Declining to block (Deflection, Direct Intervention)

When you played Deflection, even if you play it implicitly without going through all the formal declarations, it is clear that you declared "Declined to Block." Otherwise by card text the card cannot be played.

Casual and Implicit Play
Actor A: Bleed
Reactor B: Deflect
Reactor C: DI
Bleed is moving to resolution unless another relevant card is played. Blocks are still unavailable because they have already been declined.

Formality
Acting vamp A: Bleed
(Acting player relinquishes the impulse)
Reacting Methuselah being bled: Decline to block
(Impulse returns to acting player, and is again relinquished)
Meth being bled: Deflection
(Impulse returns to acting player, and is again relinquished. Impulse moves to meth being bled, and is relinquished. Going clockwise rest of other meths choose to react; most relinquish.)
One Other Reacting Meth: DI the Deflection
(Impulse returns to the Acting player, and so on...)

henrik wrote:

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).

For a statement from LSJ that having your Deflection DI'd doesn't allow you to block, see this 2006 post .

Also, it's worth noting the following sentence in the rulebook, which makes the timing a lot more obvious:

Rulebook wrote:

Note that moving past the block attempts (when all Methuselahs have declined to block) is an effect and so allows the acting Methuselah (and others) to play more cards and effects.

LSJ introduced the concept of "impulse" quite late.

- Declining a block attempt or declaring you decline to declare block attemps does not give the impulse back to the acting minion.
This means the acting minion can't play Conditioning and get his bleed Eagle Sight'd if you declined to block. All block declination are given in a row.

When you decline to block, the impulse goes to your prey (or the next eligible blocker), and so on. When everyone player declined to declare block attempts, the impulse goes back to the acting player, and unless the target changes, we're considering an unblocked action. Acting minion can play Conditioning et al, reacting minions can play Telepathic Counter, Wakes, Telepathic Misdirection et al.


Deflection, Redirection, ... are only playable after declining to block the action. This means you first declare you're done with block attempts (and everyone including Anneke says so), then they play Conditioning, you play Deflection.
If your Deflection is canceled, well, you still have declined block attempts. Your only options are
- cancel the DI
- play Redirection // deflection with another guy
- enjoy your Protected Resources.

(note that, if the bleed is deflected, *everyone* (and this includes Anneke who previously declined to block) gets a new chance to declare block attempts.