Card Replacement

Since we have a discussion about it in our playgroup every now and then, I kindly ask for an "official answer".
The question is about the action card "Gift of Proteus" and the master card "Blessing of the Beast".

Gift of Proteus
+1 stealth action.
Put this card on this Gangrel with any number of cards requiring Protean [pro] from your hand face down (you can look at the cards at any time).

Blessing of the Beast
Master.
Put this card on an Ahrimane with any number of cards that require Spiritus [spi] from your hand (face down).

The question is: Do you replace before the "put this card ... with any number of cards that ..." step, so you can choose from your full handsize?

I guess the answer is "yes", since I cannot see any text that stops the usual "replace a played card" routine.


Thanks in advance!

Hakuron wrote:

The question is: Do you replace before the "put this card ... with any number of cards that ..." step, so you can choose from your full handsize?

I guess the answer is "yes", since I cannot see any text that stops the usual "replace a played card" routine.

You choose them when you play it and announce the terms of the card. This all happens before you replace the card, because the normal order is:

- play card and announce what it's doing (set targets, choose what "X" is for cards with an X, what level it's being played at, or whatever else)
- let people cancel the card
- replace the card.

[LSJ 20100206]

LSJ, wrote:

> - Blessing of the Beast
> Do you replace for playing Blessing of the Name it before you put the
> cards on it ?
> (put another way : do you have to set "any" when you play the cards,
> or do you set it at resolution ?)
Fully announce each card play = You set the "any" when you play it.

Ankha wrote:

Let's say I have 1 Gift of Proteus in hand, 3 Flesh of Marble and 3 Form of Mist. I play Gift of Proteus and announce 5 cards. The action is blocked. During combat, I play Flesh of Marble and Form of Mist to continue the action. The action is not blocked. Which cards can I put on Gift of Proteus?

Probably the best precedent here is Charming Lobby.

[LSJ 20011113]

LSJ wrote:

> Which brings up the question of what happens if some effect*
> results in the named political action card leaving your hand between the
> announcing of the CL and its resolution.
>
> * I'm not sure whether this is possible as of now, but let's assume the
> acting vampire has the ability "Once per turn you may discard X
> political action cards to give this vampie +X steatlh."
It could happen if you're blocked by a Raptor-employing vampire and continue
the action with Form of Mist or somesuch.

At any rate, like the similar case with the Bomb being destroyed in the
process of taking the Bomb-to-burn-a-location action, the action simply
fizzles when it resolves if the necessary elements are no longer present.

I think what I'm about to say doesn't apply in the cast of BotB or GoP, but to cover this sort of "name the card" situation... However, note that only cards in play are targeted by instance. In an analogous situation involving the ash heap with two different ash heap meddling effects:
[LSJ 20050228]

LSJ wrote:

> I was under the impression you had to choose a card specifically, and
> that the person using the erciyes fragments could target the same card,
> even if you do have another card of the same name in there. Am I
> mistaken?
Yes. You name the card.

And this appears to have been understood by Pascal (just prior to his ascension to Rules Director) to apply to cards in the hand, as well:
[a few weeks too early to actually be FZD 20110617]

Pascal wrote:

The answer above, approved by LSJ, is that you don't need to choose a copy of a card in your hand, but just name it. If, during the process of the action, you get to discard that copy and replace it with another one, then you still must discard a card which name is the chosen one at resolution (and apply the other effects of the action).

However, with Gift of Proteus or Blessing of the Beast, it appears you don't actually name the cards, just the number. That would still be a "necessary element" when you hit resolution, though. So my hunch would be that if you can still put the number of cards on that you announced, that's fine, the action's successful. If you get there and no longer have the number of cards you announced, the action reaches resolution successfully - but then fizzles.