- (For instance, you can’t trigger Unflappable · MarvelCDB if you play Jump Flip to interrupt damage from a boost ability. The attack would need to fully resolve before you could trigger Unflappable.)
-Alex – May 18, 2023
6 – A question to make sure I understand the current “take damage/deal damage” distinction: Hydra Bomber says: “When Revealed: Choose to either take 2 damage or place 1 threat on the main scheme.” As I understand past “choose” rulings, a player must choose an option that can most-fully resolve. Am I correct in believing that — if I have a tough status card and reveal Hydra Bomber — I MUST choose the “place 1 threat on the main scheme” option, because I CAN’T “take damage” with a tough status card? (Conversely, if the card said “Choose to either DEAL YOURSELF 2 damage” then I could choose that option with a tough status card, because I =could= DEAL that damage to my identity… with the tough would immediately absorb and get discarded.) Is my understanding correct?
Correct; if you are Tough, you cannot “take damage” as an option on Hydra Bomber, so you must place 1 threat on the main scheme.
-Alex – May 18, 2023
7 – Can I choose to select 0 where it says “up to” when playing the Adam warlock events, Karmic blast or Cosmic Awareness?
No. When playing Karmic Blast or Cosmic Awareness, you must discard at least 1 card from your deck. This is because these events have discarding as part of the cost of their abilities, and the updated rules for costs make clear that “a cost requiring ‘up to’ some number of game elements requires a minimum of one such game element.”
-Alex – May 18, 2023
8 – I’m playing as the Adam Warlock hero and he is Confused. Can I trigger the Overwatch upgrade after playing Cosmic Awareness? 2.I’m playing as the Adam Warlock hero and he is Stunned. Can I play the chase them down event after playing Karmic Blast?
- No. Even though Adam Warlock is able to remove 3 threat with Cosmic Awareness while Confused (because doing so is part of the ability’s “cost”), the rules for discarding Confused state that upon removing Confused, “the character is not considered to have thwarted or schemed.” This means that Adam could not trigger Overwatch if he plays Cosmic Awareness while Confused, as he is not considered to have “thwarted.”
- No; same line of thinking as above: Adam is not considered to have “attacked” upon playing Karmic Blast and removing Stunned, so he can’t play Chase Them Down as a response.
We the team agreed that these rulings follow both the rules of the ability costs in Adam’s events, and the rules for discarding status cards.
-Alex – May 18, 2023
9 – I have 4 questions regarding the X-Men Instruction basic event card. 1.Can I play X-Men instruction if I don’t have any allies in my discard pile while the x-mansion is in play? 2.Can I play X-Men instruction and choose 0 allies while the x-mansion is in play? 3.Can I play X-Men instruction if I don’t have any allies in my discard pile, while the x-mansion is not in play? 4.Can I play X-Men instruction and choose 0 allies while the x-mansion is not in play?
- Yes, you can play X-Men Instruction if X-Mansion is in play, even if there are no X-Men allies in your discard pile, in order to draw a card.
- Yes, you can choose 0 X-Men allies, specifically because the choice isn’t part of a cost, and you can still resolve another part of the ability.
- No, you must be able to resolve at least one of the sentences on X-Men Instruction in order to play it.
- No; same thinking as #3, you can’t play X-Men Instruction and not resolve any of it.
-Alex – May 22, 2023
10 – When an enemy attacks me, can I exhaust an ally to defend and then also play the preemptive strike (defense) event to cancel the boost icons?
Yes. We have added a ruling to the latest Rules Reference update under “Defend, Defense” specifying that Defense-labeled abilities can be played during an attack by a player whose ally is defending that attack, in which case, the player’s identity does not become the defender. (Only one character can be the defender of an attack at a time.)
-Alex – May 25, 2023
11 – If my Alter-Ego, Jennifer Walters, has a confused status card, 1. I can still (thwart) with her superhuman law division support card as normal. 2. After I do (thwart) with superhuman law division, my confused status card on Jennifer Walters remains. Am I correct? Thanks!
With the recent Marvel Champions Rules Reference update, we have issued an erratum to Superhuman Law Division and removed the “thwart” label from it. It’s been a part of our rules for some time that thwarts and other triggered abilities resolved from Support cards are not considered to be performed by the player’s identity, so it didn’t make sense to have the thwart label on Superhuman Law Division.
As a result, Jennifer Walters cannot use Superhuman Law Division to remove Confused. She could, however, use it to remove threat while Confused, since it’s not a thwart.
-Alex – May 25, 2023
12 – I’m curious about basic activations and targets. For example, at the start of the game Peter Porker has full health. Is he allowed to perform a basic recovery as he is full health, but doing so will garner him a toon counter? I’ve read the target section and the debate is that since it is not specifying game elements such as recovery, then the target validity does not apply. I disagree, but clarification would be terrific! Thank you!
We appreciate the question and we understand where there may be conflict and confusion. Our ruling is, an identity cannot initiate a basic recovery if they cannot heal at least 1 damage from themselves with that recovery. This means that Peter Porker cannot perform a basic recovery at full health, even in an attempt to get a toon counter.
-Alex – May 25, 2023
13 – Hi, about SHE-HULK “Superhuman Strength”
Forced Response: After She-Hulk attacks, discard Superhuman Strength → stun the attacked enemy.
ruling 1.5: Cost […] – An ability’s cost cannot be paid if that ability’s effect requires one or more targets and there is not at least one valid target.
If SHE-HULK with “Superhuman Strength” attacks and defeat an enemy the sentence “stun the attacked enemy” seems to have no valid target so, did the “Superhuman Strength” is discarded?
same question if SHE-HULK attacks a already stunned enemy?
To answer your question(s):
No, Superhuman Strength would not be discarded in either instance.
The main reason being, under the updated entry for “Forced” in the rules reference, we have made a ruling stating that if a forced ability requires a valid target but there is no valid target, the ability does not initiate. If an attacked enemy left play before the Forced Response on Superhuman Strength triggered, there is no valid target for the ability, so nothing happens. It’s similar if the enemy is still in play but cannot be stunned (e.g. because it’s already stunned); the Forced Response does not initiate.
-Alex – May 25, 2023
14 – I have a question about Super Human Strength from the She Hulk deck, based on the new targeting rules, I do not believe I need to trigger the forced response if I attack a stunned enemy. Is that the case? If so, if the villain is stunned can I still attack the villain if there is a non stunned enemy on the table? If I must attack a non stunned enemy, does that still apply if my attack kills the non stunned enemy and therefore they are no longer a valid target for Superhuman Strength?
- Correct; if She-Hulk cannot stun the enemy she attacks (e.g. the enemy is already stunned), then the Forced Response on Superhuman Strength does not initiate.
- Yes; She-Hulk is not required to attack a non-stunned enemy if she has Superhuman Strength in play—she could attack a stunned villain if desired.
- If She-Hulk defeats the enemy she attacks, then Superhuman Strength has no valid target for its stun, and its Forced Response does not initiate. She-Hulk would not discard Superhuman Strength.
-Alex – May 30, 2023
June, 2023
15 – Hi guys, looking at 1.5, should the attachment “twisted reality” be an interrupt instead of a response? It triggers “when” instead of “after”. The thought here is the side scheme wouldn’t be attached anymore when the response would trigger. It seems similar to the “followed” upgrade that did get errata making that switch.
Yes, Twisted Reality should be a Forced Interrupt instead of a Forced Response. Thank you for letting us know.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
16 – The Armored Rhino Suit triggers when damage would be dealt to Rhino and results in it not being dealt to him. Based on the new FAQ entry on tough, point 2 says that DEF works because it reduces the amount of damage dealt. Does this mean that Armored Rhino Suit triggers before Tough, and having stopped the damage being dealt, preserves Tough?
Yes; if Rhino has Armored Rhino Suit attached and a Tough status card, he will keep his Tough status card when he’s the target of damage, and the damage dealt will be placed on Armored Rhino Suit. This is because Tough prevents “damage taken,” but the Forced Interrupt on Rhino Suit is triggered from “damage dealt” instead, which occurs before damage is taken.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
17 – Hi, I’m wondering about a subtle timing point. So, I know that there is some point in time where an enemy has taken damage and is not defeated, this is necessary for Biomechanical Upgrades to work (it is an interrupt to a minion’s defeat that heals all damage from it). Does this mean that a response to taking damage also happens before defeat? For a particular example the Sandman minion from Iron Spider’s Sinister Six triggers after he takes any amount of damage. Does he trigger when he takes lethal damage?
No. In order for a Response ability to resolve, the card the ability is on must remain in play once the triggering condition is met. If Sandman (SP//dr #35) takes lethal damage and is defeated, his Forced Response will not resolve.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
18 – Does this work? Player 1 is Playing Rogue. Player 2 is playing Wolverine. Attach the touched upgrade to the basic ally colossus which is controlled by player 2. Play superpower adaptation and add the fastball special team up card to hand Then play fastball special? So basically can rogue play a hero action team up for two characters other then herself as long as those two characters are in play (identity or ally) 2.With sanctum santorum support card, Can I draw 1 card first and then shuffle a spell card into the deck? I was looking at the entries for “and” and “simultaneous resolution” in the current rules reference and believe it’s possible but wanted to make sure. 3.Is the longshot ally from the single card encounter set a basic card? I noticed it doesn’t have the type next to the encounter name at the bottom right. (Relevant for rogues touched upgrade and superpower adaptation) Thanks!
- Yes; Rogue can play Fastball Special in the situation described (where Hero Wolverine & basic Colossus are in play).
- Yes; because the effects are separated with “and”, it’s fine to resolve them in either order.
- Yes; Longshot from MojoMania is considered a Basic card.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
19 – I was reading the new 1.5 rules reference and I understand that an ally or minion with a tough status card would prevent any simultaneously dealt excess damage with overkill from actually being dealt to a hero or villain. I’m wondering if it’s meant to work the same for an attack or effect that just checks for excess damage but without Overkill? For example, Rocket Raccoons hero ability “Murdered you”. Could you deal 5 damage without overkill to a minion with 3 HP that has a tough status card and trigger his ability to draw a card?
Yes; it’s possible to deal excess damage to a character with Tough. Rocket Raccoon can trigger his “Murdered You!” ability when he deals 5 damage to a 3 HP minion with Tough.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
20 – Hi team, Do I have to pay the cost of the ally if I used Med Lab’s ability? As it is worded similarly with the Bifrost, and the Bifrost card has a reminder for player to pay the cost. Thanks!
Yes; using the Alter-Ego Action on Med Lab has you “play” the ally, meaning that you must pay its resource cost. If the ability said to “put the ally into play” or “ignore its resource cost”, then you wouldn’t have to pay.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
21 – I did have one question, since it seems that it may be a fairly significant change that’s slipping under the radar. Under ABILITY, the 1.5 rulebook says, “Only the player who controls a player card with an attachment that uses the word ‘you’ or ‘your’ can trigger abilities or pay costs on that attachment.” The Poison (from Galaxy’s Most Wanted) begins: “Attach to YOUR identity.” [emphasis mine] So the attachment is using the word “your.” Does this new rule under ABILITY indicate that the reminder text for the Hero Action on The Poison is no longer correct, and other players CANNOT pay the cost to trigger it?
Thank you for your question. We have decided that the reminder text “Any player can do this” on attachments should be interpreted as rules text instead. With this, The Poison should function as it always has, even with the rules reference update. Attachments that attach to identities without this text should follow the new rule instead, such as Death Factor and Counterspell.
-Alex – June 8, 2023
22 – I have a question about cable’s bodyslide card and characters with multiple hero forms like Antman, wasp and Angel. If Cable plays bodyslide to change to hero form then each other player has the chance to change to hero form too. Could hero’s with multiple hero forms use this effect to change between their hero forms. For example if Antman is tiny when bodyslide is played could he change to giant form?
Yes; if the Cable player plays Bodyslide to change from Alter-Ego form to Hero form, other players can choose to change to one of their Hero form cards. With Bodyslide, Ant-man can change from Tiny form to Giant form, for example. (Bodyslide can’t cause a player to change their other forms, though, such as a mass form.)
-Alex – June 8, 2023
23 – If I use the “wolverines claws” upgrade to play the “team strike” event, does each instance of damage I divide and deal among the different targets have piercing?
Yes; each instance of damage dealt by Team Strike will also have piercing.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
- The scenario is Venom, and we are playing Shadowcat. On the board, we have two allies in play, both at 1 hp.
- Venom attacks, we defend in Phased form and thus cannot take damage throughout this defense.
- We flip Venom’s boost cards and one of them is Lashing out – this card has the boost effect of making us “take 2 indirect damage”.
While in Phased form, Shadowcat “cannot take damage.” This means that the indirect damage from Lashing Out, which must be “taken,” cannot be assigned to her, and must be assigned to her allies if able.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
25 – When a character thwarts a scheme with the new assault keyword, do they use their ATK right from the initiation, meaning the hulk ally could thwart for 3 even though his THW has a dash ?
Yes, the Hulk ally can thwart schemes that have the new Assault keyword.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
26 – I have a question about a few cards relating to lasting effects. -Lead from the front, gives each character “you control” stat boosts. -Avengers Assemble! Gives each avenger character “in play” stat boosts. -Blaze of glory, gives each guardian character stat boosts “this phase”. Do all 3 of these events boost the stats of allies that enter play afterwards?
Yes; after any of those events are played, any allies that enter play that phase that matches the event’s criteria will receive the bonus stats as well.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
27 – Can I use game time to ready another players ally? Can I response with Utopia if another player plays an X-Men ally? Both cards have a cost arrow and I’m confused how this relates to the rule that costs have to be paid by game elements you control
- With Game Time, you can’t choose an ally you don’t control when resolving the ability. The “cost” in the ability makes it so you must choose an ally you control.
- With Utopia, you can exhaust it even if an X-Men ally enters play under someone else’s control. “After an X-Men ally enters play” is a timing point, not part of the cost you’re paying.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
28 – Was playing in a multiplayer game against Ultron the other night and we had a situation come up that we weren’t 100% certain on how to handle. I drew Rage of Ultron (Core Set #145), whilst in Hero form, so Ultron initiated an attack against me. However, another player blocked with their ally. Now, Rage of Ultron says “When Revealed (Hero): Ultron attacks you. Discard the top card of your deck for each damage dealt by this attack”, and we weren’t sure who should discard from their deck. In the end we decided that I should, rather than the player that blocked, based on the RRG v1.5 FAQ for Ultron II’s Forced Interrupt, that implies that ‘you’ is set when the attack is initiated. Was this correct?
The player that revealed Rage of Ultron is the same player that discards from their deck. So yes, you played the situation correctly.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
29 – You ruled, that I may play “Tackle” on an enemy, that is already stunned, or cannot be stunned, just to deal 3 damage, if I pay with a physical ressource for this event. On the other hand, you ruled, that I may NOT play “Psychic Kicker” on an already ready ally, just to give it a boost to ATK/THW. Could you please clarify, why it is possible in the first case, and not in the second? As far as I know, “that” is no keyword with a special meaning, unlike “then”.
We acknowledge having ruled that way for Tackle in the past, but after discussing it further we don’t think it aligns with how we want “valid target” rules to be understood. Instead, we agree that in order to play Tackle, you must be able to stun the targeted enemy. An enemy that can be stunned is a “valid target” for Tackle. The 3 damage Tackle is able to deal can only be applied to “that enemy”, which can only mean “the enemy you stunned with Tackle”; an enemy that you can’t stun is also an enemy that Tackle can’t deal damage to.
-Alex – June 15, 2023
30 – I have some questions regarding 1.5 and a couple extras 😃
1.Can another player play a (defense) labeled event card or trigger a (defense) labeled ability during an enemy attack in which another player already defended using their heroes basic DEF power?
2.If your identity is at full HP, can you use your REC basic power?
3.With the SETUP abilities for the Heroes, Valkyrie and Rogue. We didn’t see anything about them and as their cards don’t have the permanent keyword, have you guys discussed what to do about these if anything?
4.With Visions Phased Disruption event, if the enemy I confused doesn’t have an attachment with the text hero action or hero response, can I even play it without a valid CHOOSE target?
5.We would love to confirm that Visions starting hand size is 5?
6.With the updated FAQ in 1.5 for widows bite, we don’t understand why if the keyword quickstrike has timing priority and goes First, why it then waits for the response on widows bite instead of fully resolving?
7. With the upcoming White fox basic ally, does she physically have to be the top card of the deck or could she be discarded with something like global logistics in which she started as the second card for example?
8.With the upcoming Angel hero. If you trigger his response in Angel hero form, change form, then play Metamorphosis to change back to Angel form, can you trigger his ability again?
9. Can you play an (attack) ot (thwart) EVENT card while stunned or confused just to clear the status card even if there isn’t a valid target. Like “get over here” while stunned and no minions in play for example.
- No. If one player defends an attack, including by using a basic defense, another player cannot then play a Defense event.
- No. You must be able to heal at least 1 damage to use a basic recovery.
- Valkyrie’s Death-Glow and Rogue’s Touched count toward each hero’s deck size.
- Yes, you can play Phase Disruption to confuse the enemy and not discard an attachment.
- Correct, Vision’s opening hand size is 5.
- Quickstrike is considered resolved when the subsequent attack initiates, not finishes. Quickstrike and Widow’s Bite are both responding to a minion entering play & engaging Black Widow, and Quickstrike is resolving first by having the minion initiate its attack, but Widow’s Bite is then able to resolve before all the steps of the attack are completed. And since the attack was initiated, the minion will still complete its attack even with Widow’s Bite’s stun, unless the 2 damage dealt to it defeats it.
- Yes, you can resolve White Fox’s ability if she’s the second card in a deck and discarded via Global Logistics.
- No, you cannot resolve Angel’s ability twice in the same round.
- Yes, you can pay the cost of an attack event to discard stunned even if there’s not a valid target to attack. Similarly, you can pay the cost of a thwart event to discard confused even if there’s no threat in play. These are both stated in RR 1.5, under “Stunned” and “Confused.”
-Alex – June 15, 2023
31 – Several cards have the text “hero form only” like boundless rage, webbed up, phased and confused and mental paralysis. We wanted to make sure what this is intended to mean?
When an upgrade uses the phrase “hero form only,” that means that the upgrade can only be played while the player’s identity is in hero form.
-Alex – June 21, 2023
32 – What happens if I have the “crime scene investigation” side scheme in play while playing the Magog scenario and the forced interrupt on the melee in the mojo-seum main scheme triggers since threat cannot be removed from other schemes
C.S.I.’s ability states “threat cannot be removed from other schemes.” This “cannot” is absolute, making it so that no threat can be removed from Melee in the Mojo-seum, not even for its Forced Interrupt. So, because its Forced Interrupt cannot resolve, MitM would have to “complete” instead, causing the players to lose the game.
-Alex – June 27, 2023
33 – How does the acceleration icon on archangel interact with the vemon goblin main schemes? The rule book seems to suggest it would only effect the scheme with the goblin counter on it but the skies over new york environment card says that player cards that affect the main scheme can effect any main scheme, which seems to suggest that an acceleration icon on a player card could affect any main scheme.
The scenario rules for Venom Goblin state that when threat would be placed on “the main scheme” by an acceleration icon, it is placed on the scheme with the glider counter. This rule also applies to the acceleration icon found on Archangel. The Skies Over New York environment card serves as reminder text for the scenario, and does not create an exception to the scenario rule for player cards that also have acceleration icons.
-Alex – June 27, 2023
34 – If I use Karma to take control of a minion does the minion count towards my ally limit? It I’m playing mansion attack and I take control of Blob what would happen if I defeat the villain and the next villain revealed is Blob? Would the Blob minion I’m controlling be discarded?
- Yes, the Blob minion that Karma takes control of counts toward your ally limit.
- If an ability has caused you to take control of the Blob minion and treat him as an ally, the Blob villain could still enter play. In the rules as written, there is nothing forbidding a unique Ally and a unique Villain from having the same title.
-Alex – June 27, 2023
35 – A question I saw on Facebook got me curious about how Steel Fist works under the RRG v1.5 errata and new ‘valid target’ rules. The question was asking about what happens with the second part of Steel Fist’s ability if the target is either stunned or confused, but not both. And I concluded that the player could still discard a Tough to apply the other status to the target. Because “and” allows that. And I assume that is correct. However, that got me thinking – what can I do if the target cannot be stunned or confused (for example if they already have both status effects)? Am I allowed to discard a Tough in that situation (for example to draw a card from Iron Will)? Does it make a difference if the target is Stalwart?
- For the first part of your email, yes, you can play Steel Fist and discard a tough card to either stun or confuse the enemy in a situation where you can’t do both.
- For the second part, no, you cannot discard a tough status card with Steel Fist if you can’t stun or confuse the enemy, even if you have Iron Will in play.
-Alex – June 27, 2023
36 – Generation Why? says: When Revealed: Discard the top card of each player’s deck for each ally and Persona support in play. White Fox says: Response: After White Fox is discarded from the top of your deck, put her into play under your control. If I have X amount of allies and Persona supports in play and I discard White Fox from Generation Why’s effect, does her presence increase the amount of cards to be discarded or is it fixed at the moment the side scheme is revealed? Or more generally: what’s the rule of a thumb about when values are checked?
