Vengeful Wild Man

[Dictionary]

Is Vengeful Wild Man's ability optional or mandatory?

It's worded like a required effect (Like Madril, DoO), but I thought that you could always choose whether or not to spot things (Like Secret Sentinels)?

[ket_the_jet]

It reads as mandatory in my eyes. Secret Sentinels is a different case, because the second condition is discarded "if you spot an Orc," not "if you can spot an Orc."

Just my two cents. All these years later, still haven't played a game with a card past set 13.
-wtk

[Legion]

Definitely optional to me. Without the word "can" you don't have to do it. Secret Sentinels and Pipes are similar examples.

[Phallen Cassidy]

Normally, you don't have to spot all the cards in play that meet the requirement if you don't want to.

If a card says, "for each Elf you spot" and there are 2 Elves in play (and active), you may choose to spot 2 Elves, 1 Elf, or none.

However, if a card says, "you can spot," that means you don't have a choice and you have to spot anything and everything that meets the requirement.

So both Ket and Legion can be correct here. The action "spot" may very well be mandatory, but you're not forced to spot anything (choose to spot none). For what it's worth that's how I interpret it, but luckily for everyone different interpretations can still lead to the same result in this case.

[bibfortuna25]

Moria Scout automatically adds (2) if there is an Elf in play, so I would think this guy works automatically too.

[Phallen Cassidy]

Moria Scout is in error, then. For it to be automatic, it should say "add (2) if you can spot an elf."

[Air Power]

I agree with Legion: both VWM and Moria Scout as optional because you don't have to spot things if you don't want to, and neither one says "if/while you can spot". 

Normally, you don't have to spot all the cards
in play that meet the requirement if you don't
want to.
If a card says, "for each Elf you spot" and there are
2 Elves in play (and active), you may choose to spot
2 Elves, 1 Elf, or none.
However, if a card says, "you can spot," that
means you don't have a choice and you have
to spot anything and everything that meets the
requirement.
"While you can spot The Balrog, skip the archery
phase" means you can't make a choice (it either
works or it doesn't).

If you don't want to use the ability, then spot 0

[TelTura]

As the card is written, it is a bit of a mix of optional and mandatory, I believe.  Air Power quoted the relevant section of the rulebook, which states that the player can choose to spot 0 if they so choose unless the card says some variant of "can spot", which this doesn't.

However, there are two costs to the action: "At the start of the maneuver phase, spot another Man and exert this minion to add a threat."  The attempt to add a threat is going to happen with or without the player's input; it's no more avoidable than the text of Dwarven Heart.  First the player spots (or doesn't spot) a Man, then VWM is exerted, and then if both of those actions were performed, a threat is added. Imagine if Dwarven Heart stated "at the start of each of your turns, exert bearer to heal Gandalf."  This would very clearly mean that you are intended to exert and this exertion happens whether or not you want it to, but if it does happen, it pays the cost of a secondary action, that of healing Gandalf.  This is precisely the same as this card, except that there are two separate action costs, and one of them happens to always be optional.  

Thus, while the player may or may not choose to spot another Man, you can't actually avoid the exertion that is automatically going to occur. So the best you can do is prevent the threat from being added, if for some reason that's what you want.

[Air Power]

However, there are two costs to the action: "At the start of the maneuver phase, spot another Man and exert this minion to add a threat."  The attempt to add a threat is going to happen with or without the player's input; it's no more avoidable than the text of Dwarven Heart. 

I don't think so.  "Spot" is a requirement rather than a cost, and you must meet the requirements of an action before paying any costs for the action.  "Do as much as possible" applies to effects, not costs.

[Durin's Heir]

"Spot" can be a cost, as happens in pipes: "Discard a pipeweed possession and spot X pipes."

[Phallen Cassidy]

I had thought TelTura must be right, but the rules side with Air Power.

You must meet any requirements to play a card (or perform an action) before paying its costs. (See spot.)

...

spot
The word spot sets up a requirement for playing a card ...

Since spotting is a requirement rather than a cost, Vengeful Wild Man becomes optional in that you can choose not to meet the requirements as Air Power said. Like Durin's Heir, I'd also thought spotting could be a cost (and prepared an entire argument for why it didn't matter!), but the rules disagree - spotting is a requirement.

[TelTura]

The costs for an action are usually listed before the word "to" (so the action takes the form of "pay X to do Y," with X being the cost and Y the effect).

As Durin's Heir points out, spotting is not excluded from ever being a cost, it is just usually a card requirement due to its optional nature (after all, if a card says "to play, spot an Elf", you can simply opt not to spot by...not playing the card).  This section shows us this is not the case here.  With this guideline, we see that the card's action is "...[spot another Man and exert this minion] to [add a threat]." The first brackets signify the cost(S), the second signifies the effect.  

The and is key here; I might be willing to accept that they're separate clauses if it were written more carefully: "At the start of the maneuver phase, spot a Man.  If you do, exert this minion to add a threat."  This would clearly delineate the 'action requirement' from the 'cost', as done with the compound costs/effects on Primitive Brand and the erratas on Frenzy of Arrows and A New Light.  However, as it's written now, spotting is part of the cost, just as it is with pipe-weed.

The decision you all will have to come to is whether to follow the card as written, or the card as intended.  The "optional triggered action" interpretation is pretty clearly what Decipher intended, they just didn't get enough playtesting and editing in to make the words match the intent.

[Phallen Cassidy]

I think you've got it a little twisted here, the rules do explicitly state that spotting is a requirement and that costs are usually "X to do Y," not the other way around. But, since you've brought it up: here's why it doesn't matter even if spotting something is a cost.

The crux of this argument is that the rules outlines in the CRD for "playing a card" is true for any action, rather than only playing cards. This is wholly consistent, as far as I can tell, and I think it'd much harder to argue that it only applies to playing a card.

2. Meet requirements to play The Card. If you are the Free Peoples player and initiative is a requirement for playing The Card, you must have four cards in your hand not counting The Card. Checking to see that all costs can be paid is a requirement of playing a card. If you cannot meet all requirements, The Card returns to your hand. If the card returns to hand, then you do not lose initiative and skip the remaining steps.

3. Pay costs to play The Card. This includes both twilight costs and other costs included in game text. If adding or removing Twilight tokens to the pool is part of the cost, it is done first. If the card references itself by name in its game text, it may modify its own cost. If discarding cards from your hand is a cost, then you cannot discard The Card. It is possible for another card to interrupt the paying of costs so that you cannot finish paying them. If paying costs is interrupted in such a way that you cannot finish paying them all, The Card is placed in your discard pile and any costs already paid remain paid. Do not pay any further costs for that card.

If the cost is interrupted (no Man is spotted), you don't pay any more (exert VWM). Yes, the rule specifically states it is possible for another card to interrupt, but that doesn't exclude any other possibility (as strange as it would be, at the time of the rule's writing, to want to interrupt a cost yourself). We've agreed that you don't have to spot anything in this case and since (likely by blind chance) spotting is written first, it's the first cost you try to pay. If you don't, everything else stops.