Latest FFG Rulings

On this page you’ll find some of the latest FFG rulings for Marvel Champions. When it gets unwieldy, some older questions will be deleted. All questions and responses can be found on this main page.

To create a link to a specific ruling, just use this format and note the number at the start of the question. Note that some numbers may not be accounted for as a result of being pulled for outdated/legacy rulings.

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May, 2022

1 – Ultron Stage II says “Forced Interrupt: When Ultron attacks you, put the top card of your deck into play facedown, engaged with you as a DRONE minion. Until the end of this attack, Ultron gets +1 ATK for each DRONE minion engaged with you.” Is the modification to Ultron’s ATK created by the second sentence of this interrupt “locked in” at the time the interrupt triggers?

Or is it “smart” enough to check throughout the attack and change if the number of DRONES engaged with you changes? Similarly, if the answer to above is the “smart” option, is the player referred to by the “you” at the end of that sentence (“…for each DRONE minion engaged with you”) “locked in” at the time the interrupt triggers? That is, will it remain referring to the player who was the original target of the attack, throughout the attack?

Most specifically: if a player who is not the original target defends one of Ultron’s attacks, will the “you” begin referring to the new target of the attack and recalculate Ultron’s ATK accordingly?

To answer your question(s):

For Ultron II, your second interpretation seems to line up with the intent of the card. Ultron II would deal you a drone minion when he activates & initiates an attack against you, and until the attack is complete, he would get +1 ATK for each drone attached to you. If you had no drones attached to you and were in hero form when Ultron II activated against you, he would initiate an attack against you, deal you a drone, and have +1 ATK until the attack finished resolving.

If, after Ultron II dealt you a drone, a different hero wanted to defend for you, Ultron II’s attack modifier would depend on the drones that were attached to you, the original player he was activating against. (So if you had one drone attached, and the defender had none, Ultron II would still have +1 ATK when damaging the defending hero.)

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – May 13, 2022

2- Can Impede be played while a side scheme with a crisis icon is in play?

Per the rules reference, while at least one crisis icon is in play, threat cannot be removed from the main scheme by any player. The word cannot in the crisis section is absolute. If the crisis icon is in play, Impede cannot be used.

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – May 13, 2022

3 – Does Unnatural Storm prevent all or part of What Doesn’t Kill You from working, as parts of resolving an ability are meant to ignore other abilities? Does Smoke Bomb would consume a counter if you couldn’t fulfill what it does?

I believe the best way to address your questions is through examples. We discussed both instances of cost and effect and determined the following. With Unnatural Storm and What Doesn’t Kill Me. The card What Doesn’t Kill me uses a cost arrow icon to indicate that in order to ready your hero, you must heal 2. If you cannot pay this cost, you cannot resolve the ability, readying your hero. Additionally, if you cannot resolve the ability on What Doesn’t Kill me, readying your hero, you are also unable to pay the card’s cost, healing 2. In short, if Unnatural Storm is in play, it would prevent the ability on What Doesn’t Kill me from resolving, and as a consequence you would be unable to pay the cost of healing 2.

For Smoke Bombs, you have made a fair complaint about this card. After discussing, we determined that he cost arrow should have been replaced with then instead. Smoke Bomb’s forced response should read as : after the villain attacks you, remove 1 bomb counter from here. Then discard 1 event from your hand with the lowest cost. We plan to errata this card and the other bomb cards in the set.

[FFG Games Rules Specialist] Alex Werner – May 16, 2022

4 – This is about Sinister Motives and Venom villain’s forced response. As event cards are not in control by the player, are Venom’s force response triggered when you damage him using an attack event card?

We determined that, for the purposes of the Venom scenario, an attack event card would be considered “a card you control” that could “attack and damage Venom.” Since this ruling has the potential to complicate other cases where card ownership and control is a factor, we may errata the text on Venom to reflect this decision.

[FFG Games Rules Specialist] Alex Werner – May 16, 2022

5 – I have a question about enemy responses to “activating against you” such as on Infinity Gauntlet, or “attacks you” such as on Ultron I. In each case, does the response resolve if an ally defends the attack? Also, if an attack initiates against Player 1 and Player 2 defends, which player resolves the response? Thanks!

Firstly, even if an ally defends against an attack, the villain is still considered to have attacked the player that controls that ally.
Secondly, for the cards you mentioned, what’s important to note is that both cards use the word “after” (and “Response”) to signal their timing triggers. This “after” tells us that their abilities are checking which player defended against/was targeted by the ability.
So, whichever player defended against Infinity Gauntlet’s villain’s attack or Ultron I’s attack would be the one to resolve the rest of their respective effects.
(Note, we may errata Infinity Gauntlet to specify “After attached villain activates against you” for consistency.)

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – May 20, 2022

6 – Can Valkyrie Hero and Valkyrie Ally be in play at the same time?

According to the rules for Unique cards, Valkyrie (the ally) could not be put into play so long as Valkyrie (the hero) was already in play. Valkyrie (the ally) could only be used for a resource during that game.

Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – May 20, 2022

7 – What does it mean to have an ally “treated as a minion”? Does it become a minion and you lose control of the card (effectively, becoming an Encounter card)?

Can you choose to exhaust Venom ally while it’s being treated as a minion? Question was raised when Venom got Manipulated Mind (from Mysterio) attached to him and then got Snitches get Stitches

When an ally is forced to be treated as a minion, yes, you would lose control of that card, and you would be unable to exhaust that card (as if it were an ally you controlled). So, in the case you described, if Venom got “treated as a minion” and then Snitches Get Stitches was attached to him, the owner of the Venom card could not exhaust him, because he is currently not under that player’s control.

[FFG Games Rules Specialist] Alex Werner – May 31, 2022

8 – Light at The End has Hinder, but at any point it’s instructed that it should be revealed, only put into play

The intent behind Light at the End is that the threat indicated next to “Hinder” would be added to the card when it is first put into play. We may update “Hinder” to reflect this ruling.

[FFG Games Rules Specialist] Alex Werner – May 31, 2022

June, 2022

9 – In some of the campaigns, players earn certain cards during the scenario. e.g. RoRS – Taskmaster – Captive Allies, MTS – Tower Defense – Shawarma, MTS – Loki – Captive Allies. When you gain these cards, you add them to your hand or deck or play area. You gain control of them. But… you do not gain ownership of them (you only “own” the cards in your deck at the start of the game). Does this mean, that once you used them (i.e. they leave play for the first time), they get removed from the game?

We have the feeling, that they are meant to go into your discard pile and continue to be part of your deck for the rest of the scenario, but there is nothing we can find, that confirms this. Of course, once the scenario is over, you will often gain these cards as permanent additions to your deck, and in the scenarios to follow, you can use them repeatedly as any other player card. But the question is about the scenario where you actually gain them and what happens during that scenario after they leave play. So, do they get removed from the game then?

Campaign-specific cards are meant to be used as directed by the campaign guide or scenario they are relevant to. If players gain campaign-specific cards during a scenario (like Shawarma), and are instructed to shuffle the campaign-specific cards into their decks, they can treat those cards as a part of their decks during the scenario. Whether or not they “own” the card should not matter; the card (Shawarma in this case) is now a part of the deck, and can be treated like any other (resource) card in that player’s deck. The only limit that applies to all campaign-specific cards is that they must be removed from player decks once the campaign is over.

Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – June 2, 2022

10 – How does Jarnbjorn interact with Shield Toss? Can it be activated multiple times, once for each enemy hit?

If you played Shield Toss and paid its costs, you would be considered to have attacked X times; for each attack, you could activate Jarnbjorn by spending one physical resource (noting that each resource cost must be paid separately. You could not play Strength to resolve more than one Jarnbjorn effect at a time.)

Alex Werner [FFG Game Rules Specialist] – June 2, 2022

11 – Spider-Man’s enhanced spider sense says ‘When a treachery is revealed from the encounter deck cancel its when revealed effects.’ however Adam Warlocks Cosmic Ward says ‘when you reveal a treachery card, cancel its when revealed effects and discard it…’ Is there a intentional distinction on these cards as to where the treachery card is revealed from? For example, in the Mysterio scenario there are encounter cards that are shuffled into your player deck. Are these cards not considered to be revealed from the encounter deck and if so does that mean Spider-Man can not cancel them?

There is also ‘Return the Favour; that player card discards cards from the encounter deck until a treachery is discarded. You then reveal that treachery and deal 5 damage to an enemy. You have to reveal a treachery as a cost to play the card, however the rules reference states you still consider a treachery to be revealed even if you cancel its effects so I believe you can cancel the treachery card.

However, when you reveal the treachery it is already in the discard pile so it appears to be being revealed from the discard pile, not from the encounter deck, so does this mean Spider-Man can’t cancel it because he can only cancel treachery cards that are revealed from the encounter deck but Warlock can since he can cancel any treachery which is revealed?

Sorry but if I were to cancel the effects of a treachery which was revealed due to playing “Return the Favour” would I still be able to resolve the effect of “Return the Favour’ and deal 5 damage? My understanding is that revealing the treachery is part of the cost to play “Return the favour” but treachery cards are still considered revealed even if their effects are cancelled, so I could cancel the effects of the treachery and still deal the 5 damage. Is this correct? Some cards like “Enhanced Spider sense” only cancel when revealed effects while other cards like “warp reality” cancel all the effects of the treachery. Could either of these cards be comboed with “return the favour” so I can cancel the effects of the treachery and still deal the damage?

Our ruling for this is, Enhanced Spider-Sense should work just like Cosmic Ward does: when a treachery card is revealed, cancel its “when revealed” effects. Additionally, encounter cards can be thought of as being “from the encounter deck”, even if the method of which they were dealt to you was not directly from the encounter deck (such as in Mysterio’s scenario). Similarly, for Return the Favor, the revealed treachery card should be considered as having come from the encounter deck.

In short, yes, you would be able to respond to Return the Favor with a card like Enhanced Spider-Sense and still deal the 5 damage. The reason is, the “cost” to resolve Return the Favor’s 5 damage is to simply “reveal” the treachery; it does not necessitate the full resolution of that treachery. Most hero cards will cancel “when revealed” effects on treacheries after the treachery card is revealed. If there was a card out there that cancelled the “revealing” of a treachery card, then it would also cancel the 5 damage from Return the Favor.

[FFG Games Rules Specialist] Alex Werner – June 2, 2022

13 – Marvel Champions interrupt timing question: The rules state that an “interrupt ability is executed when its triggering condition becomes imminent, but before that triggering condition resolves”. Is there any meaningful difference between “is” and “would be” for interrupts? Example: Defiance says “When a boost card on an enemy attacking you would be turned faceup”, and Preemptive Strike says “When a boost card is turned face up while the villain attacks”. Are both supposed to be played before the card is actually turned faceup? The rule suggests so, but the card texts imply some difference.

It mainly depends on the card if such a distinction is significant or not. For the cards you mentioned: Defiance allows you to discard a boost card without turning it faceup, and Preemptive Strike allows you to cancel boost icons, but requires you to turn the card faceup to do so, since that’s the only way you’d know how many boost icons are being cancelled. For those two cards, the different phrasing matters.

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – June 4, 2022

14 – Can I play (defense) cards or trigger (defense) abilities outside of an enemy attack, if the triggering condition on the card is otherwise true? For example, can I play Jump Flip (“Hero Interrupt (defense): When you would take any amount of damage, prevent 2 of that damage. If you paid for this card using a resource, remove 2 threat from the main scheme.”) in response to Klaw’s Sound Manipulation (“…Take 2 Damage…”). It seems clear that Spider-Man’s Backflip would not be playable in that situation (as its play condition says “when you would take any amount of damage from an attack…”). In contrast, would Captain America’s Shield Block be playable vs Sound Manipulation or any other non-attack sources of damage (its play condition is only “when you would take any amount of damage…”)

In short, yes, you can play “defense” cards or trigger “defense” abilities in response to something that isn’t an attack. What’s important is that the triggering condition on the “defense” card itself was met. Jump Flip states that it can be triggered “when you would take any amount of damage” and does not specify that it has to be played after an attack. So, you could play Jump Flip in response to Sound Manipulation and prevent the 2 damage that would be dealt to you in hero form. (Klaw would still heal 2 damage, regardless.) Similarly, you could exhaust Shield Block while in hero form in response to Sound Manipulation being revealed and block the 2 damage. (Klaw would still heal.)

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – June 6, 2022

15 – Valkyrie’s card 6, “Aragorn”, reads “Valkyrie gets +4 hit points and gains the AERIAL trait.” By strict reading this implies that she only possesses the effects of this upgrade while in hero form, causing her to lose both the 4 hit points and AERIAL when she switches to Alter-Ego, and potential being defeated. Is this the intended function of the card?

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This card should say “you” instead of “Valkyrie” to work as intended (like how Thor’s Helmet is worded). Go ahead and treat this card as if it said “you” instead. Switching to Alter-Ego would not change the bonuses the card is granting you.

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – June 9, 2022

16 – Hi there, had a few questions A few player cards like “press the advantage” and “clear the area” and a few encounter cards like “Channeling Trance” and “chaos in the prison” have a “if” clause that is in a separate sentence. It is the intention for example with press the advantage, if say a stunned minion was defeated by the 2 damage, you would NOT get to draw a card? This is because the word “if” is not an “alteration effect” and when resolving abilities you resolve them one sentence at a time. Wonder if the word if should just become an alteration effect? Second question is about when multiple triggering conditions happen in a row and keep stacking and when windows close? It gets fuzzy when things keep triggering in a row. Is there a rule of thumb to help?

Do you use and then close the most recent window first and like move backwards I’m curious if that’s the case then would the card “clear the area” need to really say “removed” instead of “removes” to work right? Just to clarify how about the triggering conditions question. I think what I meant to ask was not necessarily multiple triggering conditions happening at the same time but rather what happens when things keep triggering off of each other kinda like a stack. Like would you resolve last in first out?

It can depend on the card if an “alteration effect” applies. For Press the Advantage specifically, it does not have an alteration effect. The second sentence of the ability will only apply if the enemy is stunned/confused and still in play. If it’s defeated, that sentence of the ability cannot resolve. As for multiple triggering conditions, Caleb suggests trying to “start at the center and work your way out.” Remember what triggers first (like a Forced ability, or a Response) and continue from there. Also remember that under “Triggering Conditions” in the Online Rules Reference, you can usually resolve abilities triggered during the same window in the order that you choose, assuming one ability doesn’t have to resolve before the other. I hope that helps.

I believe that “removes” was chosen over “removed” for Clear The Area to signal that the condition is checked while the card is resolving. Many other cards that use “if” statements also use present tense verbiage (ex. Never Back Down, “if you take no damage from this attack”.) Even so, whether Clear The Area says “removes” or “removed”, the effect on the game would be the same, since the sentences resolve in order. As for triggering conditions, in general, you would resolve “last in first out” like you said.

-Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist – June 9, 2022

17 – 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?

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.

-Alex Werner – June 9, 2022

18 – Have a question about Ironheart. Can I draw cards from paying more than three mental resources for Moon Girl? For example, I use Genius (which has two mental) and three other mental resources to pay for her because Im allowed to overpay. Do I draw 3 cards or 5?

While it is possible to “overpay” for a card, the resources that were overpaid do not count as having “paid for the cost” of the card. So, with Moon Girl’s ability, you could only draw up to 3 cards because her cost is 3. We will likely add this ruling to a future FAQ.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

19 – Another Ironheart question, If Ive used Riri’s Child Prodigy ability once in a round, does the limit still apply if Im somehow able to flip back to AE after swapping to a new version of her ID, or is it similar to the Vision ally ability which becomes a new instance that can be triggered again?

Because Riri Williams specifies a limit per turn instead of a max, the limit on the ability only applies to the specified instance (while max applies to all copies). If you found a way to activate Child Prodigy, flip to hero form, then flip back to Alter Ego form, you could use Child Prodigy again.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

20 – I have some questions about the Forced Interrupt on Maze of Mirrors (Sinister Motives #87B) and Edge of Reality (Sinister Motives #88B), from the Sinister Motives Mysterio scenario. Mysterio has Masterful Mirage (Sinister Motives #90) attached, and I deal damage to Mysterio whilst there are three or fewer card in my deck, I know that I should only discard the remaining cards, reshuffle, deal myself an encounter card, and stop. But, what happens one or more of those cards is an encounter card? Should those be separated out and placed facedown before I reshuffle? Do I get to draw cards for the encounter cards as normal? Presumably after I have reshuffled.

For this unusual situation, we believe this is the way it should be resolved, as to account for all triggers. After attempting to attack Mysterio while he has Masterful Mirage attached:

First, discard 4 from the Masterful Mirage trigger (or as many cards as possible).
For any encounter cards discarded this way, deal them to yourself (from Maze of Mirrors scheme).
Deal yourself 1 additional encounter card as a result of emptying your deck.
Shuffle your discard pile into a new deck.
Draw cards from your new deck, up to the amount of encounter cards dealt to you when you discarded (minus the 1 additional encounter card) to finish resolving Maze of Mirrors.
Discard Masterful Mirage from Mysterio.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

21 – I have some questions about playing the Sinister Motives Sinister Six scenario. I am playing Spider-Man: Peter Parker, from the core set, and am unsure how to handle his Nemesis minion. I understand that if I draw Shadow of the Past whilst the Vulture villain is in play, I should not bring the Vulture minion into play, but should put the side scheme into play, shuffle the rest of the Nemesis set into the encounter deck, and give Shadow of the Past surge. But what happens if the Vulture villain is set aside when I draw Shadow of the Past?

I assume in that instance the Vulture minion would enter play. However, how should I handle the Vulture villain entering play? If the Vulture minion is still in play should it be discarded? Or would the Vulture villain not enter play? Perhaps I should reveal another set aside villain? But then what if Vulture is the only villain set aside?

You are correct in that if the Vulture I villain is in play, the Vulture minion cannot enter play; and if the Vulture I villain is not in play, the Vulture minion can enter play.
But, in a case where you would be asked to put the Vulture I villain into play when the Vulture minion is already in play:
- If doing so from the Ambush! ability on the main schemes, put a different villain into play instead. If all of the other villains are already in play, you should skip putting Vulture I into play, and skip moving the active counter.
- If doing so from the Frequent Flyers treachery card, you should consider Vulture as already in play.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

22 – So, we are hyped for Colossus! Looks like an elegant and instantly classic design. But the community doesn’t quite know how the card “Armor Up” (Mutant Genesis 10) works. We think the intent is that it changes the activation of the villain to an attack, but there doesn’t seem to be anything that says this can happen in the activation entry or the rules that supports this. What happens if I play “Armor Up” when the villain activates against me? In contrast what happens when I play it for an activation (scheme) on another player ? Additionally can I use it when the villain is confused? If the activation changes to an attack, would a stunned status effect still replace the activation, or would the ruling on “Widow’s Bite” (Black Widow 10) apply?

During Step 2 of the Villain Phase, the villain activates against each player, and determines whether it attacks or schemes against each player. Armor Up can interrupt this determination; if Colossus is in Alter-Ego Form when the villain activates against him, he can choose to play Armor Up to switch to Hero form as an interrupt and change the villain’s activation from a scheme activation to an attack activation. Armor Up can also be played when the villain activates against another player, though it would not affect how the villain activates against that player.

If the villain was Confused, and tried to activate while Colossus was in Alter-Ego form, the villain would not activate and instead discard Confused. Colossus could not play Armor Up as an interrupt to that. However, if the villain was Stunned, and Colossus was in Alter-Ego form, the villain would attempt to activate (scheme). Colossus could play Armor Up as an Interrupt to that activation, forcing the villain to attempt an attack activation instead, during which it would discard Stunned.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

23 – Does Ultron II’s attack buff from his Forced Interrupt persist if he is defeated (and becomes Ultron III) between the time the Forced Interrupt triggers and damage calculation. For example, if Ultron II is at 1 HP and Spider-UK defends against his attack? If the number of drones engaged with the original target of Ultron II’s attack changes between the time the Forced Interrupt triggers and damage calculation, does the amount of +ATK he has change accordingly? For example, if a Boost Effect like Concussive Blast were to destroy Squirrel Girl, and the controlling player were to play rapid response, “recurring” Squirrel Girl and destroying all the drones engaged with the original target of Ultron II’s attack?

Yes, if Ultron II initiated an attack and became Ultron III before the he dealt damage from the attack, his ability would create a lasting effect, giving him a persistent +1 ATK for each Drone minion engaged with you. (And, Spider-UK could cause this to happen, since he deals damage once he’s declared as the defender of the attack.) In the second situation described, where Squirrel Girl could come into play and defeat a bunch of Drone minions, Ultron II would lose his ATK bonuses because his ability is constant; up until the point of dealing damage, he checks how many Drone minions are currently engaged with the target.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

24 – How does the newly revealed “Mutant Protectors” work? This card looks awesome, but it is really confusing us, especially its (defense) label. Mutant Protectors says “Hero Interrupt (defense): When an enemy attacks, put an X-MEN ally into play from your hand. Exhaust it and declare it the defender for this attack.” Does “Defend, Defense” bullet #4 make the player’s identity the defender when that player begins resolving a (defense) ability? If so, does bullet 2 prevent Mutant Protectors’ second sentence from successfully resolving? If it doesn’t, why not? Does “Defend, Defense” bullet #4 make the player’s identity the defender when that player finishes resolving a (defense) ability? If so, does bullet #3 mean this card is not playable in the first place?

Or does the player’s ID end up the defender after all? Does the (defense) label have any effect? Mutant Protectors does not appear to provide an explicit exception to following normal “defense” rules. It only seems to require such an exception because it has the (defense) label, while the label itself doesn’t seem to have any relevant effect in the normal use of the card. We are really puzzled about why it is there in the first place, if in the normal course of events, it is ignored – but in the unusual situation in which the player has already defended the attack, it is able to override Defense rules and make the ally the defender anyways (but without an explicit exception to defense rules allowing such a thing).

