[Arcs] Discarding cards without legal Targets

[ledergamesmatt]

In general, if prelude ability like a Union card does not have a legal target, is it still possible to discard it?

Related cases

• Union cards, but no action card to play next to
• Prodigal One / Young Light / Prophet, if no Faithful card to play next to

Also related:

• Lattice Spies, if initiative cannot be seized
• Silver Tongue, if no guild card or resource to steal
• Cartel cards, if there is no resource to steal
• Lesser Regent, if all 3 ambitions are declared, etc
• Guild Investigator if either the court discard pile is empty, or if there is no legal target in the court

[turmoilbyrd]

I recently came across Guerric's writeup here https://discord.com/channels/476234833572397056/492548626069979136/1222959750317211728

"To" is a load-bearing word as the community has understood up to this point. If an action initiates with an "X to Y" structure you must be able to do Y to initiate the action and perform X

I think if we apply this reasoning. Then the answer is no for most of these.

[turmoilbyrd]

The actual ones that are strictly "discard to X" are:

• Lattice Spies, if initiative cannot be seized
• Silver Tongue, if no guild card or resource to steal
• Cartel cards, if there is no resource to steal
• Lesser Regent, when ambitions are all declared, etc

[jdyearsley]

Broadly, everything that has the "discard to X" form can be discarded even if you cannot complete the triggered effect. This follows my broad rule that X in "do X to Y" can be done even if you can't do Y.

However, for cases like the Union cards, you cannot do X in the first place, so you can't begin the effect.

I'll put in some FAQs to this effect for all these cards.

[jdyearsley]

I've got FAQs lined up as follows:
Lattice Spies, if initiative cannot be seized
Silver Tongue, if no guild card or resource to steal
Cartel cards, if there is no resource to steal
Lesser Regent, when ambitions are all declared, etc

I'm somewhat skeptical that the other cases need entries. Does anyone feel otherwise?

[turmoilbyrd]

I'm somewhat skeptical that the other cases need entries. Does anyone feel otherwise?

The rest are fine