Before X, you must Y (eg Broken Back, critical card)

"Before using an Ultimate Ability, the Hero must discard one Power card."

Can a Hero without Power cards in hand still use his Ultimate Ability while Broken Back is in play?

We based ourselves on Weakened, another Critical Card, that uses the same wording and agreed that, yes, discarding a Power card is an additional cost prior to using an Ultimate Ability.

But we could be wrong, hence the post

We went with that version - a different thing would it be, if it would read "Whenever using an Ultimate Ability, the Hero must discard one Power Card."

But as it is written, the PC is definitely an additional cost for using the UA.

Broken Back does require a Power card to be discarded before an ultimate ability can be used.

Tom

Alrighty then!