What does "discard" mean when using Almalexia cards?

allochthons · July 2023

I know what the word means, I don't understand how to trigger the condition for the Almalexia deck.
Is it only using the Almalexia patron, or having Rajhin used against you?

For instance, many of the Rahjin cards have phrasing like "Opponent discards 1 card from their hand at the start of their turn." Does that trigger it?

And Almalexia's patron's favored move is: "FAVORED Pay 1 Coin, Discard a Card: ..."

Or am I having difficulty understanding when to trigger the 'discard' condition due to a bug?

PrinceShroob · July 2023

From my understanding, yes, discarding a card because you are forced to counts as discarding a card for the purposes of Almalexia's cards.

However, this is only of practical use if you have the Mournhold Clergy agent, which gives you 2 Prestige when you discard a card. All other discards in Almalexia's cards are a condition (Donate and Almalexia's patron ability are basically "if you discard a card, then gain some benefit"--you can't discard a card and retroactively claim it was to gain the benefit).

Philanthropy would not activate when you discard a card due to Rajhin, since you discard at the start of your turn before being able to play any cards. However, playing Philanthropy and then using Almalexia's patron ability would grant you 1 Power, since Philanthropy was in play when you discarded a card.

allochthons · July 2023

@PrinceShroob, thank you. That helps a little. Today is the first time I've tried to use Almalexia. Philanthropy ended up in my tavern twice on the first turn or two, and I couldn't figure out how to use it.

netch_a_sketch · July 2023

I've played ToT for a while and I still get confused between discard/sacrifice/destroy.

AnduinTryggva · July 2023

PrinceShroob wrote: »

From my understanding, yes, discarding a card because you are forced to counts as discarding a card for the purposes of Almalexia's cards.

However, this is only of practical use if you have the Mournhold Clergy agent, which gives you 2 Prestige when you discard a card. All other discards in Almalexia's cards are a condition (Donate and Almalexia's patron ability are basically "if you discard a card, then gain some benefit"--you can't discard a card and retroactively claim it was to gain the benefit).

Philanthropy would not activate when you discard a card due to Rajhin, since you discard at the start of your turn before being able to play any cards. However, playing Philanthropy and then using Almalexia's patron ability would grant you 1 Power, since Philanthropy was in play when you discarded a card.

To be honest, I still don't fully grasp how Philantropy works. Sometimes I get some power, sometimes none and sometimes 2 or more. I feel there is a calculation behind. Play Philantropy and then a second Alma card, discard a card from your hand, get one power, play next Alma card that allows discarding, discard a card, don't get power, play another Alma card, discard a card and gain 2 power or so. Although how much cards one has to cycle inbetween looks a bit random to me...

SeaGtGruff · July 2023

netch_a_sketch wrote: »

I've played ToT for a while and I still get confused between discard/sacrifice/destroy.

Discard removes the card from your hand and places it into your discard pile. The card is still in your deck and will go back into your draw pile at some point.

Sacrifice removes the card from the game and replaces it with a writ of coin. The sacrificed card will never come back to either your draw pile or the tavern during that match, although it can be used again in future matches.

Destroy is similar to sacrifice in that it removes the card from the game, hende it cannot come up again during this match but will be available in future matches. The difference is that destroy doesn't replace the cards with writs of coin.