dboeren said:

Agreed.

Sorry to be late. Here is the exact message I have sent:

On Oct 16, 2012, at 2:01 AM, mzi wrote:

Hello Damon,

I have a small question about the new Shubb Necronomicon. I intend to play it at the upcoming European tournament as a "surprise effect".

"""Action: Sacrifice attached character and
shuffle The Necronomicon back into your
deck to put into play all characters from your
discard pile with less skill than the attached
character."""

Say that I have it attached to a character and that "Altar of the Blessed" is in play.
If I initiate the action, the character has a +1 skill bonus at that moment. I pay the cost and it is put in my discard pile. At this moment, the character has no skill bonus.
Then, the effect is applied: does this very character come back into play? I would say yes, because its skill is lower thant the one it had at the moment the action was initiated.

Thank you in advance for your answer.

Best,
-- 
mzi

Here is Damon's answer:

"""There has been a rules change that makes this a legal play. Enjoy it because the card will receive errata which will not allow for it to work with the next FAQ update. """

I must say that I cannot see what rule change Damon was talking about.

OK, so it's already being taken care of, but not until after Worlds.

I guess I can see both sides of this.  On one end, if there's a known rules loophole, I'd want it closed as soon as possible.  On the other, you don't want to change a major ruling shortly before Worlds because people may be relying on it in their decks and there's insufficient time to redesign.

I personally prefer having alternative ways to win rather than an errata on this (I am fed up with cards that don not play the way they say they do).

Contrary to the 1st turn Large Man + An offer… deck (which is no longer playable), it is not impossible to win against this combo: just be prepared. Moreover, the combo relies on three cards to be truly deadly: a stable skill enhancer + Logan + a locker. It is well known that three-card combos cannot handle rushing decks very well — and I lost to a rushing deck indeed during the tournament.

 This combo requires shocking transformation and any character to sacrifice… not that hard to do.

Still i get the feeling that combo decks will be seeing more and more play with cards like Jamburg and new MU search - A Voros Hal'l Jon (choose 2 cards from deck, really sweet for any combo idea).

Still one effect cancel, Eryn or new MU guy who staels suports, shub's event, etc and its stopped. Internant scholar makes it much much stronger, but you'll have to find him.

If tests show its too hard to stop i'm happy for errata (espacialy with this MU prophecy getting 2 internant scholars it would be crazy).

" Allowing characters to bring themselves back into play is an invitation to create loops, which runs counter to how the game generally works today."

I don't really see, especially with cards like Uroborus that literally allow themselves to be endlessly recycled. Its just a matter of "can this be stopped with reasonable effort". I wonder what exactly will change.

The easy fix would be to peg the Shubb Necronomicon's action to *printed* skill.

Okay, maybe it is me… I love loops soo much ;)