Sorry for the rambling, the short version of our questions are: 1. How does playing Mutant Protectors work? At what point, if at all, is the resolving player’s identity the defender? 2. What exactly does it mean to “declare [a character] the defender” for an attack? 3. After playing Mutant Protectors, did I “defend”? Can I trigger “Indomitable”? If my identity took no damage, can I trigger “Unflappable”?

There are two main considerations for the Mutant Protectors card: The “defense” keyword signals that the player controlling Mutant Protectors is now the defender of the attack. While your ally defends against an attack, “you” are not the one defending. In other words, following an enemy’s attack initiation, you can play Mutant Protectors as a Hero Interrupt to declare yourself as the defender of the attack, and then immediately play an X-Men ally to become the new defender of the attack (who ultimately takes the damage from the attack).

Only one character can be the defender of an attack (the X-Men ally in this case), so your identity would not be considered the defender of the attack, and you could not resolve Indomitable or Unflappable in response to the defense.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

25 – When i use Summoning Spell to get Black Pather in to play, can i get Summoning Spell back?

Yes. Black Panther (ally)’s ability specifies “After” he is put into play, you then attach a Leadership card to him. Once Summoning Spell puts Black Panther (ally) into play, it would have finished resolving, and Black Panther’s ability would then trigger.

-Alex Werner – June 9, 2022

26 – When you play “sneak attack” and choose the “black panther”ally, can you choose the sneak attack you played him with with his response to entering play? The timing of when sneak attack enters the discard pile and the response window being open for black Panthers ability got tricky for us when reading sneak attack one sentence at a time and the last sentence is after black panther is in play.

Yes. Black Panther (ally)’s ability specifies “After” he is put into play, you then attach a Leadership card to him. Once Sneak Attack puts Black Panther (ally) into play, it would have finished resolving (except for its lasting effect), and Black Panther’s ability would then trigger. (Just note, Sneak Attack would create a lasting effect requiring you to discard Black Panther at the end of the phase.)

-Alex Werner – June 9, 2022

27 – Hello there! I’m wondering how the setup steps are supposed to go when playing as Vision in the Ultron scenario. When exactly do I put Intangible into play? Is it before I draw my opening hand, and before Ultron puts the top card of my deck into play as an Ultron drone? I’m not sure if a double sided card could even be a drone anyway seeing as it doesn’t have a “facedown” side, but I’ve seen some people who are adamant that Intangible stays in your deck and doesn’t get put into play until after you draw your opening hand.

We are planning to update the “Permanent” keyword in a future FAQ, specifying that Permanents are not meant to be part of one’s deck. More specific to your situation, you should not shuffle Intangible/Dense into your deck during Step 6 of Setup; it is intended to be available to you when you resolve your Character Setup during Step 15.

-Alex – June 9, 2022

28 – If War Machine has 0 ammo counters can I use a gauntlet gun generate a resource and an ammo counter to play repulsor beam? Or if I have 2 ammo counters could I use two gauntlet guns to pay the costs for full auto?

“Yes and yes, both situations you described are viable. You can use Gauntlet Gun to generate a wild resource and an ammo for the War Machine event you’re preparing to play.”

-Alex – June 9, 2022

29 – I have a few follow up questions about how exactly [this Impede interaction] works… I assume that Impede can’t be played whilst a Crisis icon is in play due to the ‘game state change’ rule, that says an ability may not be initiated unless it’s effects are capable of changing the game state. If so, would the same apply if the main scheme had zero threat, and there were no Crisis icon in play? Is the second sentence of Impede’s ability not considered sufficient to meet the game state change condition (assuming it were the first card you played that round)? Would the answer change if Impede had a different secondary effect, such as “Deal 2 damage to an enemy”?

The game state change rules also say that this should be assessed without considering interactions with other abilities. So, is it the case that you do consider interactions with icons? Or does the absoluteness of the ‘cannot’ rule supersede this part of the ‘game state change’ rule? For example, if the Crisis effect were to appear on a side scheme as a simple constant ability, “Players cannot remove threat from the main scheme whilst this scheme is in play” say, would that also prevent playing Impede?

You would not be able to play Impede while there was no threat in play. You must be able to play the card in order to return it back to your hand, so if you cannot play it because there’s no threat, you could not play it just to return it to your hand either.
And yes, if there is a game effect—either an icon or specific wording—that states you “cannot” remove threat from play, that “cannot” is absolute and prevents the game state from changing in that way (removing threat). You could not play Impede if you “cannot” remove threat.

-Alex – June 16, 2022

31 – Question about the minion in the core set from masters of evil “whirlwind” when you resolve his attack against each other player, how does that work? does each other player one by one get to defend and everything starting with the player engaged with him Or how is this intended to work.

When you resolve Whirlwind’s attack against each other player, he is meant to attack each player simultaneously. Each player should follow the steps for Attack (Enemy Activation) as they resolve this effect. (Each player is a target, each player can choose to defend against the individual attack against them or take the 2 damage.)

-Alex – June 16, 2022

32 – Some minions have non-triggered abilities regarding engagement (like Black Swan or Garm). Are these considered constant abilities, and if so, does that mean that when the first player changes, the minion will move to engage the new first player?

Both Black Swan and Garm have constant abilities; both of them will be constantly checking who the first player is, and are intended to move when the first player marker does. -Alex

-Alex – June 16, 2022

33 – The basic ally gamora card from the drax pack has a “hero response” instead of a “response” The justice ally wraith from the nebula pack has a “hero interrupt” instead of a “interrupt” Is this intentional? Maybe an oversight 2nd The basic upgrade card target acquired from the black widow pack has a “response” trigger, should this be an interrupt instead?

Yes, the text on both cards should be resolved as written. Gamora’s and Wraith’s abilities can only be activated while their controllers are in hero form. Target Acquired probably should have been an interrupt, like most other cards that cancel boost abilities or icons, but you should still be able to resolve it as written: when the boost card is turned face up, but before the boost ability resolves, discard Target Acquired to cancel the boost ability.

-Alex – June 16, 2022

34 – If I play Armor Up on Master Mold while he is activating against me as Rasputin turning into Colossus, would he get a sentinel minion and attack me with no boost card? (Based on a previous Armor Up ruling)

If you were in Alter-Ego form when Master Mold was about to activate, you could use Armor Up to change to hero form and change Master Mold’s activation from a scheme activation to an attack activation. (You would need to play Armor Up right before Master Mold determines how he activates against you. MM’s Forced Interrupt triggers once he’s already determined to be scheming against you.)

-Alex – June 16, 2022

35 – Regarding the alteration effect rule added in 1.4 RR. The card “have at thee” in the Valkyrie hero pack, when resolving the card one sentence at a time, it makes it almost impossible to gain overkill because the first sentence would defeat most minions outright who would then be discarded causing death glow to be set aside out of play before you can ever check for the death glow being attached. There are so many examples of the word “if” being in a second sentence in the card pool that either don’t work or don’t seem to be the intention or spirit of the design.

It’s really bothered me and so many others. Do you think “the alteration effect” could be reworked to include the word “if” or rules changed completely to something like “when resolving card abilities, read the entire card to check for situations that could alter the resolution” maybe give an example like “press the advantage” checking for stun or confusion or “have at thee” checking for the death glow being attached” before resolving the card and then applying the things you checked for if applicable. Please please please. There are even encounter card examples with the word “if” where the rules as written don’t seem to go with the spirit of the card and would also benefit from what I’m talking about.

Regarding “Have At Thee!”, we would like you to treat the card as intended: should you use this card, and the enemy it was used on had Death-Glow attached, treat the attack/7 damage as having Overkill and deal the excess damage to the villain.
We are going to look into if we want to declare “if” statements in card abilities as also “alteration effects.”

-Alex – June 16, 2022

36 – When Ms Marvel Hero uses her response to return an attack/defense/thwart card to her hand where does she return it from? If an eligible event removed itself from game after use would she still be able to return it to her hand? I wonder this because she doesnt say return from the discard pile.

To answer your question(s):

To answer your second question, if a card removed itself from the game, Ms. Marvel should not be able to return it to her hand. The main reason for this is that her ability is a “Response” triggered ability, which has the lowest priority over other abilities.

If a card were to remove itself from the game as part of its ability text, it would do so before Ms. Marvel had a window of opportunity to return it to her hand, because her response happens after it’s resolved in full.

Ms. Marvel’s ability triggers after the event card is resolved. If removing the card from the game is part of its resolution, it will be out of the game before Ms. Marvel’s ability can trigger. You can think of Ms. Marvel’s ability as retrieving the card from her discard pile–just note that she has to activate her ability while the “Response” window is still open.

-Alex – June 21, 2022

37 – My question involves the Sinister Motives campaign Reputation Track and the Sinister Six scenario side scheme Light at the End. Since the win condition is on the side scheme, does that side scheme “leave play”? The Reputation Track gives you +1 if there are no side schemes in play. However, that would be impossible to earn if Light and the End doesn’t leave play when you win. Is this the intent?

In this scenario, Light at the End is a permanent, so it cannot leave play. Unfortunately, this scenario will prevent you from receiving +1 from having no side schemes in play.

-Alex – June 23, 2022

38 – Can you play the Flash Thompson Venom hero against the Venom villain in Sinister Motives, legally?

Honestly, we think that if a player wanted to play Venom against Venom, then they should be able to. We recognize the rules reference states that only one copy of each unique card by title can be in play, but there is also no specific ruling in place for when a hero and a villain share the same title (unlike a unique minion and another character with the same title).
Just be sure that, if you do this, cards that target a specific “Venom” affect the appropriate one (like Run and Gun should only affect the Venom hero, since it’s one of the cards in his set).

-Alex – June 23, 2022

39 – Does the Hazard icon on this card apply to all players as though it was on a side-scheme, or does it apply to the player who has equipped the suit only?

The intent for the Hazard icon is that one additional encounter card in total will be dealt to players during step 3 of the villain phase. This additional card (assuming there’s just 1 Hazard icon in play) would be dealt to the first player, regardless of who controls the Symbiote Suit. We apologize for the confusion, and may update the wording of the rules reference to make this more clear.

-Alex

-Alex – June 24, 2022

40 – I believe in a live stream they mentioned being able to reduce the cost of Spider-Man (Basic Peter) with helicarrier but still having to overpay to meet the 3 icon resource requirement? Is this impossible if those payments aren’t applied to the card?

Also another spend/cost question.

When do you draw a card in response to spending (like with Pym Particles) is it mid spend, after the played card resolves, after all the resource enters the discard?

The Resource Requirement on Spider-Man (Peter Parker) means that he cannot be played unless each resource of the specified type is spent while paying for his cost. If you reduce his cost to 2 with Helicarrier, you have created a situation where you cannot pay his 3 resource requirement while also meeting his cost of 2, because you are unable to “pay” more than his cost. We do not recommend you put yourself in that situation. For Pym Particles, we believe that you would resolve its ability immediately after you’ve satisfied the cost of the card you paid for (so between Step 4 and 5 of Initiating Abilities.)

-Alex – June 24, 2022

42 – Hi, I understand that it has been ruled that “(defense)” abilities such as Jump Flip may be used outside of an attack. Can you clarify how this works? Are you considered to have defended? Can I respond to using Jump Flip outside of an attack by triggering Indomitable (“Response: After your hero defends, discard indomitable → ready your hero.”), assuming my identity is exhausted, for example?

How does this work with cards like Flow Like Water (Vision #16), which reads “Response: After you play a DEFENSE card, deal 1 damage to the attacking enemy.”? I believe all (defense) labeled abilities are on DEFENSE traited cards, and vice versa, but if I use a (defense) labeled effect outside of an attack then there is no attacker, so presumably I could not trigger the response on Flow Like Water. But effects such as this seem to imply that DEFENSE traited cards, and therefore (defense) labelled abilities are intended to be used to defend against an attack. This is confusing. What am I missing about the way defense is intended to work?

You can play defense cards so long as you satisfy their triggers, but you are not considered to have “defended” against something that’s not an attack. You could not trigger Indomitable if you used a defense event on a non-attack.

Flow Like Water is definitely intended to be activated after a Defense card is played in response to an attack. Otherwise, there is no attacking enemy, and its ability would not change the game state, so it couldn’t be initiated.
One thing that could help is noting that, given Marvel Champions is still a product in development, it has the potential to push its own boundaries or reshape some concepts as time goes on, including how it treats Defense cards. Granted, even now, most Defense cards are expected to be used in response to attack initiations, but the designers decided that some “Defense” cards could be used during times when damage might be dealt in a different way. According to The Golden Rule, what takes precedence over anything else is the card text itself. If the card is a Defense card that doesn’t specify it must be played during an attack, then that’s what should be followed.

-Alex – June 24, 2022

43 – For the Danger Room card, revealed in Cyclops’ article today: how do the triggering conditions work?

Danger Room’s ability must be activated by an identity that’s in Alter-Ego form, since it’s an “Alter-Ego Response” ability. It’s just worded in a way to allow a player that isn’t the card’s controller to activate it while that player is in Alter-Ego form (and a Mutant).

-Alex – June 24, 2022

44 – If I may, I would like to see if I have an accurate understanding of how resources are generated, paid, overpaid, and spent. My understanding is that when you generate resources to pay a cost you may generate more resources than are required. The resources needed to pay the cost are then considered “paid”, with any excess being considered to be “overpaid”. The excess is then lost. But, that all the resources, both those paid and overpaid, are considered “spent”. Is this accurate?

Also, how does the Requirement keyword interact with this? For example, if I have Helicarrier in play, and I exhaust it, for it’s ability, and then play the Spider Man: Peter Parker basic ally (Sinister Motives 49), do I still need to generate, and spend, one of each resource type to meet the Requirement? Are all of these resources considered paid? Or are some overpaid? Alternatively, can the Requirement not be met if Helicarrier is used? Or can cost reduction effects not be used to bring a card’s resource cost below it’s Requirement condition?

Your understanding of costs and paying seems to be correct. You can “overpay” for cards, but you cannot be considered to have “paid” more toward a card’s cost than its printed cost value. Also, we ruled it possible to “spend” a card during cases where it’s not being used to “pay” for another card’s cost (namely spending Innovation while playing a 0-cost card).

Helicarrier only treats the cost of a card as 1 less than its printed value. It cannot override Spider-Man (Peter Parker basic ally)’s Resource Requirement. Additionally, activating Helicarrier would make it impossible to properly pay for this Spider-Man, because you cannot satisfy his 3-Resource Requirement while only being able to “pay” 2 resources toward his cost.

-Alex – June 24, 2022

45 – My question is regarding basic ally Vivian. Her effect blanks the text box of an attachment, non-elite minion, or non-permanent side scheme, except for traits. The RRG 1.4 definition of “text box” says that it includes printed abilities, traits, and flavor text. My question is, does Vivian blank icons like crisis/hazard/acceleration/amplify? In the definition of “icon”, they are not listed as abilities. From my understanding, since icons aren’t abilities, they are not included in the text box and so wouldn’t be blanked by Vivian.

Yes, Vivian would treat any icons on the attachment or side scheme as blank until the end of the round.

-Alex – June 30, 2022

46 – If Star Lord pulls Shadows of the Past as his first treachery card, does Mister Knife cause Shadows of the Past to surge?

No, he would not give it surge, since he was not in play during the moment Shadow of the Past was revealed.

-Alex – June 30, 2022

46.5 – I’m playing Rocket Raccoon, against Rhino, and am engaged with two Hydra Bombers. I play Melee, targeting one of the Hydra Bombers with the first sentence of Melee, and the other Hydra Bomber with the second sentence. Do I draw a card, from Rocket’s “Murdered You!” ability after resolving the first sentence, but before resolving the second? Or does “Murdered You!” wait for both sentences to resolve before triggering? And, if it does wait, do I draw 1 card or 2?

If Rocket Racoon plays Melee against two Hydra Bomber minions, he would draw a card after each sentence of Melee is resolved, for a total of 2 cards drawn.

-Alex – June 30, 2022

47 – I just wanted to make sure that Garm (and similar minions) always engage the first player. So when the first player changes Gorm engages the new first player? Thor is not the first player and has the aerial trait. He plays “Get over here!” on Garm. Does Garm engage Thor and trigger Thor’s ability? On a similar note: Do Cosmo (from the campaign) and Odin (the side with the King trait) change who controls them when the first player changes? As a constant ability it should stay active until the card leaves play. Is there a difference between “The first player gains control of Odin” and “The first player controls the Milano” on the respective cards?

Yes; Garm and similar minions are intended to engage the first player, even when the first player changes between rounds. Thor can play “Get Over Here!” to deal 1 damage to and momentarily engage Garm, during which Thor could draw 2 cards if he hadn’t already that phase, but Garm would immediately engage the first player again because of its constant ability. Cosmo and Odin (All-Father) will also change who controls them when the first player changes. There is no mechanical difference between “the first player gains control of” and “the first player controls.”

-Alex – June 30, 2022

48 – 1.With the card “hex bolt” do you choose the order you resolve the bullet points after discarding the 3 cards all at once? 2. With the card “gauntlet gun”, can you use it’s resource ability when paying a cost outside of for a warmachine event just to get the ammo counter? 3.Does the cards “counterattack” and “shake it off” share the same timing window as “after defends” and “after attacked” effects? Meaning retaliate would have priority? 4.The bold SETUP for spectrum, vision and Valk don’t seem to work the same as with black panther and captain America as SETUP is the very last step when setting up a game? Is there going to be an errata? 5. I’m running into a lot of issues following the rule about resolving cards abilities one sentence at a time that don’t have an alteration effect. I’ve seen some rulings that make exceptions to this rule outside of alteration effects, is there a plan to expand the alteration effect entry? 6. When could we expect to see an updated online rules reference? 7. With the ebony maw scenario, villain stage II and Main scheme 1B have conflicting when revealed effects, is this intentional? If so, does the player choose the order of when revealed effects? If not, should villain stage II also read like main scheme 1b?

Yes, you would choose the order in which you resolved the effects of Hex Bolt.
No; Gauntlet Gun is a Resource ability, and must be activated with the intent to play a War Machine event card.
This may be a bit different than we recently ruled because expanding the card pool made us reconsider the timing of these cards. Based on the steps of Attack (Enemy Activation), we determined that the card abilities would resolve in the following order: Counterattack/Shake It Off, then Retaliate, then “after you defend”. When damage is dealt during Step 4 of the activation, Counterattack/Shake It Off can trigger, but Retaliate and “after you defend” only trigger after all items within Step 4 resolve. Hopefully that makes sense.
We are not planning a specific errata to our Setup rules. The only thing we are planning at the moment is to update the “Permanent” keyword to state that those cards are not shuffled into your deck during Setup. If you have any specific questions about the Setup for a given character, please feel free to ask.
We are looking into possibly expanding alteration effects, but do not have anything specific at this time. That said, please ask if you have any questions about card interactions.
We do not have a date in mind for a Rules Reference update. We are working on one, and will release it when it’s ready.
You should resolve the Setup instructions and “When Revealed” effects on the main scheme before resolving the “When Revealed” effects on the villain stage. (This is implied in the steps of “Setup” but will become more clear in future scenarios.)

-Alex – June 30, 2022

49 – Can Rocket hero draw multiple cards using melee?

If Rocket Racoon plays Melee against two Hydra Bomber minions, he would draw a card after each sentence of Melee is resolved, for a total of 2 cards drawn.

-Alex – June 30, 2022

50 – The Space Stone in the Infinity Gauntlet modular set reads: “Discard cards from the top of the until a minion is discarded -> put that minion into play engaged with you. Place this card in the infinity stone deck discard pile.” If you discard and no minion enters play, does the part after the arrow not resolve? Meaning the stone stays in play? Based on your errata of Smoke Bombs, will this arrow be turned into a “then”? Or based on your Steel Fist ruling, does the second sentence ignore the cost condition?

We admit that Space Stone probably should not have used a cost arrow. That said, note that its ability text is split into two sentences, one with “cost > effect 1” and one with “effect 2” that resolve independently from one another. The “cost” of discarding cards only applies to the “effect” of putting a minion into play engaged with you. The second sentence resolves regardless of the first.

Here’s how you’d resolve Space Stone: Discard cards from the encounter deck, until either a minion is revealed or the encounter deck empties. If a minion was discarded, put it into play engaged with you. If the encounter deck was emptied, refresh the encounter deck, stop discarding, and treat that part of the ability as “fulfilled.” Finally, place Space Stone in the Infinity Stone deck discard pile.

[Editor’s note: the reasoning for this ruling has been clarified/updated in the below ruling.]

-Alex – June 30, 2022

51 – I have questions regarding the card Spiritual Meditation, which has the effect: “Draw 2 cards. Choose and discard 1 card from your hand.” Do the Choose rules prevent me from playing Spiritual Meditation when it is the only card in my hand? The Choose rules say that if there is no valid target, then the ability cannot be initiated. Would the single Spiritual Meditation in my hand be a valid Choose target just to initiate the ability? Am I able to change the Choose target after initiating the ability? More specifically, am I allowed to Choose one of the 2 drawn cards by Spiritual Meditations first sentence after Choosing a card that was already in my hand to initiate the ability in the first place?

Abilities are resolved one sentence at a time. If Spiritual Meditation were the only card in your hand, you could play it and draw 2 cards before needing to choose 1 card to discard from your hand.

-Alex – June 30, 2022

July

53 – With the Star-Lord hero, when your drawing up to hand size and you run out of cards (causing an encounter card to be dealt to you) and you have the upgrade “star-lords helmet”. Do you draw to the original hand size you checked for or do you draw an additional card? Similar question, I’m assuming with Nova hero and “connection to the world mind” resource card, when you draw that card when and only when drawing up to hand size this would be ignored and you would draw a other card correct? Curious if both that resource and that upgrade cause the same end result.

