Declining to block (Deflection, Direct Intervention)

I always thought that declining to block (without making any attempts at it) was considered "using" the impulse (giving it back to the acting methusaleh).

If player A announces a bleed against me and gives me the impulse, doesn't it go back to A if I announce that I don't attempt to block?



[LSJ 20000814] says that:

The "I don't block" is implicit in the playing of Deflection, but that doesn't mean that it preceedes the playing of Deflection.

and

(Because you don't "choose not to block" until the Deflection is paid).

Does this mean that if I play a Deflection and it is cancelled by a Direct Intervention, I am free to declare a block attempt? (Since I don't "choose not to block" until the Deflection is paid, which it isn't according to Direct Intervention.)


Name: Deflection
Cardtype: Reaction
Cost: 1 blood
Discipline: Dominate
[dom] Only usable when you are being bled, after blocks are declined. Tap this reacting vampire. Choose another Methuselah other than the controller of the acting minion. The acting minion is now bleeding that Methuselah.

Name: Direct Intervention
Cardtype: Master
Cost: 1 pool
Master: out-of-turn.
Cancel a minion card as it is played. No cost is paid. (If it was an action card, the acting minion doesn't tap. If it was a strike card, the minion chooses another strike.)

Every single bounce card clearly states (in its latest printing at least) that it is only usable AFTER BLOCKS ARE DECLINED. I don't really know how much more clear can that be? You can only play a deflection after you have declined to block, so whether it gets cancelled or not doesn't matter.

Klaital wrote:

Every single bounce card clearly states (in its latest printing at least) that it is only usable AFTER BLOCKS ARE DECLINED. I don't really know how much more clear can that be? You can only play a deflection after you have declined to block, so whether it gets cancelled or not doesn't matter.

Did you even read my post? Or the quotes from the rulings?

After a deflect you can only block again if it is bounced back to you.

If the target of a directed action is reset, a new "choose blockers" opportunity results. [RTR 19970630]

Related question: Can you deflect and block with Eagle Sight when the minion is bleeding another methuselah (and that methuselah has declined blocks)?

chaitan wrote:

After a deflect you can only block again if it is bounced back to you.

If the target of a directed action is reset, a new "choose blockers" opportunity results. [RTR 19970630]

Again, the quoted rulings in my post supports that a cancelled (unpaid) Deflection does not force block declination (since the declining to block happens after paying the cost of the Deflection, which isn't done).

The ruling you quoted has nothing to do with this, since the Deflection in my example was cancelled, so the target was never changed.

henrik wrote:

Klaital wrote:

Every single bounce card clearly states (in its latest printing at least) that it is only usable AFTER BLOCKS ARE DECLINED. I don't really know how much more clear can that be? You can only play a deflection after you have declined to block, so whether it gets cancelled or not doesn't matter.

Did you even read my post? Or the quotes from the rulings?

Yes I read your post. The whole point why LSJ changed all bounce cards to clearly state only usable after blocks are declined was to avoid the whole 'but I didn't decline to block yet!' weaseling after your bounce is cancelled by making it clear that you can only bounce AFTER declining to block.

It is really clear, you cannot play a bounce card if you haven't declined to block yet, so then even if that card is cancelled, you still have already declined to block. Because a card cannot be canceled before it is played, and you cannot play a bounce card before you have declined to block. I really don't understand what is not clear in that.