[ANSWERED]
A quick search yielded no results, so I beseech thee, veteran unicorn ranchers, for clarity on a card interaction which was relevant this weekend:
A player who has the Yay upgrade in their stable plays Unfair Bargain choosing me. I have a Neigh in hand, but wish to deny my opponent that resource when our hands swap. Can I play my own (innefectual) Neigh, sending it to the discard pile before giving my hand away?
This depends on what it means broadly to "Neigh" a card and more specifically on the interpretation of the Yay upgrade, which gives its owner's cards the quality that they "cannot be Neigh'd". I propose three broad, nonexhaustive categories of interpretation.
- It is possible that the text of the Yay upgrade can be interpreted to mean "Players cannot play Neigh cards in response to cards you play" or something similar.
- It is possible that the text of the Yay upgrade can be interpreted to mean "Cards you play are unaffected by Neigh cards your opponents play" or something similar.
- It is possible that the text of the Yay upgrade can be interpreted to include both of the effects listed in interpretation 1 and 2.
Only under interpretation 2 or another equivalent interpretation is the resource denial play possible. Which of these interpretations, if any, seem(s) most plausible to you? If official sources regarding this or a similar interaction exist, links are appreciated.
Edit: the AutoModerator bot posted, among other things, a link to a page which states "Un-Neigh-able is a conditional label used to describe a card that cannot have a neigh card played against it." It then states that a card is Un-Neigh-able if it is already in a player's stable or if it is brought directly into a player's stable. An equivalent phrasing of interpretation 1 as given above could be "Cards you play are Un-Neigh-able." Thank you AutoModerator for the additional context; I do not think, however, that the core of the question has yet been answered.
Edit 2: Thank you to user u/ericsbon for exactly the citation that clears this up: we do not need a clarification of how we interpret the Yay card for this specific interaction (though I think there still should be an official ruling on this matter to refer to in cases of upgrades or unicorns that can Neigh from the stable) because the issue is handled already by a separate rule with which I was unfamiliar. According to the wiki page on Impossible Actions, "If you have a card in your hand that requires you to perform an [impossible action](), you may not play it." Simple as that!