If you have Star-Lord’s Helmet in play, your deck ran out before you finished drawing, and an encounter card was dealt to you, then yes, you could draw additional cards up to your new maximum hand size.
Nova’s Connection to the Worldmind is considered an extra card that you can have in your hand. When you draw up to your maximum hand size, you do not count Connection to the Worldmind as one of those cards.

-Alex – July 6, 2022

54 – Question, is the ally found from “the bifrost” played from the deck or played from hand after finding it? The Thor – Jane foster ally is an Asgard ally that has a response when played from hand specifically and the bifrost Seems to be a little ambiguous here.

If you located Thor (Jane Foster) using The Bifrost’s ability, she would not be considered played from your hand, and her ability would not resolve.

-Alex – July 6, 2022

55 – If “Zola’s Mutate” is revealed and its “When Revealed” ability discards a Tech Attachment that has “Attach to the Villain”, such as “Tracking Display”, what happens to the attachment? Also if “Tracking Display” does attach to the Minion does it gain the it’s attacks can’t be defended ability even though it isn’t a Villain?

If Zola’s Mutate ended up discarding Tracking Display, then Tracking Display would get attached to Zola’s Mutate. This aligns with the intent of Zola’s Mutate and should circumvent Tracking Display’s “attach to” specification, which would not check for legality once attached. Because Zola’s Mutate is not a villain, it should NOT be treated as “attached villain” in Tracking Display’s ability. Zola’s Mutate could still be defended against.

-Alex – July 8, 2022

55.5 – So we were wondering when Zola’s Mutates When Revealed ability reveals Advanced Glider. Does Zola’s Mutate (via golden rule) circumvent that Advanced Glider is supposed to only attach to villains, or is there a rule that attachments can only ever be attached to what they tell us to?

In this situation, Advanced Glider should attach to Zola’s Mutate. This aligns with the intent of Zola’s Mutate and should circumvent the Glider’s “attach to” specification, which would not check for legality once attached.
Note: If Advanced Glider is attached to Zola’s Mutate, the Forced Response on Advanced Glider could not activate, because that ability only works if the Glider is attached to a villain. Do not treat the Mutate as an “attached villain.”

-Alex – July 8, 2022

55.6 – The rules say that constant abilities are active from the moment that the card it originates from to the moment it leaves play. How does this work with blanking the textbox of a card? Do these abilities stop? If so, why?

If you are able to blank a text box (ex. using the Vivian ally) then the text box on the target card would be treated as if it had no text at all, which means that any constant abilities it had would be inactive for the duration of the blanking ability.
Remember the second Golden Rule: if a card ability directly contradicts the Rules Reference, the text of the card takes precedence. Blanking, as a card ability, takes precedence over the Rules References’ statements on constant abilities.

-Alex – July 8, 2022

55.7 – We were really heated up in discussions about Mind Control from the upcoming Phoenix-Pack. We were trying to figure out the following case: If a (former) minion with Mind Control attached is the only ally a player has in play and that player reveals beguiled, what happens? How are these constant abilities settled? Can the first player choose? Is this an infinite loop? Would the infinite loop lead to a loss? Follow up: If a (former) ally has beguiled attached to it and the Phoenix player plays Mind Control on that ally, does this change the anything? Additional Question: Mind Control says to consider a minion a “controlled” ally. It seems that it is no longer a minion, so can we infer that the other traits of that minion are lost, too?

We rule that it’s the most intuitive to follow whichever effect came into play last. If your Mind Controlled minion must be Beguiled, it’s now an Enthralled minion (with its original SCH). If your Beguiled ally were then Mind Controlled, it’s now a Controlled ally (with its original THW).

-Alex – July 8, 2022

56 – I have a question about the Living Legend constant ability on the alter-ego side of Steve Rogers/Captain America – it reads “Reduce the cost of the first ally played each round by 1.” I understand that if I start the round in hero form and an ally is played before I flip down to alter-ego, then any subsequently played ally will not get a discount, because the game ‘remembers’ there was an ally already played that round.

But, how does it work when I start the round in Alter-Ego form, flip up to hero form, and then play an ally (with no allies having been played earlier that round)? Does the game ‘remember’ that the first ally played this round gets a discount? Or does it ‘forget’ as soon as Steve leaves play? In short, is Living Legend a delayed effect that persists after you flip to hero form?

Steve Rogers’ ability is a constant ability, and not a lasting effect, so it is only considered active while Steve Rogers is in play. If Steve Rogers flipped to Captain America, he could no longer reduce the cost of the first ally played each round.

-Alex – July 8, 2022

57 – If the “Madame Hydra” minion activates and there are two copies of “legions of Hydra” in play, does she add 2 threat to both?

She should add 2 threat to each Legions of Hydra in play.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

58 – If I am playing 2-player against Sandman and I am attacked, but my partner defends the attack, does Sandman still deal indirect damage, and should Surging Sands be resolved if their identity takes damage?

The “you” and “your identity” in Sandman I’s ability refers to the original player he was activating against. Should your partner defend for you, then “your identity” would not take damage, and you would not resolve “Surging Sands.”

-Alex – July 21, 2022

59 – I was wondering the correct order of encounter cards that have both “when revealed” effects and the incite and/or hinder keyword which are also when revealed. Which happens first?

Hinder and Incite would have priority over “When Revealed” effects on encounter cards.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

60 – 1. The rules for the ally limit say you can play an ally over the limit and then discard an ally to get back down to the limit. But the same permission is not specifically given to the Restricted keyword, does it work the same way? 2.With the card “Phase disruption” from the vision hero pack, does the 2nd bullet point under “choose” in the latest rules reference make it to where this card can only be played if there is an attachment on an enemy in play with the text hero action or hero response and cannot be played just to confuse an enemy?

And if so is this intentional? 3.What would happen in a situation in which the Sandman villain attacks a player with only their hero in play with a tough status card, and his attack deals more indirect damage then the hero’s remaining hit points? The indirect damage entry in the latest Rules reference doesn’t seem to cover this scenario. What happens to the damage that wasn’t assigned?

In the current iteration of the Online Rules Reference, you would choose and discard any “Restricted” cards that you have in play over the limit of 2, until you get back down to 2 “Restricted” cards in play.
Phase Disruption is able to be played where it can Confuse an enemy without an attachment.
The rules on “Choose” in the Rules Reference were mostly intended to apply to cards where their entire ability relies on a “Choose” choice to be made.
The Tough status card should absorb all indirect damage that would be dealt to the hero, because indirect damage is still dealt simultaneously.
1. Note that if allies were in play, they would be forced to take the remaining damage.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

61 – 1.If an attack is defended by a character and it’s defeated or leaves play before the attack fully resolves like from a boost effect, Can another character then defend? 2. With Starlords helmet upgrade, do you draw an additional card if you run out of cards while drawing back up to your hand size? 3. I’ve seen a ruling on (defense) labeled abilities being able to be used outside of an attack. This is interesting. If you use shield block (defense) against a treachery that deals damage, can you then trigger the Indomitable upgrade to ready your hero?

4. Is overkill damage, damage from an attack? Because then you could shield block and then use unflappable to draw a card, correct? I have concerns with the latest (defense) ruling. It doesn’t seem to like up with the rules and the spirit of the game. The Basic THW power and (thawrt) labeled abilities do the same thing. Basic ATK power and (attack) labeled abilities do the same thing but the basic DEF power and (defense) labeled abilities are different. DEF is for defending attacks and (defense) is for preventing any source of damage. It Seems You should only be able to defend an attack and not defend a concussive blast boost ability for example.

1) We have made a ruling that, if a defending ally leaves play due to a boost effect, a hero can play a defense event to declare themselves the new defender for the same attack. (Please note that this interaction occurs after the window that allowed the hero to make a basic defense; only an event could cause the hero to become the defender.)

2) Yes; if you were to empty your player deck while drawing cards, you’d receive an encounter card in front of you before you finished and you would be granted an additional hand size if you’re not already at the maximum.

3) You can play defense cards so long as you satisfy their triggers, but you are not considered to have “defended” against something that’s not an attack. You could not trigger Indomitable if you used a defense event like Shield Block on a non-attack.

4) Overkill damage is considered damage “from an attack”, but does not in itself mean a separate attack was made against the target of the Overkill damage. What this means for the cards you referenced is, you can block Overkill damage with Shield Block because of Shield Block’s trigger, but in doing so you have not “defended against an attack”, so you could not trigger Unflappable.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

62 – I have some questions about the upcoming Peni Parker hero! Sync Ratio states “Exhaust an interface upgrade you control -> generate that upgrades resources”. The singular wording leads me to believe that we can only exhaust one upgrade to pay for a cost. So if I’m paying for a 2-cost card, I can only exhaust one interface for a resource, but not two. Is this ability repeatable? Can I trigger it multiple times to exhaust multiple interfaces and generate multiple resources? Second question regards cards attached to Sp//dr Suit.

When we flip to alter-ego, Sp//dr Suit says to move all counters and cards attached to Peni to that card. Does that mean that Peni would lose upgrades such as Endurance while in Alter-Ego? If cards such as Seduced unattached from her, but attach to Sp//dr-Suit, can we still take Alter-Ego actions to remove them? What about statuses like stun/confuse/tough? Do they stay in the suit? If the suit still counts as her “identity” and she can still take actions such as the one on Seduced, what is the purpose of attaching these cards to one identity card or the other?

Yes; Sync Ratio on SP//dr Suit can be used multiple times in the same window. You can exhaust multiple Interface cards to generate multiple resources.
Upgrades like Endurance are not considered “attached” to the character they apply to, so that would not create a conflict.
Yes, you can still exhaust in Alter-Ego form to remove Seduced from SP//dr suit.
Status cards should be included in both abilities on SP//dr & Suit; all cards that were attached to Sp//dr would get placed on the Suit, including status cards.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

63 – How does the Collector 1 work with cards that “save” others (e.g. Bruno Carelli, Hawkeye’s Quiver, George Stacy), are those attached cards in play? Is there any difference of attaching them facedown or faceup? So let’s say if the Quiver leaves play it will enter the collection along with all the cards attached to it? And what if I play one of those event cards, would they go to the collection?

In the case of Hawkeye’s Quiver, Bruno Carrelli, and George Stacy, the cards that are attached to them are not considered “in play.” So, if the Quiver, or Bruno, or George left play, only they would get added to The Collection, and NOT the cards that were attached to them. This is because The Collector only adds cards that were “in play” to The Collection.
~~Event cards aren’t considered to be put into play, so they would not enter The Collection when played.~~

-Alex – July 21, 2022

64 – I have questions regarding the card Spiritual Meditation, which has the effect: “Draw 2 cards. Choose and discard 1 card from your hand.” Do the Choose rules prevent me from playing Spiritual Meditation when it is the only card in my hand? The Choose rules say that if there is no valid target, then the ability cannot be initiated. Would the single Spiritual Meditation in my hand be a valid Choose target just to initiate the ability? Am I able to change the Choose target after initiating the ability? More specifically, am I allowed to Choose one of the 2 drawn cards by Spiritual Meditations first sentence after Choosing a card that was already in my hand to initiate the ability in the first place?

When you determine if the card’s ability can be initiated, you can make that determination based on the first part of the Action, drawing 2 cards. So yes, you could still play it in that situation.
If it helps, the designers have informed me that the “choose” clause under Initiating Abilities is mainly intended for cards where their only ability is a choose ability. We may adjust the rules reference to make this clearer.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

65 – Fear Of Kang reads: You cannot attack Kang. In this case “You” refers to the identity or the player? Could I attack Kang with allies?

In Marvel Champions, “you” always refers to the identity unless doing so would be impossible (ex. if something targets “your hand”, it’s the player’s hand.) So, the “you” in “Fear of Kang” only refers to the identity, and you could attack Kang with allies.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

66 – If Nebula Villain has the stone, and I attack with 5 damage defeating her, Do I get the stone? Or is she defeated before, and forced response doesn’t work?

In Marvel Champions, the game ends immediately when you defeat the villain. If Nebula had control of the Power Stone when she was defeated, the Power Stone’s Forced Response would be unable to resolve.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

67 – It’s my understanding that you can’t play Acrobatic Move (Gamora) against Nebula (villain) with two copies of Wide Stance (reducing all damage by 2), because the constant ability of those Wide Stances don’t allow Acrobatic Move to affect the game state (2-2 = 0 damage). If my understanding is correct, my question is two-fold: 1) Suppose I’m Ms. Marvel (hero) playing First Hit (protection), to try to deal 2 damage to Nebula. Per the ruling above, this wouldn’t be allowed, because I can’t affect the game state.

Would I be permitted to play First Hit if I intend to use the Embiggen! upgrade to increase its damage by 2 (which would allow it to get past the Wide Stance — 2 + 2 – 2 = 2 damage)? 2) If the answer to the above is “I can do that,” does the answer change at all if Ms. Marvel is stunned? It’s my understanding that I wouldn’t be able to Embiggen! the First Hit (because the status card takes priority and replaces the whole attack). However, if would pop the stunned. If that all “works,” could I scoop back First Hit with Ms. Marvel’s Morphogenetics ability, and then attack Nebula again, using the same combo in question #1 (since Embiggen! wouldn’t be exhausted)?

The designers and I had a discussion and helped me realize that I made an error on an answer I gave previously—or at least, they wanted a clarification made on determining if certain abilities could be initiated.
For starters, we have made a new determination that Gamora COULD play Acrobatic Move against the Nebula villain with 2 Wide Stances attached. Caleb explained it this way: instead of asking ourselves if the “game state” would change, think that Acrobatic Move will always have a “legal target”, the villain, even if the villain might have a way of blocking that damage—he argues Gamora should be able to attempt the attack, even if it doesn’t do damage.
By this ruling, you would be able to play First Hit whether or not you had Embiggen!, and you could also play First Hit alone to get rid of Stunned and retrieve it with Morphogenetics. We hope you find this new ruling empowering!

-Alex – July 21, 2022

68 – I wanted to confirm that if you reveal the obligation “stolen memories” from the Kang scenario, and you have less then 8 cards left in your deck, you would place all you can, reshuffle, get an encounter card, and then place the rest from the new deck. Is that correct?

In that situation, yes, you would continue placing cards from the newly shuffled deck.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

69 – When ability instructs a player to “look” at cards, are those cards considered to have left the place they were at for purposes of a situation like a deck becoming empty? The “look” entry in the rules reference don’t seem to cover this

If you’re instructed to “look at” cards, those cards would not be considered to have “left” that area, and would not cause the area to be empty. So if you looked at the top X cards of a deck, and that happened to be the rest of that deck, you would not take any additional actions at that time (ex. shuffling the discard into a new deck). And, if you were instructed to look at more than what’s there, you would simply look at as much as you could.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

70 – How does Ironheart’s Tony Stark AI interact with Mysterio’s encounter cards in your deck? Does “Adding” 1 to your hand count as “drawing” for the Maze of Mirrors?

Adding cards to your hand is considered a separate occurrence than drawing cards. What this means for the Mysterio scenario is that it IS possible to “add” encounter cards to your hand with Tony Stark A.I. and have them stay there. We believe that, in this odd case, they would remain in your hand and count toward your hand size until you decided to Discard them (such as at the end of the player phase), and then they would go to the encounter deck discard pile instead of being dealt to you.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

71 – One thing didn’t get addressed in my status question, but I thought it would be better to be more exact about it anyways. I’ve got a question regarding Nebula’s abilty, specifically the “discard each TECHNIQUE upgrade resolved this way”. I’m uncertain if the upgrade is considered to resolve if it didn’t do anything. A couple examples: If Nebula is already Tough, and the technique makes her Tough, did it resolve? Similarly, if the technique removes threat from a scheme, but no scheme has any threat? Or just less than 3 threat? Finally, what if she is Confused, did the thwart technique resolve?

If a Technique card’s “Special” ability is unable to be resolved, then it should remain in play. For instance, if Nebula was already Tough, the “Special” ability on Unyielding Persistence could not resolve, and it would not get discarded. Cutthroat Ambition (a “thwart” Technique) COULD be activated if a scheme had less than 3 threat, in which case you’d remove as much threat as possible and still discard the Technique during Nebula’s turn. If Nebula was Confused when she activated Cutthroat Ambition, she would discard Confused, and would be considered to have “resolved” Cutthroat Ambition, discarding it at the end of her turn.

-Alex – July 21, 2022

72 – Are cards attached to Bruno Carrelli, Hawkeyes Quiver, Black Panther Leadership ally, etc., by their effect considered to be in play? If not where, what zone, are they considered to be?

No, cards attached to Bruno, Quiver, Black Panther, etc. are not considered “in play.” There isn’t a more specific title for this state than “out of play.”

-Alex – July 21, 2022

73 – Which effects can cause a player (or encounter) deck to reshuffle in the middle of resolution? According to the rules, Draw does trigger a reshuffle mid effect, and Discard does not trigger a reshuffle. Per the Ultron’s Imperative ruling, a shuffle should be done to complete the effect. If instructed to Search, Look At, or otherwise interact with the top n cards of the deck, which cause a reshuffle to satisfy themselves, and which do not?

Your first statements were correct, that you can reshuffle and continue a Draw effect, but you would not continue a Discard effect after a reshuffle. And that Ultron’s Imperative requires two cards to be dealt, and a reshuffle can take place as this is resolving, because it’s not a “Discard” effect and it doesn’t adhere to the Discard rule.
Neither Search nor Look At effects would cause a deck to become empty, so neither should constitute a shuffling of the discard pile into a new deck. You would Search or Look At whatever area was specified by the card, resolving as much of the effect as possible.

-Alex – July 22, 2022

74 – So, does this mean that if my partner defends then Sandman will no longer be dealing indirect damage?

Sandman will always deal indirect damage to his target, even if the target of the attack changes from one player to another.

-Alex – July 25, 2022

75 – Question about keywords stacking. When a card effect would give a card surge and that card already has surge, would that be two instances of surge? And therefore could mean no limit of how many times the same card can Surge?

Same question with Quick strike on a minion, would that cause it to attack twice or more in a row? Same with villainous, would that character get two or more boost cards? Same with Toughness? Where it would most of the time fail but some characters can have multiple tough status cards on them Same with steady? 4 status of the same type?

Incite would stack correct? And in general is it if a keyword has a numerical value it stacks and if not it doesn’t?

Most keywords, particularly the ones you mentioned, do not stack—for example, a card that already has Surge cannot be given Surge again.
- Surge, Quickstrike, Villainous, Toughness, and Steady can only be granted to a card once. Granting any of these keywords to a card more than once would not cause any additional effects.
One keyword that does stack is Retaliate X; if something already has Retaliate X, X is able to be increased based on some card/game effects.
Yes, that’s a good rule of thumb. Most keywords with a numeral will stack, like Retaliate or Hinder.

-Alex – July 25, 2022

76 – Just another SP//DR question. I use an interface card to pay for “all systems go’ can I ready the interface I used to pay for “all systems go”?

Yes. The cost is fully paid before the effect resolves, so the Interface will be exhausted and eligible to be readied. 😊

-Alex – July 25, 2022

77 – There was a ruling on Hawkeye’s Quiver that the attached face-up arrows were in play (in particular they are collected by Collector when discarded). Electro is a new minion in Iron Spider’s Sinister Six (Sp//dr pack), which attaches cards to her from your hand. Are these cards also in play? Can I trigger them for their effects once they are attached, and if not, what allows me to generally do that with cards like Gatekeeper, Overwatch, etc? Also, if I attach Spider-Tracer to her with her effect, and then defeat her, can I remove 3 threat from a scheme?

Because Spider-Tracer is an energy resource, does it give her +1 HP while attached even when played, or does her constant ability only refer to cards specifically attached by her Forced Response?

I initially misspoke on the way I first answered the Collector rules question. I will try and address that along with your other questions.
Cards attached to Electro through her ability are not considered “in play.” This is the same for cards attached to Hawkeye’s Quiver; those Arrows are not considered in play either—they are just attached faceup so that the player can more easily view them. Cards attached to Electro (or Quiver) cannot be interacted with outside of the ability on the card they’re attached to, if at all.
These cases differ from Overwatch because it uses the phrase “Attach To”, which can be found in the Rules Reference. Cards that include this in their ability ARE considered “in play.” (And Overwatch wouldn’t make sense if it never was considered “in play.”)
- Additionally: unless a card’s cost is “paid”, or it’s specifically “put into play”, it’s not considered “in play.” (Overwatch just happens to have a cost of 0, but the point still stands.)
If you paid for Spider-Tracer and attached it to Electro, then it’s considered “in play” and you could remove 3 threat from a scheme if you defeat Electro. If Spider-Tracer is attached to Electro through her ability, you have not paid its cost and it has not been put into play, so it would have no effect if Electro was defeated.
Wherever possible, we should interpret cards as written; so if Spider-Tracer’s cost was paid and it was put into play attached to Electro, we rule that yes, it would still give Electro +1 HP.

-Alex – July 25, 2022

78 – Do cards attached to Bruno and etc by their effects get discarded when Bruno and etc leave play?

The answer to your question can be found in the online Rules Reference page 7, “Attach To.” It specifies that if the game element a card is attached to leaves play, the attached card is discarded [to its respective discard pile].

-Alex – July 25, 2022

79 – I have a question about “Ownership and Control” of upgrades/attachments in Marvel Champions. Who controls an upgrade that is attached to a character (i.e. an ally)? a) the owner of the upgrade b) the controller of the character I know, that in both Lord of the Rings and Arkham Horror, the answer is b). Control of attachments changes to the controller of the character it is attached to. In Marvel Champions, this isn’t entirely clear. Question came up after seeing the upcoming card Clarity of Purpose.

If your Clarity of Purpose were attached to another player’s ally, the controller of that ally would be the one who could activate Clarity of Purpose.