The “When Revealed” on Generation Why checks for the amount of ally cards & Persona supports in play at the moment of its initiation. White Fox being discarded & put into play as a result would not change how many cards are discarded from each player’s deck. Generation Why would need to have a lasting effect built-in for White Fox to affect the amount discarded.
-Alex – June 30, 2023
37 – I use Feral to thwart a side Scheme with “Assault”, using ATQ value. Which consequential damage (ATQ or THW) is dealt to the ally? Since is a Thwart (although ATQ value has been used), does the Response trigger?
When an ally makes a basic thwart against a scheme with Assault, they use their ATK stat and take the consequential damage beneath their ATK, but are still considered to have made a thwart. So, Feral will still resolve her Response ability when thwarting a scheme like Keep Them Busy.
-Alex – June 30, 2023
July, 2023
38 – Check my understanding of “move” When playing the venom goblin scenario, after the villian activates, you move the goblin counter to the main scheme with the least threat. Do you move the glider counter even if the one it’s already on has the least threat?
No, but with one exception. In essence, you should move the glider counter in the following two situations: if there is another main scheme in play that has the least threat, or if the main scheme with the glider counter is tied for the least threat with a different main scheme—in that case, you must move the glider counter to the other scheme.
-Alex – July 2, 2023
39 – So we had a situation come up in a game recently and have a question about it. Playing the venom goblin scenario, he activated and his forced response attempted to move the glider counter but the main scheme with the least threat was the one the glider counter was already on. Does the Choose effect of either placing threat or resolving the special of “that” scheme still happen since it didn’t move in the first part of the effect?
You should resolve the ability on Venom Goblin one sentence at a time. Even if the glider counter doesn’t move, because it’s already on the scheme with the least threat, you should still resolve the second sentence of the ability and either place threat or resolve the Special ability.
-Alex – July 2, 2023
40 – So we’re playing the Red skull scenario and the side scheme, “Time portal” from the temporal encounter set is defeated, does it go to the side scheme deck discard pile or is it shuffled into the encounter deck?
You should shuffle Time Portal into the encounter deck instead of placing it in the side scheme discard pile, following its Forced Interrupt ability.
-Alex – July 2, 2023
41 – When I play 0 cost DEFENSE events and choose to overpay it using Defensive Energy, do I get to draw a card off it? If yes, can I also overpay by 2 using 2x Defensive Energy and draw 2 cards? Thanks!
No. To draw a card with Defensive Energy, the resource from DE must help pay for the cost of the Defense event. You cannot draw a card with DE if the event costs 0.
-Alex – July 11, 2023
42 – Greetings. A previous ruling stated that if Defender of the Nine Realms empties the encounter deck and fails to find a minion, you can still use the card to remove Confused from your hero, since “the card ability is considered fulfilled”. However another ruling said that if you fail to find a minion while NOT confused, the rest of the effect fizzles. How come that failing to find a minion fulfills the requirements to remove Confused, but not the requirements to resolve the Effect of the card?
We appreciate your question. We have reviewed both rulings and believe one is more intuitive than the other, and more in line with our intentions for the game. Our current, updated ruling is this:
- When a cost in the ability of a player card prompts you to discard from the encounter deck and find a specific type of encounter card, you must find that type of card in order to successfully pay the cost of the card and resolve the effect after the cost arrow. If you can’t fulfill the entire cost upon emptying the encounter deck, the effect “fizzles.”
- In other words, in order to pay the cost of Defender of the Nine Realms, you must discard a minion from the encounter deck & engage it before you can remove 3 threat or remove Confused. If you discard the entire encounter deck and fail to engage a minion, you cannot remove 3 threat or discard Confused; you’d instead shuffle the encounter discard into a new encounter deck, add an acceleration token to the main scheme, and be done resolving the event.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
43 – So when you defeat the trap! side of the light at the end side scheme in the Sinister Six scenario, it has you trigger the special on the main scheme, Sinister synchronization, and on expert mode it adds 2 threat to light at the end. It still flips, right? And what happens to that 2 threat afterwards?
Yes. When playing The Sinister Six scenario in expert mode, you will still flip Light at the End (102A) when you remove all threat from it the first time. The 2 threat placed with the “Ambush” special ability on Sinister Synchronization will get placed on the other side of Light at the End (102B).
-Alex – July 13, 2023
44 – The Anna Marie and Brunhilde SETUP abilities still have the community confused on how to resolve them. Does “Set your touched upgrade aside” and “Set death-glow aside, out of play” have the power to look/search/find them anywhere they could possibly be? Like in our hand, deck, discard pile, a facedown Ultron drone, a face up card in the collection, etc? Bonus Questions Does the dash – cost on the touched upgrade mean it can’t be played from your hand? If I pay an event that has both the (attack) and (thwart) label while my identity both stunned and confused, do I remove both status cards?
- When setting up Rogue and Valkyrie, you can find Touched and Death-Glow, wherever they are, and then set them aside.
- Correct, Touched cannot be played from hand.
- Yes; an event that is both an attack and a thwart can discard both a stunned and a confused status card.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
45 – With the leadership upgrade, “Leadership Skill” Can you trigger it off of allies controlled by other players? The triggering condition before the cost arrow is throwing me off. Thanks!
Yes. The text “When an ally makes a basic thwart or basic attack action” refers to a timing point for when you can pay the cost of the card, “removing 1 leadership counter.” You can remove a leadership counter when an ally controlled by another player makes a basic thwart or basic attack.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
46 – I was hoping you would help me understand this situation. I’ve seen two rulings on hallofheroes that seem to conflict with each other. One states if you reveal a treachery like icy grip that stuns you while playing return the favor, that the stun would prevent you from dealing the 5 damage. I’ve also seen a ruling that states when you attack with swift retribution and you get stunned by a boost effect, the stun does not prevent you from dealing the 4 damage and that stun only prevents you from initiating an attack.
Thank you for your question. Our current ruling is this: a stunned status card prevents the initiation of an attack, but does not prevent an attack that was already initiated from completing. If you become stunned during an attack, but have already initiated the attack, you will still deal damage from the attack.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
47 – I have a question about the timing of Retaliate (per rules ref 1.5) and Ultron stages I and II. Ultron I has a response ability to create a drone after he attacks you. Ultron II has an interrupt to create a drone when he attacks you (initiates an attack). If Retaliate defeats Ultron I then would that mean it skips the timing window for a drone? Ultron I is defeated before creating a drone in response and Ultron II already completed the attack.
Yes; if damage from Retaliate defeats Ultron I, advancing him to Ultron II, then no Drone is put into play.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
48 – Looking at the new rule under Ability, in RRG 1.5, and recent rulings, that restrict players from performing actions on attachments attached to another player’s identity, I have a question about the card Restrained (Mad Titan’s Shadow #83), this card doesn’t have you/your but could become attached to an identity. So, if Restrained is attached to player 1’s identity, can player 2 use the action on Restrained to remove it? Does this change if Restrained is attached to an ally? For example, if Restrained is attached to an ally controlled by player 1, can player 2 use the action on Restrained to remove it?
Yes. Because Restrained does not have “you” or “your” listed on it, any player can use the hero action to discard the card from the attached character.
-Alex – July 13, 2023
49 – I was reading the new 1.5 rules reference and had some defense questions for ya! 1. The FAQ entry about the protection event, Mutant Protectors and the (defense) label, says if the ally leaves play before damage is dealt, my hero becomes the defender, meaning I am now defending the attack with a different character. At that point am I able to activate Judoka skill (Interrupt: When you defend against an enemy attack)? 2. Was my hero briefly defending the attack first and I could trigger Judoka skill before that ally becomes the defender? I was looking at the new first sub bullet under bullet 4 under Defense that states, “The player’s identity is considered to be the defender as soon as the defense-labeled ability begins resolving.” 3. If I play Powerful Punch (defense), can I use an ally to defend that same attack? 4. If I play Powerful Punch (defense), can I still play Mutant Protectors?
- Yes; you can use Judoka Skill when you become defender of an attack, including when the ally you put into play via Mutant Protectors leaves play before the attack finishes.
- No; when you play Mutant Protectors, the ally you put into play becomes the defender of the attack immediately.
- No; when you play Powerful Punch, an attack/defense event, your hero becomes the defender of the attack. While your hero is defending an attack, no other character can defend that attack.
- Yes, you’re allowed to play both, but note that since your hero is already defending the attack, the ally put into play with Mutant Protectors cannot defend that attack. (The rules of defending are strict on this; once one character defends, only that character can defend the attack unless that character leaves play before the attack finishes.)
-Alex – July 19, 2023
50 – Regarding the following ruling. Guard prevents you from initiating attacks, but does not prevent you from dealing damage. We rule that, if you already initiated an attack with Swift Retribution and were dealt a Goblin Thrall during the activation, you could still deal the damage from Swift Retribution. In a similar vein, a Stunned status card prevents you from initiating an attack, but does not prevent you from dealing damage. If you’re already resolving an attack by the time Stunned is placed on you, you can still finish resolving the attack. This also applies the same with a Thwart and the Patrol keyword/ becoming confused, right?
Yes; if you became Confused after initiating a thwart, you would still remove threat with the thwart. And yes, if a minion with Patrol engaged you after you initiated a thwart, you’d still remove threat with the thwart.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
51 – 1. If I’m stunned and play a double (labeled) card like “Hit and Run”, can I still remove the threat? 2.If I’m confused and play a double (labeled) card like “Hit and Run”, can I still deal the damage? 3.If I’m stunned or confused or both and I play a triple (labeled) card like “Crosscounter” to defend against an attack, Did I still defend after removing one or both of the status cards?
- No. When you play an event to remove one or more status cards, all text in the event ability that isn’t a cost is replaced. If you’re Stunned and you play Hit and Run, you only remove Stunned.
- No. If you’re Confused and you play Hit and Run, you only remove Confused.
- Yes; per the rules of defense events, you can play Crosscounter to remove Stunned and/or Confused, and are still considered to have defended the attack. (Note, you don’t prevent the 3 damage if you remove a status card this way.)
-Alex – July 20, 2023
52 – With the Space Stone environment, If I discard cards from the encounter deck and it empties without discarding a minion, does it remain in play? 2. Step 4 under initiating abilities in the rules reference says the ability initiation is aborted when a cost can’t be paid. So with the defender of the nine realms event, If I discard cards from the encounter deck and it empties without discarding a minion, would it return to my hand because of this?
- If you resolve the Special on Space Stone and empty the encounter deck without finding a minion, you’re considered to have fulfilled that part of the effect. So yes, you discard Space Stone if that happens.
- No. If you don’t find a minion with Defender of the Nine Realms, you will still discard Defender of the Nine Realms. We will look into rewording Step 4 of Initiating Abilities to be more in line with our intentions for a card like DNR.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
53 – 1.Does “Defeated” and “Leaves play” share the same timing point? Example, if a minion had both the psionic shield and biomechanical upgrades attachments attached to it and was dealt enough damage to defeat it, would one trigger before the other? 2.Would a minion with quickstrike attack you after the psionic shield triggers? 3.If the death glow upgrade is in your discard pile or other any other area during the game,can Brunhilde set it aside with her “not this day” action, even though she can’t detach it?
- Yes; Biomechanical Upgrades will trigger before Psionic Shield does, healing the minion and discarding itself. Psionic Shield will stay attached in this case.
- No; Psionic Shield does not cause the minion to leave play, so it does not re-engage you. (We understand the wording of the card is misleading, and we apologize for that.)
- Yes; Brunnhilde’s Alter-Ego Action can set Death-Glow aside while it’s in her discard pile. Detaching Death-Glow is not a “cost” of the ability, so it’s not required to detach first.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
54 – The cosmic cards, such as “living tribunal” (justice event) when they go into the encounter deck are these type of cards considered as encounter cards? If there not, then what happens when Starlord uses his ability “what can go wrong” or daring escape event when it says to deal yourself a face down encounter card and it happens to be your cosmic card on top? Third question, would one of these cosmic cards be counted as damage towards a “sliding shot” (Starlord identity event)?
For Living Tribunal to function as intended, it must be treated as an encounter card once shuffled into the encounter deck. So yes, if it’s dealt facedown to Star-Lord from the encounter deck, it’s treated as an encounter card for his ability and events like Sliding Shot.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
55 – It seems there is a contradiction between the two assertions: rules 1.5 – Damage […] Tough status cards resolve before interrupts to the dealing of damage, which in turn resolve before interrupts to the taking of damage response #16 (June 8, 2023v) about Rhino and its Armored Rhino Suit, keeping his tough card “because Tough prevents “damage taken,” but the Forced Interrupt on Rhino Suit is triggered from “damage dealt” instead, which occurs before damage is taken” Tough status cards resolve before or after interrupts to the dealing of damage?
We apologize for the confusion caused; it’s come to our attention that the “Damage” section in the Rules Reference is inaccurate, and we will update it as soon as we are able. Our current ruling is this: a Tough status card prevents the taking of damage, but not the dealing of damage. Interrupts that prevent damage dealt resolve before Tough is discarded, so Armored Rhino Suit will soak damage before Rhino loses Tough.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
56 – I’m looking at “Ruling 16” (https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings-post-rrg-1-5/#16) and 1.5’s Damage entry, particularly “Bullet 4”. Bullet 4 says “Tough status cards resolve before interrupts to the dealing of damage, which in turn resolve before interrupts to the taking of damage.” while Ruling 16 says “Yes; if Rhino has Armored Rhino Suit attached and a Tough status card, he will keep his Tough status card when he’s the target of damage, and the damage dealt will be placed on Armored Rhino Suit. This is because Tough prevents “damage taken,” but the Forced Interrupt on Rhino Suit is triggered from “damage dealt” instead, which occurs before damage is taken.” Do Tough status cards resolve before or after interrupts to the dealing of damage?
We apologize for the confusion caused; it’s come to our attention that the “Damage” section in the Rules Reference is inaccurate, and we will update it as soon as we are able. Our current ruling is this: a Tough status card prevents the taking of damage, but not the dealing of damage. Interrupts that prevent damage dealt resolve before Tough is discarded, so Armored Rhino Suit will soak damage before Rhino loses Tough.
-Alex – July 20, 2023
57 – We are trying to understand pay,overpay and spend. 1. Q.Can I play a zero-cost card, such as Assess the Situation (Ant-Man #33), and ‘overpay’ for it using, say, Innovation (The Mad Titan’s Shadow #58), in order to benefit from Innovation’s Hero Response? A.Because Innovation specifies “after you spend this card”, not “after you pay for” another card with it, you could “spend” it while playing a 0 cost card. 2. Q.When I play 0 cost DEFENSE events and choose to overpay it using Defensive Energy, do I get to draw a card off it? If yes, can I also overpay by 2 using 2x Defensive Energy and draw 2 cards? Thanks! A.No. To draw a card with Defensive Energy, the resource from DE must help pay for the cost of the Defense event. You cannot draw a card with DE if the event costs 0.
- Yes, the two rulings are in conflict. We discussed both and ultimately believe that the ruling on Innovation should also be applied to Defensive Energy.
- Our reasoning is this: you are always permitted to generate resources beyond a card’s cost (“overpaying”) and in doing so you are “spending” resources. Innovation and Defensive Energy are being “spent” when you overpay, so you can use them on 0-cost cards.
- (Note; although you can overpay for any card, an ability that cares about resources “paid for” something only takes into account resources spent toward the card’s cost, and not resources overpaid.)
-Alex – July 21, 2023
August, 2023
58 – Front line specialist says “Your hero gets 4+ Hp” Does my identity only get those HP is I’m in hero mode? If I flip to alter ego do I lose that HP and minus 4 from my dial? If so do I regain the HP when I flip back to hero?
Yes; the +4 HP from Front Line Specialist only applies to your identity while in hero form. When you gain the upgrade, you’ll add 4 HP to your dial while in hero form, and if you flip to alter-ego after that point, you will subtract the 4 HP you gained until you flip again.
-Alex – August 9, 2023
59 – Does “attach to” on an upgrade supersede the limitation that “Player’s Play Area” makes? In effect meaning that upgrades like Clarity of Purpose could be played on another player’s characters, even if it doesn’t explicitly allow you to play it into another player’s play area. Attaching to a character does not explicitly allow to disregard the play area limitation.
Yes, an upgrade with “attach to” overrides the default rule that you must play cards into your own play area; you may attach the upgrade to any character that matches the specifications following “attach to”. We will consider adding this to the rules reference in the future.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
60 – Hi, I have a question about the upcoming card Taunt (Angel 16), and how it interacts with Mutant Protectors (Mutant Genesis 17). Is it legal to play Mutant Protectors after Taunt, and if so does the ally become the defender of the attack? My assumption is that playing Mutant Protectors is legal, but the ally cannot be declared the defender. However, are they still exhausted? Thanks, Scott Hill (The Card Text)
You can play Taunt and then Mutant Protectors; however, because Taunt explicitly states other characters “cannot” defend against the attack, the ally could not become the defender, and the defender would still be you. And yes, the ally would enter play exhausted.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
61 – I have a question about the upcoming Deadpool pack, or, rather, the ‘Pool aspect that comes with it. The pack reveal article says that the ‘Pool aspect can be used with any hero, including multi-aspect heroes, but how does this interact with Adam Warlock? His deck building rules state that he must use “all 4 aspects”, but does that mean he must use the ‘Pool aspect, or that he is limited to using 4 aspects, one of which could be ‘Pool?
- The ‘Pool aspect serves as a fifth aspect option for customizing Adam Warlock’s deck. It can be used in place of any of the other four aspects when deckbuilding. (He will still use 4 aspects total.)
- Also note, Adam can use his Battle Mage ability and discard a ‘Pool aspect card; he won’t resolve any of the bullets under Battle Mage, but is still considered to have “resolved” his Battle Mage ability and can trigger other effects this way.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
62 – I have some questions about Next Evolution: The player side scheme techno organic purge says “characters other than Cable cannot remove threat” from it. Can the Cable player use, events and upgrades they control to remove threat from Techno organic purge?
The rules reference entry for you says that events and upgrades are an extension of your identity so are they also an extension of the character ‘cable’. The Vivian ally could blank the text box on techno organic purge to allow any character to remove threat from it. But would that also remove the victory keyword? If so does that mean the scheme would get discarded rather than going into the victory display? The Flight, Super strength and telekinesis modular sets all have a card with “setup. Attach to the villain. Permanent”.
How would these modules interact with the Hood scenario? If one of these modules is set aside and then added to the encounter deck later during the scenario would the permanent card be shuffled into the encounter deck or immediately attached to Hood? Also, how would the infinity gauntlet work with hood since it also has a permanent card and a separate deck.
- Yes, Cable can use events and upgrades while in hero form to remove threat from Technovirus Purge.
- Yes, Vivian (Ironheart #24) can blank the text on Technovirus Purge. Doing so blanks all text in the side scheme’s text box, including the restriction and the Victory keyword. If the players defeat the scheme while it’s blanked, it will be discarded.
- Cards with the Setup keyword should be put into play during Step 11 of Setup. This includes modular sets that have cards with the Setup keyword. When playing The Hood scenario, if you know one of your encounter sets has (or might have) one of these cards, check and separate that card out before shuffling the set into the encounter deck.
- Additionally, if the Infinity Gauntlet set is being used with The Hood, then it should be the very first modular set added to the game. The Infinity Gauntlet should be attached to The Hood immediately, and the Infinity Stone deck should be created immediately, per the rules of the Infinity Gauntlet set in The Mad Titan’s Shadow.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
63 – What happens to environment cards (like “Game of Mojo”) that entered play during Kang’s 1st stage when the 2nd stage takes place and players are in separate zones?
In such a case, the Environment card will stay next to Main Scheme 2B, in that “play area,” but it will not affect any players while it’s there. (Treat its text box as blank for the duration.) Then, once the players advance to Main Scheme 4A, the Environment card will affect all of them again.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
64 – So with dealing and taking damage, does a character TAKE all the damage it’s dealt even when it more than it’s remaining HP? For example The Venom villain is on his first stage, with 5hp remaining. The Tooth and Nail side scheme is out, with 6 Threat on it. A character deals 6 damage to Venom, how much threat comes off of tooth and nail, 5 or 6?
Yes, a character can “take” damage in excess of their remaining HP, as long as that much damage was dealt (and not prevented, and not indirect damage). Say an attack dealt 6 damage to Venom when he has 5 HP left; he has still taken 6 damage, and 6 threat is then removed from Tooth and Nail.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
65 – When you set aside the Death glow or Touched upgrades with the Brunhilde or Anna Marie Setups and they were in your deck, do you have to shuffle afterwards since you didn’t “search” or “find” it? And with the Anna Marie Alter-Ego, does her withdrawn forced response locate touched wherever it might be like your deck or collection, etc? And do you need to shuffle a deck if you set it aside from there using it?
- If you had to search a deck to find either upgrade, you must shuffle the deck afterward. If you found the upgrade without searching a deck, you do not need to shuffle.
