At Gen Con, someone asked about the interaction between Voss’ Alternative Win Condition and Forced Deployment.
From the “Conquering Alien Warlord” side of Voss’ rule card:
At the start of the Villain Turn, if 10 or more Minions are in play, the planet has been overrun by the Thorathian Army. Grand Warlord Voss has conquered the Earth. Game Over.
From the “Super-Thorathian Warrior” side of Voss’ rule card:
At the start of the Villain Turn, if there are 2 or more Minions in play, flip this card.
From Forced Deployment:
(Ongoing) When this card is destroyed, put all of the Minion cards from the Villain trash into play. At the start of the Villain turn, destroy this card.
There are two important things to note.
- Voss only has the alternative win condition when on the “Conquering Alien Warlord” side of his card. Thus, Voss must be flipped to that side at the start of his turn in order for the alternate win condition to trigger
- Effects that take place during the same “phase” (e.g., “at the start of the Villain turn”) trigger in the order they entered play.
Thus, consider the following scenario:
If Voss is on his “Super-Thorathian Warrior” side and Forced Deployment is played, it stays in play until the start of the Villain turn. At that time, all “start of the Villain turn” effects trigger. First, the effect on Voss’ rules card triggers, since it entered play before the start of the game. Assuming there are still 1 or fewer minions in play, Voss does not flip. Then, the effect on Forced Deployment triggers, destroying the ongoing card and putting all minions from Voss’ trash into play. The players then suffer from all of the minions’ “end of turn” effects, then have a round to deal with the (possibly massive) army.
At the start of the next Villain turn, Voss again checks to see if he has 2 or more minions in play. Assuming he does, his flip condition triggers and he flips to the “Conquering Alien Warlord” side. Only then does his alternate win condition trigger, checking to see if he has 10 or more minions in play.
If Forced Deployment were played with Voss already on the “Conquering Alien Warlord” side, the heroes would still have an entire turn to get his minion count under 10; at the start of the Villain turn, the alternate win condition would trigger first and would (presumably) find fewer than 10 minions. Only then would Forced Deployment destroy itself, bringing minions from the trash back into play.