-Alex – July 26, 2022

79.5 – Just to be clear: [Captain] Marvel at full health can use CoP (a resource ability) to fulfill both the resource required for Rechannel ‘and’ deal a damage, reducing her health allowing the ability to initiate? (Even though the ability couldn’t be initiated at full health absent a damage)

Yep, you seem to have it correct. Clarity of Purpose can damage Captain Marvel, generate a wild resource, and allow you to use that wild resource toward the cost of Rechannel.

-Alex – July 27, 2022

80- 1.Is the identity card of a character considered to be a card of that characters specific cards? Like with “Ticket to the multiverse” does a “Ghost Spider card” include the hero card itself to ready? 2.Are both sides of the the two separate SP//DR identity cards “Identity specific cards”? or is that depending on the side you currently are on? Because only the support card type side of SP//DR suit and the upgrade side of SP//DR have a set number 1/17 and 2/17

1. Ticket to the Multiverse should be able to ready Ghost-Spider’s hero card, given it doesn’t specify if it’s targeting only “identity-specific” cards. The Ghost-Spider hero card should be considered a “Ghost-Spider card you control.”

2. As currently defined, the Alter-Ego side of Peni Parker and the Hero side of SP//DR Suit are considered the “identity” card(s) of the character SP//dr, and any cards numbered X/17 are considered “identity-specific” cards.

-Alex – July 28, 2022

81 – I have a question regarding Spider-Ham and the card ‘Thwip! Thwip!’ (Sp//dr #17). RRG v1.4 states “If multiple costs for a single card or ability require payment, those costs must be paid simultaneously” (page 10, Costs, bullet 4). And that “A response opportunity occurs immediately after its triggering condition has been resolved” (page 26, Response, bullet 2). So, I am playing as Spider-Ham, have no toon counters, and only ‘Thwip! Thwip!’, and one other, single-resource, card in hand… May I initiate playing ‘Thwip! Thwip!’ from my hand, pay the ability cost by dealing 1 damage to Spider-Ham, triggering and resolving his response ability, to gain a toon counter, and then spend that toon counter, along with the remaining card resource in my hand, in order to pay the 2 resource cost of ‘Thwip! Thwip!’?

The costs to play a card must be paid simultaneously. The cost of Thwip Thwip! is both 2 resources and dealing 1 damage to a Web-Warrior, all of which must be paid simultaneously in order to resolve the effect. You cannot interrupt paying this cost to trigger Spider-Ham’s “Response” ability.

-Alex – July 28, 2022

82 – I wanted to ask you guys to consider a rule change. In regards to preventing damage as a cost. For example with “Focused rage” or “Spider Tingle”. You guys say that using a card like “energy barrier” along with those cards prevents the cost and therefore the ability doesn’t work. But another way of looking at it, is that you didn’t actually prevent that cost, the damage still had to be dealt with and it would create a way more fun player experience and open up cool combos if you guys went a different direction with this.

What do you think? If you look at the SP//DR hero pack and the preconstructed deck for example, there are negative play experiences , like if you have the “forcefield generator” in play with 6 counters and only your hero in play you can’t use “spider tingle” or play “thwip thwip”. How cool would it be to combo these cards to block the damage that came your way or even use the “energy barrier” to pop a pesky minion or tough status card?!

I cannot speak on a rules change at this time, but there is something I wanted to make sure was clear: the “Interrupt” ability on Energy Barrier is entirely optional, same for the “Interrupt” ability on Spider-Tingle. (All “Interrupt” abilities on player cards are optional. Forced Interrupts are not.) SP/dr is able to run both in her deck; she just can’t negate the damage taken from Spider-Tingle with Energy Barrier if she wants to have Spider-Tingle resolve.

-Alex – July 28, 2022

I meant “forcefield generator” not “energy shield” ha (that’s not a card) and it being a forced interrupt

We are issuing a new ruling that is relative to this interaction. We are choosing to distinguish the phrases “deal X damage” and “take X damage” when used in the costs of player cards. If a player card requires you to “deal X damage” to a target, the damage does not all have to be applied to the target for that card’s cost to be considered paid.
- An example is Karmic Blast, which deals 4 damage to a target as part of its “cost.” That 4 damage can be in excess of the target’s health, or can be subjected to damage-reducing effects, and in either case still have its cost considered paid.
- On cards that require you to “take X damage”, though, all of that damage must be applied for the effect to occur.
What this means for Forcefield Generator is that it is now possible for SP//dr to have Forcefield Generator attached, then activate Spider-Tingle and “deal 1 damage” to herself–even though Forcefield Generator prevents the damage, the cost of Spider-Tingle is considered paid, and she could still resolve the rest of its effect.
We hope that you find this new ruling empowering. We understand that this is a relatively large adjustment, so please feel free to send us additional questions if you have any.

-Alex – September 27, 2022

83 – 1.Do cards that have a constant ability that reduces the damage that character takes, like “Victor mancha” “wide stance” and “kree combat armor” have priority over a tough status card? And I’ve seen a ruling that you couldn’t use “aerobatic move” because it couldn’t change the game state against two “wide “stance” but say you use your basic ATK power which isn’t tied to the game state change rule like abilities are and attack for 2, do you knock off the tough status or is the damage reduced first and no damage is done so the tough remains? 2.Can you overpay for the leadership Ant-Man ally with “make the call”? We’re not sure after seeing a ruling about “moon girl” being limited to drawing 3 cards but we don’t know if its different if the card specifically references that you overpay. 3.is overkill damage from an attack or its own keyword source of damage?

1. In the situation described, Tough has priority over those damage-reducing abilities. Tough blocks damage you “would take”, and the cards mentioned block damage you “take.”

2. You can “overpay” for Hank Pym if using Make the Call, because when paying for a cost you can always generate additional resources, and Hank Pym specifically enables you to “use” those overpaid resources to give him HP. The difference between him and Moon-Girl is that resources you overpay for her don’t count toward her cost.

3. Overkill damage is considered “damage from an attack.” It’s just not considered its own, separate attack against you.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

What about a Tough status card and effects that cannot take damage? Like “kang’s dominion” side scheme or the “go for champions” event card? Is that different?

After re-examining “Tough,” we are now ruling that if damage that would be dealt to the character is reduced to 0, Tough will remain on the character. This should be more empowering to players, but for consistency, the same will have to apply to enemies.
So, that means that if “Kang’s Dominion” is in play, and Kang has Tough, he will keep Tough even if card effects would otherwise try to deal damage to him.
Similarly, if “Go for Champions!” is in play, any characters with the Champion trait that have Tough will keep Tough since they cannot take damage that round.
This will overturn the previous ruling made below, at least when it concerns Tough status cards. Hopefully this ruling is more intuitive than before.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

84 – Question about the Thanos side scheme card “Sanctuary” it’s my understanding that the game recognizes when side schemes are defeated and then the when defeated ability resolves while the side scheme remains in play, but with this situation the when defeated ability conflicts with the constant ability. Should there be an errata to this card that says “Thanos cannot take damage WHILE threat is on this scheme” or something similar or am I missing something

When Sanctuary is defeated, it should be resolved according to its “When Defeated” ability, allowing the players to deal damage to Thanos with physical resources.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

85 – My group was playing Mysterio scenario in Marvel Champions and stumbled on the interpretation of Maze of Mirrors forced interrupt.

What is the exact timing on this? As it is written, it doesn’t look like a replacement effect, but some of us believe the intention is exactly that.

Scenario 1: I have to draw back to my hand size (5) and I have 1 card in my hand. I would draw 4 cards. I take 4 cards simultaneously from the top of my deck and 1 of them is an encounter card. The Maze triggers, I put the encounter next to my hero and draw a card (which would be the 5th from the deck also counting the previous 4 I already picked but not yet put into my hand because the Maze interrupted that action). This card will go directly into my hand. Then the draw action resumes and I add the remaining 3 cards I previously took from the deck to my hand. I end up with 5 card in hand and one encounter next to my hero.

Scenario 2: I need to draw up to my hand size (5) and I already have 1 card in my hand. Because the forced interrupt on Maze of Mirrors says “when you WOULD draw from the deck”, this effect triggers even before picking cards off the top of the deck (which IMHO would be weird because you don’t even know if the cards underneath the top one are encounters or hero cards, so you wouldn’t know if the maze would trigger, but let’s get past this and see where it ends). The Maze looks among the cards you would draw and triggers for each encounter card. Let’s say one of the 4 you would draw is an encounter. The Maze triggers and puts it into play next to your hero. Then you draw a card which will be the top card of the deck because you haven’t drawn any yet, you just looked through them to see if any was an encounter. After resolving the Maze ability, you can then resolve the action that was interrupted (draw 4 cards), so you actually end up with 1 card more than your hand size for each encounter card you would have drawn if the maze hadn’t interrupted the draw action.

I personally think that scenario 2 is a very convoluted way of thinking, but I can see why some people may think that’s how the Maze works because it is actually interrupting the draw action, so until after it resolves, you haven’t drawn a single card from the deck, and when you finally do that, you draw the number you would have drawn before the action was interrupted.

My way of interpreting the card instead is that “when you would draw or discard cards from your deck” means that the action is initiated, so the cards are taken off the top of the deck, but the Maze triggers before they end up where they normally would (your hand or discard pile); so the cards you draw / discard are counted before the Maze triggers and those are the only ones that will interact with the triggering action (draw or discard).

To resolve Maze of Mirrors, it’s expected that you complete your card draw step by simultaneously drawing cards from your deck, determining if any are encounter cards, dealing said encounter cards to yourself, and drawing a player card for each encounter card dealt to you this way. It’s best practice not to look at those encounter cards during this process, though the likelihood of that happening is understandably high during the scenario, so do your best.
I admit that your Scenario 2 presented was a bit confusing, the bottom line here is that you should not end up with additional cards in your hand when resolving Maze of Mirrors. The way that you interpreted Maze of Mirrors near the end of your email seems correct (and eloquently put).

-Alex – July 29, 2022

86 – I’m a little confused about SP//DR and couldn’t see the answer in her insert. When I flip Peni Parker to SP//DR, SP//DR says ‘When you flip to this side flip SP//DR suit to active side. Attach this card to SP//DR suit moving all counters on this card or cards attached to this card to SP//DR suit’. Are Status Cards counters? I’ve not known them to be referred to as counters before, but I can’t see any other ‘counters’ that Peni Parker would be assigned in her kit or the aspect cards she is packaged with. If status cards are not counters how does this work? If you are confused in alter ego form, are you no longer confused when you flip to hero form but then become confused again when flipping back to alter ego? When you flip SP//DR suit to inactive, SP//DR suit inactive says ‘When you flip to this side flip SP//DR to Peni Parker. Detach Peni Parker from here moving all counters on her or cards attached to Her to this card’ So all counters or cards attached to Peni Parker (which were picked up while she was on her SP//DR side) are transferred to the SP//DR suit inactive.

There is nothing to say that counters or cards attached to your SP//DR suit identity should be transferred to your Peni Parker Identity is this correct? If attachments are not transferred to Peni Parker when you flip to alter ego, can Peni Parker still benefit from cards attached to SP//DR suit like honorary avenger for example which gives her +1 HP and the avenger trait, or will she only get these bonuses in hero form? What cards or counters could be attached to the SP//DR upgrade to be transferred to the SP//DR suit when you flip to alter ego? Again, I can’t see any cards in her kit which would be attached to an upgrade or add counters to the SP//DR upgrade. If status cards are counters, then it seems that if you are stunned, confused or tough in hero form your stun/confused/tough status would stay on SP//DR suit when you flip to alter ego is this correct? Does this mean that if SP//DR suit is stunned, confused or tough and you flip to alter ego form Peni Parker is no longer Stunned, confused or tough and you ignore the status card until you flip to hero form again?

Assuming that status cards are transferred from Peni Parker to SP//DR suit when you flip to hero form, but they aren’t transferred between SP//DR Suit and Peni Parker when you flip to alter ego; if there is a stunned status card on SP//DR suit and Peni Parker gets stunned what happens when Peni Parker flips to hero form? Since there is already a stunned status on SP//DR suit you couldn’t transfer the stunned status you picked up in alter ego to SP//DR Suit so is it discarded?

Status cards are placed onto “characters”, so for SP//dr that means it’s applied to her identity cards. For instance, if SP//dr Suit (Hero) received Tough, then flipped to Alter-Ego, Peni Parker would then be the one that had Tough. Status cards are not counters and are also not considered “attached.”
As written, Honorary Avenger would be attached to a “character”, so to SP//dr’s current identity card, either the Hero or Alter-Ego cards. If attached to the Hero, then flipped to Alter-Ego, Honorary Avenger would remain attached to SP//dr Suit’s Inactive side, as instructed. The Suit wouldn’t receive any effect from Honorary Avenger while Inactive because it’s not a character then.
Since you had a lot of connected questions in your email, feel free to send a follow-up if there’s a specific one that wasn’t addressed.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

87 – I have some Adam warlock (hero) questions. And a war machine hero question. 1.If you discard a basic or identity specific card when using his “battle mage” action ability, are you still considered to have resolved it for purposes of say “mystic senses” 2.His events, “karmic blast” and “cosmic awareness” have you discard up to a certain number of cards. Do you decide how many up front and then discard them or can you go one at a time and divide to continue? The word choose is not in these cards if relevant. 3.Also with “Karmic blast”, as part of the cost it has you deal 4 damage, but if this is reduced by a card effect like “Kree combat armor”, is that preventing the cost and therefore stopping the attack altogether? And is this intentional? 4.Was it intentional that you can use the hero war machine “gauntlet gun” upgrade to pay for something other then a war machine event just to get the ammo counter?

Yes; if you discard a card using Battle Mage’s ability, no matter what that card is, you have “resolved” Battle Mage and can play Mystic Senses.
The cards you discard for Karmic Blast and Cosmic Awareness’ costs must be discarded at once; the discard is part of the “cost” to initiate the ability, and costs must be paid all at once.
You can satisfy Karmic Blast’s damage “cost” by dealing as much damage as possible with it to a valid target. It is fine if not all 4 damage can be dealt to the target.
Gauntlet Gun’s Resource ability can only be spent toward a War Machine Event, otherwise it cannot be initiated. You cannot exhaust the gun just for an ammo counter, because it’s a “Resource” ability; it must be used when paying for a cost.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

88 – I’ve got a timing question. Here is the scenario. I am Spider-Man Miles Morales, in hero form and exhausted. I reveal the treachery “loose ends” I reveal his obligation “keeping secrets” What order does miles response ability to changing form, and the “during that reveal, if you Change to alter ego form effect resolve? It seems like the “during the reveal “if” you change to alter ego form” wants to act as an alteration to the first sentence because it says “that” reveal and uses “change” (present tense) but it’s a separate sentence.

To resolve this interaction: You’d reveal Loose Ends, then you’d retrieve Keeping Secrets, then you’d resolve Keeping Secrets in full, then you’d return to Loose Ends and check if you met its condition: if you switched to Alter-Ego form with Keeping Secrets, you’d discard 1.
While not technically an alteration effect, it’s clear that “During that reveal” in Loose Ends depends on you having revealed your obligation.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

89 – Can you trigger 2 or even 3 copies of “Spider-tingle” on the same encounter card that would be revealed? If so, you would take up to 3 instances of damage but they would only be discarded if the encounter card turns out to be a treachery correct?

Spider-Tingle can only be used when you, the player controlling the upgrade, would reveal an encounter card. If you somehow had multiple Spider-Tingle cards under your control, then sure, they could be triggered off the same encounter card, each deal 1 damage to a Web-Warrior you control, and could all be potentially discarded if the revealed card is a treachery.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

90 – 1.Do cards like “make the call” and “across the spider-verse” allow you to ignore the requirement keyword cost of an ally because your putting into play vs playing it? 2.Can you use “clarity of purpose” attached to the hero “Spider-ham” with 0 toon counters on him and then trigger his response and use that same toon counter along with that wild resource previously generated by clarity of purpose all at the same time for paying for a two cost card for example.

Make the Call would allow you to ignore the Requirement keyword on an ally, because you are instructed to “pay the printed cost” to “put the character into play”, which is distinct from paying its cost and playing it from your hand.
1. Across the Spider-Verse is similar in that you could ignore the Requirement keyword with it as well.
No, that interaction wouldn’t work. Resources paid for a cost are paid simultaneously, and responses to effects generating resources happen after that cost has been fully paid. Therefore, Spider-Nonsense will not resolve until after the full cost of the card has been paid, and won’t be available for use in paying that cost.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

92 – On the SP//DR Suit Support card, it says “Detach Peni Parker from here, moving all counters on her and cards attached to this card” Is this a typo, and shouldn’t counters and cards go to the Peni identity card. As written, it makes cards like Honorary Avengers really awkward since it is attached to a support not an character.

The cards should be played as written. Even in a case like Honorary Avenger, the card only checks if it’s attaching to a character when it enters play, and afterward it can follow the instructions on the SP//dr cards. Should SP//dr Suit (Hero) gain Honorary Avenger, then flip to Alter-Ego, Honorary Avenger will remain attached to SP//dr Suit (Inactive) until Peni Parker flips back to Hero form.
Note, status cards are not considered “attached” to an identity, but “placed” on it instead. If SP//dr Suit (Hero) received a status card, that status would remain with the identity in Alter-Ego (in this case, transferred to the Peni Parker card.)

-Alex – July 29, 2022

93 – 1.The rules for the ally limit say you can play an ally over the limit and then discard an ally to get back down to the limit. But the same permission is not specifically given to the Restricted keyword, does it work the same way? 2.With the card “Phase disruption” from the vision hero pack, does the 2nd bullet point under “choose” in the latest rules reference make it to where this card can only be played if there is an attachment on an enemy in play with the text hero action or hero response and cannot be played just to confuse an enemy? And if so is this intentional? 3.What would happen in a situation in which the Sandman villain attacks a player with only their hero in play with a tough status card, and his attack deals more indirect damage then the hero’s remaining hit points? The indirect damage entry in the latest Rules reference doesn’t seem to cover this scenario. What happens to the damage that wasn’t assigned?

4.Just so I understand. Your saying you can play a restricted card that takes you over the limit and then discard down to the limit just like with allies and im assuming you need to do that before triggering any responses to that new Restricted card entering play just like the way the ally rule is written. Basically they work exactly the same way correct? 5. The current rules say “While assigning indirect damage, a character cannot be assigned more indirect damage than would cause it to be defeated. This is assessed without accounting for interactions with other abilities.” Are you saying that in my previous email question that you would just assign enough of the indirect damage to the hero (ignoring the tough) that would defeat it and then that damage and the “rest” of the unassigned damage is all applied at the same time and therefore the tough blocks it all. That sound right? I’m confused why having allies would force you to apply any of the damage then if it works this way.

In the current iteration of the Online Rules Reference, you would choose and discard any “Restricted” cards that you have in play over the limit of 2, until you get back down to 2 “Restricted” cards in play.
Phase Disruption is able to be played where it can Confuse an enemy without an attachment. The rules on “Choose” in the Rules Reference were mostly intended to apply to cards where their entire ability relies on a “Choose” choice to be made.
The Tough status card should absorb all indirect damage that would be dealt to the hero, because indirect damage is still dealt simultaneously.
1. Note that if allies were in play, they would be forced to take the remaining damage.
Yes, you can think of the Restricted limits as similar to the Ally limits. You must “immediately” choose and discard from play any Restricted cards over the limit, and you must make that choice before resolving abilities triggered by them entering play.
I answered as I did based on part of the discussion I had with the designers on this question. One of the rules of indirect damage is that a character cannot be assigned indirect damage beyond the amount that would cause it to be defeated. If you had a Tough hero and an ally in play, you could still only assign as much indirect damage to the hero as would cause it to be defeated (as if it didn’t have Tough), and if there was remaining damage, that damage would have to be directed to the ally, even though your hero will block its indirect damage using Tough. I apologize if including that led to more confusion.

-Alex – July 29, 2022

August 2022

94 – I’m now curious, though, how [defense] works with Vision’s Intangible form, or the upcoming Shadowcat’s Phased form. For example, Vision, in Intangible form, is being attacked by Crossbones, and Crossbones’ Machine Gun is in play, the interrupt on the Machine Gun triggers, an encounter card is flipped, and it has at least one boost icon.

Vision is now taking damage, but it is not from an attack, so the damage reduction on Intangible doesn’t kick in, however, can Vision now play Side Step, despite the other part of Intangible saying he “cannot attack or defend”? I assume he can, because the damage is outside of an attack, and so he not considered to be “defending”, even though he played a “(defense)” labelled ability. Is that correct?

Similarly, I assume Shadowcat’s Phased form response would not trigger, in this same scenario, if she were in Vision’s place, for the same reason. Is that also correct?

We affirm that defense events can be played outside of an attack if their triggers are otherwise met, and we affirm that you cannot be considered to have “defended” against a “non-attack”.
Crossbones’ Machine Gun is interesting because it has an Interrupt ability which means it must resolve before its trigger, Crossbones attacking. By that logic, it can be treated as damage from a non-attack, for which you COULD use Side Step in response to it while in Vision’s Intangible form, because you are not making “a defense.” (This would be different if the ability wasn’t an Interrupt, or if it instead boosted Crossbones’ attack, because a Defense event played during an attack is by definition “a defense”, and an Intangible Vision cannot defend.)
Your assumptions about Shadowcat’s Phased form seem correct, if she uses Side Step as a response to Crossbones’ Machine Gun, she has not made “a defense.”

