Sample Wares Intrigue Card Disambiguation

Question

The card Sample Wares states:

Assign 1 of your unused Agent to a Building in Builder's Hall. You immediately use the effect of that Building as though you controlled it.

This is very strange wording. The rules regarding buildings says:

Owner Benefit: Once a new Building is in play, it is available for anyone to assign an Agent to, just like any other Building on the game board. However, when someone other than the owner assigns an Agent to that Building’s action space, the owner gains the benefit described in the tile’s “Owner” line.

First of all the Sample Wares card uses the term "controller" where the rules use the term "owner". To resolve this I will just assume they mean the same thing.

The rules say that the owner benefits are only relevant when a player who isn't the owner moves there. This implies when the owner moves to a build he owns he gains the regular benefit of the building, without regard for his ownership. The Sample Wares card specifies that the player should use the building as though they are the owner, which according to the rules would mean there is no special benefit and the player would get the regular benefit of the building.

The question is then why would the Sample Wares intrigue card specify "as though you controlled it." it could just as well leave this part out. So the card seems to imply that there is some additional affect that should be considered.

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My own ruling on this when I play: This extra clarification of "as though you controlled it." is to imply that no other player should get the owner benefit, and that the card simply lets the player take the regular benefit of the building without any other player getting the owner benefit.

I think this is probably what they meant, but the wording is confusing and it causes some argument when I play. Does anyone have a better clarification on this?

Answer 1

This has been answered by designer Rodney Thompson on BGG here

You gain the primary benefit of the action, not the owner's benefit. The part about "as if you controlled" the building is simply there to dispel any questions about where the owner benefit goes. Just like when you assign an agent to a building you control, you gain only the primary benefit, not the secondary benefit.

However! If you are playing with the Undermountain expansion and have completed the plot quest Impersonate Tax Collector, you would gain both the primary benefit and the owner benefit.