Watcher's Grasp

Treachery

Power. Spectral.

Mythos

Revelation - Heal 3 damage from The Spectral Watcher. Ready The Spectral Watcher. It moves, engages, and attacks as if it were the enemy phase. Throughout the resolution of this effect, The Spectral Watcher gains "Prey - You."

Robert Laskey
The Circle Undone #87. The Watcher #2-3.
Watcher's Grasp

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • "As If": This was added to the FAQ (v.1.7, March 2020) and then amended (v.1.8, October 2020). You can read the October ruling on the ArkhamDB rules page here. (I'm adding a hyperlink rather than retyping the rules in case in future the ruling is changed or amended - at that point, the rules page will be updated and all ArkhamDB FAQ entries will link to the correct ruling.)
Last updated

Reviews

Game designer Matt Newman has confirmed on Twitter that The Watcher’s Grasp effect includes causes the Spectral Watcher to exhaust: “Q: Does the Spectral Watcher exhaust after moving and attacking with Watcher's Grasp? If that's the case, it would not attack later in the enemy phase, right? A: Yep!”

from mobile.twitter.com

Fenchurch · 4

Ruling from Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist via the official rules question form:

Question: Hello! If during Mythos Phase, the treachery Watcher’s Grasp makes the Spectral Watcher “move, engage, and attack as if it were the enemy phase,” can I swing my Survival Knife (2) at him, which has a reaction trigger of “when an enemy attacks you during the enemy phase”?

Answer: No. Survival Knife (2)’s reaction ability can only be triggered during the enemy phase; Watcher’s Grasp does not create an “enemy phase.”

(So with treacheries like this, which cause enemies to attack "as if" it's the enemy phase, other cards will not "resolve with the altered game state in mind," in contradiction of the FAQ rules on "As If..." This raises the question of whether MJ's ruling about the enemy exhausting would also be invalidated.)

Holy Outlaw · 268
I do not quite, what you mean in the last sentence? That an enemy exhaust after an attack in the enemy phase is a general rule, not an effect of another card. So unless when played with the "Return to" addendum, it should still trigger the exhaust. — Susumu · 366
I think the issue is that if the Survival Knife doesn't consider it the enemy phase (and therefore doesn't trigger) then it doesn't make sense that other cards (such as The Watcher) do consider it the enemy phase and thus exhausts after the attack. If enemy phase triggers don't happen for one card then they shouldn't happen for the other card either. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
From "As if..." in the Rules section: "The game state is considered to be altered throughout the duration of the indicated ability or action, from its initiation (including the paying of its costs, attacks of opportunity, etc) through the resolution of each aspect of its effect, and up until its completion." Reading that makes me react to Werner's statement with a quote from the same campaign's intro: "This is bullshit." — AlderSign · 284
Like Holy Outlaw said, the ruling directly contradicts with the mentioned FAQ. Bad times... — AlderSign · 284
I've sat through a thousand 'Is the game dying?' questions over the years and I've confidently dismissed them all. The series of recent rulings that directly contradict rulings from the designers (this ruling, Quick Learner, etc) or that just seem plain against the spirit of the game (Rod of Carnamagos) lead to me to question if MJ's departure has left the game on shaky ground. I'm not predicting doom and gloom yet, just observing that the timing of all questionable rulings could be interpreted as a bad omen. — Pseudo Nymh · 54