-Alex – August 1, 2022

95 – Had a couple of questions about the recently revealed Nightcrawler protection ally. Scenario is that I am playing as Drax on my hero side and I use Nightcrawler to defend an attack by Wrecker (Wrecking Crew) and I pay for NC’s ability. – Does the attack become undefended since Nightcrawler leaves play, or does Nightcrawler’s interrupt fully resolve before the attack becomes undefended? – If it does resolve before the attack becomes undefended, can you say how/why? Shouldnt the game always be checking if an attack is defended or not? – How does this interact with Wrecker’s constant ability, “While Wrecker is attacking he gets +2 ATK if the attack is undefended.” – Am I ultimately able to trigger Drax’s ability, “After the villain attacks Drax”?

If Nightcrawler were the target of an attack by Wrecker, then Nightcrawler left play due to his ability, we believe that the attack would be considered “undefended” in that moment. (NC’s Interrupt occurs right before Step 4 of “Attack: Enemy Activation”, which determines if a defender is there to assign damage to.)
Wrecker WOULD get the +2 ATK bonus in that moment, since the attack is “undefended.” And, damage from an “undefended” attack would normally be assigned to the identity. But, Nightcrawler has prevented that damage (including the bonus +2 ATK).
~~Even so, because the attack was “undefended”, and Drax would have otherwise taken the damage, this would be considered an attack against Drax, so Drax’s ability could resolve.~~

-Alex – August 1, 2022

96 – 1.With the “whirlwind” minion from the core set. Since his attack is simultaneously made against all heros in play, and each player can choose to defend or take the damage. Does that mean players cannot defend for each other in this unique simultaneous situation? 2. Regarding the timing of when you discard a treachery card that causes an activation like “assault” or “advance” Is it before the activation or after the activation completely resolves which would include a boost card being dealt which could cause the encounter deck to empty and need to be reshuffled.

Whirlwind’s attack is simultaneous. When you resolve Whirlwind’s attack against each other player, he is meant to attack each player simultaneously. Each player should follow the steps for “Attack (Enemy Activation)” as they resolve this effect. (Each player is a target, and each player can choose to defend against the individual attack against them or take the 2 damage.)
Assuming we understood your question correctly: when Assault or Advance is revealed, the ability resolves by telling the villain to activate, and then Assault/Advance is placed in the discard pile before the villain is dealt a boost card. If the encounter deck were emptied during this resolution, Assault/Advance would be shuffled into the new encounter deck.

-Alex – August 1, 2022

97 – If an “Advanced Ultron Drone” attacks me because of “Swarm Attack” and it is defeated by say retaliate, Does the drone that spawns from him also attack? Not sure of the timing.

Yes. If Swarm Attack causes an Advanced Ultron Drone to attack you, and you defeat that Advanced Ultron Drone while resolving Swarm Attack, then the Drone it spawns will also attack you.

-Alex – August 1, 2022

98 – Does the cost arrow on ‘mister hyde’ apply to both sentences of his when revealed ability? we are not sure if he will always get a tough status card and deal damage to each hero and ally regardless if ‘Calvin Zebo’ was in play or not.

Mister Hyde will only receive Tough and deal 1 damage to each hero & ally if Calvin Zabo is discarded from play with Mister Hyde’s ability. All sentences in Mister Hyde’s ability fall into a “cost > effect” formula, where Mister Hyde gaining those bonuses only happen when the “cost” of discarding Zabo is paid.
I understand my answer to an earlier question about cost arrows confused people, and I apologize. (If you are wondering about Space Stone in particular, discarding it IS part of the “effect” that happens when its “cost” is paid, and its cost can be paid when either a minion is revealed or it empties the encounter deck, per the rules of discarding.)

-Alex – August 1, 2022

99 – I’ve noticed a recent ruling on SP//DR and I am still confused about how she works. The ruling says ‘Status cards should be included in both abilities on SP//dr & Suit; all cards that were attached to Sp//dr would get placed on the Suit, including status cards.’ So if you were stunned/confused/tough in hero form those status would stay on the suit when you flip to alter ego. Is Peni still considered to be stunned/confused/tough and if not could Peni become stunned/confused/tough while the suit is? What would happen if Honorary avenger were attached to SP//DR suit?

When you flip to alter ego Honorary Avenger would stay attached to the suit would Peni loose the +1 hit point that upgrade gives her? I’m still unclear what effect the ability on SP//DR suit inactive has on the game. The ability says that when you flip to alter ego any cards or counters attached to Peni should be moved to the suit and the ruling stats this includes status cards, but why would cards like Honorary Avenger or status cards ever be placed on Peni? When you are in hero form any cards or status cards would be placed on the suit since that is your indentity card when you are in hero form. You would not attach cards or place status on SP//DR because that card is an upgrade while you are in hero form. Also what counters are being referred to?

Status cards by definition are “placed” on the identity. If SP//dr Suit (Hero) receives a status card, and then flipped to Alter-Ego, Peni Parker would then be the one with that status card.
This is different from cards that “attach.” To use your example, Honorary Avenger gets attached to the identity (either side), and once attached it no longer checks for legality. It would then move as directed by the SP//dr cards. If Honorary Avenger started on SP//dr Suit (Hero), then SP//dr went to Alter-Ego, Honorary Avenger would move to SP//dr Suit (Inactive), and the Suit would not receive any bonuses because it’s not “a character.” Peni Parker could lose a hit point this way.
“Counters” in the ability text can refer to any time a counter would be placed on SP//dr’s identity cards, or cards attached to the identity. There currently isn’t a direct method of placing counters on identity cards, but there could be in future scenarios.

-Alex – August 1, 2022

100 – Playing the ghost-spider hero, you exhaust to use her basic ATK power and play “skilled strike” to increase the ATK, can you then ready ghost-spider from her dizzying reflexes ability? 2.Playing the Spider-woman hero, you exhaust to use her basic ATK power and again play “skilled strike” to increase the ATK, can she get an additional +1 ATK from her superhuman agility ability? One is a response and one is an interrupt but mainly I’m not sure of the timing of if “when you make a basic attack” happens before or after you exhaust to use it.

1. Yes (assuming you haven’t passed the limit). You have played an “Interrupt” ability on an event, allowing you to ready Ghost-Spider.

2. Yes. You initiate a basic attack, you play Skilled Strike as an interrupt, then because you played an aspect card you can increase Spider-Woman’s stats until the end of the round, including for the same basic attack.

-Alex – August 5, 2022

101 – Say you play “Magic blast” while having only 1 card left in your deck, does magic blast get discarded before the deck reshuffles?

Events are generally placed in the discard after their effects resolve. Part of Magic Blast’s resolution is discarding a card from your deck, which would happen before Magic Blast itself is discarded; you’d reshuffle your deck before discarding Magic Blast.

-Alex – August 5, 2022

102 – I have a question regarding the Marvel Champions cards Make the Call, and Ant-Man (Hank Pym). Make the call allows you to pay the printed cost of an ally in a discard pile and return them to play. The Ant-Man (Hank Pym) ally has a printed coat of zero, and gains one Pym Counter for every resource you overpay. My question is, if you use Make the Call to return Ant-Man to play, can you still spend resource cards to add Pym counters to him?

You CAN “overpay” for Hank Pym if using Make the Call, because when paying for a cost you can always generate additional resources, and Hank Pym specifically enables you to “use” those overpaid resources to give him HP. (In most other cases, overpaid resources would be lost.)

-Alex – August 5, 2022

103 – I’ve got a bit of a detailed question, which I hope you will answer as fully as you can, thanks ahead of time 🙂 I’m trying to understand a situation, and I have a couple rulings that I’m not sure how they might apply. So, Rocket Raccoon is fighting Arnim Zola. Zola has 1 HP left on his first stage, and Rocket has Energy Barrier in play with 1 token, and 1 card in his deck. He plays Haymaker, attacking Zola. Now, several things happen, and I want to make sure I order them correctly: Rocket responds to dealing excess damage by drawing a card and reshuffling his deck, Haymaker is discarded, Zola retaliates, Energy Barrier triggers to prevent the damage and ends up discarded. Depending on the order of triggers Haymaker and Energy Barrier could each end up either in my discard, or in my newly shuffled deck.

In trying to understand how this works, I see 3 things happening more or less at once: playing an event, attacking an enemy, damaging that enemy. Damaging the enemy is the effect, while attacking an enemy and playing an event are more like processes which may generally have multiple effects (in this case there is only the one). As far as any nesting could go it seems like playing the event > attacking the enemy > dealing damage. The rules don’t provide any clarity on how this works. But, there are 2 rulings that seem to deal with situations like this: the Black Panther/Sneak Attack ruling and the Counterattack/Retaliate ruling. The Black Panther/Sneak Attack ruling says that Black Panther’s response to the effect of Sneak Attack triggers after Sneak Attack is discarded (i.e. after the process of playing an event is complete). Applied here, this should see Rocket’s response to the effect (dealing damage) triggering after the process of playing the event (so Haymaker gets discarded first, and is shuffled into my new deck).

Combined with the nesting above, Rocket’s Response should also trigger after the attack, meaning it will share a window with Retaliate. Retaliate, being a constant ability, has priority over a Response, so Energy Barrier also gets discarded before Rocket’s response (and shuffled into my new deck). This seems to contradict the recent Counterattack/Retaliate ruling though, as that ruling suggests that responses to damage (the last effect in the attack process) would trigger before Retaliate. (The Enemy Attack process does have more steps, but as dealing damage is the last step of that process, it seems to match this scenario where the damage is the last step of the player’s attack).

I appreciate your responding to the specific scenario, but what I would most like is some way to handle these timing scenarios consistently, whether the things which happen as the final step of a process (such as the final effect of an event, or the damage from an enemy attack) trigger responses to happen: before the process is complete, after the process itself is complete but before responses to the process itself, or at the same time as responses to the process itself. I hope that makes sense, thanks!

For the situation described, this is the order that we would resolve it:

Rocket Raccoon plays Haymaker on Zola I. This attack has excess damage. Haymaker is discarded.
Zola I is removed, and Zola II is revealed.
Rocket’s Response triggers off of the attack he made, and he draws 1. This empties his deck.
Haymaker is shuffled in with the new deck.
Zola’s Retaliate triggers.
Rocket blocks the damage with Energy Barrier, and discards EB.

-Alex – August 18, 2022

104 – When assigning indirect damage, if all legal targets have been assigned damage equal to their remaining hit points, and there is more damage, does all overflow disappear? As an example, if you have 1 HP remaining, and no allies, and Sandman attacks for 4, per the “you can only assign indirect damage as the target has HP, not counting other interactions” ruling, 1 Damage is assigned, and the other 3…. something…. If you then prevent 1 damage, as an ‘other interaction’ are you fine?

Our current ruling is that you can only be assigned indirect damage up to your remaining hit points. Any amount beyond that would not be directed at anything. So, in the situation you described, you would only be at risk of taking 1 damage.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

105 – Cosmo says: Interrupt: When Cosmo attacks or thwarts, name a card type, then discard the top card of the deck. If that card is of the named type, Cosmo does not take consequential damage (the damage under THW or ATK) for this use And the previous ruling on Cosmo says: Is Doctor Strange’s Invocation deck a legal target for Cosmo’s ability? Yes, Doctor Strange’s Invocation deck (along with any non-villain or non-main scheme deck, such as Red Skull’s side-scheme deck) is a legal target for Cosmo’s ability. If you’re playing Crossbones, or any other scenario with an additional deck of encounter cards, where does Cosmo discard those cards to?

Correct, Cosmo’s ability currently has the potential to target any deck in play. Cards from these decks should be discarded as specified by the scenario rules. For the Crossbones’ Experimental Weapons deck, per the scenario rules, the “Experimental Weapon” card discarded would be placed in the encounter deck discard pile. This is different than something like the Infinity Stone deck, which has its own discard pile.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

106 – Citywide Crisis causes “When Revealed” effects on side schemes in play to be resolved. Some “When Revealed” effects — such as Legions of Hel — cause a card to gain surge when conditions are met. Suppose Legions of Hel is in play, with no Undead minions in play. If Citywide Crisis’s effect attempts to resolve, Legions of Hel gains surge. Question 1: Does that “surge” actually DO anything? The side scheme itself doesn’t seem to be “revealed” (because it’s already on the table), and surge says, “After an encounter card with this keyword is REVEALED [my emphasis], the player resolving the card reveals an additional encounter card from the top of the encounter deck.” Question 2: If the answer to #1, above, is “no, surge doesn’t do anything in this case,” does the final line of Citywide Crisis — “If no ‘When Revealed’ ability was resolved this way, place 2 threat on each scheme.” — happen? I’m confused about, if surge is looking for “After an encounter card with this keyword is REVEALED…” and it doesn’t gain surge until after it’s revealed, then — by a strict reading of the rules — gaining surge doesn’t do anything.

Surge is designed to resolve when an encounter card is revealed, and in order for a reveal to happen, the card must flip from facedown to faceup. So, if a card already in play (well past its reveal of course) were to gain Surge, nothing would happen.
If Citywide Crisis was revealed, but Legions of Hel couldn’t resolve any of its effects in a way that changed the game, then Citywide Crisis would add 2 threat to each scheme.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

107 – If you only had a tough hero in play with 5 hit points remaining and sandman dealt you 10 Indirect damage, you assign 5 to your hero and then at the same time you deal that 5 plus the other 5 for a Total of 10 and then the tough blocks it all. Is that correct?

Yes, Tough would block any indirect damage you would take.
Our current ruling is that you can still only be assigned indirect damage up to your remaining hit points. So, in your example, you could only be assigned 5 damage, and the rest would not be targeted at anything.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

108 – I’ve seen a ruling that you plan to update the rules to where if a defending ally is defeated before the attack resolves like through a boost effect, that you can then use shield block to have your identity become the new defender because it has the (defense) label and it’s triggering condition would become true. A few questions on this.

1. Do you plan to have the rules expand “defeated” to include other ways of leaving play” like if the ally was “discarded”(corvus glaive minion boost ability) or leaves play some other way before the attack resolves? (New X-Men nightcrawler ally)

2.Is a new defender going to be limited to being the identity of the controlling player of the defeated ally and specifically through (defense) abilities? OR do you plan to allow a new defender to be any character thats able to exhaust (basic DEF power or if an ally just exhaust) or is that step going to remain as passed at that point and be limited to (defense) abilities?

3.If the Corvus Glaive villain attacks a hero with 1 hp left. The hero defends. That hero is defeated by a boost effect (say, Concussive Blast). What happens? Is that attack considered to be defended (because the hero defended originally, even though they were defeated), and thus the Avengers Tower isn’t damaged? Or is the attack undefended (because the “defender” was defeated) and thus the Avengers Tower damaged? Or does the attack simply cease to exist (because the “defender” was defeated before the attack could resolve)?

4. Does the answer to #3, above, change if the hero did NOT defend originally?

1. The planned change to the Defend rules is that if the defending ally were to leave play due to a boost ability, a Defense ability card can be played to make an identity the defender of the attack. Since this occurs AFTER a player could normally declare a character as a defender, a basic defense cannot be used.

2. Since only one player can defend against an attack, only the player that was controlling the discarded ally can play a Defense event.

3. If a boost ability defeats a defending character, that attack would be considered undefended; this will also apply if the defending character was your identity. If you are defeated by a boost ability, Corvus Glaive’s attack would be considered undefended, and he would damage Avengers Tower.

4. No, nothing would be different.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

109 – With the boost ability on “Hydra jet-trooper” And reading the “delayed effect” entry in the current rules reference, Does this second attack “skip” the retaliate, forced response, response windows for the first attack altogether?

As currently written, the rules support your inclination: the second attack occurs before responses to the first attack are able to resolve, because Hydra Jet-Trooper’s boost ability is a delayed effect. Retaliate and responses to the first attack would have to be resolved after the second attack. Though we may revisit delayed effects in the future, for now, that is how the ability should be played.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

110 – I’ve seen a ruling about the space stone and how it works, implying that for effects in the form “Cost -> effect 1. Effect 2” effect 2 is not dependent up the cost being paid. And I’m curious how this would apply to something like Jesse Alexander. Does Jesse allow Nova to draw a card without exhausting, for example because he is already exhausted, or cannot exhaust, and is there no limit to using this part of the ability?

When I first wrote my response about Space Stone, I gave an incorrect answer as to why it resolves the way that it does. Space Stone gets discarded whenever its Special ability resolves, but not because the ability is split up in separate sentences; it gets discarded because its “cost” of discarding a minion can be considered fulfilled even if discarding cards empties the encounter deck. All sentences after the cost arrow should be resolved as an “effect” of the “cost” being paid.
Applying this to Jesse Alexander, in order to resolve his ability in full, he will need to be exhausted as a “cost” of drawing 1 card and shuffling 1 Connection to the Worldmind into your deck.

-Alex – August 19, 2022

111 – With the Valkyrie hero, Can you explain how her setup works? The death glow upgrade doesn’t have the permanent keyword, So is it intended to be shuffled into the deck at the beginning of the game and could potentially be drawn and discarded in a mulligan or even placed as an Ultron drone for example? And then would her setup target and set aside death glow from all of those situations?

During the development of the Valkyrie hero, we in the studio would set her Death-Glow aside before shuffling her deck and resolving Villain/Scenario setup rules. You are free to do this as well, even if it’s a little different than how Setup is written in the Rules Reference.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

112 – If at the start of your turn the nebula hero is confused and has “cutthroat ambition” in play and there is zero threat on any schemes in play, would cutthroat even attempt to resolve causing nebula to lose her confused status card

Yes. You can play a Thwart event / activate a Thwart ability to discard Confused, even if there is no threat in the play area. (This is different than some of our previous rulings, but this is how we want things to work going forward!)
For additional clarification, if there were no threat in the play area, and you weren’t Confused, then you couldn’t play a Thwart event.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

113 – We are confused by the interrupt on Robert Kelly from the upcoming Mutant Genesis campaign expansion. It reads “Forced Interrupt: when an enemy resolves an undefended attack against you, deal that damage to Robert Kelly.” 1. When does this interrupt trigger? The general timing of Interrupts and the first paragraph Attack (Enemy Activation) seem to suggest that this may trigger upon the initiation of an attack (when its resolution begins), but that seems unintended. 2. Does this interrupt share a timing window with Tough? Does Tough “beat” it? 3. Does this interrupt share a timing window with Energy Barrier’s interrupt, and not allow EB to trigger because this interrupt is Forced? 4. Can a (defense) ability with a triggering condition like Side Step’s (“when you would take any amount of damage”) be played to interrupt the damage of an otherwise undefended attack against the first player when this Forced Interrupt is in play? 5. In the case of an attack that would be lethal without Robert Kelly’s interrupt, does an interrupt like Drax’s Too Stubborn To Die (“when Drax would be defeated”) trigger before this? 6. Is this interrupt intended to be a replacement effect? Does the first player’s identity also take damage when this triggers? 7. When does Robert Kelly change control in the case of the first player being eliminated? Do the players lose if that happens?

Broadly speaking, the Forced Interrupt on Robert Kelly resolves before damage would be dealt. If the attack is undefended, Robert Kelly will take the damage.

This interrupts Step 4 of “Attack: Enemy Activation.”
If your Hero is Tough, nothing will happen to Tough. All damage goes to Robert Kelly.
Robert Kelly’s ability being a Forced Interrupt takes priority over Energy Barrier.
Side Step could not be played if you are not taking the damage.
Drax could not trigger Too Stubborn to Die if the damage isn’t going to him.
No.
If the first player is eliminated, they should immediately pass the first player token, and Robert Kelly with it.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

114 – Venom’s “Grasping Tendrils” says “Hero Interrupt (defense): When the villain initiates an attack against you, cancel that attack…” If I play Grasping Tendrils and cancel the villain’s attack, did I “defend” at all? Can I trigger “Indomitable”? (or any other “Response: After your hero defends…”) If I play Grasping Tendrils and cancel the villain’s attack, did I “defend against an attack”? Can I trigger “Unflappable?” (or any other “Response: After your hero defends against an attack…”) – The newly revealed “Powerful Punch” from Mutant Genesis raises similar questions, although it could be answered differently. It says “Hero Interrupt: (attack/defense) When an enemy initiates an attack, deal 4 damage to that enemy.” If I play Powerful Punch during a minion’s attack and defeat that minion before the attack occurs, did I “defend” at all? Can I trigger “Indomitable”? (or any other “Response: After your hero defends…”). If I play Powerful Punch during a minion’s attack and defeat that minion before the attack occurs, did I “defend against an attack”? Can I trigger “Unflappable?” (or any other “Response: After your hero defends against an attack…”)

If the effect of an ability is canceled, the ability is still regarded as initiated, and any costs are still paid. In that sense, Grasping Tendrils can “cancel an attack”, but that attack is still considered initiated, and you are still considered to have defended against it by playing this Defense event. As such, you can trigger Indomitable and/or Unflappable off of that defense.
Similarly, with Powerful Punch, you have still made “a defense” even if the enemy was defeated before it dealt damage to you.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

115 – We need help with what to do in this situation. Say you play “hex bolt” and there are only 3 cards left in the encounter deck. Your supposed to immediately reshuffle the encounter deck and gain an acceleration token and you can simply look at the 3 cards you discarded and check the amount of boost icons on them before reshuffling the deck and could even trigger “Scarlet witch’s Crest” to modify one before reshuffling, but what happens when you use her ability “chaos control” in this situation? Another similar situation is say you play “hex bolt” and there are only 2 cards left in the encounter deck. And you want to trigger “chaos control” on one of those cards. This is tricky.

