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Q: We’ve discovered way to use the Batarang which effectively shuts out one’s opponent. Is there a ruling on this?

…A friend and I were playing two player Batman Fluxx. I achieved a Batarang lockout in which I would play Batarang and then use it to put a useless goal on top of the deck every turn to control my friend’s draw until I could draw the right cards to win. This is obviously terrible, though less of an issue in multi-player since you have more than just one opponent to worry about. Is there some sort of errata or something for Batarang that prevents this?

A: This is a pretty rare case that you bumped into. It only works in a 2-player game, only if the Draw rule never goes above 1, and is pretty annoying, even for the Batarang abuser unless the Play rule is more than one, involving a slow grind through the deck until you find a card that lets you win.

Frankly, if we’d realized this rather unfortunate move-loop was possible, we wouldn’t have given the Batarang this power.

Since Batman Fluxx is out of print, and we’re unlikely to be reprinting it, we can’t really plan to implement a long-term solution on a future print-run – BUT…

IF we were reprinting it, we would change its power to something completely different, both more thematically appropriate, and less broken: the Batarang is a weapon that comes back to you, so…

Once during your turn, you may put this back in your hand to discard any Creeper in play.

We encourage you to switch to that functionality, even though, since we no longer have the rights, we can’t even print an updated card for everyone.

Q: If a card lets me do something “once per turn” and I take it out of play, and then somehow put it back into play, is that ability refreshed?

A: If the card says you can only do something once on your turn, it doesn’t matter if the card goes away and comes back again. If you’ve already used it, you’ve already used it. We don’t consider this much of a “memory condition” since you should naturally be able to remember what you have or have not done on your turn, just as you’d remember how many cards you’ve played. If you’re having trouble with a complicated turn, hopefully the other players will help keep you on track as well.

Q: Can I use the power of the Batarang before I draw for my turn?

A: Yes, you can use the power of the Batarang before your draw. In a way, that’s kind of the point. Of course you have to have already played it on a previous turn, since you can’t play it to the table before you take your main draw. It is possible, however, to draw for your turn, play it, use it’s power, and then do something which causes you to increase your draw, or draw extra cards.

For example, you could use the Egads! Rule (draw a random card off the top of the deck and play it immediately) at any time during your turn, so you might gain that top card in that way as well – of course you’d have to use it immediately, so make sure you want to do that.

See also: Many cards state that you can do something “on your turn”. When does one’s turn officially begin and end…

Q: I think there’s an infinite loop with the Batmobile and the Batarang.

As currently printed (first printing), the Batmobile lets you take another turn if you discard it from play. The Batarang lets you pull it back into your hand to move a card from the discard to the top of the draw pile. If you use the Batarang to move the discarded Batmobile to the top of the draw pile, then you draw it again on your repeated turn. With a Play of 2 or more, you can infinitely loop this process (since you need two plays to play the Batmobile and Batarang to the table again) and with Play 3 or more, you can actually play other cards as well, infinitely extending your turn. What’s the fix for this?

A: The Batmobile should have had wording limiting the number of turns you can take in a row using it, just like the more generic Take Another Turn. We will be updating it on subsequent print runs. For now, if you have a first printing deck, please play it as though there were a limit of two turns you can take in a row using the Batmobile.