On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, James Hazelton wrote:
Eeyore, you're right. It does affect then-players. But then-players have the freedom to say "We all know it doesn't mean what it says. Let's play the way it's supposed to be played." Play-firsters don't have that liberty. Also, action cards do allow you to break the rules (new rules allow you to break the rules; some keepers allow you to break the rules), but only when they specifically say so. You can't assume that "Jackpot" allows you three free plays, and you can't assume that D2&UE allows two free draws. In both cases, it's not mentioned on the card. (And remember, we're not playing by common sense anymore.)
My common sense says that you may play and draw in any order. Until this discussion, I had frankly never thought there was any question about it -- drawing and playing could occur in any order, because there's nothing anywhere on the cards-which-are-the-only-rules that says otherwise.
Because you and I had a fundamental difference on reading the intent of the cards this indicates to me that the intent was in fact unclear, rather than decidedly "draw then play" as you are seeming to suggest. I mean -- really, how could you possibly derive a draw-then-play intent from *anywhere* on any cards? :)
My common sense also says that your interpretation of Draw 2 and Use 'Em is incorrect (despite the fact that I am apparently a dirty play-first exploiter): the Draw rules say to draw some number of cards; Draw 2 and Use 'Em says to draw 2 cards. In my reading of both the letter and intent of the cards, these are clearly additive operations (you have to draw N cards and also draw 2 cards), and the specific note about the plays not counting toward your total is merely redundant explicative text to reduce confusion.
-pkh, a dirty play-first exploiter since I started playing the game.