In the situation described, you would play Hex Bolt and check the icons of the 3 cards discarded. However, you will need to shuffle the deck before resolving the remaining effects on Hex Bolt. (It’s possible to discard encounter cards from play with the effects on Hex Bolt; those cards shouldn’t be a part of the newly shuffled encounter deck.) We recommend writing down the counted boost icons before reshuffling so you remember them.
Scarlet Witch’s Crest is meant to target one card at a time, so you could exhaust it to change the counted boost icons on one of the 3 cards discarded by Hex Bolt.
Chaos Control can be used once the encounter deck has been reshuffled, and can replace the counted icons for one of the 3 cards discarded by Hex Bolt.
And if there are only 2 cards left in the encounter deck, Hex Bolt would only discard those 2 cards, and count the icons on them. The Crest and Chaos Control could still be used as described previously.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

116 – On the newly revealed Wolverine character, what happens if you have his Wolverine’s Claws card in hand after your mulligan, or if The Collector: Infiltrate the Museum or Ultron pull it out of your deck? Are you just missing that integral part of your kit? Will this card count against your deck’s 40-50 card limit? Does this mean that cards like Vision’s Intangible/Dense or Spectrum’s energy forms should also start in your deck and count against your card limit?

Wolverine’s Setup works as written. If you don’t want to risk being unable to play Wolverine’s Claws, don’t take a mulligan if they’re not in your starting hand (since they cannot be played from hand if you end up drawing them). Or, you can do what most of our playtesters did and put the Claws into play alongside your hero before drawing your starting hand.
Those Permanent cards involved in a hero’s Setup should not count toward their minimum deck size.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

117 – I wanted to ask how his upgrade interacts with his card count/deck size. He seems a little different in his setup ability to other heroes, since we’ve had: – heroes with a 15 card deck and a ‘fetch’ mechanic for a key upgrade, like Black Panther, Thor, Captain America, Star-Lord etc – heroes with a >15 card deck and a ‘put into play’ mechanic for a key upgrade, like Spectrum, Vision, Valkyrie. I was under the impression that for Spetctrum, Vision & Valkyrie, those extra upgrades don’t count towards deck size (can you confirm/deny this?) But for Wolverine, he has a sixteen card deck and a ‘fetch’ mechanic, implying that the Claws should be in the deck at the start of the game.

Does this mean that his minimum 40 deck size consists of only 24 aspect/basic cards, instead of 25? And the claws are at risk of being turned into an Ultron drone when playing Ultron? Or should I be treating this ability as applying before any villain setup? (I don’t think that currently happens with the rules as written, but I think previous rulings mentioned the idea that the Setup rules might be changed around a bit, so I’m wondering if Wolverine is set up for that change…?)

You are correct in that the permanent cards for Spectrum and Vision don’t count toward their minimum deck size; same goes for Wolverine’s Claws. Wolverine has 25 aspect/basic cards included in his premade deck.

During Wolverine’s Setup, if you don’t want to risk being unable to play Wolverine’s Claws, don’t take a mulligan if they’re not in your starting hand (since they cannot be played from hand if you end up drawing them). Or, you can do what most of our playtesters did and put the Claws into play alongside your hero before drawing your starting hand.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

118 – How do two cards – Wolverine’s Claws and Warrior Skill – interact with certain attack cards. The way that Wolverine’s Claws “pay” for an attack event is perfectly clear, but at the end of its text the card says “That attack gains piercing” – the trouble is, some attack events appear to trigger multiple attacks. Wolverine himself has an attack event called Slice and Dice which says “Make the following TWO attacks:”. Berserker Barrage, another Wolverine card, is also hotly debated.

Would Wolverine’s Claws give piercing to both attacks from Slice and Dice, or just one? If one, which one? When you repeat Berserker Barrage’s ability, taking damage after its initial damage defeats a minion, does this count as a new attack? If originally played with Wolverine’s Claws, do all repeated uses have piercing, or just the original 4 damage?

And finally, how does the new Aggression aspect card, Warrior Skill, interact with Slice and Dice and Berserker Barrage? If I use Warrior Skill on Slice and Dice, do I deal 4 and 3 damage or 4 and 4? Does each repetition of Berserker Barrage remember the boost from Warrior Skill? And, for the sake of thoroughness and comparison, how does Warrior Skill interact with current Aggression cards Melee and/or One by One?

Wolverine’s Claws will give piercing to “the first attack” in the event. Note, some events make multiple attacks, and some events make single attacks with multiple instances of damage.
- Slice and Dice makes two attacks, so only the first gains piercing. Berserker Barrage makes one attack initially, so that one gains piercing; if you repeat its ability, the new attack will not have piercing.
- With Melee, however, the two instances of damage are considered a single attack, so both instances would gain piercing.
Warrior Skill functions similarly: it will boost up the damage of “an attack.” For multi-attack events, it can only boost up one of those attacks; but on an Attack event with one attack + multiple instances of damage, it will empower all instances. To use Melee as an example again, it will boost both instances of damage by 1, since they’re a single attack.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

119 – The recently revealed Wolverine hero…I have a question regarding his claws. How would Requirement interact with them? Lets say I use the claws to play either Go All Out or No Quarter, ignoring their resource cost. Would I then still have to pay the required resource?

A card with the “requirement” keyword cannot be played unless the resource requirement is met while paying for the card’s cost. Wolverine’s Claws is unable to circumvent this requirement. You would not be able to exhaust the Claws to play Go All Out or No Quarter—nor could you exhaust the Claws and only pay the requirement.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

120 – A question about Valkyrie Ii Marvel Champions: How the card Shieldmaiden works? What is “declare as defender” do Valkyrie need to do a basic defense? She needs to exhaust to gain the +2 bonus? I need clarification please.

To be a bit transparent, Shieldmaiden was written during a time when Defense events had different rules in the game, so Shieldmaiden not being a Defense event was appropriate during its development.
With current Marvel Champions rules, this is how you should resolve playing Shieldmaiden: When the enemy with Death-Glow attached initiates an attack, play Shieldmaiden to have Valkyrie be the “defender” of that attack. She will not exhaust, and she will get +2 DEF in addition to her base 1 DEF and any modifiers she has to her DEF while she defends against the attack. She will also be considered to have “defended” against the attack, opening up some combo possibilities.

-Alex – August 26, 2022

September 2022

121 – We are curious about how similar and different the Response triggering conditions “after your hero attacks,” “after your hero attacks an enemy,” and “after your hero attacks and defeats an enemy” are. Can Pitchback be played immediately after the first sentence of Melee, before resolving the second sentence? Can Jarnbjorn be triggered immediately after the first sentence of Melee, before resolving the second sentence?

If it cannot, can it be triggered twice after resolving Melee in full, if Melee attacked two enemies in total? Can Chase Them Down be played immediately after the first sentence of Melee, before resolving the second sentence (if resolving the first sentence defeated an enemy)? If it cannot, can it be played after resolving Melee in full, if only the first sentence of Melee defeated an enemy?

When you play Melee, you are treated as having made a single attack (with multiple instances of damage); this should help provide context for my answers to your specific questions below.

You can only play Pitchback after you’ve fully resolved Melee.
Same for Jarnbjorn; you’d activate it after fully resolving Melee. If Melee hits multiple targets, you could activate Jarnbjorn multiple times, one for each enemy hit by the attack.
Chase Them Down would have to be played after fully resolving Melee, and could still trigger if only the “first instance of damage” from Melee defeated a minion.

-Alex – September 1, 2022

122 – Against Ebony Maw, stage II is revealed and it reads “When Revealed: Each player discards cards from the top of the encounter deck until they discard a Spell card and puts that card into play in their play area.” First player discards the entire deck and doesn’t find a Spell. Should the following players also discard the new deck until they find a Spell (and if there’s none in the deck, this could possibly add 4 acceleration tokens on the main scheme)? Or is the effect considered to be fully resolved?

When resolving Ebony Maw II’s “When Revealed” ability, each player will need to discard cards from the encounter deck. If a player resolving the ability empties the encounter deck, the effect is considered fulfilled for only them, and the next player in the turn order will have to discard from the newly shuffled encounter deck.

-Alex – September 1, 2022

124 – Am I the controller of an upgrade attached to an encounter card? For example, I am Valkyrie and I reveal Caught off Guard. The only upgrade in play is Death-Glow, attached to an enemy. Should I discard Death-Glow?

Yes, you are considered the controller of Death-Glow. Caught Off Guard can force you to discard Death-Glow from play.

-Alex – September 1, 2022

125 – I have a question about the Adam Warlock ally and how the response ability interacts with cards that have multiple printed resources. The rule book clarifies the Hulk ally’s forced response and the Salvage resource card from Rocket Raccoon. Based on this, I assume the Adam Warlock ally discarding Salvage would likewise trigger two responses related to the mental and the wild resource. With a card like Vibranium since the resource icons are both wild it would only trigger one response to a printed wild, correct? However, if the discarded card was Shawarma (having three unique printed resources) it would trigger three responses correct?

The Adam Warlock ally functions similarly to the Hulk ally, where if there are multiple different resources on the discarded card (ex. Shawarma), Adam Warlock can resolve multiple effects.
However, if Adam Warlock ever discarded a card with multiple of the same resources on it (ex. Vibranium), then he could only resolve one effect for that card.

-Alex – September 1, 2022

126 – I was wondering based on the ruling of Steel Fist where the 5 damage isn’t part of the cost, does that mean that multi-sentence costs only the last sentence counts for the cost? Such as Defender of the 9 realms? Is the discarding for a minion on that card considered an effect instead of a cost? And if not why is this card different from Steel Fist?

I misspoke when I last talked about Steel Fist. What I should have said was, everything before the cost arrow icon is considered part of the cost to play Steel Fist, including the first sentence of its ability. In addition, there is no possible way to resolve the “effect” after the cost arrow icon unless you’ve already dealt 5 damage to an enemy, because you are only able to stun “that enemy” you just dealt damage to.
It’s similar with Defender of the Nine Realms. All sentences before the cost arrow are considered part of the cost, and in addition, there is no way to “put that minion into play engaged with you” unless you have already resolved discarding cards from the encounter deck and found a minion.

-Alex – September 1, 2022

127 – Spider man’s venom blast says deal 2 damage to an enemy. Stun that enemy. If I deal the 2 damage to an enemy with tough can I still stun that enemy even through no damage was actually dealt to that enemy, they discarded tough instead. I think if there was a cost arrow between the two sentences then I would need to actually deal the damage in order to stun them. But since there isn’t and these are just two sentences do I just do as much as I can? Remove tough and stun the enemy?

Yes, you can deal 2 damage to an enemy with tough (discarding tough and dealing no actual damage) and then stun that same enemy.

-Alex – September 7, 2022

128 – I sent a message last week hoping to confirm my understanding of multi-sentence abilities. The bulk of the questions in that message concerned abilities in the form “Effect 1. Cost->Effect 2.”, based on the latest rulings at that time, that seemed to reverse earlier rulings that stated ‘Effect 1’ was part of the Cost. I have since seen a more recent ruling, on Steel Fist and Defender of the Nine Realms (https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#126), that implies that my understanding of abilities of this type was incorrect, that we should use the earlier rulings to understand these abilities, and that the form for these abilities is more accurately “Cost 1. Cost 2->Effect.” 1: Is that correct? 2: Also, if so, could you offer some clarity on the coming event from Wolverine’s pack, Berserker Barrage (Wolverine #8)? This event reads “Hero Action (attack): Deal 4 damage to an enemy. If this attack defeats an enemy, you may take 2 damage -> repeat this ability.”

So, applying the form “Cost 1. Cost 2->Effect.”, to this ability, the effect here is “repeat this ability”. 3: Meaning that the ability itself, ignoring costs, does not change the game state. How then can this ability be initiated? 4: Or does repeating the ability allow the costs of the second resolution of the ability to be taken into account when assessing whether the ability is capable of changing the game state? 5: And if this is the case, does that mean that one must always repeat the ability at least once to make playing it legal? 6: Also, how does the ability stop repeating (outside of either running out of enemies to damage to HP on Wolverine), if each repeat is then dependent on the next repeat to make the resolution of the ability legal? 7: Finally, wouldn’t the entire chain of repeats collapse as soon as you either choose to stop repeating, or are forced to, because repeat N cannot resolve if repeat N+1 doesn’t?

Expanding on recent clarifications of cost arrows, note that everything before a cost arrow is considered the “cost” to resolve the “effect” that comes after the cost arrow. So, with Berserker Barrage, the “cost” to resolve its “effect” (repeating the ability) means that everything before the cost arrow is considered part of the “cost”: Dealing 4 damage + defeating an enemy + taking 2 damage.
It is possible to repeat Berserker Barrage’s ability multiple times, as long as all costs are paid.
“Repeat this ability” does satisfy “changing the game state”, because “repeating this ability” indicates that you will be at the very least dealing 4 damage to an enemy.
You are not required to repeat Berserker Barrage’s ability if you cannot or do not want to. The ability gives you a choice of dealing 2 damage to Wolverine after having defeated an enemy–if you do, you repeat the ability; if you don’t, you stop repeating the ability and end the attack.

-Alex – September 8, 2022

129 – If Nick Fury (Core Set #84) becomes Beguiled (The Mad Titan’s Shadow #178) will he leave play at the end of the round? And, in either case, why?

In the situation described, Nick Fury would still leave play at the end of the round. The effect that removes Nick Fury from play is a lasting effect, not a constant ability. (If it helps: most constant abilities are formatted differently on cards, separate from any “Response” abilities.)

-Alex – September 8, 2022

130 – I have a question concerning Infiltrate The Museum and The Collection. The Forced Interrupt on The Collector has a trigger of “when a card in play would be placed in the discard pile”. I have Regroup in play which has a trigger of “when an ally is defeated by an enemy attack”. My question is if these two triggers share the same timing. Regroup is a replacement effect that stops the ally from going to the discard pile and return to hand instead. The Collector would then be unable to collect the ally, but The Collector is a Forced Interrupt so would take precedence if these two timing triggers are the same. My belief is they are not, but I would like confirmation.

Regroup specifies that when an ally is defeated, it is returned to its owner’s hand. This replaces the condition that the ally would get discarded when defeated, which is the triggering condition that the Collector is reliant on for his ability. So, in short, Regroup should get priority, and the ally should go to hand.

-Alex – September 8, 2022

131 – For Psychic Manipulation, does the interrupt (thwart) bypass the crisis icon? Is the replacement effect from the villain activating ignore the crisis icon which would only effect the player?

Psychic Manipulation cannot be played when there’s a crisis icon in play. Note that event cards are considered extensions of a player’s identity, so mechanically, Psychic Manipulation is still considered a thwart performed by the player’s identity.

-Alex – September 8, 2022

132 – I just finished playing a deck with “Giant Growth” and “Mass Attack” in it, and have always assumed that the Giant Growth wording, “use a basic power” was equivalent to “perform basic power action.” On closer reading, it seems as if the basic powers are the stat, and not the action they are linked with. 1) If I’m using a card like “Mass Attack” that refers to a Basic Power Stat to do calculation, is that intended to be “Using” the basic power? 2) As you’re considering rules updates, can you pass on to consider an entry for “use” or “use a basic power”? Or potentially some rewording of Basic Power and/or Attack to tease out the difference between a Basic Power (stat) and a basic power action (action)?

To “use a basic power” has a specific meaning in Marvel Champions, during which you exhaust your identity or an ally and apply its printed stat to a matching action—for example, exhausting a character and making an attack using the character’s printed ATK stat.
This definition of “using a basic power” is how Rapid Growth (“Giant Growth”) should be interpreted: you have exhausted your hero to use a basic power and can add an additional effect to that basic power use.
Mass Attack does not fall into the specifications of “using a basic power.” It is arguably similar, but it is not the same thing, and has different requirements.

-Alex – September 8, 2022

133 – How does Psychic Manipulation interact with Crisis, Patrol, and Spiral? Does the “by any player” from crisis not affect this because the villain activation is removing threat, not the player? Where does the threat removal come from? Since this is a (thwart) event, does Patrol block it, regardless of where the threat removal comes from? If Crisis prevents the removal of threat, does this still prevent the addition of threat from the villain activation?

Psychic Manipulation is a Thwart event, which means that it is considered a thwart “performed by the identity.” This is the same way all other Thwart events are treated; Psychic Manipulation just has a unique triggering condition.
Psychic Manipulation cannot be played while there is a crisis icon in play, while a Patrol minion is engaged with the player who owns Psychic Manipulation, or while Spiral IA (who states threat cannot be removed from the main scheme) is in play.
Psychic Manipulation replaces the adding of threat with removing it; this is not the same as simply preventing threat from being placed.

-Alex – September 15, 2022

134 – For the Mutant Genesis card “Homo Superior”, does it still surge if it attaches to a minion that is already tough. I’m trying to figure out if “otherwise” is conditional to part or all of the preceding sentence, as it doesn’t read well to me if part of the effect (attaching to a minion) can be fulfilled, but it says “otherwise.” My interpretation is that it only surges if no minion is available to be attached, but I’m looking for clarification.

Homo Superior will only gain surge if the text preceding “otherwise” cannot be fulfilled at all. If Homo Superior attaches to a minion that already has tough, Homo Superior will not surge.

-Alex – September 15, 2022

135 – Can I, playing as Spider-Man, in a 2 player game, trigger Powerful Punch to interrupt a villain initiating an attack on Captain Marvel, and if so after resolving Powerful Punch, can I trigger Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense ability?

Although you could play Powerful Punch when the villain initiates an attack on someone else, you could not trigger Spider-Sense on Spider-Man because the villain did not initiate an attack against you.

-Alex – September 15, 2022

136 – Could the newer basic Spider-Man (Peter Parker) ally be paid for with just a single copy of The Power in All of Us and any 1 additions resource?

Yes, The Power in All of Us will generate two wild resources that can then be used toward the Spider-Man: Peter Parker basic ally’s resource requirement.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

137 – It has recently become clear that you can “overpay” for cards, but you cannot be considered to have “paid” more toward a card’s cost than its printed cost value. The Power of Leadership reads “double de number of resources this cards generates while PAYING for a leadership card”. If I play Ant-Man (Hank Pym, with 0 cost) with The power of Leadership, how many resources does that card generate? Am I paying or am I overpaying?

Since Ant-Man: Hank Pym requires you to “overpay” for him, that would mean that The Power of Leadership wouldn’t be “paying” his cost and would therefore not generate a second resource for him.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

138 – As we continue to anticipate the arrival of Mutant Genesis, and especially the Colossus hero, we have some questions regarding Tough, and Piercing. 1. If my hero has a Tough status card, I exhaust to defend an enemy attack, and my DEF reduces the damage of that attack to 0, does my Tough status card stay on my hero? 2. Is the result of the same situation any different if that attack has the Piercing keyword? 3. If an attack with the Piercing keyword is somehow reduced to 0 damage by some ability, would the Piercing keyword have any effect? Namely, would a Colossus with 2 toughs lose *both* toughs in such a situation? (For example, if he interrupts a Piercing attack with Subdue and it results in 0 ATK.) 4. Colossus has a tough status card and is about to take damage from an attack with the Piercing keyword. Piercing triggers and removes his Tough status card. If Colossus activates the Response of Organic Steel, giving himself a new Tough status card, would Piercing trigger again and remove that new Tough?

If your DEF reduces the damage of the attack to zero, you will keep the Tough status card on your hero.
An attack with piercing always removes Tough, regardless of the damage it would deal.
Yes, piercing removes ALL tough status cards from the target. Subdue would not prevent this from happening.
After a piercing attack discarded a Tough status card, you could activate Organic Steel and keep the new Tough status card. Piercing wouldn’t trigger a second time.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

139 – I have a question about the basic support card, Sky Destroyer, which has the SHIELD trait. It reads “Response: After you play a SHIELD card, exhaust Sky Destroyer —> deal 2 damage to an enemy.” Similar to other “after you play” triggers, I assume I am able to trigger that response from playing Sky Destroyer itself, because it is a SHIELD card and I played it, is that correct?

Yes, Sky-Destroyer can be exhausted and let you deal 2 damage after playing it.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

140 – What happens when the basic Cosmo ally is in play and the side scheme Secure the Landing Pad gets defeated (putting the campaign Cosmo ally into play)? I understand that the campaign Cosmo should fail to enter play, but where does the card end up?

That Cosmo (MTS #180) would have to be removed from the game. Return it to the box.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

141 – For the minion: Black Order Infantry.

Their “When Defeated” ability is giving villain a tough status card. If my attack with overkill defeated the minion, which of the scenario is correct?

A: Damage villain first then give it “Tough”

B: Give the villain “Tough” first, then remove “Tough” with overkill.

I think it may be A, as the overkill is a simultaneous damage to both villain and minion, then the “When Defeated” ability set in.

Since the damage would be dealt simultaneously, the villain would be given a tough status card AFTER overkill damage is applied & Black Order Infantry triggers its “When Defeated” effect.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

142 – The Power in all of us generates a wild resource and states, double the number of resources generated by this card when paying for a basic card. If I’m paying for a basic card does the power in all of us generate two wild resources and I can then declare what type of resources they are? Or do I declare that I want a physical, mental or energy resource first and then the card generates two of those. Can I use Power in all of us to pay for two of the three requirements needed to play the basic Spider Man, Peter Parker ally?

Yes, The Power in All of Us will generate two wild resources that can then be used toward the Spider-Man: Peter Parker basic ally’s resource requirement.

-Alex – September 16, 2022

143 – it sounds like the two resources that “Power of Aggression” generates when playing a red (aggression) card are doubled AFTER declaring them. (That is, a “Power of Aggression” when paying for a red (aggression) card will always generate two mentals, two physicals, or two energy, but never a physical + mental). Is that correct?

We re-examined “The Power Of” cards and Wild Resources and we came to the conclusion that it is possible for The Power of Aggression to generate two wild resources after all, and to have those resources declared as two different things (a Combat and a Mental resource). Therefore, it is possible to play No Quarter using The Power of Aggression and generate the resources needed to satisfy its resource requirement AND Honed Technique’s bonus.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

144 – Can you give some clarification for how Dragon’s effect works? It states “double the amount of damage this minion takes from cards with a printed energy resource.” 1) Does this include events with a printed energy resource as well as upgrades and supports? 2) If I use Relentless Assault to attack Dragon, and Dragon has less than 10 hp, does Relentless still double for 10 damage with the remainder as overkill? Or does only enough damage to defeat Dragon double? What if Dragon has an odd number if hp remaining? 3) In a fictional scenario where overkill could be spilled onto a minion, and Relentless Assault is used on one minion where overkill spills over to Dragon, is that overkill doubled?

