Armory Sheepdog interaction

[Agster]

Was playing a game id: #182856860 where I believe an interaction occurred that wasn't standard gameplay.

I had an armory and a sheepdog in my hand.
I played the armory.
Gained a sheepdog from the sheepdog kingdom pile onto the deck.
The sheepdog in my hand was played because I gained a card.
I draw the sheepdog I just gained.
It allows me to the sheepdog I just gained in response to gaining itself???

This feels wrong. The text seems to imply the sheepdog should be in my hand at the time of gaining the card and especially shouldn't be activated by gaining its own instance.

Anyway, this is my first bug report :) don't know what else to say.

[Ingix]

Thanks for the report, Agster.

While it may indeed be counter intuitive, it is correct. The idea behind this is that because hand cards are secret in Dominion, there is no way for your opponent to check if you already had the second Sheepdog in hand when you gained a card.

Of course, there would be ways around this, like you having to reveal all the cards you want to react with at once, then being allowed to use only those. But the rule for Dominion is that when an event happens that something may trigger from, a trigger window opens. During that trigger window players can use reaction effects that are appropriate for the trigger window.

In your case, the Sheepdog that you drew with the first Sheepdog has a perfectly valid reaction effect, it isn't important that it wasn't in your hand initially. It is important that it is in your hand when the trigger window is still open. And the trigger window closes only when all players decline to react to it.

[Agster]

Thanks for the clarification! This makes a lot of sense, sorry for the erroneous report. Further thanks for continually facilitating the online site.