Can Band of Misfits be played as a reaction card?

Question

Band of Misfits is an imitation action card from Dark Ages expansion:

Suppose there are also reaction cards in the Supply, such as Moat or Beggar:

For simplicity, I will refer to the player who has Band of Misfits in their hand as myself.

1. Can I play Band of Misfits as a reaction card when I am being attacked? The card says, "Play ...", which seems to mean that it can only be activated on my turn.

2. If I can play it as a reaction card, does it mean that it is still a Moat when my turn really comes?

Answer 1

No, you can't play it as a reaction card. Only cards labeled "Reaction" on the bottom can be played as reactions. Band of Misfits just says Action, so it may only be played during your turn.

When you do play it during your turn, if Moat is in the supply, you can certainly play it as a Moat, to get +2 Cards. But it doesn't copy another card until you actually play it, and you can't play it except as an action during your own turn, so you can't use it to get the protection from attack that Moat offers. When someone else plays an attack card, you have no opportunity to play an action card, so you can't play Band of Misfits then.

Answer 2

Band of Misfits only "becomes" another card once it is played. When it's in your hand, it only has the Action type and not the Reaction type, since it hasn't been played yet, so it can't be used to react to something.

Once it's in play, it is a copy of the card you choose until it leaves play, so you could, for example, play it as an Urchin, then play another Attack card and trash the BoM to gain a Mercenary. Or if there were some magical way to make Goons cost less than BoM (no official card does), then you could play BoM as Goons and then gain 1 VP token each time you bought a card.