Spirit of War and the combat chain

[shut arrow]

This question is inspired by this post [https://discord.com/channels/874145774135558164/1127654924340183080] and the judge answer to previous chain links

Turn player plays “V for the Vanguard”, pitching a yellow and charging one light card
Defending player declares no blocks (and subsequently no defense reactions), allowing “V for the Vanguard” to hit
Turn player gives the attack go again on priority by banishing a card from soul
On the go again, the turn player then plays “Spirit of War”, using the one floating resource and charges the soul with a yellow stripe card.

The question comes thus: Does “Spirit of War” create a courage token based on the previous attack hitting on the combat chain, or does it only look from when it’s played onward?

[zenith hedge]

No, because Spirit of War will have no knowledge of anything that occured before it was played.

Also, to note in your example, if the Defending player (Nic) has decided to declare no blockers, and has been given the option to pass on defense reactions, then the attacking player (Tyler) will have missed their opportunity to use Boltyn's Attack Reaction, as the existing layer will resolve and there will no longer be a priority window.

[shut arrow]

I understand this, it was more to fast track the explanation.

[shut arrow]

Follow up question: Then why would it matter if the linked example would break the combat chain because a defending card on a previous chain link gained enough attack to pop phantasm?

As well, why wouldn’t Spirit of War see the previous chain link? It’s on the same chain which fulfills the requirements for the condition.

[zenith hedge]

Spirit of War is looking for a Hit event to occur. Not one that has alrady occured. If you have an attack on a previous link that is at 3{p} and the opponent blockd with a 3{d}, just because you boost your 3{p} to 4{p} doesn't mean that it registers a new hit event.

Whenever an attack action card hits, not 'has hit'.

[tender folio]

like gunter said, it's looking for a hit event to trigger its effect. A previous hit doesn't retroactively create a new hit trigger.

the phantasm comparison is because phantasm is always checking if it's blocked by a 6, not just when the block was assigned.