Banishing spells added by Emerald Codex

[Dark Nero]

The cards text is
"Banish this card to add 3 random Divine spells from the box to your hand. You may instead bury this card to display the spells; you may banish any of these cards for its effect as though you had played it as a spell. Banish any that remain at the end of the scenario."

The question is: should cards added from the box by banishing Emerald Codex be banished at the end of the scenario?

I understand it like this: card's instructions should be read and performed in order. This card has 3 sentences, first 2 of them are 2 options, but 3rd sentence is performed after you you chose an option.

Instruction #1:
Make a choice out of 2 options:
1) Banish Emerald Codex and display 3 random Divine spells;
2) Bury Emerald Codex and add 3 random Divine spells to the hand.

Instruction #2:
If any of the displayed/added to the hand cards still remain (displayed or in the hand) at the end of the scenario - banish them.

The problem with the wording on this card is that 3-rd sentence does not specify where cards must "remain" in order to banish them - remain displayed, remain in your hand or remain in either location? What if those cards do not remain in any of the zones they can be added to - neither in the hand nor displayed? For example, they can move from your hand to discard pile or to the deck (if recharged). What happens then? They don't "remain" where they were added to, should you still banish them? If yes - then why so?

Also, this wording on the card makes first effect kind of useless - why would you banish Emerald Codex if you will have to banish the remaining spells anyway?

[Brother Tyler]

On the first question, I see the “Banish any that remain at the end of the scenario” instruction as only applying when the Emerald Codex is buried and the resulting spells are displayed. If the Emerald Codex is banished and the resulting spells are added to a character’s hand, they are then played as normal and are not automatically banished at the end of the scenario.

In most cases, using a spell is a simple banish/discard/recharge/whatever usage. In such cases, when you bury the Emerald Codex and display the resulting spells, the normal usage is replaced with banish; and if you are playing by the Core Set rules, you ignore the prospect of recovery. In cases where use of the spell requires that it be displayed somewhere, simply use some sort of marker to keep track of it and then banish the spell once it is no longer needed or at the end of the scenario.

To directly answer your question, no, if the cards (spells) are added [to your hand] by banishing the Emerald Codex, they are not banished at the end of the scenario.

On the second question, the choice of whether to banish or bury the Emerald Codex really comes down to your strategy with assigning and using the card and, more importantly, which character has the card. The overall decision to banish or bury the Emerald Codex depends upon whether or not the Divine spellcasters in your party have the spells that they need/want. If your Divine spellcasters have the spells that you need/want, burying the Emerald Codex to display the resulting spells and then banish them at the end of the scenario makes sense. You can then re-use the Emerald Codex in subsequent scenarios, basically getting three free spells per game, with those spells being usable throughout the game and not depending upon being in someone’s hand (only after the Emerald Codex finally appears in the owner’s hand, of course). Conversely, if you have any Divine spellcasters whose repertoire of spells is sub-par and want to try to round those spells out without relying upon encountering and acquiring boons, banishing the Emerald Codex to get spells that might be kept at the end of the scenario can be an effective strategy; and this works best when a Divine spellcaster uses the card, putting the resulting spells directly in their hand without relying on needing characters to be at the same location or having to wait until rebuilding decks at the end of the scenario.

To directly answer your question, you would use the banish option for the Emerald Codex if you don’t need more/better spells and are just looking to have some freebie Divine spells for the scenario.

My personal strategy with the Emerald Codex is to give it to a non-Divine spellcaster, using the bury option when using it. This gives that character three spells and expands the total number of Divine spells that the party has available at any one time. Those spells are banished after they are used (regardless of their normal usage) and any that aren’t used are banished at the end of the scenario. The character can then do this in subsequent scenarios.

Personally, the card would be clearer if it were worded as:

Quote:

Banish this card to add 3 random Divine spells from the box to your hand. You may instead bury this card to display the spells; you may banish any of these cards for its effect as though you had played it as a spell; banish any that remain at the end of the scenario.

(Keeping the legacy language)

If I were going to convert this card to Core Set language, it would look something like:

Banish this card to draw 3 Divine spells from the vault. You may instead bury this card to display the spells; you may banish any of these cards for its effect as though you had played it, ignoring its During Recovery power; banish any such displayed cards at the end of the scenario.

[Brother Tyler]

I just re-read my post and realized that I misstated my direct answer to your second question.

The real answer is that I believe that the premise of your question - that you banish the spells at the end of the scenario if you banished the Emerald Codex to get them - is invalid (i.e., you don't banish such spells).

[Jenceslav]

Brother Tyler wrote:

If I were going to convert this card to Core Set language, it would look something like:

Banish this card to draw 3 Divine spells from the vault. You may instead bury this card to display the spells; you may banish any of these cards for its effect as though you had played it, ignoring its During Recovery power; banish any such displayed cards at the end of the scenario.

If I may add something, wording that I used in my own list of converted cards into Core terminology is:

Banish to draw 3 new Divine spells.
Bury to display 3 new Divine spells; you may return any of those displayed spells to the vault for its power as if you played it as a spell. At the end of the scenario, banish any that remain.
Notice that these are two separate powers. There are 2 similar "codices/tomes" in Occult Adventures and Immortal Dreamstone in Skull&Shackles that work the same way. The Tome of Origami Animals in OccAdv 1 has two powers / paragraphs as well - banish to draw OR bury to display and then banish later.

This card is also a part of the Pathfinder Adventures app, where the wording of some cards is improved / modified when compared to the original RotR. There is no "banish to draw" in that version, probably for better understanding.

PF Adventures' Emerald Codex wrote:

Bury this card to display three new spells that have the Divine trait. You may play each of these cards as if it is in your hand; after you do, banish it. At the end of the scenario, banish any that remain."