Many a blue moon ago I was that person that would get the “judge calls” for Yu-Gi-Oh in my area. It was a very daunting task to be the “rule book” at all hours of the day and to explain the same “damnable” rule / interaction over and over again. Thankfully those calls stopped a couple of YEARS after I QUIT(!!!) and I was able to find peace of mind again. Fast forward to the present and I find myself to be a part of a card community again and as I lurk through the Facebook Destiny groups I happen upon the same question being asked over and over again in different forms and it is time for us to help out. BobbySapphires exposé on Running Interference is currently making the rounds so we’ll only touch on Running Interference a smidgen, and will primarily focus on two other items that are commonly misunderstood in that of Coercion and C-3PO.

Running Interference

Those are the 6 Actions available for your turn (passing is NOT an action) and Running Interference ONLY cares about which of the 6 you chose to do and not any byproduct of that action. Playing “Hit and Run” happens to activate your Red Character as part of the card text, but it is “Play a card from Hand”. Activating Sabine and using her “Before” triggers happens to play a card, but the chosen action is “Activate a Character or Support”. Making an opponent’s Jar Jar activate via his effect IS “Use a Card Action”. It isn’t very hard once you understand that it is only looking for which of the 6 Actions did you choose to do and nothing else.

Running Interference prevents that action from being taken during the entirety of your opponent’s next TURN. People get it mixed up frequently, but your “Turn” has 1 “Action” (unless modified elsewhere) and then it ends. If under the effect of Running Interference and you play a card with “Ambush” it will still be your turn after that action and you will still be under the effect of Running Interference until your turn is over. “Passing” gives up your “Turn” and frees you from the effect, but it is often the worst of ways to get out from the effect so keep that in mind, because if the opponent also “Passes” then the “Action Phase” ends.

Coercion

Coercion is a pretty odd card in that it made most of the “Top Players” learn about some silly shit. So the breakdown of said silly shit is that when your turn starts, you choose to either take an action or pass. Coercion puts you in a condition that if there is a legal option for the opponent to play an event, then that player will have to play that card at any point where they decide to take an action and it is a legal play. BUT, they also have the option to choose to “pass” instead and the condition will still continue to be maintained until one of the following occurs: They can not legally play the card, they play the card, or the round ends.

The main confusion here is that you can choose to “pass” until you are good and ready to cast that event, which isn’t always useful, but could be in the situation where a “He Doesn’t Like You” gets coerced and you’ve rolled in already, but your opponent hasn’t yet. Some people also get confused about “play restrictions” which would be things like “Play only if you control the battlefield” or “Play only if you have more ready characters than an opponent” but does NOT include “Spot” which some players commonly think is a play restriction. For example, you can still play Easy Pickings, which says “Spot a Yellow Character to…” even if you can’t spot a yellow character. The card simply has no effect and will go directly to your discard pile. Many people, especially in casual play, allow the opponent to take that action back, but that’s not a legal move. The opponent played the card for no effect, and it should go to their discard pile; this too might influence people’s misunderstanding of Coercion.

C-3PO

At North American Champs which happened at Gen Con Indy 2017, the former lead designer for the came made an incorrect ruling that C-3PO could use his Action ability to resolve a die showing a “modifed” side as a Special. It continues to haunt us because I made it known via a V-Log and the misinformation spreads like a virus. That ruling has been overturned a long time ago and still comes up frequently enough. A die showing a Modified side can’t be affected by the C-3PO action effect at all.

There is one other item that I see at times as well in regards to our protocol droid and that is that people don’t realize that the “different symbol” does NOT need to be a symbol that exists on the die / card. When I played vehicles there were many a time that people didn’t realize that I could resolve my 2/3 indirect as focus or discard and they would try to tell me that it had to be a symbol on the die/card until I pointed out that their thinking was not correct. Some would listen, some wouldn’t, but that part doesn’t really matter; Threepio says a different symbol, he clearly doesn’t have any restriction as to where that symbol needs to be found listed.

Nute / Upkeep

I don’t think I need to explain this one. Mill before you draw folks or you’ve already decided to only gain 1 resource! Knowing the upkeep phase order hasn’t really been important until Nute, but everyone should get familiar with it.

Rules Reference Guide

When you need a ruling on the fly then asking the community can usually get you instant gratification but if you want to take your game to the next level then I believe it is imperative to read the Rules Reference Guide and make it a point to understand the mechanics of the game. It will help immensely in deckbuilding and in not losing “random” games at Store Champs, Regionals, etc. to not knowing how some interactions worked. Stacking triggers, dealing direct damage to yourself, and knowing to mill for Nute before you draw can all be vital to not losing games.

~HonestlySarcastc

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