Dragon will take double damage when it’s the target of damage from a card that deals damage directly to it and has a printed energy resource—often, that will mean events or allies, but some upgrades (Lie in Wait · MarvelCDB) or supports (Tac Team · MarvelCDB) fall into this category.
1. If there were an upgrade with an energy resource that constantly boosted a hero’s ATK, for example, Dragon would NOT take additional damage from that hero’s basic attacks, because that upgrade did not specifically target Dragon with damage.
Keep in mind that Dragon’s ability has it TAKE double damage, but it does not cause events to DEAL double damage. The amount of damage is doubled only when it’s applied to Dragon. To illustrate this:
1. If Dragon had 10 health left, Relentless Assault would deal 5 to it, and Dragon would take 10. No damage is applied to the villain.
2. If Dragon had only 5 health left, Relentless Assault would still deal 5 to Dragon, and Dragon would take 10, but all of Relentless Assault’s damage still was applied to Dragon, leaving no excess damage.
3. ~~If Dragon had only 2 health left, Relentless Assault would deal 2, Dragon would take 4, and Relentless Assault would then deal 3 overkill damage to the villain.~~
I am going to decline to answer this hypothetical until it can actually happen in the game.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

145 – In The Sinister Six scenario, If you defeat a minion with Overkill, Do you get to choose which of the villains in play receive the overkill damage?

In the Sinister Six scenario, Overkill damage should be applied to the active villain.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

146 – What about a Tough status card and effects that cannot take damage? Like “kang’s dominion” side scheme or the “go for champions” event card? Is that different?

After re-examining “Tough,” we are now ruling that if damage that would be dealt to the character is reduced to 0, Tough will remain on the character. This should be more empowering to players, but for consistency, the same will have to apply to enemies.
So, that means that if “Kang’s Dominion” is in play, and Kang has Tough, he will keep Tough even if card effects would otherwise try to deal damage to him.
Similarly, if “Go for Champions!” is in play, any characters with the Champion trait that have Tough will keep Tough since they cannot take damage that round.
This will overturn the previous ruling made below, at least when it concerns Tough status cards. Hopefully this ruling is more intuitive than before.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

147 – Piercing reads “an attack with the piercing keyword discards any tough status cards from the target of the attack before dealing damage.” Is dealing damage the conditional or being an attack? Could Wolverine use claws to play Tackle and pierce a tough, even though Tackle won’t be doing damage in this instance because it’s kicker was not met?

Yes; a Tackle with Piercing could remove Tough even if Tackle deals no damage.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

148 – When playing flash freeze, can I resolve the special on blizzard if there is no minion to choose? Can I trigger Storm’s Cape after that?

When playing flash freeze, can I resolve the special on blizzard if every minion in play already had their text box blanked? Can I trigger Storm’s Cape after that?

If Ability A (flash freeze) tells me to resolve another ability, B (Blizzard Special) is resolving B mandatory, or can it fail to initiate it if (B only) would not change the game?

If a similar ability A is only one sentence (Wakanda Forever) is it possible to initiate that ability if B cannot change the game?

What happens when blizzard’s special is triggered against an Ultron drone? Or an all-turned-minion with a blanked text from Beguiled? Can I trigger Storm’s Cape after that?

No, if there’s no minion in play to target, Blizzard’s special ability does not resolve, and you cannot then exhaust Storm’s Cape.

Yes, the only cost to activate blizzard’s special ability is to choose a minion. The effect would be redundant, but still considered resolved, and you could trigger Storm’s Cape that way.

When resolving flash freeze, it instructions you to resolve blizzard’s special if blizzard is in play. If you are able to you must resolve it, but if you cannot, you can still resolve the rest of flash freeze (giving -3 ATK to enemies attacking you).

This question is quite abstract without a specific example. Could you give us a specific example where you want to resolve this interaction?

You can resolve blizzard’s special against an Ultron drone or an ally-turned-minion. You can also then trigger Storm’s Cape.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

150 – I have a rules question regarding Marvel Champions. Spider-Noir allows you to place a Treachery card underneath him after resolving it. If you cancel a Treachery with another card, such as I Don’t Think So, does that replace the resolve effect, meaning you can’t place it under Spider-Noir? Similarly, if a card simply cancels the when revealed effects, is that considered resolving a Treachery?

Spider-Man Noir can place a treachery underneath him if any effects on the treachery resolved. He could not do so if ALL effects on the treachery were canceled, which is what “I Don’t Think So!” would do to a revealed treachery.
Some player cards only cancel “When Revealed” effects but wouldn’t affect keywords like Surge or Incite X on those treacheries. If those keywords resolved, Spider-Man Noir could target those cards.

-Alex – September 22, 2022

151 – 1.I don’t think we have heard how the Valkyrie hero SETUP is intended to work or if it needs errata. “death glow” does not and would not function with the permanent keyword, what do you guys think? 2. with cards “Proxima’s power” and Corvus’s cunning”, do you add both the other SCH and ATK to the activation no matter the type or would just the ATK really apply during an attack and the other SCH would only really apply during a scheme? 3. if the encounter deck empties during the “tower defense” scenario I’m assuming you place the acceleration token beside the active villain’s main scheme but both main schemes are affected by it during step 1, that all, correct? 4. Also with “tower defense” scenario and with an attack that has overkill, do you get to choose which of the two Villans to apply it to? same question with other scenarios that have multiple villains like “wrecking crew” and “Sinister six”

1. A lot of Valkyrie’s cards rely on her having access to Death-Glow. For an optimum game while playing her, I recommend setting Death-Glow aside before shuffling your player deck during Setup. We do not have any specific errata planned for her at this time.

2. For those cards, you should add the other villain’s ATK to the active villain’s ATK and the other’s SCH to the active’s SCH, but you should only be using the relevant stat for the activation.

3. When the encounter deck empties in The Two Towers, place just one acceleration token on the board, near both schemes. (It’s supposed to be placed “next to the main scheme deck”, which both schemes belong to.) And yes, the acceleration token will affect both main schemes during step 1.

4. For consistency, we are ruling that overkill damage must always be applied to the active villain in a given scenario.

-Alex – September 27, 2022

152 – I wanted to ask you guys to consider a rule change . In regards to preventing costs and damage as a cost effects. For example with “Focused rage” or “Spider Tingle”. You guys say that using a card like “energy barrier” along with those those cards prevents the cost and therefore the ability doesn’t work. But another way of looking at it, is that you didn’t actually prevent that cost, the damage still had to be dealt with and it would create a way more fun player experience and combos if you guys went a different direction with this . What do you think? If you look at the “SP//DR hero pack preconstructed deck for example. There are negative play experiences when trying to run her deck. Like if you have the “energy shield” in play with 6 counters, you can’t use “spider tingle” on her or play “thwip thwip”. How cool would it be to combo these cards to block the damage that came your way or even use the “energy barrier” to pop a pesky minion or tough status card

I meant “forcefield generator” not “energy shield” ha (that’s not a card) and it being a forced interrupt

We are issuing a new ruling that is relative to this interaction. We are choosing to distinguish the phrases “deal X damage” and “take X damage” when used in the costs of player cards. If a player card requires you to “deal X damage” to a target, the damage does not all have to be applied to the target for that card’s cost to be considered paid.
- An example is Karmic Blast, which deals 4 damage to a target as part of its “cost.” That 4 damage can be in excess of the target’s health, or can be subjected to damage-reducing effects, and in either case still have its cost considered paid.
- On cards that require you to “take X damage”, though, all of that damage must be applied for the effect to occur.
What this means for Forcefield Generator is that it is now possible for SP//dr to have Forcefield Generator attached, then activate Spider-Tingle and “deal 1 damage” to herself–even though Forcefield Generator prevents the damage, the cost of Spider-Tingle is considered paid, and she could still resolve the rest of its effect.
We hope that you find this new ruling empowering. We understand that this is a relatively large adjustment, so please feel free to send us additional questions if you have any.

-Alex – September 27, 2022

153 – When Thanos has Master of the Stones out and initiates an activation against Venom (Flash Thompson), if Venom plays Grasping Tendrils I’m assuming Master of the Stones goes first (Forced Interrupt->Hero Interrupt). But since Grasping Tendrils cancels the attack, does Master of the Stones still disarm afterward? Or does the attack being canceled mean that there is no “end of activation” window for Master of Stones to discard

If Thanos has Master of the Stones attached and initiates an attack, we rule that Master of the Stones’ Forced Interrupt would definitely put the top card of the Infinity Stone deck into play. Then, if Venom plays Grasping Tendrils to “cancel the attack”, the attack is still regarded as initiated, and the activation is considered “ended”, so Master of the Stones would get discarded.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

154 – 1.While in hero form, I revealed “swinging assault” from the symbiotic strength encounter set. The intention of this card is clear but when we are trying to resolve abilities one sentence at a time by the rules, technically the villian would attack before gaining an additional boost card. I also don’t see any rules in the alteration effects section to help with this situation. I have also noticed that when cards have an effect that “if” something is true, like for example the Valkyrie card “have at thee” where you would deal 7 damage before checking to see if that minion has the death glow attached. Do you plan to update on how we resolve abilities in general?

2. We need help with the Brunhilde SETUP ability, how is this supposed to work? Does it target the card from anywhere including say if it was a drone or in the collection.by chance from villian setups.

3. Can you tell me exactly what step of setup that the cards with the setup keyword enter the game when setting up a game?

4.And also on setup step 10 where it says to “combine” the encounter sets listed on side 1A of the main scheme, I’m assuming that also means shuffle at that point?

5. The main scheme of the Hela scenario seems to be missing the 1A on it, is this a misprint?

1. There are some cards in Marvel Champions that aren’t written with alteration effects, but their ability text is still structured in a way where later sentences rely on the resolution of earlier sentences. Swinging Assault is one of these cards, where if you’re in Hero Form when it’s Revealed you must give the villain an additional boost card “for THAT activation.” There is no other way to resolve “for that activation” without referencing the sentence before it, telling the villain to initiate an attack against you. Cards with “that” used in this way, or cards that use “if” in their ability text technically don’t fall into our definition of alteration effects, so we haven’t added them to that entry in the Rules Reference. It’s possible we will make an entry for these in the future, but for now, nothing is planned.

(It’s best practice to always read the entire ability on a card before you start to resolve it, whether or not it has a defined alteration effect present, if just to ensure the card is resolved as intended.)

2. When using Valkyrie/Brunnhilde, since her kit relies heavily on her having access to Death Glow, I recommend setting Death Glow aside before shuffling your player deck during Setup for the optimum playing experience. Valkyrie’s in-game ability wouldn’t target Death-Glow if it were made into a Drone or put in your discard pile.

3. As written, player cards with Setup enter play during Step 15 (“Resolve Character Setup Abilities”) and encounter cards with Setup would enter play during Step 11 (“Resolve Scheme Setup”).

4. Yes, shuffle the encounter sets together.

5. Yes, that is an unfortunate misprint. We will need to fix that if we reprint the product.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

155 – I have a question about “After the villain attacks you”, which has always been a little unclear. My understanding is that Responses to “after X attacks you” generally trigger on allies defending, because attacks are always directed at a player (i.e. Ultron I’s response, Radiation Man’s response, etc). Does this also apply to Drax’s card “Payback”? Can I play Payback after an ally defends for me? Or does it using “your ATK” somehow make the first “you” only apply to the identity?

In short, yes; Drax can play Payback even after he used an ally to defend an attack against him.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

156 – I am playing SP//dr against Ebony Maw and reveal Restrained (The Mad Titan’s Shadow #83) during the encounter card step of the Villain phase. I’m in Hero form and have no allies in play. Restrained therefore attaches to SP//dr Suit (Active), exhausting it. During the next round, I flip down to Alter-Ego form, and Restrained remains attached to SP//dr Suit (Inactive). Will Peni ready at the end of the player phase? Restrained reads: “Attach to a friendly character with the highest ATK and exhaust it. Attached character cannot ready. Hero Action: Spend :energy::physical: resources → discard this card.”

If Restrained gets attached to SP//dr Suit (Active), and then you flip to Peni Parker, Restrained will remain attached to SP//dr Suit (Inactive) because of how SP//dr is designed, and Peni Parker will be able to ready. Interestingly, because SP//dr Suit (Inactive) is not a character while it’s a Support, Restrained would not prevent it from Readying (as long as it remains a Support).

-Alex – September 29, 2022

157 – using the Infinity Gauntlet as a modular, can it be used with Kang? The MTS rules say it cannot be used with villains where multiple or no villains are there at the start, but Kang is there. What would happen in phase 2 with it? What would happen in phase 3?

The Infinity Gauntlet encounter set was not designed to be used with scenarios that have multiple villains in play or no villains in play. We recommend it not be used with Kang.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

158 – “When defeated” abilities trigger before the card is discarded. Taunting Presence attachment reads “Threat cannot be removed from Light at the end”. Does it mean, If I defeat the attached villain, I cannot remove 4 (or 7) from Light at the end with villain’s “when defeat” ability?

You can remove threat from Light at the End when you defeat a Sinister Six villain, even if that villain had Taunting Presence attached.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

159 – Is the ability on Get Behind Me! (Core Set #78) a replacement effect? It doesn’t conform to the “when [triggering condition] would happen, do [replacement effect] instead” format described in the RRG, though it does use the “instead”, and the attack effect on does not replace the trigger condition, rather the villain attacks in place of the cancelled When Revealed ability. Can a cancelled ability even be replaced? Or is the use “instead” sufficient to make it a replacement effect?

The “instead” on Get Behind Me! was added to the card to clarify the effect. It is not a true replacement effect. The card should still be able to work as intended, allowing you to cancel the treachery’s “When Revealed” effects and then get attacked by the villain.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

160 – Was looking over some spoilers for the upcoming Mutant Genesis, and I’m confused about the response on Operation Zero Tolerance, in the various cases where the ally doesn’t go to the discard pile. Such as: Regroup putting the ally back into your hand, a Mind-Controlled minion going to the encounter discard pile, or Clea shuffling into a player’s deck. Do any or all of these result in the ally going under the scheme?

All of those cards will go under Operation Zero Tolerance—its Forced Response takes precedence.

-Alex – September 29, 2022

October 2022

161 – With “Robert Kelly”, does his forced interrupt trigger if an ally defends?

Robert Kelly’s ability specifies that the enemy must resolve an “undefended” attack against you. If an ally defends for you, then the attack is not “undefended.”

-Alex – October 6, 2022

162 – If your hero has a Tough status card and you are dealt damage and you use an interrupt ability that prevents damage like the event card “side step”, and it’s enough to prevent all of the damage, would you keep the tough status card?

~~Yes; if you were Tough and the target of damage, but managed to prevent all of that damage, you would still keep Tough. (We have ruled differently on this in the past, but this is our current ruling.)~~

-Alex – October 6, 2022

163 – If you reveal a side scheme with One Way or Another and cancel the effects of the side scheme (with, for example, Warp Reality or Spycraft), do you still get to draw 3 cards? The Cancel entry in the RR instructs us that any treachery cards are still revealed when they are canceled, but does not touch on any other card types that are revealed (such as side schemes). I’m inclined to think that it works the same for all of the other card types due to the wording of most cancelling cards: “..cancel all of its effects and discard it..”. To me, it sounds like if you cancel the effects, you still reveal the card, but it ends up being blank and gets discarded. Does this thought process seem valid?

Short answer, yes. Similar to a treachery card, if the effects of a side scheme are cancelled, the side scheme would still be considered revealed, and would still be placed in the encounter discard pile. You could still draw 3 cards from One Way or Another even if you canceled the effects on the revealed side scheme.

-Alex – October 6, 2022

164 – When Heroic Strike is played against Venom and the player chooses to redirect the damage to the Bell Tower instead, can the player still stun Venom? Does the Bell Tower redirect the entire attack leaving no “that enemy” to be targeted, or does it’s replacement effect only replace the damage

No. Heroic Strike has to deal its damage to an enemy for you to be able to stun “that enemy.”

-Alex – October 7, 2022

165 – Question regarding Ghost Spider. I am playing Ghost Spider, I am in alter-ego form and I am confused. I flip to hero form then play Lay Down the Law, which is a “Hero Response” triggered ability. I remove the confused status card instead of thwarting. Am I still considered to have resolved the “Response” ability on Lay Down the Law, so that I may trigger Ghost Spider’s Dizzying Reflexes hero ability? Relevant card text: Dizzying Reflexes — Response: After you resolve an “Interrupt” or “Response” ability on an event, ready Ghost Spider. (Limit once per phase). Lay Down the Law — Hero Response (thwart): After you change form, remove 3 threat from a scheme (4 threat instead if you paid for this card using a mental resource). Confused — The next time this character would thwart or scheme, remove this card instead.

No; if you play an event (a thwart) to discard a status (Confused), you are not considered to have “resolved” the ability on that event.

-Alex – October 7, 2022

166 – We are confused about how the White Queen minion works. Many different players seem to have different interpretations. We have the following questions: – What happens when White Queen engages a steady ID? Does the White Queen give the Steady ID one Confused status card or two? – Does White Queen give an ID a confused status, or is the ID incapable of thwarting while engaged with her? – If White Queen applies a status card does it get removed upon White Queen’s defeat or will the ID need to attempt to thwart to remove it as normal? – If an ID can attempt to thwart while White Queen is engaged with it, and a confused status card is on that ID, does White Queen’s constant effect immediately place another confused status? Relevant card text: The White Queen — Villainous. While White Queen is engaged with you, you are confused. Confused — The next time this character would thwart or scheme, discard this status card instead.

In essence, while White Queen is engaged with a player, that player is always considered Confused.
- An identity would be given enough status cards for it to be considered Confused. Steady identities would be given 2.
- The identity is essentially incapable of thwarting while White Queen is engaged with them—even if the Confused cards were removed, they’d be immediately replaced.
- When White Queen is defeated, the identity will retain its Confused status cards until their next thwart attempt.

-Alex – October 7, 2022

167 – I have a question about the game state rule and “cannot”. At one point it was ruled that an attack that dealt 0 damage due to damage reduction effects couldn’t be played, but that ruling was overturned, to say that: “Acrobatic Move will always have a “legal target”, the villain, even if the villain might have a way of blocking that damage—[Caleb] argues Gamora should be able to attempt the attack, even if it doesn’t do damage.” What if the villain has an ability that says he “cannot take damage”? Does that somehow make the villain an illegal target or is it still allowed to play the attack (for other desirable interactions)? What if the attack does something else (such as Black Widow’s Attacrobatics canceling boost icons), can I play it for the non-damaging effect, or is it disallowed to play the card because it would damage the villain? Finally, what if the ability I want to use deals damage to an enemy (such as Energy Barrier), could I use that ability, or does being unable to damage the villain somehow prevent it?

We rule that the villain can still be the target of attacks & attack events even if the villain cannot take damage. It would be possible to play Attacrobatics to attack a villain that can’t take damage and still cancel the boost icons on the revealed boost card.

-Alex – October 7, 2022

168 – A ruling we received about Armor Up and Master Mold has been confusing me. That ruling suggests that an interrupt to “when the villain activates” is a different (earlier) timing than an interrupt to “when the villain schemes”. The first (like Armor Up) can be triggered, and resolved, entirely before the second (like Master Mold) triggers, even if the latter is Forced. 1. If the window to play Armor Up is before the villain is determined to be either attacking or scheming (that is, before an interrupt like Master Mold’s can trigger), how is it possible for Confused to happen at that time, before Armor Up is playable?

Why do status cards “know” what kind of activation is about to happen before an interrupt like Master Mold’s does? 2. As an example of an existing interaction that is “changed” by this shift in my understanding: What happens when Ebony Maw tries to activate against my hero while Ebony Maw is Webbed Up?

I will do my best to explain where we landed on this interaction.
1. If the villain were Confused when it went to activate against an Alter-Ego Colossus, it must discard Confused; doing so replaces its entire activation. Armor Up can only be played as an interrupt to an activation, so it cannot be played if there is no activation to interrupt.
2. Status cards need to be able to recognize the type of activation about to occur, otherwise they wouldn’t work as they were designed to.
If Ebony Maw had Webbed Up attached and went to make an attack activation, Webbed Up and Ebony Maw both have Forced Interrupt triggers, so they would resolve in the order of the players’ choice.

-Alex – October 7, 2022

169 – I’m a bit confused by what you mean by the Forced Response taking “precedence”. Clea and Regroup are both interrupts: When [the ally] is defeated. Which should come in timing priority before Operation Zero Tolerance’s Forced Response: After an enemy attacks and defeats an ally. Are you meaning something other than the forced response having timing priority? Does the scheme find the ally wherever they end up, and put them under the scheme, and so ends up taking “precedence” by being the last ability resolved?

The short of it is that Operation Zero Tolerance doesn’t care where the ally is when it triggers, whether that ally is in your discard pile, hand, or deck.
The Forced Response’s trigger of “after an enemy attacks and defeats an ally” would happen after that ally has left play, which is a part of being defeated. OZT needs to be able to find that ally in the discard pile (or other out-of-play area) to function at all.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

170 – I’m using Wasp in giant form to split her attack, and I’m not sure when I’m considered to attack any particular enemy. For instance, if I want to trigger the response on Thanos’ Armor (“After a hero makes a basic attack against Thanos”)? Can I “target” Thanos, while dealing all of my damage to minions in order to trigger this response? Can I do so even if engaged with a Guard Minion? I ask because the FAQ says: “Wasp may choose the villain as a target while a card with the guard keyword is in play, no damage will be dealt to the villain.” Or is this FAQ entry just wrong?