- Yes, Anna Marie’s Forced Response finds Touched wherever it is and sets it aside. And if you had to search a deck to find it, then yes, shuffle that deck afterward.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
66 – About the new “assault” keyword Following allies might have strange interaction when they make a basic thwart on a scheme with the assault keyword:
– Hulk (does his forced response trigger?)
– Havok(does his forced interrupt trigger?)
– Wonder Man (must i discard a card from my hand as additional cost ?)
– Bishop (can he activate his interrupt to boost his ATK value?)
– Daredevil: Matt Murdock (can he activate his response to deal a damage to an enemy?)
- When thwarting schemes with the Assault keyword, the character thwarting is considered to have made a thwart, not an attack. In other words, a character follows all the steps for a thwart, but uses the number above their ATK (and any modifiers to ATK) when determining how much threat to remove.
- Hulk, Wonder Man, and Bishop do not resolve their abilities when thwarting a scheme with Assault.
- Daredevil: Matt Murdock will resolve his ability when thwarting a scheme with Assault, dealing 1 damage to an enemy.
-Alex – August 10, 2023
67 – Can E.V.A. ( 21) ever be in play while Fantomex ( 15) is not?
No, the constant ability on E.V.A. causes it to be discarded immediately if Fantomex is not in play.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
68 – What happens if Technovirus Resurgence ( 31)
causes Technovirus Purge ( 6) to enter play when the
players are at the player side scheme limit?The first player chooses one player side scheme in play to discard, which could include Technovirus Purge. If Technovirus Purge is discarded, Technovirus Resurgence
cannot attach to it, and so its text deals Cable’s player a facedown encounter card.-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
69 – What does it mean to “count each * icon twice” for the ability on Domino’s hero card ( 37A)?
A. When you use an ability that counts resource icons on cards discarded from your deck, each * discarded this way is treated as two * icons. Example: Andrew plays Luck Be a Lady ( 41) and discards Outlaw ( 39) from the top of his deck. Outlaw has one printed * resource, which Domino’s ability says to count twice, so Andrew resolves the effect on Luck Be a Lady for the* icon twice.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
70 – Can the ability on Diamondback ( 38) be used if she has only one hit point remaining?
Yes, Diamondback’s ability finishes resolving even though the damage from it causes her to be defeated.
71 – What happens when Jackpot ( 43) is discarded from the top of Domino’s deck if it was the last card in her deck?
Player decks reset as soon as they are empty, so Domino’s deck is reset with Jackpot shuffled into it.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
72 – What happens if a minion whose title matches the villain’s title is revealed?
When this happens, the minion is discarded, and the player who revealed it must reveal an additional encounter card.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
73 – When playing in expert mode, in what order are the “When Revealed” effects on Sinister Intent ( 139B) and Mister Sinister II ( 137) resolved?
The “When Revealed” effect on Sinister Intent is resolved first. This advances the main scheme to a random stage 2, which has both its A and B sides revealed. The “When Revealed” effect on Mister Sinister II is resolved last.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
74 – What happens if the number of cards in my hand changes while Stryfe ( 163–165) is attacking me?
Stryfe’s attack ability is a constant ability, so it recalculates every time the contents of your hand change, up until the point at which Stryfe deals damage. Example: Stryfe I ( 163) attacks Alex, who is playing Spider-Man ( 1A). Alex has three events in her hand, which is the most common card type in her hand, so Stryfe has 3 ATK (his base ATK of 0 plus 3 ATK for his ability). Alex triggers Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense ability, which allows her to draw a card when the villain attacks her, and she draws another event. Stryfe now has 4 ATK for the attack because Alex has four events in hand. There are no boost icons on Stryfe’s boost card, so he deals four damage to Spider-Man. Alex plays the event Backflip ( 3) to prevent all of that damage. Even though Alex now has only three events in hand, she still takes four damage, which Backflip prevents.
-(Next Evolution Rulebook) – August 18, 2023
75 – The card Inhibitor Collar from Next Evolution attaches to your identity has an ability which says ‘choose to either exhaust a charater ”you” control or take 3 damage…’ and the reminder text ‘any player can do this’. Can any player do this? My understanding is that ‘you’ refers to the player the attachment is attached to but the reminder text seems counter to this. Is it a case that any player can take the damage but only the player with the attachement can an exhast as ally they control since that is the part of the anbility which references you?
Or can any player activate either part of the ability? I’m also confused by the attachment rules in general as they seem to contradict. In the RRG under attachement it says ‘When an ability on an attachment attached to a player card uses the word “you” or “your,” it refers to the attached player card’s controller. If that ability is a triggered ability, only the attached player card’s controller can trigger it.’ This seems to imply that ‘your’ and ‘you’ on an attachment always refers to the same player, so if an attachement attaches to ‘your’ identity only the player who controls that identity can trigger any abilites which instruct ‘you’ to do something. My understanding is that this would mean that only the player who has Inhibitor Collar attached to their identy could trigger the abilty on Inhibitor Collar since the card attaches to ‘your’ identitiy and uses the word ‘you in the ability.
However, any player could trigger the abilities on The Poison or Obedience Potion because although they attach to ‘your identity’ they don’t refer to ‘you’ in the ability. But then under ability section the RRG says: ‘Only the player who controls a player card with an attachment that uses the word “you” or “your” can trigger abilities or pay costs on that attachment.’ This statement seems much broader and seems to say that only the player who has The Poison, Obendience Potion or Inhibitor Collar attached to their identiy can trigger the action on those cards, because they attach to ‘your’ identity and doesn’t seem to care if ‘you’ is referenced in the action or not.
Inhibitor Collar was designed and printed before the Rules Reference v1.5 update, and before we determined this direction that we wanted for attachments. We are going to apply the same ruling to Inhibitor Collar that we did for The Poison and Obedience Potion: “Any player can do this” should be treated as rules text, not reminder text. With this, the cards function exactly as designed and intended, without completely undoing the updated rules in v1.5. You can think of “Any player can do this” as applying The Golden Rule, where the text of the card takes precedence over the written rule. (Also note, we are likely to issue official errata for the three attachments in a future update.)
-Alex – August 24, 2023
76 – What if an ally with the “enraged” upgrade, thwart a side scheme with the assault keyword: I suppose he use its ATK with +2 modifier, but will he take +1 consequential damage after it thwart?
If an ally with Enraged thwarts a scheme with Assault, then yes, the +2 ATK from Enraged would apply to that thwart. However, the +1 consequential damage only applies when the ally attacks, not thwarts. The ally will only take the consequential damage printed beneath its ATK value, plus any modifiers to consequential damage when specifically thwarting (such as Uncanny X-Force’s ability).
-Alex – August 24, 2023
77 – 1. When resolving an effect like Caliban’s, “discard cards from the top of your deck until an … is discarded.” Is the whole discard simultaneous, such that a response to any particular card being discarded would trigger after the whole discard effect, or are the cards discarded sequentially, such that a response to any particular card being discarded would trigger after that card is discarded but before the next card is?
2. If I’m resolving Caliban with no allies left in my deck and discard Jackpot, can I trigger Jackpot’s response, shuffle, continue discarding until I discard Jackpot, trigger its response, shuffle, continue discarding until I discard Jackpot… on and on until Jackpot is the last card in my deck? (at which time the deck will reshuffle with Jackpot in it and Caliban will stop discarding.)
3. I control 2 allies, one of them being Pinpoint. I play Caliban and trigger his response. I discard White Fox. Can her response trigger immediately? This allows me to put her into play, discarding Caliban from play because of the ally limit, trigger (and exhaust) Pinpoint to shuffle Caliban into my deck, then continue discarding until I discard Caliban himself. Or does her response have to wait for Caliban’s whole discard effect to finish, in which case this play is not possible?
- The discard from Caliban’s ability is treated as simultaneous; any responses to/on the discarded cards resolve once the discard is finished.
- No; Jackpot wouldn’t get shuffled in until Caliban’s discard finishes.
- No; White Fox would be put into play once the discard finishes.
-Alex – August 31, 2023
78 – Technovirus Purge reads: Characters other than Cable cannot remove threat from Technovirus purge. Does it mean that threat can be removed by supports of any player? Supports are not characters.
Yes. Supports are not characters, nor are they considered extensions of a player’s identity. Any player’s support card can remove threat from Technovirus Purge.
-Alex – August 31, 2023
79 – How does Deathlok (NeXt Evolution 25) work? Can he grab Sky Cycle? Honorary Avenger if your identity isn’t an Avenger? A Training upgrade when he already had one?
- Deathlok’s ability checks if the attachment he finds has any “attach to” requirements that he can meet. If he meets the requirements, he can attach the upgrade.
- Deathlok can only attach Sky Cycle if he has the Avenger trait upon entering play. (I don’t think this is currently possible.)
- Deathlok can attach Honorary Avenger, since his ability is “putting it into play” instead of “playing” it, so its play restriction doesn’t apply. All that matters is that he is a “friendly character” upon entering play.
- Deathlok would need to have the X-Men trait to attach a Training card, and could only do so if he didn’t already have a Training card attached.
-Alex – August 31, 2023
September, 2023
80 – Are the constant abilities on EVA and Hope Summers (ally) in effect while they are in your hand? So if I drew EVA while Fantomx is not in play I would need to discard it and Hope would gain the traits of my identity while she is in my hand? Or do those abilities only come into effect once the cards are played?
No; these cards must be in play for their constant abilities to be in effect. Hope Summers (NeXt Evolution #204) only gains traits while in play, and EVA is only discarded if it is in play while Fantomex is not in play.
-Alex – September 7, 2023
81 – Sabertooth’s Feral Rage Side Scheme has a When defeated ability which causes Sabertooth to attack the player who defeated the side scheme. If Cable has Greymalkin in play and it’s exhausted when can I ready it in response to defeating Feral Rage. Do I need to wait until after Sabertooth’s attack has resolved or can I do it before so it’s available to pay for defence cards? I think I should be able to ready it before resolving the attack for two reasons. One there was a ruling which said assault is considered fully resolved as soon as it tells the villain to attack so it’s put in the discard pile before a boost card is dealt.
Based on this I would assume Feral Rages’ when defeated ability is resolved in full as soon as it tells Sabertooth to attack, meaning I can now trigger any responses to defeating the side scheme before I actually resolve the attack. Secondly this seems to line up with the latest Widows bite ruling which says if a minion with quick strike engages black widow quick strike triggers first but the response on widows bite can trigger before the attack resolves (potential defeating the minion before it can attack) I believe this is because quick strike is considered resolved as soon as it initiates the attack, it doesnt rely on the whole attack resolving.
Feral Rage’s When Defeated ability causes Sabretooth to initiate an attack immediately. Before any steps of the attack resolve, though, the Response on Graymalkin can be resolved, and it can be readied.
-Alex – September 7, 2023
82 – I have a question about what it means exactly to resolve an ability. I am playing the Domino hero and I have her nemesis set attachment, superpower feedback attached to her. Does Domino’s constant ability to count wild resources twice, count as resolving an ability? For example, when playing her event, a good workout, does superpower feedback trigger once or twice?
Constant abilities do not “resolve,” they become active while the card they’re on is in play. In that sense, the constant ability on Domino is not considered to “resolve” and does not trigger the Forced Response on Superpower Feedback.
-Alex – September 7, 2023
83 – If Jackpot is discarded for Domino’s Pistol, is it shuffled back into the deck before Sharpshooter adds another card or after (at the end of the action)?
Yes. The sequence of events is: you pay the cost on Domino’s Pistol by discarding, you discard Jackpot, shuffle Jackpot back in, resolve Sharpshooter’s ability and discard another card, then deal the damage for the attack.
-Alex – September 7, 2023
84 – I have a question about the Head of Steam attachment (NeXt Evolution 123) If Juggernauts attack deals 0 damage, can the Hero Response be triggered and if so can I spend 0 resources to discard it from play?
Yes, you can trigger the Hero Response on Head of Steam even if Juggernaut’s attack deals 0 damage.
-Alex – September 14, 2023
85 – I was reading in the rules reference about player cards not resolving during the setup of the game and was wondering if that’s specifically referring to triggered abilities? Constant abilities for example would seem to make cards like Novas connection to the worldmind resource card count towards your hand size during the draw step and mulligan step.
Though we would be hesitant to say this applies to every case, we agree that in general the rule you’re referencing is intended for triggered abilities and not constant abilities, as constant abilities do not “resolve” like other abilities. So, we agreed that Connection to the Worldmind’s constant ability is active even when drawing opening hands.
-Alex – September 14, 2023
86 – I have some Questions about the new deal/take distinction and → costs. With the Hero Action on the She-Hulk upgrade, focused rage. 1.Can I even take that action if I’m intending to prevent that damage? 2.Can I even take that action while I have a tough status card? I believe both to be no, but I wanted to make sure.
So I can’t even attempt the action in either case, Right?
No. The cost on Focused Rage requires She-Hulk to take 1 damage. If she prevents the damage with Tough, the cost is not paid, and the effect cannot resolve.
-Alex – September 14, 2023
87 – Do the new rules on overpaying costs mean that the power of cards don’t generate double resources if they are used to pay for wasp or Antman allies? There power of leadership/aggression say ‘double the number of resources generated when paying for a leadership/aggression card” since I’m overpaying for wasp or Antman not paying will a power of card only generate one resource?
That is correct. The Ant-Man and Wasp allies specify that you are “overpaying” for their cost when you play them, while The Power Of cards state they must be “paying” for a cost in order to generate double resources. The Power Of cards will only generate one resource for these allies.
-Alex – September 21, 2023
88 – When performing the hero action on the “We Are One” attachment from the venom goblin scenario, does using the resource ability on the “friction resistance” upgrade count as spending a printed physical resource?
Yes; the physical resource generated from Friction Restistance’s ability can be used toward the Hero Action on We Are One.
-Alex – September 21, 2023
89 – The Kang scenario instructs you to remove your identity specific obligation from the game. But if the were to include the Down to Earth modular set, Loose Ends, could find and reveal your obligation and it’s possible for obligation could end up in the encounter discard pile. Would the scenario still work as intended if player obligations were to get added in this way? Would this have any unforeseen rules issues? The only one I can think of is if you drew another players obligation while fighting kangs second stage could you pass the obligation to the relevant player while you are both in different game areas?.
For the most part, the Kang scenario would not be significantly affected if Loose Ends introduced a removed-from-game obligation back into the encounter deck. If you ended up drawing another player’s identity-specific obligation while they were in a different game area than you (i.e. during Kang Stage 2B), you should treat the obligation as if the player was eliminated from the game: ignore the obligation’s ability, remove it from the game, and reveal a new encounter card to replace it. (Otherwise, play with the obligation as normal.)
-Alex – September 21, 2023
90 – I’m playing Rogue VS Taskmaster If I attack with the gambit ally and trigger his interrupt ability while taskmaster has the photographic reflexes attachment attached to him, would that also prevent that instance of damage dealt to taskmaster?
Photographic Reflexes is intended to prevent all damage Taskmaster would take from the attack, from the attack’s initiation to its conclusion. That means the damage Gambit (Rogue #3) would deal with his Interrupt would also be prevented, and would also be dealt to the identity. (Note that you are not required to resolve Gambit’s Interrupt when he attacks Taskmaster. But if you do, Gambit would deal 1 + 2 damage over the duration of the attack, so 3 damage would be prevented, and 3 damage would be dealt to Gambit’s controller Rogue.)
-Alex – September 21, 2023
91 – Regarding costs in this game. I’ve seen some cost rulings that have me confused. So I understand that you can only pay a cost with cards or game elements that you control, but when your just simply “choosing” something within a → cost like with the Game Time event, Why is it considered “paying”? For example, why can Major Victory target any Guardian ally with his ability but Game time cannot target any ally with a training upgrade attached because it uses the word Choose in its effect? Also encounter cards like the Knife fight treachery for example, tell you to choose an enemy with the highest ATK as a cost, but you don’t control enemies so I’m wanting to understand.
We discussed these cases today and this is where we landed: If the cost within an ability requires the player to “choose” a target/game element, the act of choosing a valid target satisfies the cost requirement, regardless of if the player controls that target. Note that this does not get around abilities that require more than just choosing a target for the cost—for instance, if the cost required the chosen target to exhaust as well, the player would have to control that target, since they can’t exhaust a card they don’t control. This means that for each card—Major Victory, Game Time, and Knife Fight—you’re able to “choose” a card you don’t control to satisfy the cost in the ability.
-Alex – September 21, 2023
92 – I have a question about Marvel Champions and timing triggers in general. Assuming I’m playing a deck with the new cards Digging Deep and White Fox, which have a response to being discarded from the top of the deck. Now I play the card Call For Aid, which says: Hero Action: Discard cards from the top of your deck until you discard an AVENGER ally, then add that ally to your hand. How is the timing handled? In the rules reference is a section (Abilities), where it is stated, that Abilities are handled sentence by sentence.
1. Is it in general possible to play/use Interrupts and Responses while executing a sentence, interrupting the sentence while doing so? 2. What would happen in the described situation, since I discard cards within a sentence, but could react with Responses (White Fox, Digging Deep) to the discard of a specific card? 3. Same question to the first Response on The Painted Lady from the Domino Hero Set? 4. What happens if the last card in the player deck (without finding an Avenger ally) is Digging Deep? Would the player deck get reshuffled but then the Response on Digging Deep still be playable, finding the card in the deck and bringing it to my hand? 5. When opens the Response window to “Discard card from top of the deck”? – As soon as I discard ONE card – or after I have discarded all cards, either emptying the player deck or finding an Avenger Ally?
- Generally speaking, interrupts, well, “interrupt” sequences, but responses do not. I don’t have an immediate interrupt example for this, but if you have one in mind, feel free to ask about it.
- Responses to a discard will wait until the entire discard is complete—whether a target of the discard is found, or the deck is emptied by the discard. Say you Call for Aid and discard White Fox during the process—whenever you finish the discard, that’s when you resolve White Fox’s Response ability.
- The Response on The Painted Lady is treated the same as the Response on White Fox; once the discard is complete, you can trigger the Response.
- Yes; technically speaking, if Digging Deep is the last card discarded, the deck should be shuffled before Digging Deep’s Response resolves. (That said, you have our permission to set Digging Deep aside before shuffling your deck, and add Digging Deep to your hand after shuffling.)
- The window occurs after all cards are discarded.
-Alex – September 21, 2023
93 – I’m wondering about the term “for each”. Some cards worded like “Homeland Intervention” are pretty clear: they can remove threats only from 1 scheme. (wording is explicitly “that scheme”) But is a card worded like “Falcon: Sam Wilson” could remove threat from multiple schemes? (wording is “a scheme”) The answer could have implications on the following cards:
– Spider-Man: Pavitr Prabhakar
– Wiccan
– Beat Cop
– Ham It Up
– Hex Bolt
– Legal Practice
– Energy Channel
For all of the cards you mentioned except Hex Bolt, their abilities apply to only one target. Falcon: Sam Wilson removes X threat from just one scheme, Energy Channel deals X damage to just one enemy, and so on. The reason Hex Bolt is different is because it’s structured differently, where each result of the discard is resolved separately. Say all 3 discarded cards each have 1 boost icon—you resolve the threat removal one card at a time, and therefore can choose a different scheme to remove threat from each time.
-Alex – September 21, 2023
94 – I have a question about the villains from the Sinister Six scenario. Does the sentence “Move the active counter to the next villain” only apply after the villain attacks and damages you, or was the actual intent for the villains to be taking turns after every activation, including scheming?
For any given villain in the Sinister Six scenario, the active counter only moves from that villain after the villain “attacks and damages you.”
-Alex – September 28, 2023
October, 2023
95 – If I were to use Psylocke’s flurry of blades on three different enemies who all have retaliate 1, (dealing 2 damage to one, confusing one and dealing 2 damage to the final enemy) would each enemy trigger retaliate against Psylocke, so she takes 3 damage back? If I were instead to target one enemy who again has realitate 1 (dealing 1 damage and then confusing it and then dealing 2 damage to it) would the retaliate trigger 1 for the whole attack? How does Psychic illusion in Psylocke’s nemesis interact with flurry of blades. It’s interrupt triggers when an enemy is attacked. When I play flurry of blades the interrupt would trigger, then after I deal 2 damage to an enemy would it trigger again each time I choose to confuse an enemy or deal 2 damage to it or would it only trigger if I choose to target a different character with the confuse or deal 2 options?
- If you play Flurry of Blades and target a different enemy for each instance of damage, then each of those enemies will trigger their Retaliate and deal damage back to you. You are considered to have “attacked” each enemy you deal damage to with an attack event.
- If you play Flurry of Blades and target only one enemy for each instance of damage, the enemy triggers its Retaliate only once. This is because you are considered to have made “a single attack” for any attack event that doesn’t explicitly state you made multiple attacks (e.g. Dance of Death).
- With Psionic Illusion, you’d essentially resolve its Forced Interrupt each time you choose a target that has not already been chosen for Flurry of Blades, and you’d discard Psionic Illusion whenever you end up targeting a friendly character.
