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I think Riposte/Sieze the Opportunity cancelling attacks is fine; it's different from Magic but makes those cards actually good whereas they previously sucked, so I'm down.

Also, I 100% agree that if Cloud of Bats said "Prevent all damage from a source.  Shift 6", it would allow you to dodge melee attacks (and ranged attacks if you could get out of range/LOS).  This actually works just like Magic, where a target has to be legal when a spell resolves, not just when you play it.  It's also consitent with all DC rulings so far.  So I think assuming you shift before the triggering attack resolves, you should be able to dodge attacks.

On the other hand, the wording of Cloud of Bats is both unusual and very specific: "Prevent all damage from a source,  then shift 6."  It isn't as clear as I'd like, but it's very different wording from anything else, and IMO strongly implies that you move after the damage is dealt.  This also makes it work better as noted above.

Sorry to disappoint but I can't agree.

'Then' as a conjunction is usually just a timing statement.

'If...then...' would be a conditional statement.

We already have conditional clauses with 'if the target takes damage from this attack'.

Since they know how to write those, why assume that this is another conditional when it isn't written that way?

The shadowy ambush card is printed as:

"Shift 2 squares.

Make a melee attack that deals 50 damage"

However, in the write up on 'multiple actions on cards' (p.9) it is written as:

"two actions:Shift 2 squares; then, Make a melee attack that deals 50 damage"

The word 'then' serves here only to place the actions in order, not to make one conditional on the other.

Note that 'players can respond to each action separately' when a card has multiple actions.

What I am undecided on is whether you can interrupt between the damage prevent and the shift in cloud.

Is it one action with two effects, or two actions? Is this why it's one sentance instead of two?

CoB is still not an automatic get out of jail free card though.

Imagine you get attacked when there are two creatures next to you.

You tap to play CoB, the second then hits you with Seize (and perhaps poison?). You're still not well.

Oh, and of course, this 'full evade' tactic fails completely before a L1 Int card (Web)!

That's what I love about this game, so many exquisite ways the cards spoil each other, and stop each other being broken.

'Then' certainly does not imply that the shift from cloud resolves after the card played before it on the stack.

If it did you'd never be able to kill an attacker and make his attack fizzle before it hits (because as we've seen above multiple actions on cards have an implied 'then', like shadowy ambush.

Damage prevention always resolves before the damage it 'soaks', you don't take the damage and then wind it back, you shield yourself against anticipated damage, thus taking less later when you actually do get hit.

What clinched it for me was... "Sometimes resolving an action on the stack makes another action on the stack impossible to resolve. For example an effect moves or destroys the target of a second effect below it on the stack. In this case the second action does nothing when it would resolve - it is simply removed from the stack."

So we have riposte and seize, which can destroy the attacker (other way round here, but WotC have validated this ruling).

Anyone volunteering any options for immediate effects that can move the target, as described? or the attacker?

I can think of two candidates, and Cloud of Bats is one of them.

The other is when an earth guardian uses seize to push his attacker out of melee reach...(now there's a cool trick, assuming it would work)

As we're 4 sets in, I'd say it's a safe bet that cloud is one of the cards this text was written for specifically, we know they designed most of, if not all of, the first 5 sets before they released the rules and I don't imagine many 'evade' cards will be in the orc set.

Could be wrong, after all, we don't really know what wisdom does, apart from card draw.

Perhaps the wise orc has had plenty of practice moving away before the ogre clobbers him for kicks?

As far as I am aware you can only respond to an attack. As such the act of assisting does not warrant a response. However if the assisted action is an attack, then you can respond to either of the creatures, provided they are adjacent to you, as normal.