So Merisiel has discovered a new love of spells with the Emerald Codex and had 3 spells sitting next to her character card when she encountered a henchman in the Thassilonian Library (When Closing: Banish a Spell).
(These questions all relate to using the Codex's second power of burying it to place 3 Divine spells next to your character card. Obviously if you just banish to take them into your hand, they would function as normal spells.)
So, the first question is - can I banish one of the spells that the Emerald Codex placed next to my character card to close the Library? My guess is no, but... I'm not sure.
Second question - the Thassilonian Dungeon allows you to draw a card when you play a spell with the Arcane trait. Now some of the Divine spells that the Codex gives you might also have the Arcane trait - if you use one of those spells while in the Thassilonian Dungeon, do you get to draw a card? I thought this might be a yes, but maybe you're not actually "playing" those spells.. I'm not sure if you are or if it's more of an effect from the Codex when you use them.
Btw I really like the card - to be honest I've been a bit underwhelmed by some of the boons added in the last couple of packs (the Giantbane dagger seems like a downgrade from the Venomous dagger for example) but really cool concept with the Emerald Codex. More cards like that make me happy.
1. I'd say no. It has to come from your hand.
If you are instructed to play, reveal, display, discard, recharge, bury, banish, or otherwise manipulate a card, that card must come from your hand unless otherwise specified.
2. I'm not sure. Can't remember the exact wording of the Emerald Codex. If it says you are playing them, then yes. A character like Kyra playing a spell that had both the Arcane and Divine traits would trigger that location's power. So if the Codex says it counts as playing them, then I'd say it applies. I'm going to go look up the codex is a minute.
Ok. So the Emerald Codex says, at least in part:
you may banish any of these cards for its effects as though you had played it as a spell.
That, to me at least, sounds like you didn't actually play it as a spell. It doesn't say the same thing as other text, which would be "this counts as playing a spell."
That's just my take though, and I could probably be talked out of it pretty easy, because I could see "as though you had played it as a spell" going the other way too. In fact, I might be talking myself out of it, because if it doesn't count as playing a spell, then how does it relate to the one card of each type per step of encountering a card?
That's how I played both situations so since it doesn't appear I'm entirely off my rocker (yet at least) I'll just go with that unless I see a different ruling at some point. Thanks for the confirmation :)
On a different take, I'm not sure why you'd ever actually banish the Codex to put the spells in your hand. Even if you were a Divine caster - this gives you 3 extra spells that aren't taking up hand space and is reusable, versus losing the Codex forever (it's a loot card after all) for getting three spells added to your hand once... Maybe if you could look at the spells FIRST and knew that you were getting some really good spells that you wanted to keep it might be worth losing the Codex, but it doesn't seem to work that way.
It seems that you only get the effects of the spell as if you had played it (don't draw). Ezren's power would also be affected.
I think that the point of the banish power on the Codex is that you can turn it into possibly useful spells once you are sick of carrying it around. So you almost always give it to someone when it is acquired, even if you don't want to keep it.
Just got the Codex last night, the wording is such that you essentially have a sidebar of spells, right? They're not in your hand, so you couldn't banish them to close a location. In fact, according to the wording on the card it seems like you can't do anything but use them -as if- you were playing them for their effect.
It's a pretty promising item, especially in our Merisiel/Kyra campaign. However I keep thinking we'll probably end up ditching it to give Kyra a better shot at Mass/Major Cure. Merisiel is jam-packed with items, and couldn't use many of the spells she drew to their full effect anyway. Kyra probably would like it, but only has 1 item (Masterwork tools, though I imagine their usefulness will be gone by AP5). Maybe best plan is to hold onto it with Merisiel until Kyra could take an Item feat at the end of the AP...
What box set does this item come from?
Fortress of the Stone Giants (Deck 4). It is a loot item.
I'm 2 sets behind. (facepalm) Set 3 is in the mail.