- For example, say you’re resolving Flurry of Blades and you’re dealing the first 2 damage to a target. You attempt to target the villain, but Psionic Illusion’s Forced Interrupt must resolve before the damage. The card you discard has a resource of the named type, so you deal 2 damage to the villain and keep Psionic Illusion in play. You can continue to target the villain for the rest of Flurry of Blades without triggering the Forced Interrupt on Psionic Illusion. If you change which enemy you’re targeting, though, you are “attacking” a new enemy and must resolve the Forced Interrupt on Psionic Illusion again.
-Alex – October 5, 2023
96 – I have a question about defending an attack. I’m playing as the Spectrum hero and an enemy attacks me. I exhaust my hero to use my basic DEF power of 1, and play Pulsar Shield, changing form, readying and getting +2 DEF, can I then exhaust to use my DEF again making my total DEF 6?
No, you can only use a basic defense once per attack. You can’t exhaust and apply your DEF multiple times for the same attack.
-Alex – October 5, 2023
97 – Its been ruled that if a minion with Quickstrike engages Black Widow then Quickstrike initiates an attack but the response on Widows bite can resolve before the attack. If I were to trigger widows bite after on a minion with Quickstrike when would I resolve the responses Blackwidow or Syth Suit which both response to triggers a preparation card. Do these responses trigger before the attack resolves, immediately after I trigger widows bite or do I need to wait until after the attack.
Before the attack resolves, in response to the new triggering condition. The sequence of events is this:
- The Quickstrike minion engages Black Widow.
- Quickstrike resolves, telling the minion to initiate an attack. The attack will resolve as soon as possible.
- The opportunity to resolve the Response on Widow’s Bite occurs, which must be between the attack initiation and resolution. Resolving this Response creates a new triggering condition, in which Black Widow triggered the ability of a Preparation card.
- Both Black Widow’s hero ability and Synth-Suit have Responses that can be triggered as a result of the aforementioned triggering condition; her controller decides the order in which to resolve them.
- After all of these steps, if the minion is still in play, its attack that was initiated resolves now. It does not lose Stunned since it initiated its attack before receiving the status from Widow’s Bite.
-Alex – October 12, 2023
98 – I have two questions regarding Morlock Siege: 1) If I use basic thwart with Domino’s Probabiliy, will I be able to boost ATK for the thwart on scheme with “Assault” keyword? 2) If the villain is stunned, does it mean the cost of “Pushed to the Limit” was paid? I guess not, since the Villain did not technically attack, though I’m not sure.
- Yes, you can use Domino’s Probability Field to boost your ATK when thwarting a side scheme with Assault.
- No. If the villain with Pushed to the Limit is Stunned, the cost of the Hero Action cannot be paid, so the ability cannot be initiated (“Initiating Abilities” Step 4). The villain will need to lose Stunned another way first.
-Alex – October 12, 2023
99 – I’m playing Stryfe and “His ability reads “while Stryfe is attacking you”, does this apply while an ally is defending? Or does it turn off whenever he’s attacking an ally?”
Yes, the ability is still active even when an ally is defending. For abilities that trigger “While _ is attacking you,” “you” refers to the player attacked, and not necessarily the character that defended the attack.
-Alex – October 12, 2023
I was trying to make a deck that uses both LastStand and Med Lab and I’m confused.
100 – We received a ruling prior to the 1.5 rules reference regarding LastStand, that effectively says if you use LastStand on an ordinary ally while it’s attacking with 1 hp left, it is defeated by consequential damage before LastStand can discard it. The ruling says that consequential damage triggers first because consequential damage is considered part of the attack – but according to the new rules reference, under the section for consequential damage, it states that consequential damage comes after the attack.
Which suggests to me that LastStand should actually come first. It is also part of the rules that responses to basic attacks from allies come after the attack is finished but before consequential damage.
This is how I read it: Step 1: An ally uses its ATK to initiate a basic attack. Step 2: The attack is resolved. Step 3: You may use responses to the attack. Step 4: The ally takes consequential damage. Could you please clarify at what step LastStand discards the ally and how it interacts with Med Lab? Also, how does this interact with Rapid Response?
In essence, Last Stand will discard an ally before consequential damage would be dealt to that ally. The delayed effect on Last Stand makes sense to us as resolving at a similar timing point as a Response to the attack, like the ability on Tigra, which occurs before consequential damage. We wouldn’t claim this is the case for every delayed effect, but this seems like the right call for Last Stand.
This new ruling would mean that playing Last Stand on an ally wouldn’t cause it to be defeated by consequential damage, so the ally could not be targeted by the response on Med Lab.
And, since the ally would be discarded but not defeated, Rapid Response couldn’t target it either.
-Alex – October 12, 2023
101 – If I use Mutant Protectors to put an X-Men ally into play can I trigger Utopia in response and ready that same ally after it becomes exhausted? I’m unsure because putting the ally into play and exhausting it are done by two separate sentences, making me wonder if the timing window for the response closes before the ally actually exhausts.
No. The window of opportunity to trigger Utopia is between the first and second sentences of the “Hero Interrupt” part of Mutant Protectors. The ally enters play, the window to exhaust Utopia occurs but the ally isn’t a valid target, then the ally exhausts.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
102 – I have some questions about the card Old Rivals in Nebula’s nemesis set. When it causes the Gamora hero or ally to attack: (1) Are players allowed to defend against this attack? The RRG only talks about defending against enemy attacks. (2) Can the Gamora hero or ally exhaust to defend against her own attack? (3) Can the Gamora player use a (defense) labelled ability to defend against this attack?
Yes, players can defend against the attack from Old Rivals. Yes. We discussed this and acknowledged that the rules do not restrict an attacking character and a defending character from being the same character. However, we did agree that if Old Rivals causes the hero or ally Gamora to attack a player, that Gamora is not considered “an enemy” during the attack since she is not a minion or villain, so she’s not a valid target for abilities that target enemies. Yes, so long as the previous rule is followed.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
103 – I’m playing as the new Angel hero and wanted to make sure about something. An enemy initiates an attack against me and I play Aerial Agility which is a (defense), can I still exhaust to use my basic DEF power? Same question if an enemy initiates an attack against another player. Secondly if I use his resource card Avian Anatomy to pay for Aerial Agility, does AG return to my hand before the boost card is flipped during that attack?
- Yes, you can do both. Playing a defense event doesn’t prevent you from making a basic defense for the same attack. And yes, you can do both when another player is being attacked. Just note that only one character can be the defender of an attack.
- Yes. Aerial Agility creates a lasting effect when it’s played, and if you used Avian Anatomy to pay for it, you will return Aerial Agility to your hand as soon as the lasting effect is created.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
104 – We have some questions about the new minion, Malice.
1.Can you blank the text box on Malice while it’s attached to an ally turned minion? And if so does this cause the minion to turn back into an ally? 2.Is Malice still considered a minion while attached to an ally? 3.Can you attack the Malice minion while it’s attached to an ally? 4.Can you discard/defeat her while she’s attached with cards which do explicitly that such as the Nova Prime ally or the Take out the guards player side scheme?
These are some good questions for the Malice minion, some of which we hadn’t considered before. Here are our current rulings on her.
- Yes, you can blank Malice while she’s attached to any ally-minion; if you do, Malice’s ability stating the ally is a minion is inactive, meaning the ally-minion will revert to being an ally for the duration of the blanking ability, and can be used as an ally during that time.
- Yes, Malice still has the minion card type while attached.
- Yes, Malice can be attacked while attached to an ally.
- Note, Malice cannot be defeated more than once per instance of her—in other words, you can only trigger her “When Defeated” once between the time she enters play and leaves play. (She doesn’t leave play when she attaches.) So although she can be attacked and targeted, she will not unattach or leave play unless the ally she’s attached to leaves play, or she’s discarded (see below).
- Also note, Malice is still a “minion” and “enemy,” but she’s not considered engaged with you while she’s attached, and will not activate.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
105 – If I attack the Malice minion with an ally with 1 HP left, does the ally turned minion become defeated by consequential damage or does malice effect stop that consequential damage? We’re not sure if CD is more like a response or a delayed effect that turns on the moment you use one of your allies basic powers Unrelated question. For an effect that states “attacks and damages”, is that referring to dealt damage or damage that character “takes”?
- Assuming Malice attaches to the same ally used to attack her, then no, that ally-minion would not take consequential damage (CD). This is because Malice’s “When Defeated” ability would resolve before CD is dealt to that ally, and the ability prevents the ally from taking CD.
- If an ability checks if a target was “attacked and damaged,” the target of the attack needs to have taken damage from the attack.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
106 – So I play the scarlet witch Hex bolt event while her nemesis side scheme, the next evolution is in play which increases the number of boost icons for each encounter card. Does hex bolt check the current amount of boost icons on each discarded card all at once and remember them? Or does it check each time you resolve one of the bulleted effects? Example, you choose to use the first bullet effect to remove two threat and defeat the next evolution side scheme, does the other two effects now change from what they were going to be?
No. The Next Evolution side scheme has a constant ability, so it only affects boost icons while it’s in play. As soon as it leaves play, the boost icons on cards revert to their printed values. Say you play Hex Bolt and are able to remove the last 2 threat from The Next Evolution with one of the discarded cards. As soon as TNE leaves play, the other discarded cards are resolved as normal. Note that you can choose which order to resolve the cards discarded by Hex Bolt, so if having TNE in play helps you, you can choose to remove the threat on it last.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
107 – With the new out of reach attachment from the flight encounter set, can the villain take non attack damage? It’s worded in such a way that it seems to be only referring to attack damage so we’re not sure.
No; while the villain has Out of Reach attached, the villain can’t take non-attack damage*. The villain will only take damage
from Aerial characters*, Aerial attacks, or ranged attacks.*Sorry, I should have said “The villain will only take damage from attacks made by an Aerial character…” rather than “Aerial characters” straight up. Everything else is still accurate.
-Alex – October 26, 2023
November, 2023
108 – Does an ally turned minion lose the ally card type? Does a minion turned ally lose the minion card type
While an ally is treated as a minion, it loses the ally card type for the duration of the effect.
While a minion is treated as an ally, it loses the minion card type for the duration of the effect.
-Alex – November 2, 2023
109 – There is a ruling that says “Q: Can I resolve Images of Ikonn if the villain is already confused and there is no threat on a scheme? A: Yes. As long as any part of the ability on Images of Ikonn can change the game state, then it will do as many effects as it is able. While its first effect may fail to change the game state if the villain is already confused and there is no threat on a scheme, its second effect can change the game state by placing itself in the Invocation deck discard pile.” Is this ruling still correct now there is the new valid target rule?
The result of that FAQ question is the same under “valid target” rules, but our reasoning behind it is different. Each Invocation card has at least two “targets,” one of which is the card itself. So, each Invocation card always has a valid target, and can always have its ability initiated and resolved, even if all that happens is it places itself in the invocation deck discard pile.
-Alex – November 2, 2023
110 – Does Frontline Specialist allow you to die when moving to alter-ego, because it says hero and not identity?
No, that’s actually a misprint on Frontline Specialist, it should say identity. We will be issuing an errata for that in the future.
-Tony – November 15, 2023 (FFG Live)
111 – We had an interesting discussion about when and how targeting works for an attack when a guard minion is involved. We know that you can use Melee to target both a guard and a Villain thus targeting after the cost is paid… But what if you play an attack card such as Return the Favor the process of paying the cost (revealing a treachery card) causes a guard minion to come into play does the attack still have a legal target (or has it not yet determined a target)? ….you can see this thread on reddit for further discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelchampionslcg/comments/16339tb/odd_chain_of_events_correct_resolution/
According to “Initiating Abilities” in the Rules Reference, a card’s ability is not considered initiated until all of its costs are paid. Because the cost of Return the Favor includes revealing (and resolving) a treachery, the attack is not considered initiated until after all costs are paid. So, if a Guard minion enters play as a result of the cost being paid, its constant ability comes into effect immediately, before the point that the attack initiates. As a result, the attack “fizzles”, the player discards Return the Favor and is not considered to have attacked the villain. (It’s not a question of a “valid target”, since the “valid target” is the villain—the thing we need to be looking at instead is whether the ability can initiate.)
-Alex – November 16, 2023
112 – In the Marvel Champions Deadpool announcement article it says “if at least one player is using the ‘Pool aspect, then a copy of Crisis of Infinite Deadpools (Deadpool, 37) is shuffled into the encounter deck during setup.” Does “using the aspect” mean choosing that aspect as the deck’s aspect, or including any cards of the aspect? Said another way, if Gamora includes 1 ‘Pool event in her deck, will Crisis of Infinite Deadpool’s be shuffled into the encounter deck?
“Using the ‘Pool aspect” should be understood as “choosing the ‘Pool aspect” for the deck, not only including a few cards from the ‘Pool aspect in that deck. So no, if Gamora only includes one ‘Pool event in her deck, she does not need to shuffle Crisis of Infinite Deadpools into the encounter deck.
-Alex – November 16, 2023
113 – I have a weird question about Rogue and the Basic Hope ally (that gains each trait on your identity). When Rogue touches Hope, they end up giving each other all of their traits including Aerial from Touched. If either of them would lose a trait (such as losing Aerial from moving Touched), do they keep the trait as a “copy” from the other character, or do they lose the trait because the initial granting effect went away?
Hope Summers’ (NeXt Evolution #204) ability is a constant ability, which continuously checks the game state for traits while in play. If your identity’s traits change, Hope’s traits will change immediately to match; she will not keep a “copy” of the trait.
-Alex – November 23, 2023
114 – I have a question about Cosmic Awareness and the threat removal it does as its cost. 1. Are you allowed to initiate the card when there are no schemes with 3+ threat on them? 2. If the main scheme has 3 threat, and a side scheme has 2 threat, can I play Cosmic Awareness and clear the side scheme in spite of this not satisfying the cost? Thanks!
To answer your question(s):
- No; the cost requires Adam Warlock to remove 3 threat from a scheme while paying the card’s cost. If he can’t do that, he can’t play the card.
- No; Adam Warlock has to remove 3 threat, so he can’t target a scheme with less than 3 threat.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
115 – I have a question about Hope Summers’ constant text that makes the players lose. What happens if she is defeated while that text is blanked (such as by an attachment that turns her into a minion, or by the spoiled Anti-Regeneration Ray from the Deadpool pack). Do the players lose the game once her text is no longer blank, or do the players not lose because the text was blank while she left play?
The players would still lose the game once Hope Summers left play. Her ability would come back into effect once she’s defeated.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
116 – I saw a ruling on Reddit which said that the interrupt on Gatekeeper is not considered to be performed by Shadowcat because she does not control it. There is a contradictory ruling on Hall of Heroes saying that the interrupt on Spider-Tracers is considered performed by Spider-Man because you do control it. I believe both of these rulings are wrong, I think that the player does control the upgrade in each situation, but that it is not an extension of the identity because it is attached to another character (per the rule under You for upgrades, starting with “Unless attached to a different character”, which also covers upgrades attached to allies). Can you clarify whether the rules match intention here, particularly: 1) are upgrades attached to minions controlled by their owner? and 2) are upgrades attached to minions extensions of their owner’s identity?
I misspoke last week after having a discussion with the game designers. We agree with your assertions—yes, a player controls any upgrades that they attach to enemies (or other characters they control). And no, these upgrades are not considered an extension of their controller’s identity, because they are “attached to a different character.”
-Alex – November 29, 2023
117 – I was wondering how attacking allies works based on the rule in the Next Evolution book versus the ‘you’ exception in the RRG. As an example, when a villain attacks a Morlock, if no one defends the attack, would I be able to play “payback” as Drax?
No. The Forced Interrupt on the Morlock changes the target of the attack from the player to the Morlock. Drax can’t play Payback in this situation.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
118 – When an ally with an upgrade attached is defeated, is discarding both cards done simultaneously, meaning you choose the order they are placed into the discard pile? 2.If you defeat multiple facedown ultron drone minions at one time, like with Iron-Mans identity specific war machine ally, could you flip them over or look at them before deciding the order they are placed in your discard pile? Thanks!
Yes, a card and any upgrades attached to it are defeated simultaneously, so their controller chooses what order they are placed into their discard pile. And yes, you could look at the drones you defeated before placing them in the discard pile.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
119 – We’re not sure about this after checking the “attach to” entry in the online rules reference. If a card that has another card attached to it leaves play… Are both cards discarded simultaneously and you choose the order they go into the discard pile? Or does the card that leaves play get discarded first and then the game sees the card that was attached isn’t attached to anything and discarded secondly?
When a card leaves play, any upgrades/attachments attached to that card leave play simultaneously with that card. This means that yes, the player that owns the cards gets to choose what order the cards enter their discard pile.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
120 – I have a question about the upcoming Cable ally from the Deadpool hero pack. If there are 3 acceleration tokens on the main scheme and he has the inspired upgrade on him and I have the uncanny X-force support in play, what are his basic power stats?
To answer your question(s):
The maximum in Cable’s ability only applies to the bonuses he gets from his ability; it does not put a cap on how much total THW and ATK he can have at a given time.
With 3 acceleration tokens on the main scheme, Inspired attached to him, and Uncanny X-Force in play, Cable would have a total of 6 THW and 6 ATK.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
121 – Looking at the player turns entry in the latest 1.5 rules reference , It doesn’t say you can call for an action from another player to trigger an action on an encounter card like Upgraded Drones for example. It only mentions actions in their hand or on cards in play they control, But you can do that, right?
Yes, you can. Under “Action” in the latest rules reference, we have stated that players may trigger Action abilities on encounter cards by request during other players’ turns. We will try to update “Player Turns” to say the same.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
122 – When playing the NeXt Evolution campaign, if the player that controls Safehouse is eliminated, what happens to Safehouse?
If the player that controls Safehouse is defeated, remove Safehouse from the game.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
123 – I’ve a question about multi-instance attacks (like Royal Flush, or Flurry of Blades) A multi-instance attack on a single tough enemy, can it remove the tough and then damage the enemy? Thanks a lot for your time, and your great work
Yes; multi-instance attacks can be used to remove Tough from an enemy and then damage that same enemy. In most cases, the damage is not considered dealt simultaneously, and is resolved sentence by sentence.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
124 – We stumbled across Rocket Raccoon (Hero) and “Lay the trap” (Justice Player Sidescheme). 1. If the Villain is in Stage I and has 4 HP left and Rocket clears “Lay the trap”, dealing 5 damage to the villain – will I draw 1 card, because of “Murdered You!” on Rocket Raccoon? Because “Lay the Trap” says: When Defeated: The player who defeated this scheme deals 5:mc_players: damage to the villain. So, the damage is dealt by the player? 2. In general, is it possible, that “the player” deals damage or removes threat? Or is it always a source; a character oder support or side scheme?
No, you/Rocket will not draw 1 card. Lay the Trap’s ability causes “a player,” not their identity, to remove the threat.
-Alex – November 29, 2023
December, 2023
125 – I had a question if a stick in the mud senator like Robert Kelley is up for a spirited game of Tic-Tac-Toe. The protect the senator card reads that Kelley cannot be healed by player card effects and Tic-Tac-Toe says it moves damage from a character to the card. Does moving damage count as healing?
Yes, moving damage off of Robert Kelly would count as healing him, so you cannot target him with Tic-Tac-Toe while Protect the Senator is in play.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
126 – I am playing Spectrum and have the Armadillo minion engaged with me. The Armadillo minion has just come into play, so has its Tough status still. I have Gamma Blast in hand, it is my turn, and Spectrum is in Pulsar form. Can I play Gamma Blast, targeting the Armadillo minion, and flipping to Gamma form, then use the hero response on Gamma (“After you change to this form, deal 1 damage to an enemy”), to remove the Armadillo minion’s Tough status before dealing it 7 damage?
No. You must resolve the first sentence of Gamma Blast in full before resolving the Response on Gamma form.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
127 – Couple questions about the new team up card frenemies from the new next evolution expansion, can you choose to only remove 3 threat from 1 scheme and not 3 from a different one? And if you remove 3 threat from a side scheme with a crisis icon with the first part of the “and” sentence, are you able to remove 3 threat from the main scheme with the second part of the “and” sentence?
- With Frenemies, you can’t choose to only remove threat from 1 scheme if you’re able to remove from 2. However, if you are prevented from removing from more than 1 scheme, you can still remove threat from 1. To restate, you can’t “choose” only 1, but it’s fine if you can only do 1.
- No. The two instances of threat removal are simultaneous, not consecutive. In the situation described, you could not remove threat from the main scheme because there’s a crisis icon in play.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
128 – I have a valid target question. I don’t have any web warrior allies in my discard pile but I intend to pay for the across the spider verse event with a web warrior ally card from my hand. Does this work?
No. There must be a valid target for the ability before paying the costs of the ability, so there must be a Web-Warrior ally in your discard pile before you pay the costs of Across the Spider-Verse.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
129 – Scenario is The minion Wade Cole is in play who has the Teamwork (Reaver) keyword. I reveal the minion Bonebreaker as my encounter card who also has the Teamwork (Reaver) keyword. I’ve seen a ruling that states Bonebreakers forced interrupt should actually be a forced response which is great. Timing wise, the Teamwork keyword, like the Quickstrike Keyword, should have priority over responses and will trigger first.
