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Q: When using the Really Fast Time Machine, do I get an extra card for a Patch play AND an Inverter play, or only for the Patch play?

The basic rules dictate that Patching gives an extra card, while playing an Inverter doesn’t. The Really Fast Time Machine (RFTM) lets me play an extra Patch or Inverter, and draw an extra card. So does this mean:

a) If one has the Really Fast Time Machine and uses it to play an Inverter card one can draw an extra card, and if one uses the Really Fast Time Machine to play a patch card, one can draw an extra card.
-or-
b) If one uses the Really Fast Time Machine card to play an Inverter card, one does not draw an extra card, but if one uses the Really Fast
Time Machine card to play a Patch card, one can draw an extra card.

A: Actually, neither of your scenarios is quite correct. Here’s what’s happening:

When you play a Patch, you get an extra card in your hand as a reward for fixing the timeline. Your hand should end up one card larger than it was before you started your turn. This should happen no matter what the circumstances that allowed you to play that patch, whether it was your regular turn, or a patch played using the Really Fast Time Machine (RFTM).

Now, the regular turn action is meant to be a zero-sum equation: you draw one card, and play one card, and your hand will end up the same size as before you drew (unless you patch, in which case it will increase by one). The RFTM lets you play an extra card out of your hand after that. Regardless of what card you played, that would decrease your hand size, and the intention is that it should stay the same, i.e. it should be a second zero-sum play. It’s a little like getting to take a second turn, except you play before you draw, and you are limited to only Inverters or Patches for your second “turn”.

So, if you use your RFTM to play an Inverter, you draw one to replace the Inverter in your hand, so that your hand size does not decrease because of the RFTM.

If you use your RFTM to play a Patch, you draw one to replace the extra card you played out of your hand, to restore it to the correct size, and THEN you draw a second card as your patch-reward card, for fixing the timeline. So your hand size should increase by one because of the repair, as intended.

Q: When using the Really Fast Time Machine, do both my plays have to be Inverter or Patch plays?

The Really Fast Time Machine (RFTM) states that you may play an extra Inverter or Patch, and draw to replace it, after your normal turn action. Is it necessary that your normal turn action involved playing an Inverter or Patch?

A: No. You can play anything you want for your turn. In fact, if you have more than one Time Machine in play, you might not even decide to use the RFTM until after you’ve played your regular turn, in fact – you might decide to use a different Time Machine’s power. Using the RFTM allows you a second play on your turn, and it’s THAT play which is limited to timeline changes (Inverter or Patch) with a draw to replace (so that your hand size does not diminish from the extra play).

Q: If someone Memos my Really Fast Time machine extra play, do I get to draw to replace it?

In this case it was a Patch, and obviously I would not get to draw an extra card as a reward for patching the timeline, and the card I’d attempted to play (whether a Patch or an Inverter) would be discarded, not put back in my hand, but we couldn’t agree on whether I could draw a card to replace this second play given by the Really Fast Time Machine. Since the attempt to play a card had been canceled, would the resulting draw to replace also be canceled? We didn’t think a Memo should decrease the size of the targeted player’s hand, but we weren’t sure.

A: Yes, you would still get to draw to replace your Memo’d Patch/Inverter. Usually, on your turn, you draw and then play, to keep your hand size unchanged. Normally, if someone had memo’d a Patch/Inverter played as part of a normal turn, the target player would have already drawn the card that keeps their hand the same size. It’s only because this is a special extra action that you end up drawing after you play, and it’s done to maintain the correct hand size.

With that in mind, it’s the playing of the Patch/Inverter which has been Memo’d, and not the corresponding draw, which is more a function of the Time Machine. As you point out, memos should not decrease the hand size of the target.

Q: During the UberParadox, when “the future is inaccessible,” does history still get altered after 1962 if the relevant linchpin is before 1962?

or do we wait until the timeline is restored before flipping those cards back and forth? For example, in the following sequence:

1. 1974 is paradoxed and patched (implying that 1865′ and 1963′ are the case)
2. The World War 3 patch is played, and 1974′ becomes part of the inaccessible future.
3. Abraham Lincoln is re-assassinated
4. Abraham Lincoln is saved again
5. 1962 is restored
Was 1974 flipped twice in the non-existent future during this sequence, thus discarding its patch and leaving it as a paradox, or do we check the future for consistency only after World War 3 is prevented, thus leaving the patch in place?

A: The Patch stays in place until the Future can be accessed again. All inaccessible cards stay exactly as they are, even if they don’t make sense, since it’s like you can’t even see them.

Q: What happens if you Perform a Miracle, but you cannot play any of the cards you draw?

For example, you draw all patches for Ripplepoints that don’t need patching.

A: You can Kill Time. As it says in the fine print on Fast Forward, “Killing Time (discarding an extra card and drawing a replacement) is a valid option any time you choose to discard a card instead of playing it”. This means you can discard two of your three unplayable cards and draw one back with your first Perform a Miracle play. If the redraw is, itself, also not playable, you may Kill Time once more, discarding both duds, and hope the one you draw back is playable. Andy has ruled that, in this case, though you have Killed Time twice, which would seem to use up both your plays, you may still play that last card if it comes up playable for you (and you want to play it).

Likewise, if you’re only drawing two and playing one of them, you can discard both, and hope the one card you draw back will be playable. It’s the same as if you’d started the process described above at two cards, going down to one with your one Kill Time.