Control Minion on Ninja Acolyte

[JohnHepp]

I played Control Minion on a Ninja Acolyte. I think I should be able to benefit from the Acolyte effect of putting one of my own minions in his place, then the Acolyte would return to the original owner's hand.

[Katare]

You can't do this in practice because playing Control Minion as your regular action means it is no longer the start of the turn, thus Ninja Acolyte can no longer activate his Special effect at all. If you did control a Ninja Acolyte at the beginning of the turn (perhaps due to the physical game's Ignobles faction), you would be able to activate its special.

It's uncertain whose hand the Acolyte would enter. As written it should go into your hand since it says "your hand" instead of "its owner's hand". However, the card was written before it was possible to take control of somebody else's minion, so the argument could be made that the intention of the card was to return to its owner's hand.

Regardless of where the Acolyte went, the player who activated the effect would get an extra minion play on that base.

[quidest]

The rules cover cards being returned to the wrong hand/deck/discard pile. They always go to the owner. (Trade from the Elves deck aside, of course.)

[JohnHepp]

Thanks for the replies.

Ninja Acolyte does not activate at the start of the turn...

'Special: On your turn, if you have not yet played a minion, you may return this minion to your hand and play an extra minion on this base.'

It would seem legit as long as I do it before I play a minion.

[Katare]

Ah, so it does. I misremembered the effect description. So yeah, your play should be perfectly legitimate.