Questions. 1. Does the teamwork keyword work like the quickstrike keyword in that it only initiates but doesn’t fully resolve? 2.If so, that would mean the Teamwork keyword triggers first on Bonebreakers and initiates but the forced response on Bonebreakers would actually resolve before that attack resolves, is that correct? 3. Do all of the activations (attacks and schemes) triggered by the teamwork keyword initiate simultaneously? 4. If not, do you initiate all Teamwork activations (attacks and schemes ) 1 by 1 with each having a response window in between? 5. Similarly, do all of the activations (attacks and schemes) resolve simultaneously? 6. If not, does each activation (attack or scheme) resolve before the next one initiates?
1. Yes; Teamwork causes the minions to initiate their activations, and abilities triggered by the initiations resolve before the activations do.
2. Yes; Bonebreaker’s Teamwork resolves first by initiating an activation, but you resolve that activation after his Forced Interrupt resolves.
- Yes, Teamwork activations initiate simultaneously.
5-6. Sort of. They are simultaneous in the sense that they occur in the same general game step, but you still resolve them one at a time, in the order that you choose. (Similar to minion activations during Step 2 of the villain phase; you resolve those in any order.)
If by resolving one activation, you trigger an ability, you resolve the triggered ability immediately before moving on to the next activation. For example, if you have Retaliate 1 on your hero and two Teamwork minions attacking you, you resolve one attack, trigger Retaliate, then resolve the other attack, and trigger Retaliate again.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
130 – I need help with a timing situation and if you could check my understanding. I’m playing against the Mojo scenario and the Villain is on stage I. I have the basic ally, Spider-Man Hobie Brown in play with 2 threat on him. Spiderman gets defeated which will cause him to leave play and then in order The Forced interrupt on Mojo Mania triggers and moves the threat from spiderman to it. The interrupt on Spiderman triggers and end up dealing enough damage to mojo to defeat his current stage. Mojo Stage II has a when revealed ability to place threat on each friendly character 1.Is Spiderman still in play at this point and will have more threat placed on him before being discarded? If yes, does Mojo Mania trigger a second time? If no, when exactly was spiderman supposed to be discarded? T
A great question! The most important thing to state up front is that an ability can only be triggered once per instance of its triggering condition. So, threat can only be moved from Hobie once, and the result is that only 2 threat will be moved from Hobie to MojoMania in this example.
To break it down:
- Hobie is defeated, about to leave play, causing a triggering condition to occur.
- MojoMania’s Forced Interrupt must occur first. The 2 threat already on Hobie is placed on MojoMania.
- Hobie’s Interrupt is next, and deals damage to Mojo I, defeating that stage.
- Mojo I becomes Mojo II, triggering Mojo II’s “When Revealed” ability.
- 2 threat is placed on Hobie, since his leaving play was interrupted, and he is technically still in play.
- Since all interrupts to Hobie leaving play have been resolved, Hobie now leaves play. MojoMania’s ability can’t be triggered again for that condition. Hobie is placed in his owner’s discard pile, and since he can’t have tokens on him while there, the 2 threat is returned to the supply.
-Alex – December 8, 2023
131 – Beguiled says that the attached ally engages it’s controller but neither manipulated mind or poolizied say that the ally engages anyone when the attachment attaches. Do allies automatically engage their control when an attachment says to treat them as a minion? If not would allies with the poolizied or manipulate mind attachment still activate against their controller when other minions activate? Do they count towards your ally limit?
Manipulated Mind has an erratum in RR v1.5, giving it the text “Attached ally engages its controller.” We want it and ‘Pool-ized to function similarly to Beguiled, where an engagement step occurs when the ally becomes a minion. (And no, they don’t count toward your ally limit while they are minions.)
-Alex – December 22, 2023
132 – I’m playing the Venom Goblin scenario and have a couple allies in play, the justice venom ally and the deadpool cable ally, both of which have a constant ability referring to the main scheme. How would this situation work with multiple main schemes? I’ve seen where constant abilities in multi villain scenarios always refer to the active villain but couldn’t find anything about multi main scheme scenarios.
The FAQ for the scenario and the Skies Over New York environment card state that player cards that affect “the main scheme” can apply to any main scheme; we rule that this also is inversely true, where a player card affected by “the main scheme” can refer to any main scheme, even the constant abilities on Venom or Cable.
This means that while Venom and Cable are in play, their controller(s) have the option to choose which main scheme to treat as “the main scheme” at any point in time their abilities have an effect on the game. For instance, when Venom would take consequential damage, his controller chooses which main scheme is “the main scheme” and then determines if Venom takes 1 less consequential damage. Similarly, any time Cable uses his THW or ATK, his controller chooses which main scheme is “the main scheme” for that usage.
-Alex – December 22, 2023
2024
133 – I’m trying to get a better understanding of Dash and Non numercial variables after reading the rules reference entries. Example 1 I’m playing as rogue and I have the “touched” upgrade attached in play. I reveal the “I’ll take that’ treachery. Can touched be discarded by I’ll take that? (Even if I also control a 0 cost upgrade) Also, while it’s in your hand, why doesn’t the dash cost get treated as 0 preventing it from being played? Example 2 I’m playing as quicksilver and the villain has the “Smoke Bombs” attachment attached. I have the “Speed Cyclone” event in my hand, can it be discarded by smoke bombs? (Even if I also have a 0 cost event card in my hand) Example 3 I defeat the minion “Malice” while a “Morlock” ally is in play. Does Malice target and attach to a Morlock ally? (Even if I also control a 0 cost ally without the psionic trait)
- Cards with a “dash” cost are specifically designed so they can’t be played from hand; they are intended to enter play via other means. However, while in play, they will function as having a cost of 0 for the purposes of other card abilities.
- Yes, Touched can be discarded by the “I’ll Take That” treachery, whether you have a different 0-cost upgrade under your control or not.
- Yes, Speed Cyclone can be discarded by Smoke Bombs, whether you have a different 0-cost event in hand or not. (It will also function as having a cost of 0 for such an ability.)
- Yes, Malice can be attached to a Morlock ally, whether you have a different non-Psionic 0-cost ally under your control or not.
-Alex – January 1, 2024
134 – I’m resolving the Attack (enemy activation) steps and ran into this situation. At step 3.a I flip over Homo Superior as the boost card which has both a boost ability star and a boost icon. At step 3.b I resolve the boost ability star, attaching it to a minion and giving that minion a tough status card. For step 3.c, Is is still considered a boost card while in play attached to a minion for counting the boost icons? (both printed and gained from any amplifiy icons in play) And if so, for step 3.d, do I discard it from play?
Yes, the boost icon(s) on Homo Superior still increases the enemy’s ATK. And no, Homo Superior is not discarded at Step 3d; this step is only intended for boost cards that don’t enter play this way—some attachments and minions enter play via boost abilities.
-Alex – January 11, 2024
135 – Does Stryfes constant ability “trigger”? With the Storm event card Flash Freeze, the -3 atk applies when defending with allies as well? And if other players defend, does it also apply or is the “you” locked in to the original player because it’s a triggered ability and that’s the difference between it and amd the Stryfe constant? And is this kind of another exception to the “you” rule?
- We wouldn’t say Stryfe’s ability triggers, given it’s a constant ability. Granted, he won’t always have bonus ATK, but he will receive bonus ATK upon initiating an attack, and if the cards in the attacked player’s hand change during the attack, Stryfe’s bonus ATK will change with it.
- Depends. If Storm plays Flash Freeze, per the rules of defense events, she must be the defender of the villain’s attack and no other character can defend that attack. But, if any minions attack Storm that phase, other characters can defend those attacks; however, Storm will only give those minions -3 ATK if she defends with characters that she controls. If another player defends, Storm won’t give the minion -3 ATK.
-Alex – January 11, 2024
136 – Do I understand correctly that with the new 1.5 rules entries for double sided cards, it means that the jubilee and magneto allies in the mutant genesis campaign would be removed from the game from the victory display instead of being placed facedown under the operation zero tolerance side scheme?
No; Jubilee and Magneto would still get placed underneath Operation Zero Tolerance. This is a case of the Golden Rule taking precedence, where the text of the card should be followed first and foremost.
-Alex – January 11, 2024
137 – Do responses and keywords wait for a full sentence to resolve? Example I have the Hawkeye leadership ally in play with an arrow counter on him. I reveal the Planetary Invasion treachery card. The minion I discarded has the quickstrike keyword. What’s the timing order here with planetary invasions last sentence
In most cases, yes, a sentence in an ability must fully resolve before responses to that sentence can occur. That in mind, the sequence of events for these cards should be:
- Planetary Invasion is revealed.
- Cards are discarded from the encounter deck until a minion is discarded.
- The minion is revealed, and its Quickstrike keyword resolves, initiating its attack. (The steps of the attack will then resolve at the next available opportunity.)
- The minion is given a Tough status card immediately after this, because it’s in the same sentence as the reveal effect in Planetary Invasion.
- Hawkeye’s Response may be resolved at this time, after the attack initiates but before the steps of the attack resolve.
- The minion resolves its attack.
-Alex – January 11, 2024
138 – I have 4 questions regarding the X-Men Instruction basic event card. 1.Can I play X-Men instruction if I don’t have any allies in my discard pile while the x-mansion is in play? 2.Can I play X-Men instruction and choose 0 allies while the x-mansion is in play? 3.Can I play X-Men instruction if I don’t have any allies in my discard pile, while the x-mansion is not in play? 4.Can I play X-Men instruction and choose 0 allies while the x-mansion is not in play?
- Yes, you can play X-Men Instruction if X-Mansion is in play, even if there are no X-Men allies in your discard pile, in order to draw a card.
- Yes, you can choose 0 X-Men allies, specifically because the choice isn’t part of a cost, and you can still resolve another part of the ability.
- No, you must be able to resolve at least one of the sentences on X-Men Instruction in order to play it.
- No; same thinking as #3, you can’t play X-Men Instruction and not resolve any of it.
-Alex – January 11, 2024
139 – Had an interesting situation come up in a game recently in which one of my friends was playing X-23. He had Honey Badger in play, with several upgrades attached to her. X-23’s obligation, Self-Isolation, was drawn and he placed Honey Badger facedown under the obligation and discarded all the upgrades that were attached. I think we played this correctly, but upon reviewing the rules, in RRG v1.5, after the game, I couldn’t find anything that indicated if this was the correct behaviour. The rules about attaching cards facedown, and the facedown sides of identities, and other double-sided cards, explicitly state that those are out of play, but I couldn’t see anything for “place”, and nothing regarding moving an in play faceup card to a facedown state. Is there an implicit general rule that says facedown cards are out-of-play? Or an implicit rule that says moving a faceup card to facedown also moves it out-of-play?
Yes, your friend played that correctly. In hindsight, Self-Isolation should have said “attach her facedown” instead of “place her facedown.”
-Alex – January 18, 2024
140 – My understanding is that an event isn’t in your hand when you resolve it’s effects, but it doesn’t hit your discard pile until after effects are resolved, is this true and is it true if I’m using Magik’s ability to play the top card of her deck. For example, if Scrying is the top card of my deck and I play it would I look at the 3 cards under scrying or is Scrying still considered to be the top card of my deck so counts as one of the 3 cards I look at? Or if I play spiritual meditation from the top of my deck would I draw the 2 cards under spiritual meditation or would I draw spiritual meditation and one other card? If I do have to draw Spiritual meditation would this stay in my hand or be discarded? If I have to draw the two cards below spiritual meditation when does spiritual meditation hit the discard pile? Is it after I discard one card from my hand to resolve all the effects?
For these cards, it’s helpful to take the following rule literally: “When an event card is played, place it on the table, resolve its ability, and place the card in its owner’s discard pile.” When you play an event from the top of your deck with Magik, you place it on the table while resolving it, and in doing so that event leaves your deck, and is only discarded once its effects are resolved.
When you play Scrying from the top of your deck, you’d look at the 3 cards beneath Scrying, not counting Scrying itself. You’ll discard Scrying after resolving all of its effects.
Similarly, if you play Spiritual Meditation from the top of your deck, you draw the 2 cards beneath it, and you’ll discard Spiritual Meditation once you resolve all of its effects.
-Alex – January 25, 2024
141 – When I use Gambit’s alterego ability when do I pick which scheme I am removing threat from? Is it before or after I look at 2 encounter cards and pick one to discard? In other words will I know how much threat the ability will remove when I pick the scheme or not?
In order to initiate Remy LeBeau’s ability, there has to be threat in play that you can remove. Assuming there is, you can initiate his ability, and once you know how much threat you’re able to remove (i.e. after discarding the encounter card), you can choose which scheme you remove threat from.
-Alex – January 25, 2024
142 – I use Wakanda Forever to clear the last threat from Superpower Training, and put a new Black Panther upgrade into play. I believe based on how Gang Up works, that (1) I would get to resolve this new Black Panther upgrade, is that correct? (2) Does it matter if I cleared Superpower Training with the “final step of this sequence”? As a specific example, (3) if Tactical Genius is my only Black Panther upgrade, is there any way to clear Superpower Training with it and still resolve another upgrade? (either after using Tactical Genius as a “final step”, or if possible not treating it as the final step, because I intend to resolve another)
The answers to your questions depend on if Tactical Genius is the last upgrade in the sequence or not.
- If Tactical Genius is the final step of the sequence, then the sequence has ended by the time you put an upgrade into play using Superpower Training.
- If Tactical Genius is not the final step of the sequence, then you’ll still be resolving the sequence when you put an upgrade into play using Superpower Training, and you can resolve the ability on the new upgrade.
-Alex – January 25, 2024
143 – I have a question regarding the protection ally Iron Fist. He has the following ability: Interrupt: When Iron Fist attacks an enemy, remove 1 mystic counter from him -> stun that enemy and deal 1 damage to it. When I attack a Minion with only 1 HP left with him and use his interrupt ability, defeating the Minion – will the attack still happen? Because an interrupt happens before the trigger, and that means, that the Attack has no longer a valid target. And in the case the Attack is no longer happening – would Iron Fist then take consequential damage?
No; if Iron Fist defeats a minion with his Interrupt ability, he does not take Consequential Damage. We looked through the rules of “initiating abilities” and determined that Iron Fist must first exhaust (as a quasi-“cost” of initiating an attack), then his Interrupt triggers and resolves, and then if the enemy he initiated an attack against is no longer in play, his attack doesn’t have a valid target and does not resolve. He is not considered to have attacked in this way, so he does not take consequential damage, though he is still exhausted.
-Alex – January 25, 2024
144 – Steel Fist reads: Hero action (attack): deal 5 damage to an enemy. You may discard a tough status from your hero. If you do, stun and confuse that enemy. If the enemy has retaliate, is the tough status still on Colossus when you get the option of discarding it, or does the retaliate damage remove the tough before the second part of Steel Fist kicks in?
You’d resolve the entirety of Steel Fist’s ability before triggering Retaliate on the attacked enemy—meaning, you can discard the Tough status card from Colossus to stun and confuse the enemy before the enemy deals Retaliate damage back. (Note, the enemy being Stunned does not prevent it from dealing Retaliate damage.)
-Alex – January 25, 2024
145 – 1. I see in the rules that if a character has an ability stating it cannot be confused that it cannot have confused status cards placed on them. What If a character gains this ability but they already had a confused Status card, does it work like stalwart in that it removes the one that was already there? Magneto being confused or having one confused status card on him while he has the steady keyword, then revealing Magneto’s helmet as an example. 2.Same question for stun, thanks! 3.If a double tough Colossus changes to alter ego form, does the game see that and I must remove one of those toughs? I’m assuming all these are a Yes and it’s probably because of “cannot.”
- No. With Steady, what you’re essentially doing is ignoring the first confused/stunned status card placed on a character until a second one of that type is placed. If a Steady Magneto has 1 confused status card on him when Magneto’s Helmet attaches to him, the confused status card remains on him unless he gains Stalwart.
- See #1.
- Yes. Only Colossus’ hero form can have 2 tough status cards placed on him. If he flips to Piotr when he has 2 tough cards, he must discard 1.
-Alex – February 15, 2024
146 – if I have the seduced attachment attached to my identity, can I make basic attacks with my allies?
Yes; if Seduced is attached to your identity, you can still make basic attacks with allies you control.
-Alex – February 15, 2024
147 – So in a multi-sentence ability, if an earlier effect sentence initiates an attack, does that attack wait, for the later effect sentence(s) to resolve, before it (the initiated attack) itself resolves? For example, I’m playing against Crossbones and he has crossbones machine gun attached with 1 ammo counter left. While in hero form I reveal the weapon master treachery card placing it on the table to resolve it. The first sentence has crossbones attack me, does that attack happen immediately or does it initiate but wait for the second sentence to check to see if he has a weapon which would cause it to gain surge before losing the machine gun from its last ammo counter? There seems to be at least 2 types of these treacheries that cause attacks. Ones where the attack NEEDS to wait for the later sentence (because it modifies the attack) like Avatar of Death and ones where the attack CANNOT wait for later sentence (because it is dependent upon the attack) like Rage of Ultron. Weapon master could be a 3rd type, is there a guide y’all could say that we could follow to resolve these? Bonus question! Does the Teamwork keyword work like quickstrike in the sense of that that those activations “initiate” but responses would resolve before those activations fully resolve?
First, to address your example—if Crossbones has Crossbones’ Machine Gun in play with 1 ammo counter remaining, then you reveal Weapon Master, the sequence of events is as follows:
- Resolve the first sentence of WM’s “Hero” effect, making Crossbones initiate an attack.
- CMG’s interrupt triggers. Remove the ammo counter, resolve the effect, and discard CMG.
- Resolve the second sentence of WM. There is no Weapon attachment in play at this time, so WM does not gain surge.
- Resolve Crossbones’ initiated attack.
Second, yes, the Teamwork keyword shares the same general timing structure as the Quickstrike keyword: the character enters play, their keyword resolves (resulting in an activation initiation), Interrupts to the activation and/or Responses to them entering play resolve, then the activation resolves.
Third, I’m hesitant to provide a generalized answer regarding treacheries but want to add that it’s always best practice to read an entire ability before resolving it, looking out for either alteration effects or what I’ll refer to as “dependent” effects, e.g. “this attack gains [keyword],” which must resolve with the initiated activation. We otherwise try to rule where abilities are resolved sentence by sentence.
-Alex – February 15, 2024
148 – When you cancel an enemy attack, for example with grasping tendrils but another effect triggered before you could play it like the forced interrupt on the charge attachment (because grasping tendrils doesn’t have “would”), does charge still get discarded? Does the hidden in the clutter attachment cause an infinite loop loss if your only character has retaliate? And finally, the crisis icon entry in the rules reference ends with “by any player”, does this mean that threat can be removed by the game from an encounter card like for whom the bell tolls?
- Yes; if Rhino attacks with Charge attached, its Forced Interrupt triggers; if the attack is then canceled via Grasping Tendrils, the attack is still considered to “end” and Charge is discarded.
- No; once Hidden in the Clutter has 3+ damage on it, the attached enemy initiates an attack (meaning the attack is evident and will resolve in the next available game step), then Hidden in the Clutter is discarded, and then the standard steps of the attack resolve. The “then” is moreso meant to check if the attached villain was stunned when it attempted to attack; if stunned replaced the activation, Hidden in the Clutter remains attached.
- Yes; encounter cards can remove threat from schemes while a crisis icon is in play.
-Alex – February 15, 2024
149 – Hope you all had a great holiday! We had an interesting discussion about Tough today, and came up against an odd interaction of Tough with the Valid Target rules. Given rulings about choices and costs it has seemed like having a Tough status makes it impossible for a character to “take damage”, which seems like it would make them an invalid target for abilities which have taking damage as the effect. However, several forced responses have “take damage” as the only effect (such as Weakened from Kang), and since Forced abilities require a valid target, that would seem to make Tough essentially turn off such abilities. So, is a Tough character somehow a valid target for taking damage? If so, does this change anything about choice abilities such as Hydra Bomber when a hero is Tough?
Thank you for your question. We don’t believe that a character having a tough status card should prevent them from being a valid target for “take damage” effects.
When the Forced Response on Weakened instructs a tough hero to “take 1 damage,” the hero is still a valid target for that damage, and when the damage would be placed on the hero, the tough prevents the damage from being placed and is instead discarded.
With the When Revealed ability on Hydra Bomber, the player could choose to “take 2 damage” while tough, as their hero is a valid target for damage, and when the damage would be placed they’d remove tough instead.
The most important thing to note with this update is that our ruling regarding taking damage as part of a cost is still intact, that if damage must be taken as part of a cost but a tough status card prevents the damage from being taken, the cost isn’t paid and the ability can’t be initiated (e.g. Focused Rage).
-Alex – March 15, 2024
150 – I have a question about the Deadpool ally’s ability. How does it work if Deadpool takes more consequential damage than he has HP? For example, if he is Enraged and at 1 HP, how much damage does he have after he attacks? If Wild Wild Mojo is in play, and another effect that increases consequential damage, so that he takes 4 damage (resulting in 3 excess damage), how does that play out? Does the ability trigger again, or is he simply defeated after healing and still being at 0 HP?
