Shikana and initiative

[Berabouman]

I've noticed that even though his triggered sacrifice ability says "at the start of the turn" it only actually triggers during the combat phase? So if I had the initiative and I killed Shikana before the combat phase (if I had initiative) would he get to destroy everything in a combat zone?

[DrayGon777]

His effect actually goes off on the Ability phase, meaning that if the owner of the Shikana has initiative, there isn't (currently) a way to stop his lack of sacrificing effect from going off. In other words, if you are going against Shikan, and you have initiative and kill him off, then whether a sacrifice was chosen or not, his effect would not go off (and the sacrificed character wouldn't get sacrificed). An interesting side not, if you kill of Shikana's sacrifice target when you have initiative, Shikana's kill effect would be forced to go off since it's sacrifice target is no longer valid.

[Berabouman]

Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up! So initiative is REALLY important against Shikana!

[DrayGon777]

Initiative is important in a lot of cases which you'll probably find out as you play the game more.

[Screamindiz]

Seems like the card text for Shikana should be changed to reflect this.

[Onyx]

Well, this is how I understand the card should work from its description.
You choose the sacrifice at the beginning of the turn, but the combat zone wipe itself is not mentioned as initiated at the start of the turn, in which case it should be treated for what it looks like- a triggered card effect. According to the rulebook triggered effects take place during the time when pre-emptive effects take place, that is before character actions and ability cards resolve.
So, if I'm right, according to the description, the only thing that should be able to save you is moving your characters or pre-emptive abilities (the latter though would work only if played during your initiative).
Here is a link to the turn order for convenience.

I'll test it next time I play as I want to make sure that it indeed resolves during ability/action step and not during the triggered/pre-emptive step.