Talk:Determination/@comment-81.157.148.36-20180806141524/@comment-454133-20180806161326

Because before Determination can throw away the card, Maarek Stele's "instead" effect happens, which allows Maarek to select between 3 crits. If you were playing Maarek and you had the choice between Damaged Engine and two pilot damage cards that Determination would discard, you'd pick Damaged Engine wouldn't ya? We all would -- dealing damage to the enemy is better than dealing no damage.

So unless Maarek draws 3 pilot cards, he can prevent Determination from working. And if you do draw 3 pilot cards, you've just depleted 3 of the 8 pilot cards in the deck, which is a partial win of its own (now the odds of drawing more pilot cards has dropped sharply, making Determination less effective).

I hope that helps!