When the Deadpool ally would take consequential damage, first determine how much consequential damage he should be taking all at once, then heal (remove) 3 damage from that number, and check if Deadpool has a positive hit point value. If so, he remains in play and sustains any damage left over. If Deadpool healing 3 from his ability doesn’t give him a positive hit point value, he is defeated, and you still add an acceleration token to the main scheme since his ability was triggered.
-Alex – March 15, 2024
151 – I understand attacks are made against “players” not identities. I’m trying to to think this through and understand. A villain attacks me and I defend with an ally, the boost card is about to be flipped over and I have defiance in my hand, can I play it? Is the enemy attacking “you” the player still or did it switch to the target character? But also the exception to the you rule is still a thing for responses which would be after the point of a boost card flip during that attack.
You can’t play Defiance while your ally is defending an attack. Although it is possible to resolve certain Defense-labeled abilities when your ally is defending, the ability on Defiance specifically refers to “you,” and must be interpreted as “your identity” per the rules of the “You” entry. The exception in the “You” entry does not apply to the ability on Defiance.
-Alex – March 15, 2024
152 – If I am playing as Captain America with a Pool aspect. Captains Shield is a restricted item. And if I include laser swords from the pool aspect, that counts as 2 restricted weapons. Am I able to play side holster that will allow the extra restricted weapon to keep both the shield and swords out on the board? The reason I say yes is that side holster allows a second restricted weapon. Which I believe would fulfill the swords restriction. But since the shield is an item and not a weapon, I worry about being correct.
Laser Swords counts as two Restricted Weapon cards, so it does interact with Side Holster. As long as you play Side Holster before reaching the Restricted limit, you can have both Captain America’s Shield and Laser Swords in play at the same time.
-Alex – March 22, 2024
153 – Regarding Spider-Woman and the ‘Pool aspect: If I’m adding 12 ‘Pool cards to her deck, do I add 10 leadership (because Pheromones takes me to 12)? Or do I add 12 aspect cards (and Pheromones takes me up to 14)?
Since Spider-Woman’s identity-specific cards count as cards of their indicated aspect, these must be taken into account when building her deck. Therefore, you’d need to build with 10 Leadership (because Pheromones adds +2) and 12 ‘Pool aspect cards.
-Alex – March 22, 2024
154 – How does Team Training or Government Liaison interact with Med Lab and Lockjaw? Can Lockjaw be the target of Team Training, since he can be played from the discard pile “as of in hand”? Likewise with an ally under Med Lab? In the case of White Tiger, would she trigger her response if played from Med Team?
- Did you mean “Team-Building Exercise · MarvelCDB” instead of “Team Training · MarvelCDB”? Team Training doesn’t fetch allies like Team-Building Exercise does, so I’m going to assume that’s the card you meant.
- Lockjaw cannot be played with Team-Building Exercise while in the discard pile. Lockjaw does not specify that you treat him as being “in your hand” when you play him from your discard pile, and Team-Building Exercise specifically targets allies in your hand.
- With Med Lab, you do treat the ally played from it “as if it was in your hand”, so upon playing White Tiger from Med Lab, you could resolve White Tiger’s ability.
-Alex – March 22, 2024
155 – Playing against Kang and he has his temporal shield attachment. There’s 5 minions in play. I play the Dive bomb event card and target one of those minions with the first sentence, dealing 7 damage to it. I target Kang and the other 4 minions with the second sentence. Does Kang protect the other minions when his shield triggers? It’s worded differently then taskmasters reflexes so we’re not sure if “that attack” includes all the damage from the second sentence or just the damage Kang would take. And if anything above is incorrect, please steer us back on track.
No; Kang’s Temporal Shield attachment only prevents the damage that would be dealt to Kang during an attack. If you play Dive Bomb in the manner described, Kang will only prevent the 1 damage dealt to him, not the damage dealt to other enemies.
-Alex – March 22, 2024
156 – I have a rules question for the Spiral scenario. If I remove the last threat from The search for Spiral side scheme and replace the adding of threat with for example Great responsibility. Do I softlock the scenario? Because the Forced Response only reacts to removing the last threat not to not having threat. And since responses can only act once on a single condition, I think, the side scheme has no threat left, so I can’t remove any of it to trigger the forced response again.
Correct; if you were to trigger the Forced Response on The Search for Spiral and then play Great Responsibility, you’d prevent any threat from being placed on the scheme, and would not be able to trigger its Forced Response again unless you found different a way to place more threat on it that you could then remove.
-Alex – April 26, 2024
157 – I’m playing the new Magik hero. Some questions came up. 1.The Clobber event returns to my hand if played using her ability, right? 2.With the Scrying event, if you only have 1 or 2 cards left in your deck, can you decide what to do with those between drawing 1, discarding 1 and putting 1 back on the deck?
- Yes, playing Clobber from the top of your deck as Magik allows you to put Clobber in your hand after resolving it as long as it’s the first card you played that round.
- Yes, you can play Scrying even if you have less than 3 cards left in your deck, and you can choose what to do with the remaining cards.
-Alex – May 2, 2024
158 – Can overpaying ant-man ally be benefited from team-building exercise? For example, will I be able to get 4 HP Ant-man ally by only paying 3 resources after exhausting team-building exercise?
No. Team-Building Exercise reduces the resource cost of the played ally by 1, and the resource cost of Ant-Man is 0. You being able to overpay resources to give him HP is not affected by Team-Building Exercise.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
159 – Few questions. 1. I found some timing rules under the retaliate entry about taking damage that might be what I was looking for. I believe the Bishop hero response of “taking damage from an attack” triggers during step 4 of an enemy attack which means it happens before retaliate and before “after attacks” “after attacks and damages” and “after defends” responses. Meaning I could discard for resources before his text is blanked by the pestlience villain. Is this correct? 2.Can I trigger both copies of Bishops supercharged upgrade when both have enough counters to give max damage resulting in +16ATK? 3. In the four horseman scenario, does the active counter move when a villain that doesn’t have the active counter activates like from a treachery? And if it does move, who does it move to? 4.If the Magiks hero’s text box is blank, do effects like her Soul Strike event check the top card for specific resources or is that only when the top card is face up when her constant ability is active? 5.In the 3rd scenario of the campaign, Apocalypse, when a new stage is revealed from the main scheme completing, do you immediately reset the villain hit point dial?
- Yes; Bishop’s Response to taking damage triggers during step 4 of the attack, and Pestilence’s Forced Response triggers after step 4 of the attack is completed.
- Yes, you can trigger both copies of Super-Charged for the same attack and get a bonus from each, up to +16 ATK.
- Yes; The Horsemen of Apocalypse instructs you to always move the active counter “to the next villain” after a villain activates. This happens even when the villain that had the active counter was not the one that activated. The active counter always moves 1 villain to the right (or from the rightmost villain to the leftmost villain), regardless of which villain activated.
- No; if Magik’s text box is treated as blank, the top card of her deck is flipped facedown, and abilities/effects that depend on the topmost card in her deck are ignored. You could still play Soul Strike to deal 4 damage, but you could not stun the enemy if the top card of your deck has its card back faceup (even if you knew what resource icon was on its other side).
- Yes, when a new stage of Apocalypse is flipped, you reveal it and reset his hit point dial.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
160 – We’re so looking forward to Age of apocalypse! We have a question about the full body charge aggression event. When does the second sentence check for what my hit points are? Example using an Action ability, I’m playing wolverine and my hit points are at 8. I trigger his claws upgrade action to play full body charge, taking 4 damage, does this attack gain overkill in addition to piercing? Example using a resource ability, I’m playing venom and my hit points are 6. I play full body charge, and use his symbiotic bond resource ability to help pay for it, taking a damage, does this attack gain overkill?
Full-Body Charge checks your hero’s hit points after you’ve paid its cost, but before resolving its ability text. This is because the second sentence gives the overkill keyword, which is applied simultaneously with the attack’s damage. So yes, if you take damage as part of paying the cost of Full-Body Charge (such as with Wolverine’s Claws or Venom’s Symbiote Bond), you’ll assess your hit points after you’ve finished paying.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
161 – If you play an attack event like uppercut, targeting a sinister 6 villain in play with 1 HP left and you use the audacity resource to help pay for it, defeating that villain with the response, what happens next?
As long as there is at least 1 Sinister Six villain in play, you can play Uppercut. You’d spend Audacity + 2 other resources and resolve Audacity’s 1 damage immediately, dealing 1 to a villain in play. If this defeats the villain you intended to damage with Uppercut, you have the option to deal 5 to a different enemy instead if possible. If there is no other enemy in play, you discard Uppercut without dealing its damage.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
162 – I was playing a game last night and we got tripped up on the forced interrupt ability on the ringing side of venom’s bell tower environment card. Venom attacked me and I defended with an ally and his attack had overkill. I’m not sure when and or if his tower triggers here?
Because overkill damage is considered damage “from an attack,” chime counters will be removed from Bell Tower, equal to however much overkill damage would be dealt to the identity. For instance, if Venom’s ATK is 5, his attack has overkill, and he damages an ally with 3 HP remaining, 2 damage would be dealt by overkill to the identity, meaning 2 chime counters will be removed from Bell Tower (if there are 2 or more chime counters there) and the identity can prevent damage dealt to them equal to the chime counters removed (2).
-Alex – May 10, 2024
163 – With the Out of reach attachment from the flight encounter set, it’s ability seems to assume that all damage comes from attacks. Can the villain take damage from non attacks?
No, the villain can’t take damage from nonattacks while Out of Reach is attached. We recognize that the ability could have been clearer; you can think of it as saying “the villain cannot take damage from any source, unless…”
-Alex – May 10, 2024
164 – Some more questions for ya 1.I’m playing as Gamora. I have a confused status card on me. An enemy attacks me and I play her crosscutter event which has a triple label of (attack)(thwart) and (defense). I understand that I need to remove the confused status card and that replaces all the effects of the card. I also understand that I’m still considered to have defended this attack even though I didn’t prevent the 3 damage. Am I also considered to have attacked? 2.Same question but switch the confused status card with the stun status card. Would I still be considered to have thwarted? 3.If the basic gamora ally is made to attack from the old rivals treachery card, I understand she doesn’t exhaust and she will take consequential damage. Can her response trigger for the controlling player?
We are implementing a change to one of the rulings you mentioned: if you play Crosscutter in order to remove 1 or more status cards, you are not considered to have defended. The removal of the status replaces all abilities on the card, including the attack/thwart/defend actions. We are planning to clarify this in our next rules reference update. And yes, if the Gamora ally attacks via Old Rivals, her controller can trigger her Response ability.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
165 – What happens to permanent attachments like flight from the next evolution box when it starts on one villain in a scenario but the villain later changes, like with the morlocke siege or mansion attack scenarios?
Permanent cards cannot leave play, and attachments by definition must be attached to another card while in play. Therefore, you should attach Flight to a villain in play if the villain it was attached to left play.
Thanks! What about a possible situation where there is no villain in play like in the sinister 6 scenario, does the attachment get discarded then with no legal target to attach to?
In that situation, keep the attachment in play (because it’s permanent) and attach it immediately to the next eligible villain that enters play.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
166 – Trying to understand some timing. -Playing as Spider-man (Peter Parker) against Ultron. -A facedown drone minion is in play with the spider tracer upgrade attached. -The build support player side scheme is in play with 3 threat on it. -The facedown drone happens to be the web of life and destiny support card. – The minion is defeated triggering spider tracer, triggering build support, when exactly is the spider tracer upgrade and drone minion discarded in this situation?
- The Drone minion takes enough damage to be defeated. However, Spider-Tracer interrupts the discarding of the minion, as its own ability must be resolved first.
- The controller of Spider-Tracer removes 3 threat from Build Support, defeating Build Support; this triggers its “When Defeated” ability, which must be resolved immediately.
- The controller then searches for a support card currently in their deck or discard pile.
- Having resolved all abilities triggered, return to discarding the Drone minion.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
167 – I’m trying to understand how Interrupts work more clearly. Looking at 1.5 rules reference. I understand an interrupt triggers *when it’s triggering condition initiates and before it’s resolved and a interrupt that uses “would” triggers *before it’s triggering condition initiates. Looking at illyana Rasputin alter-ego from the upcoming campaign expansion, when changing form, is there an initiation step? I noticed it doesn’t use the word “would” so I’m confused as to what for I’m in when you trigger the ability and if your in hero form the alter ego is no longer in play. Is it missing “would”? If changing form has a 2 step process, do basic powers also first initiate? For example, do I play the skilled strike aggression event before I exhaust to use a basic ATK power?
We wouldn’t say there’s an initiation step when flipping from alter-ego form to hero form. The way that you resolve Illyana’s ability is that you declare your intent to flip, resolve the Interrupt, then proceed with flipping to your hero form. Also, usually the word “would” is used in an Interrupt to signify a replacement effect occurring, but Illyana’s ability doesn’t replace her flip to hero form, it just adds an additional step to the process.
To play Skilled Strike, you need to declare your intent to basic attack and exhaust your hero first, then you can play Skilled Strike. (Tony phrased it as exhausting is the “cost” to perform a basic attack. This is similar to how some defense cards, like Desperate Defense, are resolved: after the hero exhausts.)
-Alex – May 10, 2024
168 – Regarding Deadpools armed to the teeth upgrade. 1.Does the upgrade you swap in with retain the same state the previous one was in? (Ready/exhausted) 2.Can you swap an upgrade you control in your play area with an upgrade that uses “attach to”? 3.Can you swap an upgrade you control attached to something with an upgrade that doesn’t attach to something? 4.Can you swap an upgrade attached to something with another upgrade that attaches to something? And does it have to be attached to the same target that the other one was attached to? 5.Do cards swapped and put under armed to the teeth lose any counters on them? 6.Does “swap” get around play restrictions like attach to a guardian ally? (Assuming you can choose attach to upgrades from question 2)
When Armed to the Teeth “swaps” one Weapon upgrade for another, the swapped-in Weapon (“A”) should be placed in the same location as the swapped-out Weapon (“B”).
For instance, if B was attached to a character, A should be attached to that same character. Disregard any “attach to” requirements on A when swapping it in this way.
If B was not attached to a character, A would not be either, even if A would normally “attach to” a character. A is still in play, though.
Since you’re putting A into play this way, it enters play ready and with all of its “uses” if any. Since you’re removing B from play this way, remove any counters from B.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
169 – I was hoping to get a better understanding of how “choose” works in this game. Bullet two of Choose (game element) in the 1.5 online rules reference states that if a player card requires the choosing of a target and there is no valid target, the ability cannot be initiated. But I’ve seen a ruling where Visions Phase Disruption event allows me to confuse an enemy even if there isn’t an attachment on that enemy with the text hero action or hero response to discard. Does this work because the first effect in the ability doesn’t require a choose target? In comparison, The doctor strange invocation event, Vapors of valtorr has two effects but the choose effect comes before the second effect, can I play vapors of valtorr just for second effect of placing it in the invocation deck discard pile when there isn’t a status card in play?
- Yes, you can play Phase Disruption to confuse an enemy without an attachment. The “choose an attachment” sentence doesn’t limit the entire ability, only that sentence of the ability.
- Similarly, you can trigger the “Special” on Vapors of Valtorr even when there isn’t a status card in play.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
170 – I’m playing Stryfe and “His ability reads “while Stryfe is attacking you”, does this apply while an ally is defending? Or does it turn off whenever he’s attacking an ally?”
Yes, the ability is still active even when an ally is defending. For abilities that trigger “While _ is attacking you,” “you” refers to the player attacked, and not necessarily the character that defended the attack.
171 – A few follow ups! Does Stryfes constant ability “trigger”? With the Storm event card Flash Freeze, the -3 atk applies when defending with allies as well? And if other players defend, does it also apply or is the “you” locked in to the original player because it’s a triggered ability and that’s the difference between it and amd the Stryfe constant? And is this kind of another exception to the “you” rule?
- We wouldn’t say Stryfe’s ability triggers, given it’s a constant ability. Granted, he won’t always have bonus ATK, but he will receive bonus ATK upon initiating an attack, and if the cards in the attacked player’s hand change during the attack, Stryfe’s bonus ATK will change with it.
- Depends. If Storm plays Flash Freeze, per the rules of defense events, she must be the defender of the villain’s attack and no other character can defend that attack. But, if any minions attack Storm that phase, other characters can defend those attacks; however, Storm will only give those minions -3 ATK if she defends with characters that she controls. If another player defends, Storm won’t give the minion -3 ATK.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
172 – With gamora’s conditioning room support card, can I choose between returning the bottommost thwart event OR the bottomomost attack event to my hand? For clarity, I have a thwart event and an attack event in my discard pile. Does the ability mean bottommost card that has either of those traits or does it give you the option to get the bottommost thwart even if an attack is underneath it and vice versa?
No, you have to take the bottommost card that has either the Attack or Thwart trait.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
173 – Check our understanding. Based on the timing section in the rules, The amplify icon and constant abilities come before interrupts. Interrupts come before boost abilities. So with cards like Attacrobatics, Foiled and Preemptive Strike, do we understand correctly that they… -Can cancel boost icons gained from the amplify icon or a constant ability that increases the number of boost icons on that card like for example with the next evolution side scheme. -Cannot cancel boost icons gained from boost abilities like for example with the unstable sentience treachery.
And in the case of a boost card that has both an ability that gains boost icons and at least one printed boost icon like the I see you treachery, you can cancel the printed boost icon and any gained from an amplify icon or constant ability but could not cancel the additional boost gained if a goblin minion was engaged with you in that example. Do we have all that right?
You are correct. When a boost card is flipped faceup during step 3.a. of an Enemy Attack activation, the amplify icon and any constant abilities affecting that card resolve first, then any interrupts to the boost card turning faceup. During step 3.b. is when “Boost” effects resolve, which is after the point in which boost icons are canceled. So, a card like Attacrobatics can cancel the boost icons printed on a card, plus icons it gains via amplify or constant abilities; but it doesn’t cancel any boost icons given to that card via a “Boost” effect.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
174 – I understand that I can attempt to attack or use an (attack) ability while I’m stunned, even if there are no enemies that can be attacked, just to clear that stun. I’m assuming this is also true even if the characters ATK is 0? And while I’m stunned, I can use Bishops rifle with no resource cards in my hand? Wondering if that while stunned, you don’t even need to be able to “affect” a target like with the 2 above examples. Same thing with confused.
Yes, a character with 0 ATK can still initiate a basic attack in order to remove a stunned status.
Yes, you can use Bishop’s Rifle to clear a stunned status, even with no resource cards in your hand.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
175 – I need some help with Quicksilver’s double time event regarding choose rules. How does it resolve between the following? Choose 1st Option – Resolve 1st option. Choose 2nd Option – Resolve 2nd option. OR Choose two options – Resolve both simultaneously. Game example, a side scheme is in play with 2 threat and a crisis icon. The main scheme also has 2 threat.
As outlined under “Initiating Abilities,” you should choose which options you are taking after paying the cost of the card, but before resolving it. You also need to have a valid target in play for the options that you choose, noting that you can choose “Remove 2 threat from a scheme” twice at this step because each option is evaluated independently of the consequences of the other.
You can then resolve your chosen options in either order, treating them as “separate sentences” of a single ability. If you resolve one sentence and then a new valid target appears for the next sentence, you can use the new target for that sentence.
In summary, yes, you can use Double Time to remove threat from a side scheme with crisis, and then if that scheme leaves play you can remove threat from the main scheme.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
176 – I’m playing with the ‘pool aspect and came across a situation we need help with. I play the “I got this” event while there are multiple different icons in play. Do I resolve these simultaneously? An icon could no longer be in play based on the order but we’re not sure if the check is made when the event is played and it remembers what icons were in play at that time. Example. Playing against Mister sinister and he’s the only enemy in play. The teleported away side scheme is in play which has a crisis icon and 2 threat on it. I have the kidpool ally in play which has an acceleration icon. I play I got this, Mister sinister cannot take damage while the teleported side scheme is in play so I need to resolve the acceleration icon on my ally to remove the threat from it, defeating it, but now there isn’t a crisis icon in play anymore for me to resolve to deal the 3 damage to him. Is that the way it works?
You’ll check which icons are in play when you play “I Got This”, and then you can resolve the bullets on it in the order that you choose. You can first remove the threat from Teleported Away, then you can deal 3 damage to Mister Sinister.
177 – I’m playing as the Spectrum hero. I’m in alter ego form. I reveal her obligation “loss of control”. It says cannot “change” energy forms does that mean… 1.When I change to hero form, her forced response fails to flip a facedown energy form upgrade faceup Or 2.After I change to hero form and after the forced response flips a facedown energy form upgrade faceup of my choice, I cannot change that energy form into a different energy form. 3.Both 4.Something else.
Option 1. If you receive Spectrum’s Loss of Control while in Alter-Ego form, you would not be able to change into any of Spectrum’s energy forms until you got rid of Loss of Control. If you flipped to hero form, you’d leave all of Spectrum’s energy forms facedown.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
178 – With split personality, I change form then draw a new hand. I draw a response to changing form card like surprise attack, is it too late to respond to changing form because that was the first sentence of the effect?
