoing effects can alter the final result of the cost being paid. For example, you can successfully pay the cost of "Destroy 2 Presence" even if Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By will end up saving that Presence from destruction if you do so. On the other hand, you can't attempt to pay the cost with Presence under Absolute Stasis, since that Presence only exists for Victory/Defeat – it doesn't exist as far as the Event is concerned. Tags: Action Modifiers, Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By, Absolute Stasis (Fractured Days Split the Sky), Turmoil's Touch (Wandering Voice Keens Delirium), 11 more...
If you choose to pay with Energy, Begin a Dance of Decades lets you pay any amount of Energy – even more than the amount you'd normally have to pay. This may be advantageous if you want reduce the time it will spend impending. The impending card will then come into play on a future turn, like impending cards normally do. It won't automatically gain all elemental thresholds on that future turn, and it won't have an energy discount, since those effects of Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power expire when Time Passes this turn. Tags: Forgetting, Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power, Rhythmic Power Builds to a Cataclysmic Crescendo (Dances Up Earthquakes), Begin a Dance of Decades (Dances Up Earthquakes), 1 more...