Firstly, we've mentioned several times that the card could've been worded more clearly - it is somewhat ambiguous. It doesn't say "during this skirmish" even though it could have done (Then there'd be no debate, right?) nor does it say "from this point on".
I don't even think it's ambiguous anymore. No event says "from this point on," they tell you when the effect ends. Because nobody has taken up the "events take effect at the start of the phase in which they are played" sword, it seems we all agree events take effect when they are played - i.e., "from this point on."
If that's the case, I'd say Phallen's view is a very literal reading of exactly what is written there. This is not a bad thing per say; we can and do read most of the cards literally because that's how the game works. I presume (Correct me if wrong) that Phallen would argue the rest of us "assume" it lasts for the skirmish, right?
Exactly. I don't see any reason to make the assumption. Even when considering...
... cards like Depart Silently, Whisper in the Dark and White Hand Sieger. We don't interpret any of these cards literally because it's obvious what Decipher's intentions were. Perhaps with S&S, it's less obvious, which is the problem. Perhaps I'm mistaken (Either side could argue that they're not "assuming" anything), But I wanted to bring this up as a minor point in case the rest of you feel it has some relevance to the current discussion?
Depart Silently is a glaring error. If someone brought up that "Bilbo" and "Rosie" shouldn't be text that refers to "Bilbo Baggins" and "Rosie Cotton," I don't see how they missed this one. The wording is unprecedented in
White Hand Sieger, but that's a card from set 18 (enough said) and I think it can still be taken literally. Same with
Whisper in the Dark, can someone help me find what needs to be assumed?
One more thing, if we can extrapolate "until the regroup phase" from the first part of DS to the second part, can we do the same for S&S? Probably not, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
Now, I'm a huge fan of
Depart Silently, and it's a big point for the argument that "cards should work how they were meant to" column (see below). It's true that we're assuming "until the regroup phase" carries in the wording because otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense. So lets say we make the same assumption for
Swiftly and Softly. The
only way anyone can make "a skirmish involving a Hobbit" carry to the bottom phase is if it is not part of the effect itself, and that's another argument I don't think anyone is going to be taking up.
Take
Depart Silently. The effects are "prevent Hobbits from being assigned to skirmishes" and "spot Gandalf to make a Hobbit strength +3." These are complete, whole effects (though useless effects in the Maneuver phase alone). After that, the card tells you how long the effect lasts, and
that is what we're carrying over. Every* "cancel a skirmish" effect tells you which skirmish you're allowed to cancel (a skirmish involving bearer, a skirmish involving a roaming minion, a skirmish involving Frodo, a skirmish involving a Hobbit, etc.). This isn't a note on the scope of the event just as "any other site" isn't an indicator that you may prevent ALL wounds to a Hobbit if he has taken another wound at any time at this site, it's just a note on which skirmish is valid - it's part of the effect. So what can we carry over? The same implied "lasts until the end of this phase."
So what about Decipher's intent? This is an uphill battle, the biggest reason being that just because there are no other effects like
Swiftly and Softly doesn't mean it's wrong. The effect could have
easily simply prevented all wounds. They're Hobbits, for Pete's sake, wounds are hardly their concern! If Decipher had opted not to prevent all wounds, what evidence is there that they meant for a Hobbit to take only one for the whole skirmish?
I'm still somewhat intrigued by Durin's Heir's "Sometimes game text is added to a card by an effect, even though that text is not printed on that card" argument. I think it's a far, far stretch, but more realistic than just wanting it to work a certain way.
*Sneaking! actually says "Smeagol's Skirmish," the only exception I can find