No. You resolve Split Personality sentence by sentence; changing your form is a separate step from drawing cards, and the window of opportunity to respond to changing forms has passed when you draw Surprise Attack.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
179 – With the mission team support card in age of apocalypse. We noticed it doesn’t say played “this phase”, can we stack this action to for example play a 6 cost ally to the mission for 0 over 3 rounds?
The intention is that Mission Team will reduce the cost of the next ally played to the mission this phase by 2. We are planning to give it an erratum to reflect this.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
180 – Two more questions for ya!
1.If I reveal the worried father obligation while the George Stacy support is not in my deck, discard pile or play area but rather somewhere like the seized! side scheme in magneto, the collection in the collector or under the stolen memories obligation in kang, can the alter ego action on worried father still add him to my hand from those places? I saw a similar ruling about cyclops lost visor obligation and wanted to see if I understand correctly that if a card doesn’t name specific places to check for named cards then it can be found anywhere.
2. If I buff spider woman’s stats during the player phase and in the villain phase I reveal a card that blanks her text box like tabala rasa 16 from Deadpool nemesis set, does that make her lose her current stat buffs? In case I get attacked that same phase and it could matter for her DEF. I believe the buffs remain but I was trying to understand the rules entry for lasting effects as it mentions a lasting effect remains even if the card the ability was on leaves play but it didn’t mention anything about blank text so wanted to make sure!
- Yes, Worried Father should be treated the same as the Lost Visor obligation, where you follow the text as closely as possible. If you can’t find the named card in the specific areas mentioned, the search fails and the card does not attach, but the obligation remains in play. Then if you use the Alter-Ego action on the obligation, you add the named card to your hand from wherever it currently is.
- Yes, if you use Spider-Woman’s hero ability to give her increased stats, it creates a lasting effect that persists even if her ability is blanked by Tabula Rasa 16.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
181 – I couldn’t find anything about the word “replace” in the rules reference and we had a question come up. Does playing the vapors of valtorr event trigger the mister sinister villain ability?
No; if you use Vapors of Valtorr to replace a status card on Mister Sinister with a different status card, you do not trigger Mister Sinister’s Forced Response.
-Alex – May 10, 2024
182 – I wanted to clarify a couple card functions, mostly player cards: 1) Cable’s Temporal Leap, how does this work exactly? If the main scheme has 6 out of 7 threat and the villain schemes for 6, would the players still lose because Temporal Leap removes 4 and leaves 8 threat on the main scheme? 2) Ironheart v3, is the Maximum Efficiency hero ability intended to be limit once per phase/round or can it be used for each progress counter available? 3) Rogue’s Energy Transfer, can this target the character that Touched is already attached to? It would seem to be a valid target and allow Rogue to ready if exhausted. 4) Can the hero action on Search for Spiral side scheme (Take 2 damage. Remove 3 threat) be used more than once per phase?
- Yes. Temporal Leap can be resolved when the main scheme completing is imminent, but before the threat is physically placed on the main scheme. It’s possible to use Temporal Leap’s ability there, then place the pending threat on the main scheme and still lose.
- There is no limit on Ironheart V3’s Maximum Efficiency ability; you can use it for as many progress counters you have on her. Just note that each time you do so is a separate action.
- No. Energy Transfer’s ability cost requires Rogue to attach Touched to a character, and an upgrade can’t attach to a character it’s already attached to.
- Yes; the Hero Action on The Search for Spiral can be performed multiple times in a phase (both with and without its erratum).
-Alex – May 10, 2024
183 – I play Venom, in Hero form, ready I get “Struggle for Control” and I don’t want to choose option 1, but there are no remaining set-aside Enraged Symbiote. Can i still choose option 2 and resolve the surge, or do I have to choose option 1 ?
Yes, you can choose bullet #2 even if there is no Enraged Symbiote set-aside, and have the obligation surge.
184 – I play Venom, in Alter-Ego form, ready I get “Struggle for Control” and I don’t want to choose option 1, but there are no remaining set-aside Enraged Symbiote. Can i still choose option 2 and resolve the surge, or do I have to choose option 1
Our answer is the same; you can still choose the second bulleted option to resolve surge and discard Struggle for Control.
-Alex – May 16, 2024
185 – I was just wondering if there is any functional difference in the pestilence villain ability and the tabula rasa 16 attachment ability? One uses “printed text box” and one uses “text box”.
No, there is no functional difference between the two abilities.
-Alex – May 16, 2024
186 – Can you discard a “wild” resource from your hand when doing an action like on the Kang obligation “stolen memories” that has you “discard a mental resource” or does this not work since you only treat the wild as a different resource type if its being “spent”? If I’m playing Iceman and I have desperate defense in my hand, can I exhaust to defend, trigger Icemans freeze interrupt and then trigger the response on Cryokinetic perception to see if I can draw an Ice card and ready, then if Iceman doesn’t ready using the response on Cryokinetic perception can I chose to now play desperate defense?
- No. For a wild resource to be treated a different type of resource, it must be “spent.” Stolen Memories does not specify that the discarded mental resource is “spent,” so a wild resource cannot be used for the ability; only a printed mental resource can be used.
- Yes. Cryokinetic Perception is a Response to “Freeze!”’s Interrupt ability, so it must be resolved immediately after “Freeze!” and in the same timing window, as in the “Interrupts to Iceman’s basic defense” timing window. You’re still in the window after you draw 1 with Cryokinetic Perception, so you have an opportunity to play Desperate Defense before continuing with the enemy attack.
-Alex – May 16, 2024
187 – I want to make sure I understand how paying for a card works exactly. Step 1. “Generate” as many resources as you want to or are able to by discarding cards from your hand with a resource icon and or using a bold Resource: triggered ability. Step 2. Decide which of the generated resources you want to “spend” to “pay” for the cost of the card. Any remaining generated resources are considered “overpaid” and lost unless an ability specifically allows you to use those. So for example I want to play the drop kick aggression event. I place it on the table faceup. I generate 3 physical and 1 energy resources with the strength and stored energy resource cards. I then choose to spend the 3 physical resources to pay to make sure I get to stun the enemy and draw 1 card. Afterwards the energy resource which I overpaid with is now lost. Is that all correct?
Yes; you can spend Stored Energy and Strength to pay for Drop Kick, and declare that you only “paid for” Drop Kick using the 3 physical resources on the spent cards, thereby “overpaying” the energy resource.
Would you consider paying a cost a multi step process?
No, we would say that generating, paying, and overpaying resources all occurs in the same step (specifically step 4 of “Initiating Abilities”); but because they occur in the same step, the player is permitted to state which resources are “paid” vs. “overpaid.”
-Alex – May 16, 2024
188 – I wanted to double check on something, I’m playing as Deadpool against the venom goblin scenario with 3 main schemes. The sinister motives booklet says that when an acceleration token would be placed on the main scheme, place it on the one with the glider counter. But the the skies over New York environment says that player cards that effect the main scheme can apply to any main scheme. Do I get to pick which main scheme to place an acceleration token on with Deadpool’s hero ability? And with his montage resource card, can I pick which main scheme it’s effected by when spending it?
With Deadpool’s hero ability, the acceleration token must be placed on the main scheme with the glider counter, as the scenario rules state this is how acceleration tokens are placed. The Skies Over New York reminder text is intended to address only rules not already covered in the rulebook, and does not create an exception for player card effects that place acceleration tokens. With Montage specifically, it does not place an acceleration token, but instead checks “the main scheme” for how many acceleration tokens are on it; for this, you can choose any main scheme to check.
-Alex – May 16, 2024
189 – I have two questions regarding Magik’s ability to play the top card of her deck as if in hand: “Once per phase, you may play the top card of your deck as if it was in your hand, reducing its resource cost by 1.” 1. Can I play her ally Colossus in the villain phase from the top of her deck using his ability “Interrupt: When an enemy attacks you, play Colossus from your hand (paying his resource cost) and declare him the defender without exhausting him.”? 2. Can I play the top card of her deck with Team-Building Exercise: “Hero Action: Exhaust Team-Building Exercise → play a card from your hand that shares a trait with your hero, reducing its resource cost by 1.”?
Yes; using Magik’s ability, you can play Colossus (AOA #31) from the top of your deck during the villain phase and trigger his Interrupt ability. Yes; while playing a card from the top of your deck as Magik, it is considered to be “in your hand” for abilities such as Team-Building Exercise. (However, the card is not considered in your hand for other purposes, such as when you need to spend a resource or discard a card “from hand.”)
-Alex – May 16, 2024
190 – I’m playing as Wolverine. I a stunned. I use his claws upgrade to play his slice and dice event which has 2 separate attacks. Does the attack with piercing have to be the first one that is replaced with the stun status card?
If Wolverine is not stunned when he uses Wolverine’s Claws to pay for Slice and Dice, only the first attack gains piercing. However, if Wolverine is stunned when he uses Wolverine’s Claws to pay for Slice and Dice, the first attack made with Slice and Dice is replaced with the removal of the stunned status, and no attack is made; therefore, the second attack of Slice and Dice does gain piercing
-Alex – May 16, 2024
191 – I have a rules question about the Wrecking Crew scenario. For their special boost abilities, both Escaped Convict and Chaos In The Prison refer to “this attack”, implying that if it is a boost for a scheme, nothing happens. Is this correct? Also, if I drew “I’ve been Waiting For This!”, as a boost to an attack, which caused the scheme for which I drew Escaped Convict as the boost, does that change the answer (since the original boost effect is to make a different villain scheme before the attack resolves)?
You are correct, that if a boost ability references “this attack” when no attack is being made, that part of the ability is ignored. For Escaped Convict, no additional attack would occur; for Chaos In The Prison, you would not discard an upgrade.
As for “I’ve Been Waiting For This!”, I’m checking if we understood the sequence correctly:
- Villain 1 attacks and IBWFT is the boost, causing Villain 2 to scheme;
- you’d resolve the rest of Villain 1’s attack, then immediately resolve Villain 2’s scheme;
- you’re almost guaranteed to be in hero form from Villain 1’s attack, so when the boost ability on Escaped Convict resolves, a new attack will initiate and resolve once you’re finished with Villain 2’s scheme.
Does that answer your question? The current rule is you don’t interrupt one enemy’s activation with another enemy’s activation; instead, you resolve the new activation immediately after all steps and Responses to the first activation are finished.
-Alex – May 16, 2024
192 – I was looking at the errata’d version of Steel Fist and the ‘valid target’ rules in RRG v1.5, and I am not certain how to apply ‘valid target’ to this kind of effect. When you have an ability in the form that the errata’d Steel Fist has, how much of that ability needs to have a valid target? Clearly, if there is an enemy that can be damaged then the first sentence is enough to make the ability as whole legal to play. But let’s say the only enemy in play can’t be damaged, and is both Stunned and Confused, can I play Steel Fist just to remove a Tough status from Colossus? I assume that if the only enemy in play can’t be damaged, and Colossus has no Tough status, then the ability cannot be used at all.
The target for the first sentence of Steel Fist is an enemy that you can deal damage to. The target for the second sentence is the same enemy (i.e. “that enemy” that you dealt 5 damage to). This is similar for other abilities that use the phrasing “that enemy.” The Tough status card is not considered a valid target for the ability, and you can’t use Steel Fist if you’re only looking to remove a Tough status from Colossus.
-Alex – May 23, 2024
193 – I have a few questions regarding Great Responsibility (Core Set #61). 1. Can I use it when my Identity is Tough? We assume that being Tough prevents my identity from being a ‘valid target’ for taking damage. 2. Is that assumption correct? But, also, we are not sure if any other game elements mentioned in Great Responsibility’s ability are considered ‘targets’. 3. Are the referenced scheme or the affected threat also targets?
Yes, you can play Great Responsibility while your hero is Tough. We’d define the target of Great Responsibility to be the threat about to be placed; when you play Great Responsibility, you are targeting this threat and replacing it with damage. You’re not targeting the scheme and technically not targeting your hero, even though your hero may be affected by the ability. Another note is that Great Responsibility does not have an ability cost requiring you to take the damage, and so the inability to take the damage—such as if it’s prevented by Tough—should not affect your ability to play the card.
-Alex – May 23, 2024
194 – If I am playing as Gambit and I draw Shadow of the Past, putting Belladonna (Gambit #26) and The Assassins Guild (Gambit #27) into play, will Belladonna’s Quickstrike attack fully resolve before the Side Scheme comes into play, due to following SotP’s ability one sentence at a time? Or does the Quicksrike wait for SotP to fully resolve? It feels like the intention is for Belladonna’s Quickstrike attack to trigger the Forced Ability on the Side Scheme.
When Shadow of the Past puts Belladonna into play, her Quickstrike keyword resolves by initiating the attack (making it so the attack resolves as soon as the ability that put her into play finishes). You’d finish resolving all text on Shadow of the Past, then you’d resolve the rest of Belladonna’s Quickstrike attack.
-Alex – May 23, 2024
195 – If I have Determined Defense (Mutant Genesis 189) in play, and I exhaust my Hero to defend an attack, will my DEF reduce the amount of threat Desperate Defense would remove, assuming I trigger it?
Yes. The damage dealt by the attack is replaced with the removal of threat, and making a basic defense decreases the damage dealt by the attack by the defending character’s DEF.
-Alex – May 23, 2024
196 – I am playing solo against Magneto, Boarding Party (Magneto cannot have more than 6pp sustained damage) is in play, Magneto has sustained 5 damage, and has Magnetic Bubble (When Magneto would take any amount of damage, place it here instead) attached. If I deal 2, or more, damage to him, how much damage is he considered to have taken, and how much is placed on Magnetic Bubble?
All damage dealt is placed on Magnetic Bubble. Boarding Party does not reduce damage dealt to Magneto, only the damage he can sustain (as in, his HP dial can’t go below a certain number). You still “deal” the full damage of your attack to him, redirecting it all to Magnetic Bubble in this case.There’s one part that’s not entirely clear to me, however. You state that “[these abilities are] taken into account before any interrupts to dealt damage”, but Titanium Exoskeleton affects damage *taken*. So, do these abilities also affect damage *dealt*, or are they some kind of delayed effect that resolve earlier than they actually affect the game state?
We received a rules question this week asking about damage-reducing constant abilities, and came to a new conclusion for Boarding Party and Magnetic Bubble. Damage-reducing constant abilities (like on Titanium Exoskeleton) have a higher timing priority than interrupt abilities that reduce or redirect damage taken; so when a character is dealt damage, any constant abilities that affect the damage they take are calculated first, then interrupt abilities that affect the damage they take are calculated after. We want Boarding Party to be treated the same, as a damage-reducing constant ability that is taken into account before any interrupts to dealt damage. To restate, if Boarding Party is in play in a 1-player game, Magneto can sustain 6 damage max; if he’s sustained 5, then is dealt damage, Boarding Party makes it so he can only take 1, and then that 1 damage is placed on Magnetic Bubble.I apologize for the confusion. I intended to say “Boarding Party is a damage-reducing constant ability that is taken into account before any interrupts to taken damage.” Once damage is dealt, then the damage taken is determined first by constant abilities affecting damage taken, then interrupts affecting damage taken. Does that make sense?[Reversed by ruling 205]
-Alex – May 23, 2024 – June 6, 2024
197 – The rules suggest that only enemies dealt damaged by an attack are considered attacked “When an attack deals damage to multiple enemies, the attacking character is considered to have attacked each of those enemies.” And it’s previously been ruled that flurry of blades only triggers retaliate on characters it deals damages to not on those that it just confuses because only characters it deals damage to are attacked. Does this mean if I play Tackle to stun an enemy but don’t deal them damage they are considered a target of an attack so I won’t trigger retaliate? Am I considered to have attacked for other effects?
Any enemy targeted by an Attack-labeled event or ability is considered “attacked,” even if that ability doesn’t deal damage to that enemy. We recognize this isn’t spelled out in the current rules, so we want to make that clearer in an upcoming rules reference update.
The rulings we made for Flurry of Blades assumed that only Psi-Katanas were in play, having the player deal multiple instances of damage, and were not intended to make any statements on Flurry’s confuse effect; we apologize for the confusion that this has caused.
If you confuse an enemy with Flurry of Blades, you are still considered to have attacked that enemy, and would trigger that enemy’s Retaliate if it has that keyword. Similarly, if you stun an enemy with Tackle but don’t deal damage to that enemy, you are still considered to have attacked that enemy, and will trigger that enemy’s Retaliate if it has that keyword.
-Alex – May 30, 2024
198 – Would the Jubilee hero be discarded from play if the mutants at the mall side scheme is defeated?
No, identity cards can’t be discarded. When you defeat Mutants at the Mall, the game recognizes that the Jubilee ally is a unique character that can’t be in play with the Jubilee hero, so the Jubilee ally is removed from the game. (Do not put her in the victory display.)
-Alex – May 30, 2024
199 – Ice Wall has an interrupt that fires when an identity would take any amount of damage. When it accrues 8 or more damage, it is discarded, and the responsible enemy receives a Frostbite. I don’t understand the Frostbite. According to the most recent rules reference, damage is dealt at step 4 of an enemy activation. If during step 4, the Ice Wall receives fatal damage, cracks, and doles out a Frostbite, would the Frostbite not be immediately removed once the activation ends? The attached enemy finishes its activation, and all Frostbites should melt away. It seems like the Ice Wall’s Frostbite would have no impact on the game. What am I missing?
“As for Ice Wall, the way it’s meant to be played is that the attacking enemy deals its damage, that attack finishes, and then if Ice Wall is discarded, that enemy receives a copy of Frostbite that remains until its next activation. We are looking into a small update for Ice Wall that better matches its intent, but please play it with its intent in mind going forward.”
-Alex – May 30, 2024
200 – The rules state that “cannot is absolute”, but how “absolute” is it really? Specifically can the “golden rule” take precedence over something that cannot be done according to the rules reference? For example. The rules reference states: “Identity cards cannot be discarded from play” but the side scheme “Mutants at the Mall” (Project Wideawake scenario) states: “Flip this card and put Jubilee into play, discarding any other version of Jubilee from play.”
This looks like a very clear golden rule scenario to me, the card text specifically mentions any other versions of “Jubilee” and that should include the identity card with that very same name. However in this situation the golden rule would need to take precedence over a rule that uses the “absolute” cannot. If I were to play this scenario with the Jubilee hero, would the existing rules prevent my identity card from being discarded, because “cannot” is absolute, or would I need to follow the golden rule and thus I would have no choice but to never defeat the “mutants at the mall” side scheme?
It’s still true that identity cards cannot be discarded; Mutants at the Mall does not create an exception to that rule. We try to design the game to have “cannot” overrule just about everything else, even The Golden Rule. The way you should resolve the second sentence of Mutants at the Mall when the Jubilee identity card is in play is to flip Mutants at the Mall, recognize that the Jubilee ally and Jubilee hero are both unique and cannot both be in play, and remove the Jubilee ally from the game (do not put her in the victory display).
-Alex – May 30, 2024
201 – How does the Rogue and ally Gambit combo work?
“The combo works as described in the article. Here are a couple of relevant sections of the rules reference: Non-Numerical Variable If a non-numerical variable (such as a letter or other symbol) is used in place of a numerical value, treat that variable as being equal to 0 for the purpose of game steps, game functions, and card abilities. If a non-numerical variable is defined to have a numerical value (such as a card ability assigning a value to ‘X’), treat that variable as the defined value. Printed The word “printed” refers to the text, characteristic, or value that is physically printed on the card. Nothing in these sections suggests that the Rogue/Gambit combo does not work. There is room for the interpretation that Gambit’s “printed” ATK and THW are the value of X defined by his ability.”
-Tony Fanchi – June 4, 2024
202 – I am playing as Black Panther against Ultron stage II, I have two 1hp drones engaged with me, and I reveal Gang Up during encounter card step of the Villain Phase. Can I have the drones attack first? If so, can the drone from Ultron’s Forced Interrupt attack before Ultron does? When will Black Panther’s Retaliate 1 resolve, defeating the drones? And will this affect Ultron’s ATK?
Yes, when you reveal Gang-Up, the villain and enemies engaged with you initiate their attacks simultaneously, so you can resolve each attack in any order. Once you start resolving an attack, you must finish all steps of that attack and all abilities triggered by that attack before resolving the next attack.If Black Panther is engaged with two Drone minions when he reveals Gang-Up, you can follow these steps:Resolve Drone 1’s attack.Resolve Black Panther’s Retaliate 1 at the end of that attack.
Resolve Black Panther’s Retaliate 1 at the end of that attack.
Resolve Black Panther’s Retaliate 1 at the end of that attack.
Resolve Black Panther’s Retaliate 1 at the end of that attack.
I apologize, the [above] answer is incorrect. There’s a rule that I missed under “Activation” stating that when multiple enemies activate against a player simultaneously, the villain activation resolves first, then the minion activations. This rule should also apply to activations initiated by Gang-Up. Ultron would have to attack first, then Black Panther can resolve the 3 Drone attacks in any order.
-Alex – June 4, 2024
203 – Does Scarlet Witch’s hero ability and Crest interact with the new basic Gambit ally and if so how?
