So what exactly do you do with the Operative when she gets sucker punched? I mean if she doesn't flip, but is destroyed do you leave her out and just start ignoring the text on the card? I assume you don't put her in the trash, but removing her from the game seems like it may be equally incorrect. If you leave her in play I would think the text is still active similar to a card kept around by fixed point.
Actually, I thought that, if the Operative would be destroyed, she flips instead (much like a hero), so Sucker Punch only causes her to flip?  I don't have her card here to check, though, and I don't remember the exact wording off the top of my head...
Baron Blade's card used to say "reduce to 0 or fewer", but because Sucker Punch could get around the flip mechanic, they reworded it to "when Baron Blade would be destroyed".
The Sucker Punch workaround is confirmed to work for Apostate, so you are completely incorrect on this. The difference is that for Apostate this is a game over, so we don't have the question that we have here.
I quoted the entire post. The Quote function on this rather dysfunctional website eliminates all line spacing for some reason, but the text is in there (bolded for emphasis above).
Well, sorta. We take the Chairman down before the Operative about half the time, and we just remove his cards from play entirely. If they went into the trash, when his deck reshuffled you could get a full-health Chairman back in play on his frontside, which would make no sense.
I have the most recent printing of Rook City, and The Operative says "when reduced to 0 hp or fewer, flip her cards." Since there's no extra protection from Shrine of the Ennead or anything, we've been playing it exactly like if the Chairman was destroyed while the Operative was alive: remove the character cards from play entirely and keep going.
Yeah I understand why you would choose to do that, but understand that would be a house rule. Officially there is nothing that says remove the Chairman character card from play when it would be destroyed. So it would have to go into the trash.
Think of it as the Operative, who is still alive, using the Lazarus tanks to revive Chairman yet again.
Which brings up fun times with either there being two charcter cards that could potentially enter play seperately, or trying to navigate your deck with an oversized Chairman card in it.
"Whenever a target is reduced to 0 or fewer HP, put it into the associated trash, except in the cases of hero character cards and villain character cards. Unless stated otherwise, when a villain character card is reduced to 0 or fewer HP, the villain is destroyed and the players have won the game!"
So the Chairman is clearly not supposed to go into the trash, but the game isn't supposed to be over if the Operative is still up, either. Since it's destroyed but can't go into the trash, removing it from play entirely seemed like the only rational way to do it.
Then it would stay in play at 0 hp and still be active? Nothing says to remove it from play (that is very specific to Final Wasteland) so that's out of the question. It doesn't flip back over to the front side. It doesn't seem like character cards go in the trash, so it would have to stay in play right? And if so, does the Chairmans text remain active since it's still in play even at 0 or fewer HP?
> Unless stated otherwise, when a villain character card is reduced to 0 or fewer HP, the villain is destroyed and the players have won the game!"
The Operative mearly states that you can't win the game*. The question then becomes whether destroying the villian and winning the game is a single action, or two actions. If it's one action, then the Operative would keep the Chairman in play at 0 health, probably with his rules text still active. If it's two actions, then the Chairman would be destroyed, which (as per the definition of "destroyed") would put him in the villian trash.
I asked Christopher about it -- on a playtest G+ hangout, way back when we were first starting GSF testing -- and he said that the first half of that still applies (he is destroyed) but since you can't win the game if the Operative is out, it just goes to your trash as normal, and can be reshuffled and played as normal. Which sucks, but it CAN happen.