Detect Magic during encounter?

I had this come up last night and wasn't sure if I played it right. I was playing Ezren and had no attack spells in hand. I explore and flip the villain. It then hit me to play Detect Magic to trigger Ezren's ability to possibly get a spell from the top of my deck (it was the Lightning one.) My question is was this a correct play?

You can only play encounter related spells during an encounter (i.e. mainly ones that directly affect the check in hand), so the answer is 'No - you cannot play Detect Magic during an encounter'.

Sorry!

I concur with H4ppy. Had you, however, played detect magic PRIOR to exploring, it could have worked perfectly for you.

Thanks h4ppy and captain. I encountered Jubrayl in Brigadoom, so he had me recharge 2 and Brigadoom had me draw 2. I recharged my attack spell and quarterstaff I would have been ok with, and drew detect magic and an ally, hence my predicament. Next time I'll know.

Why would you recharge an attack spell if you're playing as Ezren? :)

For more on timings and what you can do when try this:

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/95118/turn-sequence-breakdown

Those were the only two cards in my hand, that's why I thought I was ok to explore.

Ah - the naive joy of thinking an empty hand means a safe explore!

Those were the only two cards in my hand, that's why I thought I was ok to explore.

Yeah, that's just bad timing. It happens.

On the up side, when the villain kicked your butt because you didn't have an attack spell in hand, you only had two cards to discard for damage.

I understand the logic but, just based on reading the card and my understanding of the rules, I don't see why you couldn't cast Detect Magic during an encounter.

Because you can only play a card if it relates to the step of the encounter (adding dice to a check, a card that specific says to play it when you encounter something, etc). Detect Magic doesn't have anything to do with any of the steps of an encounter, so it can't be played. For the same reason, you can't play things like Cure or Augury during an encounter.

Someone with access to the rules will probably be around shortly to quote that part, but I promise you it's accurate and has been stated by Mike and Vic on multiple occasions on these forums.

I understand the logic but, just based on reading the card and my understanding of the rules, I don't see why you couldn't cast Detect Magic during an encounter.

Wrath rulebook p10, ENCOUNTERING A CARD:

Players may only play cards or use powers that relate to each step (or relate to cards played or powers used in that step.)

There is one exception, the spell Recast, which may be played because it relates to a card about to be played (the target spell.)

Just before it, also:

You may not activate a power or play a card that doesn't apply to your current situation... If a card in your hand does not specify when it can be played, you can generally play it anytime you can play cards, with the exception that during an encounter you may only perform specific actions at specific times.

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Powers that examine cards are only related if they're effects of a related power (eg, if you get to examine as a result of playing a spell, or an undefeated bane like Cyclops Oracle forces it.)

Powers that simply ARE divinations (Detect _____, revealing Leryn, etc) are never related. As such, you can't use them during an encounter.