Ugokenai fuda?

[cmertb]

This is related to the Japanese game of Karuta. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3vuMj8l40

The basic idea is that there cards (fuda) with second half of a poem in front of each player, and while the first half of the poem is read, they must pick out the right fuda with the rest of that poem.

So this is a comment from a player who is surprised by the speed at which his opponent, a total amateur, picks out the cards:

なんだこいつ
全然動けない札があるかと思ったら
やたら速く攻め込んできたり

Not sure about the meaning of the second line here, especially what "ugokenai fuda" might be referring to.

[mikkih]

What's up with this guy?
While he can't react to certain cards at all,
he comes right at other cards in a flash. moves so quickly to take my cards.

Omitted subject for ugokenai (cannot move) = the opponent player

[cmertb]

Hmm, what role does かと思ったら play here? How would the meaning change without it?

[mikkih]

*A かと思ったら ： While I thought it was A; While it seemed A (to me)

I skipped translating 思っ(た)　（ thought/ it seemed）. You can toss that in to be more accurate.　As long as you translate Verbたら (while S+V) it does not change the meaning all that much.

* 攻め込んでくる attack/penetrate ---> your opponent tries to take cards on your side.

How about this, cmertb ...? Would it be a bit better?

What's up with this guy?
While he did not seem to be able to move to take cards at all sometimes,
he sometimes attacks to take my cards/take cards on my side so fast.

<Basic stricture of 2nd line (first half of a compound sentence)>
* 札があると思ったら While it seemed that there were cards.
* 動けない "can't move" tells you what kind of cards.
* Committed subject of 動けない is opponent

Note: "he" is subject to be more consistent in my translation in a compound sentence.

<Concept>:
*The speaker does not understand why the opponent is playing so inconstantly.

*The speaker is puzzled <1st line> because his opponent seems to play so badly sometimes <2nd line> but plays so aggressively some other time <3rd line>.

<Just My Guess w/o knowing the context>
The opponent player is such a noob, so that he has not memorized all 100 poems on cards yet. That is why he can't even move sometimes though he is a fast aggressive player.

[cmertb]

Yes mikkih, your guess about the context is spot on. Thank you for the detailed explanation as well.

One thing that bothers me though is that I doubt I'll be able to recognize such sentences with a missing subject if I see a similar one again. I really thought "ugokenai fuda" was supposed to be "card that can't move". Is there any clue that the subject is missing before ugokenai? Or is it simply because no other interpretation makes sense that you assume there's supposed to be a subject there?

[mikkih]

(1) Subject
In this case, the way I see it is the subject is defined in the 1st line, then omitted in the 2nd and 3rd lines (2nd+3rd lines make one sentence). <Forget about 思う, so that you don't need to deal with the extra "I" omission.>

(2) Reverse translation/Eng to JP:
I would translate " the cards that can't move" as 動かせない札 instead of 動けない札

It sounds more natural when the subject of the intransitive verb (動く) is a human rather than non-living object.　(動かす is transitive verb.).

That's all I come up with...