I don't think Donald has made a final ruling for BoM. It's terribly complex to do, so i don't blame him. I mean, man, the man's got other things to do than sit around thinking about a single card in a mass of cards for an awesome game he created. He's got kids and stuff. And new cards to make that people bug him to make. And new games. And so on. I'm a bored student, and i have time, and it still hurts my head to think about BoM.
I tried to narrow it down to two questions:
- Do you play BoM first or do you play the chosen card directly?
- Do you choose several times when playing TR/BoM?
This leads to 4 possible combinations:
- You always play BoM, and you always choose.
- You always play BoM, but you don't choose once it's played
- You never play BoM, but you allways choose
- You never play BoM, and you don't choose once it's played
Sadly, each option has issues:
1. You could argue that you always play BoM, including weirdly counting both for Conspirator. In that case, TR makes me play BoM twice, which means i could choose two different cards. Which is it then? The second, because it can't be two cards? Or both? Personally, i don't like that this variant introduces some weird things like BoM potentially being Herbalist and Hermit at the same time, but at least it's consequent. And that's a huge thing. Obviously this option wasn't considered. You get bonuses for tokens on the BoM pile in this variant.
2. You play BoM, but can't choose what it does the second time. But... why? Because it is a new card now? That would make sense if TR was saying "play a card from your hand. Play it again.". But TR says "choose a card from your hand", which is BoM. And then: "Play it twice". So i should play BoM twice from TR's wording.*
If i play BoM, but can't choose because BoM took over another alias after the first play, why can't i choose again if i trash BoM on the first play, for example as Feast?
The answer Donald gave is that BoM/TR is "hard-coded". So we don't get TR/BoM/Feast to play two different cards because TR "locks in" on Feast. Problem solved, right? Well, if we assume that TR "locks in" on the card you played BoM as, and we actually play BoM first, this means that TR knows something about what BoM does. Since when can cards do that?
Also this makes Procession even weirder: If i play BoM, then Feast, then Feast again, even though BoM has allready turned back to BoM, i should trash Feast, if any card at all. "It" on Procession goes back a long while, and starts at "play a card from your hand twice". And that card was BoM, but we still didn't treat it as if it was BoM, right? We treated it as Feast, and now we treat it as BoM again? So we do lock in there, but only for a part of Procession's effect? I'm personally a fierce enemy of trashed cards being considered only after the fact, which mattered the first time for BoM and now matters for Inheritance, but however you see this particular thing, there are a bunch of issues with this specific interpretation of BoM.
Pro: You get bonuses for tokens on the BoM pile in this variant.
3. You never play BoM. You played Feast to TR, so you play it again. This seems plausible from the wording, and works nicely for most situations. But as mentioned, TR and KC ask you to "choose a card from your hand" before playing any. And that card would be BoM, no matter what happens next. But hey, at least you never play BoM, so "locking in" makes a lot more sense. Why? Because you don't lock in on the card you chose for BoM, you're locking in on the card you played. And this means TR doesn't need to know what you did as part of BoM. Also it now doesn't cause weird stuff with Conspirator, but instead gets no bonuses for tokens on BoM. It still means that Procession's ruling becomes weird. If i never played a BoM, how is "it" BoM?
4. A bit like option one, just without the weird Conspirator thing, instead the tokens on the BoM pile do nothing. Relatively consequential, but still leads to BoM being played as several different cards each time.
Personally, i'm house ruling option 3 and ignoring the whole post-trashing observation stuff that leads to issues with Procession and recently Inheritance. In my house, if i trash a card, i don't look at it after trashing it. Who knows where it'll be now?
*Another side problem here is that while TR and KC first "choose a card", Procession and Disciple go right into "play a card from your hand". Obviously you want them to behave the same.Edit: Oops, how did this post grow so big?
Sorry for the wall of text, guys.