NRA vs Card in Play

[Jeff Kuta]

I was just reading some old rulings and got confused (mainly since the
text for Archon changed).

Vamp A has Pulled Fangs on them. Can they take an action to burn the
fangs, Freak Drive to untap, then burn the fangs again? I would say no
since Pulled Fangs is a card in play.

Vamp B is Tariq. Tariq rushes a vampire using his special enter combat
action, gets all nasty and diablerizes the vampire. Can Tariq freak
drive to untap, then rush another vampire? I'd say no because Tariq is
a card in play.

The old Archon didn't stay in play, just made the vamp an Archon which
had that ability and it was ruled to be not restricted by NRA. Are
there any actions aside from the defined ones that can get around the
NRA rule?

Thanks.

Jeff

[Juggernaut1981]

My understanding of the NRA rule, in an "intent" way is this:

For every vampire you can:

Bleed once
Use a card of a particular name once from your hand
Use the text of a card in play once,
Multiple copies of a card in play with the same name are treated as
separate cards

Other actions that do not require cards, can be performed multiple
times.

[carn...@gmail.com]

On Feb 23, 4:00 pm, Jeff Kuta <jeff.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was just reading some old rulings and got confused (mainly since the
> text for Archon changed).
>
> Vamp A has Pulled Fangs on them. Can they take an action to burn the
> fangs, Freak Drive to untap, then burn the fangs again? I would say no
> since Pulled Fangs is a card in play.

He cannot (you are correct.)

> Vamp B is Tariq. Tariq rushes a vampire using his special enter combat
> action, gets all nasty and diablerizes the vampire. Can Tariq freak
> drive to untap, then rush another vampire? I'd say no because Tariq is
> a card in play.

He cannot (you are correct.)

> The old Archon didn't stay in play, just made the vamp an Archon which
> had that ability and it was ruled to be not restricted by NRA.

That is why Archon got changed, because you could make some really
broken loops with Tyler, among other problems (rush, amaranth, untap,
rush again, etc.)

> Are
> there any actions aside from the defined ones that can get around the
> NRA rule?

Not that I can think of offhand, those loopholes have generally been
closed when found.

> Thanks.
>
> Jeff

-John Flournoy

[LSJ]

Depends on what you mean "get around".

Hunting "gets around" the NRA rule, by not being restricted by it. Similarly
rescuing and diablerie (and burning incapacitated imbued, aka pillow facing).

And the action to put a card in play is different than the action provided by
the card (so, you could put a Call the Great Beast card in play, untap, and take
the action to add a ritual counter to it; Clandestine Contract is another
favorite example of this).