Boot to the Head - losing team ability

[tristevoix]

Hi,

Maybe I've misread or misunderstood the card, but Boot to the Head doesn't seem to penalize all teams equally.

I mean, while knocking down a figure works the same for all teams, losing a team ability doesn't, especially when it's during your turn that the opponent loses its team ability.
For example, goblins and lycanthropes don't care since they can't use their team ability on your turn, however barbarians and ninjas do.

What if you would instead [or also?] play the card at the beginning of an opponent's turn, before they activate a figure?
1) You knock down a figure and if you're lucky that's the one they intended to play, however they still get to activate another one (unless they only have one standing figure left).
2) They lose their team's ability.
3) Possible technicality: would a runner with the ball on a scoring mound get booted before scoring? I'd say yes since that's part of the card's appeal.

Now all teams would seemingly be penalized equally since a team ability is always available on their turn.

Wouldn't that make more sense or am I missing something?

 

[mcs1213]

You play Boot to the Head on your turn and it last until the end of your activation. It becomes a way to neutralize the teams ability for your turn so you can work around them in most cases without a contest.

 

[tristevoix]

Not sure I'm following you properly.
I know you knock down an enemy figure on your turn and neutralize the team ability. However, if you enter an enemy figure's killzone on your turn, they can still react. Though that knocked down guy should have probably solved that problem.

However, my problem is with the team ability being neutralized.
Like, Mosh Pit for the goblins, right?
Whether or not you neutralize Mosh Pit on your turn makes absolutely no difference for the goblins since they can't use Mosh Pit on your turn anyway.
The same can't be said of the ninjas Surprise ability. You'd be glad to neutralize that on your turn.
And there's my point: both teams aren't penalized the same by that card.

Or most likely I didn't understood you reply properly.

 

[mcs1213]

Hopefully this is more clear if not I will try again later. :claply:

What if you would instead [or also?] play the card at the beginning of an opponent's turn, before they activate a figure?

The card can not be played at the beginning of an opponent't turn.

1) You knock down a figure and if you're lucky that's the one they intended to play, however they still get to activate another one (unless they only have one standing figure left).

Same as above.

2) They lose their team's ability.

Yes, that is the point.

3) Possible technicality: would a runner with the ball on a scoring mound get booted before scoring? I'd say yes since that's part of the card's appeal.

Any figure with the ball that gets booted will drop the ball. Also because of the above you can only play this on your turn not your opponents so you can't play it at the start of thier turn.

Now all teams would seemingly be penalized equally since a team ability is always available on their turn.
Wouldn't that make more sense or am I missing something?

The point of the card it to make it easier to maneuver around your opponent thus it may not be equally fair to all teams.

 

[tristevoix]

K, I think I'm the one who is misunderstood. When I think I've clearly laid out my point, it often turns out that wasn't the case. Must be my poor English.

Anyway, I understand how the card works, I thought I had stated that.

My issue is that during your turn the card renders the opposing team ability useless, however that penalizes only half the teams since half of them cannot use their team ability during the opponent's turn anyway.

My suggestion/question is: would it make it be better to use the card at the beginning of the opponent's turn (though I fully know that it's use during your turn) since then every team would be penalized by losing its team ability.

I'm not trying to understand how the card works. I'm trying to understand why it seems fine to only penalize half the teams when I think it would be better to penalize all of them.

Am I making more sense now?