Yes, Gambit’s basic powers can be affected by Scarlet Witch’s Crest and other abilities in Scarlet Witch’s kit. The specific timing point in which you can trigger the Crest or Chaos Control is when you are using Gambit’s THW or ATK, as this is when you’re “counting” the boost icons. For example, if the card tucked beneath Gambit has 3 boost icons, Gambit can initiate a basic attack, then Scarlet Witch’s Crest can be used to give 1 extra boost icon, and Gambit can attack for 4 damage.
-Alex – June 6, 2024
204 – I’m playing as Iceman. His Hot-Headed obligation is in play. I play his Arctic Attack event, choosing the top bullet and targeting an enemy with 4 HP. I deal 4 damage to it, do I defeat it right away with that dealt damage or wait and attach a copy of frostbite first? I’m wondering if Hot-headed will trigger after this attack resolves?
All text in the first bullet of Arctic Attack is simultaneous, meaning the damage is dealt and the Frostbite attaches in the same step, before the enemy is defeated. This triggers the Forced Response on Hot-Headed, so you will take 1 damage.
-Alex – June 6, 2024
205 – I’m trying to understand how “cannot take more than X damage” effects interact with damage reduction effects. I believe that constant effects come before “would take” effects, such as “cannot take damage” preventing the triggering of a Tough status. But I have a couple points of uncertainty: I attack an enemy with Titanium Exoskeleton attached, dealing 6 damage (“Attached enemy cannot take more than 2 damage from a single attack.”).
(1) If it’s Magneto with Magnetic Bubble attached (“Forced Interrupt: When Magneto would take any amount of damage, place it here instead”), how much damage is placed on the bubble? (2) If it’s a minion with Jetpack attached (“Forced Interrupt: When attached minion would take any amount of damage from an attack, discard the top card of the encounter deck. Reduce damage from that attack by the number of boost icons discarded this way.”) and they discard a 3-boost, do they take 0 damage or 2 damage? Similarly, (3) I’m attacking Magneto with Magnetic Bubble attached, and Boarding Party is in play while he’s already sustained 4 damage. Is this the same as Titanium Exoskeleton in that he cannot “take” more than 2 damage, or do these effects work differently (and result in different amounts of damage on the Bubble)?
Finally, (4) suppose I am playing Bishop and use Energy Conversion (“Hero Interrupt (defense): When an enemy attacks, shuffle each resource card in your discard pile into your deck. You cannot take more than 3 damage from this attack.”), if the villain deals 6 damage to me, and I play Side Step, do I take 0 or 3 damage?
- Constant abilities that reduce damage will be applied before interrupt abilities that reduce damage, as long as they have the same timing trigger. So, Titanium Exoskeleton’s constant ability reducing damage taken comes into effect as soon as the damage dealt is calculated, and after that any interrupt abilities that reduce damage taken come into effect.
- If you attack an enemy for 6 damage and the enemy has Titanium Exoskeleton and Magnetic Bubble attacked, TE reduces the damage to 2, then you place 2 damage on MB.
- Similarly, if you attack an enemy for 6 while it has TE and Jetpack attached, TE reduces the damage taken to 2, then Jetpack’s interrupt triggers, and in your example the enemy takes 0 damage.
- Boarding Party is treated similar to TE (note, this is altering a previous ruling we made for BP), in that the amount of damage Magneto can “sustain” affects the amount of damage he can “take” when he’s dealt damage. In your example, assuming it’s a solo game, BP makes it so that he can only sustain 6 damage max, so if he’s already sustained 4, he can only take up to 2 damage whenever he’s dealt damage; if he’s attacked for more than 2 damage, only 2 damage is placed on Magnetic Bubble.
- Bishop’s Energy Conversion creates a lasting effect that has the same timing priority as a constant ability, so it’s treated similarly to the other cases: when damage is dealt to Bishop, EC reduces that damage to 3, then Side Step’s interrupt can be used to that Bishop ultimately takes 0 damage.
206 – Thank you for the answer! I’m left with one small doubt based on the references to dealt damage: You said that the constant abilities come into effect “as soon as the damage dealt is calculated”,
(1) Do you mean after it is entirely determined, i.e. after any interrupts that would change it? Or do you mean before those interrupts as soon as it’s damage being dealt (calculated in the sense of additional damage or DEF or similar).
(2) If it’s before the damage dealt interrupts, does it change the damage dealt? So, in my example is the damage dealt always 6, or does it change with effects like Titanium Exoskeleton and Energy Conversion?
(3) If it’s before the damage dealt interrupts, what would happen if an interrupt reduced the 6 damage dealt by 2 after the damage taken is capped at 3?
I apologize for the confusion.
Damage dealt is calculated before damage taken is calculated. This means that constant abilities, DEF, and interrupt abilities affecting damage dealt are calculated before constant abilities and interrupt abilities affecting damage taken.
That means for your example the damage dealt to Magneto is 6, and Titanium Exoskeleton comes into effect after—you dealt 6, but Magneto takes 2 (or would take 2, if Magnetic Bubble is in play).
Energy Conversion is similar in that it affects damage taken, not dealt; you can be dealt 6 by the villain, but EC states you only take 3 (and then you can play Side Step, an interrupt, to prevent that 3).
-Alex – June 6, 2024
207 – My identity is X-23. I defeated the side scheme “Superpower Training”, can I put the upgrade “Puncture Wound” into play attached to the Villain, even if X-23 or Honey Badger did not attack the Villain this turn? 2. Again, my identity is X-23. X-23 is exhausted and I plan to use “Grim Resolve”.
May I know if the event paid by “Grim Resolve” resolves first, or X-23 ready first after taking the damage from “Grim Resolve”? 3. My identity is Deadpool. I revealed his obligation “The Merc with the Mouth”, may I confirm does that limit a) the constant abilities of other players’ cards, b) both the cards in play and cards on hand, c) “Mission Team” support? 4. Again, my identity is Deadpool. Can I use all my remaining hp to play “Maximum Effort”? Subsequently, can I use “The Regeneratin’ Degenerate” to flip to alter-ego, and then flip back to hero given I didn’t flip previously? Does flipping to alter-ego cancel the “Maximum Effort” attack?
To answer your question(s):
- No; there is no valid target for Puncture Wound to attach to, even if it’s being “put into play.”
- First, you pay all costs for the chosen event simultaneously, including taking damage from Grim Resolve; then, you trigger X-23’s Response and ready; then, you resolve the event ability.
- The text “other players cannot resolve player card abilities during your turn” on The Merc with the Mouth refers to triggered abilities (including Action, Interrupt, and Response abilities) on cards in play and in hand, not constant abilities.
- Yes, you can use all remaining HP when playing Maximum Effort; if you do, you will resolve Deadpool’s interrupt after paying the cost, but before dealing damage to the enemy. You do not cancel the attack in this case. Once the attack is completed, Wade Wilson can flip back to hero form; the “once per turn” limit on flipping only applies to doing so voluntarily, not being forced.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
208 – I’m trying to understand the interaction between defending at the start of an enemy activation, and using interrupts with “when attacks you” timing. For example, Powerful Punch, Mutant Protectors, and Magik’s Colossus ally. Can you tell me which of the following plays are allowed, and who is the final defender in each case?
1. Player 1 is being attacked, they play Powerful Punch, and then Colossus from their hand. 2. Player 1 is being attacked, Player 2 plays Powerful Punch, and then plays Colossus from their hand. 3. Player 1 is being attacked, Player 2 plays Powerful Punch, then Player 1 plays Colossus from their hand. 4. Player 1 is being attacked, Player 1 plays Mutant Protectors, then plays Colossus from their hand. 5. Player 1 is being attacked, Player 2 plays Mutant Protectors, can either player then play Colossus from their hand?
To answer your question(s):
- P1 can play both because the attack was initiated against them and both interrupts resolve in the same window. In this case, P1 “locks in” being defender when they play Powerful Punch, and while Colossus can still be played, he does not become defender.
- P2 can play Powerful Punch to become defender, but cannot play Colossus because the enemy did not initiate an attack against them. (“When an enemy attacks you” = “when an enemy initiates an attack against you”)
- P2 becomes defender upon playing Powerful Punch, and since the enemy initiated its attack against P1, they can play Colossus but he does not become defender.
- We weren’t sure if P1 was playing Colossus with Mutant Protectors, or after playing a different ally with Mutant Protectors.
- If P1 plays Colossus with MP, they have to follow the ability on MP, declaring him defender and exhausting him.
- If P1 plays a different ally with MP, they declare that one defender of the attack, and they can still play Colossus with his ability afterward but he does not become defender.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
209 – I got a question re. the Aggression card ‘Suprise Move’ new in Iceman’s hero pack. Can I do the following: Basic Attack an enemy -> my Freeze interrupt to put a Frostbite upgrade on the enemy -> interrupt that basic attack with Surprise Move as its an interrupt with the condition ‘Basic Attack against enemy with upgrade’ and thus, get +2 ATK and can ready when the enemy is defeated? Or is this not possible because at the time I initiate my basic attack and the interrupts should take place the enemy has no upgrade yet? In my opinion it should work as both Interrupts have the same timing window (none is forced) and I give my basic attack interrupt precedence which the evolves into a basic attack against an enemy with Frostbite attached and thus, fullfiling the condition of Surprise Move, since the Basic Attack is not concluded until damage is placed on the enemy.
Yes, you can. Iceman’s interrupt and Surprise Move’s interrupt trigger in the same window and can be resolved in either order; you are able to attach Frostbite to the attacked enemy before Surprise Move checks if the enemy has an upgrade attached.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
210 – My question pertains to valid targets and damage. Under ‘target’, it says “a target is not valid for an ability if no part of that ability can affect that target” – Are enemies that “cannot take damage” valid targets for abilities that DEAL damage? – Are 0hp enemies like the Four Horsemen valid targets for attacks that deal damage? Can I attack one with Rocket Raccoon and trigger “Murdered You!”? – Does all of this also apply to basic attacks? Can Escaped Spiral be attacked by Iceman to trigger “Freeze”?
To answer your question(s):
- Enemies that specifically “cannot take damage” are not valid targets for attacks or other abilities that deal damage. However, the rule only applies to abilities with that specific wording, and not to damage-reducing abilities, Tough status cards, or enemies with 0 HP.
- Yes, Rocket Raccoon can deal damage to a Four Horsemen with 0 HP and trigger his “Murdered You!” ability.
- No, Iceman can’t initiate a basic attack against Escaped Spiral, because she “cannot take damage.”
-Alex – June 13, 2024
211 – When playing Deadpool against Venom Goblin, where should the Acceleration Token goes when Regenaratin’ Degenerate triggers or when playing Exhausting Personality? The Skies over New York says that player cards affect the main scheme of the players choice, but the FAQ says that acceleration tokens go in the main scheme with the glider on, so not sure which rule to apply here.
The acceleration token from either ability should be placed on the main scheme with the glider counter, following the scenario rules for acceleration tokens/icons. The reminder text on The Skies Over New York is intended to address card abilities not already covered in the rulebook, and does not create an exception for player card effects that place acceleration tokens.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
212 – 2 questions for ya. So we especially enjoy playing the scenarios that have multiple villains but we always have to look up what “the villain” means depending on which scenario we are playing. These are the entries from the official rules documents for each of these scenarios. Wrecking Crew “Any card effect that refers to “the villain” only refers to the active villain” Tower Defense “When a player plays a card or triggers an ability that refers to “the villain,” they must choose to which of the villains it refers. If a constant effect on a player card refers to “the villain,” that card always refers to the active villain” Sinister Six No entries Four Horseman “When a player triggers a player card ability that refers to “the villain,” they choose which villain they want to be the target of that ability. If a constant ability or keyword refers to “the villain,” it only refers to the active villain.” 1.Does the Sinister Six scenario function like the four horsemen and Tower defense? 2.Should the wrecking crew also function like the four horseman and tower defense?
- The Sinister Six scenario follows the same rules as Tower Defense and The Four Horsemen:
- When a player plays a card or triggers an ability on a player card that refers to “the villain,” they choose which villain. Similarly, when a friendly character makes a basic attack, they choose which villain to attack.
- When a constant ability or keyword refers to “the villain,” it’s always referring to the active villain.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
213 – Hello there, Iceman question. Can I deal 3 damage to enemies with a copy of frostbite attached with the Ice blast event to enemies engaged with players other then the player I choose with it’s last sentence effect?
Yes; when you play Ice Blast, you deal 3 damage to each enemy with a Frostbite attached, even ones that aren’t engaged with the chosen player.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
214 – We just played the wrecking crew scenario and a few questions came up that I was hoping you could help us with. 1. With the boost ability on the “I’ve been waiting for this” treachery card, does that scheme activation happen immediately right in the middle of the current activation? 2. If Thunder ball gets an escaped convict minion as boost card during his attack, does the other villain attack you before or after Thunderballs forced response triggers? 3. If you reveal the buddy system treachery while that villains encounter deck only has 1 card left, what is the correct timing of reshuffling that encounter deck, discarding buddy system and resolving the card it instructed you to reveal? 4. Do I understand correctly that if I attach the suppressing fire upgrade to a minion and another player defeats that minion, that player cannot trigger its Interupt ability? 5. I saw a ruling today that states when an effect causes multiple activations like the gang up treachery for example, you can choose the order in which those activations resolve. There is a bullet point under activation on page 6 of the current rules reference (1.5) that states in this situation the villain always activates first, followed by minions in any order. Does this new ruling replace that bullet point?
- No; a new activation cannot interrupt an activation currently resolving. Finish resolving the current villain’s activation (and responses to it), then resolve the new activation.
- After; resolve Thunderball’s attack and responses to it before resolving the new activation.
- When you reveal Buddy System, you reveal the top card of the villain’s deck, shuffle the empty deck immediately, resolve and discard the drawn card, then discard Buddy System.
- Correct; only the player who played Suppressing Fire can trigger its ability.
- No, that was an error on my part. The bullet in the rules reference should be followed when revealing Gang Up; resolve the villain’s attack first, then the minion attacks in any order.
-Alex – June 13, 2024
215 – 1.If an enemy character with stalwart has a tough status card, can you target that tough with the first effect of the vapors of valtorr event to replace it with a stun or confuse status card? 2.If your hero makes a basic attack with overkill against a minion, defeating the minion and damaging the villain, can I play Upside the head to confuse the villain or stun it if it’s already confused? 3.If the Cypher ally from the Psylocke hero pack were to have his ATK increased and gain overkill attacking a minion, defeating it and damaging a confused villain, does his response trigger to draw a card?
- No, a Stalwart enemy with Tough is not a valid target for Vapors of Valtorr’s ability, as a Stalwart enemy cannot be stunned or confused.
- Yes, damage dealt to a villain via overkill is considered damage from an attack, meaning your attack did “damage the villain” and the villain can then be confused/stunned.
- Yes, Cypher’s ability did “damage a confused enemy” via overkill, so you can draw 1 card.
-Alex – June 20, 2024
216 – 1.When an ability references the number of players without using the per player icon like the pursued by the past environment card, does this still check for the number of players that started the game or the number of players still in the game? 2.I’m playing as Rogue. Friend is playing as Iceman. I have the chill out event in my hand from using superpower adaptation. Can I attach one of the Iceman players set aside frostbite upgrades when I play the chill out event?
- The phrase “the number of players” as used on Pursued by the Past checks how many players started the game, just like the “per player” icon.
- Yes! As long as the event Rogue is playing doesn’t require her to pay a cost with a card she doesn’t control, she can resolve the event as written. Meaning, she can attach a set-aside copy of Frostbite to an enemy if she plays Chill Out!.
-Alex – June 20, 2024
217 – I have an Ice-man question for you that I want to make sure I understand. His freeze ability and the new surprise move aggression event have different triggering conditions but can I play surprise move after triggering freeze or does the target need to have an upgrade attached already?
You can. Because both “Freeze!” and Surprise Move’s Interrupt abilities resolve in the same timing window, they can be resolved in either order, and you check the validity of Surprise Move as you’re resolving it. Therefore, it’s possible to resolve “Freeze!” and attach a Frostbite to the attacked enemy before resolving Surprise Move.
-Alex – June 20, 2024
218 – If I use Wolverine’s Claws ability to play a Drop Kick attack event while ignoring its cost. Would it fulfill the requirements for Stun+Draw 1 card? Technically, when you reduce the cost to play this card to 2, it’s still can stun+1 draw as long as the two paid resources are physical resources. Would it work if the cost is effectively 0? Considering you didn’t paid other type of resources and there is no requirement keyword.
No; if you use Wolverine’s Claws to play Drop Kick, you have not spent any physical resources to play it, so you do not stun the enemy or draw 1 card.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
219 – May I know if the triggers “After Villain attacks you” and “After Hero/Ally defends against an attack” share the same timing window? For example, suppose my identity is Archangel. I’m fighting against the Four Horsemen, and Pestilence is about to activate against me. I plan to defend with ally Warpath, and play an Aerial event. Can I still trigger “Angel of Death”? I’m assume not, as both Pestilence and Warpath share the same timing window, and Forced Response takes precedence over Hero Response. Am I correct? 2. I have an enquiry regarding the wording of X-Mansion’s ability. Is the second sentence contingent upon the successful resolution of the first sentence? This seems inapplicable since X-Mansion is already exhausted, and another player cannot trigger this ability again. Or is the second sentence a constant ability that operates independently of the first sentence, meaning the second ability does not require the first sentence to be resolved for all cards? 3. When playing Psychic Manipulation, do I choose to play the card before or after flipping the boost card? Also, am I required to remove threat from the main scheme, or may I also remove threat from a side scheme? 4. If i remove threat from Specialist Training player side scheme using my basic thwart and then put Surveillance Specialist into play, can I utilize its ability to draw 1 card? They seem to be in the same timing window.
- Correct. The order of abilities would be the “After Pestilence attacks you” Forced Response, then the “After Warpath defends” Response, then playing the “Hero Action” event. By that time, Archangel’s text box would be blanked.
- No; the last sentence of X-Mansion is there to allow any player in Alter-Ego with the Mutant trait to use the ability. If X-Mansion is exhausted, its ability cannot be used by any player.
- Since Psychic Manipulation is an Interrupt, it must be played at the initiation of its triggering condition, which is the moment the villain initiates a scheme activation. The threat removed must be from the main scheme, not a side scheme.
- Yes, you could use Surveillance Specialist’s ability as soon as you put it into play following a basic thwart.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
220 – If Thanos has one life left on stage one and I attack him to do one damage and he changes to stage 2 where he now gains his helmet, do I get hit with retaliate? I would assume not since Retaliate states that after you attack an enemy with retaliate you take a damage but I didn’t attack an enemy with retaliate. He gained it later on.
No, retaliate does not trigger in that instance. Thanos Stage I was the one that took the damage and was defeated by it, Thanos Stage II did not take damage and does not trigger retaliate.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
221 – How do undefended enemy attacks that deal indirect damage work while the Robert Kelly ally is in play?
Robert Kelly’s ability forces you to deal all damage from an undefended attack to Robert Kelly, even if that enemy attack deals indirect damage.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
222 – Does the Scarlett Witch hero ability and Crest upgrade interact with her nemesis minions forced response ability?
Yes, Luminous’ ability checking for “2 or more boost icons” is also a “count” that Scarlet Witch can use Chaos Control and her Crest to change.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
223 – So in a multiplayer game we had the beetle minion from the wasp nemesis set in play. It’s not clear to us to which player resolves her forced interrupt? We couldn’t agree on which of the following: -The engaged player. -The first Player. -The player that defeated her.
The defeating player is the one to choose. We will plan a small erratum for this card to make it clearer.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
224 – I’m playing Wolverine hero, with Jubilee and Float like a butterfly both in play. if i play Unlikely Duo, the new team-up event, on a non-confused, non-steady, non-stalwart enemy How much damage will he take? 4 or 5?
4 damage. The ability on Float Like a Butterfly is an interrupt that triggers at the initiation of the attack, which would be before the enemy becomes confused or damaged by Unlikely Duo.
-Alex – July 11, 2024
225 – I wanted to understand “attacks and damages you” I’m playing against the mutagen formula scenario. Green goblin reads, “after green goblin attacks and damages you”… I understand this is my identity. If his attack were to gain overkill and I defended with an ally and my hero was damaged by overkill, did green goblin attack and damage my identity?
Yes; if your ally defends against Green Goblin’s attack and overkill damage is dealt to your identity, you would resolve his Forced Response.
Ok so It should be understood that “after x attacks you” and “after x attacks and damages you” to be the same triggering condition and both be an exception to the “you” rule?
“After X attacks and damages you” checks if the attacked player’s identity was damaged as a result of the attack. Because Green Goblin’s overkill attack did damage your identity, his Forced Response resolves. If your identity did not take damage, his Forced Response does not resolve. The “you” in this ability does refer to your identity.
“After X attacks you” is different in that it only checks if the attack was made and not canceled (e.g. by a stunned status card), in which case the attacked player resolves the ability. The “you” in this ability refers to you the player, so it falls into that exception to the standard “you” rule.
226 – So basically a triggering condition of “After X attacks and damages you” should be understood as “After X damages you with an attack”, right?
Yes, that is correct.
-Alex – July 18, 2024
