Modern Ruling 1

Status: Discussion (2025-04-13)

Terrain Keywords

The Set 17 White Hand Attacker (17C120) (not to be confused with another minion of the same name from set 18) reads thusly:

 Damage +1.
 While this minion is assigned to a skirmish, each site on the adventure path gains each terrain keyword from each site you control.

"Terrain" keyword remains undefined and could use a rules entry added.

Definition

It is clear that "terrain" is meant to refer to Keywords that are unique to sites, such as Underground, Plains, and Forest. The total list is as follows:

• Battleground
• Dwelling
• Forest
• Marsh
• Mountain
• Plains
• River
• Sanctuary
• Underground

There are however some differing viewpoints on what exactly should or shouldn't be included on that list. For example

• Battleground could be set aside as it is not strictly speaking a description of "terrain".
• Sanctuary could be set aside for being a loaded keyword that was later subsumed into the rules itself.

In the base game, White Hand Attacker is not playable on site paths besides Shadows, so the Sanctuary consideration cannot come up. However when playing a format using Multipath rules, such as PC-Movie, the interaction becomes possible.

In addition, Sirannon Dam (V1_65) also utilizes the "terrain" terminology, though in a negative sense (it detects sites with no terrain keywords, so whether or not Sanctuary counts would affect its detection).

Gemp

As of the Grand Card Rework, White Hand Attacker (17C120) is coded to copy *all* keywords that a site has, regardless of kind or source.

Sirannon Dam (V1_65) is hard-coded with the full list of keywords in the above bullet list, including Sanctuary.

The Question

What definition should be used for "terrain", and what keywords should be included?

2025-04-25 Decision

The Legacy and Modern Rules teams together opted for a definition that included all site-specific unloaded keywords and specifically excluded Sanctuary. The Comprehensive Rules 4.2 and 5.0 will both have the following entry added under Section Two: Glossary of Terms:

terrain:

A terrain keyword is an unloaded keyword that is only found on sites. The following are all terrain keywords:

• Battleground
• Dwelling
• Forest
• Marsh
• Mountain
• Plains
• River
• Underground

Sanctuary is a loaded keyword that appears on some Movie Block era sites. It is not a terrain keyword.

See also keyword, unloaded keyword.

In addition, a "See also terrain" line will be added to the end of the Sanctuary entry.

Clarifying Opinion

The intent behind the term "terrain" is fairly clear, even if the necessity of having the term is more dubious. (After all, White Hand Attacker (17C120) could have just said "each keyword" and nothing would have changed.) By the time of Hunters Block, sanctuary was no longer a term printed on cards and was relegated to a rules-based application, which meant that there was never an opportunity for that keyword to misbehave during the Decipher era. If such a circumstance were to arise however, it is fairly obvious that applying sanctuary to sites that did not originally have them is rife for chaos. None of the other site keywords, being unloaded, could come close in impact.

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