If I, as Buffy, use Self Referential Humour on “Demonic Smackdown” (8BK, 3W, 1S) then I may ignore the 1 Smarts required. Will Buffys main character ability then affect the Weirdness requirement?
Self Referential Humour let’s you ignore the lowest talent on the card if it is 2 or below. Buffy’s Essence card allows you to lower the lowest Talent on a Challenge by 2. Buffy’s Essence card only effects the lowest talent on a Challenge, so both Self Referential Humour and her essence in this case would effect the smart talent. I.e. Buffy’s essence effect kicks in, reducing the lowest talent on the challenge (Smarts 1) by 2, effectively reducing it to -1, as soon as you chose to face the challenge. Then comes the card draw stage. Then, during the Battle stage, Player A plays Self-Referential Humor. However, all this does is cause Player A to ignore the Smarts requirement of -1 because the Smarts requirement is still there. Buffy has already used her Essence effect to reduce the Smarts, so she cannot use it again to reduce the Weirdness talent requirement by 2 (the essence specifically states that the effect can only be used “once per turn”). So, ultimately, you still have to face the