If you were playing Wasp’s Giant form and trying to trigger Thanos’s Armor, you would have to deal at least 1 damage to Thanos with your basic attack to trigger the Hero Response. (Thanos doesn’t need to take this damage, he just has to be the target of the damage.) You have to deal at least 1 damage to a given target in Wasp’s Giant form in order to be considered to have “attacked” it.
If a minion with Guard is engaged with Wasp, Wasp cannot make an attack against the villain or target the villain with the split damage from her basic attack. This assertion is based on the current definition of “Guard.”
Since our current rulings contradict the Wasp FAQ entries, we will be sure to update them with the next version of the Rules Reference. We appreciate you bringing them to our attention.

-Alex- October 14, 2022

171 – Question about the peril keyword. If I reveal “Fiery rage” from the upcoming Phoenix hero pack, can another player defend for me with either their basic hero DEF power, an ally they control or a (defense) labeled ability in this case?

Yes, other players can defend for you. This is because the Fiery Rage is considered “resolved” once it tells Dark Phoenix to activate (or once the threat is placed on Consume the World).
- This is similar to how we’ve ruled on Assault · MarvelCDB being “fully resolved” and discarded after it tells the villain to make an attack activation, but before the steps of the villain’s attack activation are carried out.
The “Peril” keyword on Fiery Rage is making it so that only the Phoenix player can cancel/ignore the Treachery’s reveal.

-Alex- October 14, 2022

172 – I just wanted to make sure we understand attacks/damage/retaliate If you play “dance of death” and choose to attack the same enemy with retaliate all 3 times, it would trigger retaliate 3 times because each is it’s own separate attack within one card. If you play “ricochet beam” and choose the same enemy with retaliate twice, it will only trigger retaliate once after the attack resolves because it’s a SINGLE attack with multiple instances of damage. But if you play the same “ricochet beam” and choose two different enemies with retaliate, both of those enemies will trigger retaliate after the attack because both enemies are considered to have been attacked from a single attack that has multiple instances of damage. Finally if an attack “divides” it’s damage, any enemy chosen with retaliate that had at least 1 damage assigned will retaliate. Is this all correct?

Yes, Dance of Death distinctly makes 3 different attacks, and the target can trigger Retaliate off of each attack.
Yes, using all of Ricochet Beam on one target triggers Retaliate just once, and using it against multiple targets allows each enemy to Retaliate.
Yes, if an attack divides its damage, each target is considered attacked, and each target can trigger Retaliate if they have it.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

173 – I recently saw a years-old ruling that said that Upgrades attached to the villain last through Villain Defeat? Is that still correct (given that Villain Defeat was not updated to mention attached upgrades, only Attachments)?

Yes, Upgrades would stay on a villain even through villain defeat.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

174 – Let’s say I am playing Shadowcat and I am in Solid form. I play Powerful Punch to interrupt the villain’s attack against me.
At which points in the enemy attack steps do I resolve interactions for Powerful Punch (after playing it) since it’s both an attack and a defense?
Below is how I believe I would resolve relevant triggers.
1) Powerful Punch’s damage resolves. 2) “After attacks” condition becomes true. 3)I choose to trigger her Solid form in response to attacking with Powerful Punch. 4) Shadowcat is now in Phased form. 5) Having played Powerful Punch, Shadowcat is defending the attack.
Is this correct?
And, since Shadowcat is now defending an attack, the villain’s attack proceeds. Let’s say, as an example, it proceeds like this:
Step 1: boost card
Step 2: a defender is chosen or not. (Shadowcat is already considered to be defending through Powerful Punch being a defense event, I choose not to exhaust to apply my DEF. )
Step 3: flip boost card- Check boost ability- Increase villain’s ATK by the amount of boost icons- Discard the boost card
Step 4: deal damage. (Shadowcat takes no damage because she is defending in Phased form, having played Powerful Punch.)
Step 5: the villain’s attack completes.
After the attack completes, the ‘After you defend’ check occurs and I am forced to trigger Phased’s response and return to Solid Mass form.
I can trigger Indomitable (if a boost ability or treachery exhausted me), Electrostatic armor, and Unflappable.
Is this correct?

What you’re saying seems to be correct. Let me affirm the steps:

Shadowcat starts in Solid form.
Villain is about to attack.
Shadowcat plays Powerful Punch as an interrupt to the activation. She has made an attack, dealing 4 damage. She is able to flip her mass form at this point (Solid > Phased).
With Powerful Punch, Shadowcat has made herself the defender of the attack.
Villain’s attack continues, receiving boost card(s), flipping the boost card(s), dealing damage accordingly.
Shadowcat, currently in Phased form, does not take any damage since she’s defending.
The villain’s attack ends.
Shadowcat must flip from Phased to Solid due to Phased’s Forced Response.
Since Shadowcat defended, she can trigger Indomitable, Electrostatic Armor, and/or Unflappable at this point.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

175 – What happens if I use Magik on an ally under the effect of the Beguiled card (treated as a minion)? Where does the ally end up when everything has finished resolving?

Per the rules of Ownership and Control, “If a card that has changed control leaves play…the card is physically placed in its owner’s equivalent out-of-play area.” The Beguiled ally should get shuffled into its owner’s deck instead of the encounter deck.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

176 – I have a question about Miles’ Venom Blast ability. It is not itself an attack ability, as it lacks the attack tag, so when triggered by “Power Within” it would not count as such. But what about when triggered by “Web Shot”? Since Web Shot is itself an attack, is an enemy damaged by Venom Blast triggered by Web Shot also getting attacked, or is Venom Blast a separate ability, and so the damage is not considered to be ‘attacking’ the target?

No; Venom Blast is not an attack, and it would not be treated as such even if triggered off an attack event like Web-Shot. (But, Web-Shot is still an attack event, which means an attack was made, if that helps.)

-Alex – October 14, 2022

177 – I have a question about ownership and control, with regards to allies with abilities that return them to “your hand” (Red Dagger, Hawkeye’s Mockingbird, Hellcat). A previous ruling specifies that if somebody other than the owner takes control of that ally with Make the Call, they’re the ones who get to use the ally’s return-to-hand ability. However – does the ally go to the controller’s hand in that case, as per the ability, or to the owner’s hand, as per the ownership & control rules? Is this a case of card text contradicting rule text and taking precedence, as per the Golden Rules?

The “borrowed” ally would go to its owner’s hand. Per “Ownership and Control” in the Online Rules Reference: “If a card that has changed control leaves play…the card is physically placed in its owner’s equivalent out-of-play area.” Though only the card’s controller can activate the ability on it, it must still go to its owner’s equivalent out-of-play area, which includes the owner’s hand.

-Alex – October 14, 2022

178 – If I use a (defense) event such as Shield Block to prevent Overkill damage, is it defending against an attack? We have received two answers on this that appear to conflict

No. Taking Overkill damage means that an ally defended for you, was defeated, and you received the excess damage. You were not the “defender” of the attack, the defeated ally was.
The first answer I gave on this was not entirely accurate; yes you can play Shield Block to prevent Overkill damage, but doing so has not made you “the defender” of the attack.

-Alex – October 21, 2022

179 – If the forced response on the main scheme “Asteroid M” causes you to empty the encounter deck from discarding and you didn’t reveal a MAGNETIC card, does that mean you don’t remove the 3 magnet counters? Does “then” on the last effect here mean everything before it must resolve or be true?

Because Asteroid M’s ability says “Reveal that card, then remove 3 magnet counters”, you only remove the magnet counters if a Magnetic card was revealed. If you emptied the deck during the discard without finding a Magnetic card, you wouldn’t remove any counters.

-Alex – October 21, 2022

180 – When Shadowcat is defending while in phased form, can she take damage outside of the attack like from a boost effect?

No; this is because, from the moment she is declared as defender (during Step 2 of Attack: Enemy Activation), she is considered “defending” until the attack finishes. A boost effect from that same attack could not deal damage to her.

-Alex – October 21, 2022

181 – What happens when I play Dive Bomb, activate Honed Technique, and a minion in play has Marked attached?

Only the attack against the target with Marked would have overkill, so only the excess damage dealt to that target is then dealt to the villain. In other words, Marked only cares about the damage dealt to the minion it’s attached to for a given attack.

-Alex – October 21, 2022

182 – When is the response window for when a hero “uses a basic power”? Particularly when defending using a hero’s basic defense power. For example, if Quicksilver exhausts to defend against an enemy attack, when can he ready using his “Super Speed” ability? Is it (A) immediately after exhausting to “use” his basic defense power and declaring himself the defender during Step 2 of the enemy attack, or; is it (B) after the attack he is defending against is fully resolved at the end of Step 4? Does the “use a basic power” trigger refer to exhausting a character to apply the matching stat, or does it also include the associated action that uses the matching stat (Attack, Thwart or Defend)?

This also affects other heroes, such as Nova and when he can ready his helmet, or when Ghost Spider can play Ghost Kick or Phantom Flip, which are all Response actions that use similar wording for triggering conditions (“After [the hero] uses a basic power …”). The ruling for Rapid Growth distinguishes “using a basic power” from “applying the stat for a basic power” to other effects like Mass Attack, but Rapid Growth is an Interrupt, so it’s not quite the same thing as a Response. It makes sense to trigger Rapid Growth when a basic attack is initiated (it’s an interrupt that modifies the resolution of that attack), but does that mean that the window for playing a Response to a basic power is the same (after exhausting, not after resolving the entire associated action)?

* Using your phrasing, “using a basic power” would “include the associated action that uses the matching stat.”
* Using Quicksilver as an example, he can use his Response ability to ready once the basic action he performed concluded; this would be after he:
+ exhausted and used his THW to remove threat;
+ exhausted and used his ATK to deal damage to an enemy;
+ exhausted and used his DEF to defend against an attack, after the damage was dealt.

* Rapid Growth is different because it is an Interrupt that uses the phrase “WHEN”, and it boosts the stat currently being used to perform the associated action. Each other example you referenced is a Response ability that uses the phrase “after.”

-Alex – October 21, 2022

183 – Two questions regarding cards in the Gambit reveal: 1. If Giant Wasp basic thwarts and uses Operative Skill, will she remove 1 additional threat from each scheme thwarted? Or only 1 additional threat total? 2. If Gambit is intending to play Rogue and uses Molecular Acceleration, does the charge counter it places reduce her cost, meaning she can be played for 1 less? Or do we have to commit all resources to playing her, and her constant effect will not take into account the charge counter? 3. Can the charge counter that Royal Flush places be used immediately to boost the damage it deals? Or since Royal Flush has already been played, is it too late for Throw de Card to be initiated?

Giant Wasp using Operative Skill on her basic thwart would only remove 1 additional threat in total.
If Gambit intends to play Rogue while spending Molecular Acceleration, then yes, the charge counter from MA would be accounted for when calculating Rogue’s reduced cost.
Because Gambit’s Throw de Card ability is an Interrupt, you must spend the charge counters from him before resolving the ability text on Royal Flush.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

184 – I put the new Operation Zero Tolerance modular encounter set in as the modular encounter set in Infiltrate the Museum (Collector#1). During game play, the Operation Zero Tolerance side scheme enters play. Next, an ally is defeated by an enemy. Does the defeated ally go into the collection or under the Operation Zero Tolerance side scheme? Entering the Collection is Forced Interrupt, and going under OZT is a Forced Response, and the trigger is similar but the wording is different. One is when a card is discarded from play, and the other is when defeated.

It’s placed under Operation Zero Tolerance. Operation Zero Tolerance triggers “after an enemy attacks and defeats an ally”—the ally being defeated is a condition that occurs before the ally is “discarded from play”, which is when Collector’s Forced Interrupt triggers.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

185 – If the defeated ally from the example above does go under Operation Zero Tolerance in the Infiltrate the Museum scenario, what happens to any allies beneath it? Do they all enter the collection along with the side scheme itself? Or is it more similar to Hawkeye’s Quiver and its arrows, with the side scheme entering the collection and the allies simply being discarded as they were not “in play” beneath the side scheme?

If OZT leaves play, only OZT would go to The Collection, and the allies underneath it would go to their respective discard piles because they weren’t “discarded from play.”

-Alex – October 28, 2022

186 – We have a ruling that Mutant Protectors circumvents the normal rules of one defender declared per attack, with the card briefly making the *player* the defender and then the ally that enters play. The 1.4 rules state that, when playing a Hero Interrupt (Defense) event – which is what Mutant Protectors is – that the player’s *identity* becomes the defender and is considered to have defended. In the original ruling, should it have said identity in line with the Defense entry instead of player?

Yes, the ruling should have said “identity” instead of “player.” I am sorry for using the wrong term.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

187 – If Mutant Protectors does first make your identity the defender, we’re wondering if you can play other cards that trigger when your hero defends during that brief window before your ally is declared the defender? Example: The villain attacks me. If I play Mutant Protectors, is there a window where I can play Never Back Down at any point during the resolution of the villain’s attack and my defense?

No, Mutant Protectors would not allow you to play a card like Never Back Down before the X-Men ally is declared the defender of the attack. The ally being declared the new defender happens immediately.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

188 – Let’s say the villain attacks me again. I put Nightcrawler into play with Mutant Protectors, then use Nightcrawler’s ability on himself against the villain’s attack. Has my identity (or anyone) defended the attack?

Yes; though you prevented the damage, Nightcrawler has still defended.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

189 – In a similar vein, if I play Mutant Protectors and the boost card’s boost effect defeats the ally that was put in play and considered to defend, has anyone defended the attack?

Yes. Per the rules of Defense-traited cards, the identity that plays them becomes “the defender” for that attack. Mutant Protectors is just a special case where being “the defender” is immediately passed onto the X-Men ally put into play. Should that ally leave play due to a boost effect, we are ruling that the player that played Mutant Protectors (a Defense-traited event) would revert to being “the defender” in that situation.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

190 – If I play Powerful Punch first in any of the above examples, do any of the answers change?

Yes, you could play Powerful Punch first and Mutant Protectors after.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

191 – I have a question about Ricochet Beam’s interaction with Exploit Weakness. If I select the enemy with Exploit Weakness attached for both instances of damage on Ricochet Beam, does it increase each instance by 1, or only one of the instances? (So does it deal a total of 7 damage or 8 damage)?

Ricochet Beam is only treated as a “single attack” being made, so using it on an enemy with Exploit Weakness means that enemy will take only 1 additional damage from Ricochet Beam, totaling 7.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

192 – I was looking at the Magneto scenario in Mutant Genesis, and I noticed that about 1/4 of the magnetic cards add a magnet counter when revealed. When these cards are revealed as part of the response on the main scheme, does adding the magnet counter re-trigger the response before the counters have been removed (resulting in another Magnetic card)? If it doesn’t trigger the Forced Response, why not?

No; you should remove the 3 magnet counters first before resolving the Magnetic card you revealed.

-Alex – October 28, 2022

193 – For Starshark and Sandman where there attacks deal indirect damage, if they damage multiple characters, which of those characters are considered to have been attacked (for instance for triggering Retaliate, or Drax’s response)? Is it just the character that defends the attack/or hero if undefended? Or is it every character that is damaged by the attack?

We rule that only the character that defended the attack (or the identity initiated against if the attack was undefended) would be considered “attacked” for the purposes of triggering Retaliate or other similar effects. Dividing the indirect damage does not result in all damaged characters being “attacked.”

-Alex – October 28, 2022

194 – For Gambit’s card Royal Flush – can you use the counter that the card generates on the attack itself? (Gambit’s ability is an interrupt that is used when a card is played, so as per rules it seems like no, but I get the impression that intent is that you should be able to). Similarly, if you play Molecular Acceleration to pay for Rogue, does Rogue get the discount for the counter generated or not?

Because Gambit’s Throw de Card ability is an Interrupt, you must spend the charge counters from him before resolving the ability text on Royal Flush.
If Gambit intends to play Rogue while spending Molecular Acceleration, then yes, the charge counter from MA would be accounted for when calculating Rogue’s reduced cost. The Interrupt on MA grants the charge counter before MA is actually spent toward Rogue’s cost

-Alex – October 28, 2022

November 2022

195 – If an ally (such as Professor X) has 0 ATK, and Cyclops puts Exploit Weakness on an enemy, and the 0 ATK ally attacks, does the enemy take 1 or 0 damage? And, for comprehensiveness, is it the same or different for the ringing side of the Bell Tower in the Venom scenario (it increases all the damage Venom takes by 1).

The enemy would take 0 damage.
The reason for this ruling comes both from effects that state the character needs to “take any amount of damage” for something to happen, in addition to distinctions we’ve made in “taking” vs. “dealing” damage. For card effects, “any amount of damage” always means “1 or more damage”, and damage “taken” is the damage actually placed on the character from an attack/effect after any modifiers.
All this to say, if a character “takes zero damage” from an attack/effect, they have “taken no damage”, and that amount cannot be increased.
(But, card effects CAN increase the amount of damage an attack/effect DEALS, even if it deals 0. Exploit Weakness and Bell Tower do not fall in this category, though.)

-Alex – November 9, 2022

196 – If I am playing with Nebula Hero, and I play Gamora Ally (Gamora Nemesis has been defeated two rounds ago), Does self-preservation (Nemesis set side scheme) work with Gamora ally? Does she gain piercing and +1ATK? Same with Letal Weapon (Nemesis set attachment)

Yes. Following the example set by the Old Rivals card also in Nebula’s nemesis set, Self-Preservation should affect whichever “Gamora” is in play, just like Old Rivals affects whichever “Gamora” is in play (enemy, hero, or ally).

-Alex – November 10, 2022

197 – Can you use the Leadership Hawkeye (Clint Barton)’s response to remove more than 1 arrow counter in response to a minion entering play? For example, if Hawkeye’s got 4 arrow counters and Modok(The Doomsday Chair) comes into play, could you trigger his response 4 separate times to kill Modok?

No. You can only trigger a Response once per timing instance. Modoks enters play once, and only 1 arrow counter can be removed & 2 damage dealt in response to that trigger.

-Alex – November 11, 2022

198 – If Shadowcat, whilst in Phased form, defends an attack from an enemy, that deals indirect damage, can she be assigned any of that damage? Or can I read “cannot take damage” as “cannot be dealt (or assigned) damage”?

If an enemy’s attack deals indirect damage, that damage is dealt during step 4 of the enemy activation. Assuming Shadowcat was defending the attack while in Phased form, she would still be defending during step 4 of the enemy activation, meaning she would take no damage from the attack.
And yes, she can be assigned damage up to her remaining hit points, per the rules of indirect damage. (If you’ve seen our rulings on “taking” vs “dealing” damage, you can think of it as she can be “dealt” indirect damage while still “taking” no indirect damage.)

-Alex – November 11, 2022

199 – When do interrupts on the new resource cards like Defensive Energy trigger? Is it possible to spend the card drawn from Defensive Energy on the same card Defensive Energy is paying for?

No. Resources spent toward a cost must be paid simultaneously. The card that you draw from Defensive Energy cannot be used toward the cost that you’re paying.

-Alex – November 11, 2022

200 – Can you assign indirect damage to a character that currently “cannot” take damage say like with Shadowcat in phased form?

Yes. Indirect damage can be assigned to a character that can take no damage, up to their remaining hit points, per the rules of indirect damage.
Note that for Shadowcat specifically, she needs to be the defender of the attack for her to take no damage in Phased form.

-Alex – November 11, 2022

201 – I want to make sure we’re doing this right. Which # is correct? When resolving an enemy activation that has more then one boost card, #1 You flip, resolve, discard one boost card at a time completely separate from each other. #2 You flip them one at a time until all boost cards are flipped over and layout on table and then resolve, discard in order #3 neither #1 or #2 and help us

Though I believe you could do either and get the same result, the Rules Reference should say that you flip one boost card at a time, resolving its effect and applying any boost icons upon flipping it, then discard it before flipping the next boost card. (I would recommend still keeping the discarded/”used” boost cards visible until the activation has concluded, though, to double-check the boost icons and enemy ATK value.)

-Alex – November 11, 2022

202 – We have rulings where the cards attached to Hawkeye’s Quiver, George Stacy, Bruno and Electro (the Iron Spider’s Sinister Six version) are not actually considered to be in play. (https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#63 and https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#77) In particular, we have this quote: “Cards attached to Electro (or Quiver) cannot be interacted with outside of the ability on the card they’re attached to, if at all.” What happens to the attached cards when the card they are attached to leaves play? And why? We can’t interact with them, and nothing tells us to discard them or move them in any other fashion. Common sense would say they are discarded, because the card they were attached to has left play. But that is an assumption.

It’s also possible for a card from one player to be attached to a card in another player’s play area. For example, Phoenix’s “Mind Control” can move Electro. This is problematic because even if they are meant to be discarded, if a card is not in play, it cannot leave play to be affected by the Ownership and Control rules in the 1.4 rules reference. So could Player A end up with Player B’s card in their discard pile, and subsequently their deck and then their hand? There are also instances where a side scheme will ask players to put cards beneath it, from your hand/deck, and so presumably they have never entered play either and suffer from the same lack of direction. Long story short, it would be appreciated if we could know where cards A, B and C are meant to go when card D asks them to be attached to itself and later card D is discarded! As well as when placed beneath a side scheme.

Each of the cards mentioned would go to their “owner’s equivalent out-of-play area” when the game element they’re attached to left play, regardless of if the attached cards were “in play” when the game element left play. A card that a player (or the scenario) “owns” should never get place in another player’s hand, discard pile, or other out-of-play area.
There is a rule already under “Attach To” in the Rules Reference specifying that a card attached to another game element will get discarded when the element leaves play, or it’s forced to leave play. While this rule generally assumes the card was an Upgrade or Attachment card type, it would also apply to cards attached through other means.

-Alex – November 14, 2022

203 – If I’m player 2, playing Storm, and player 1 is attacked, can I use Powerful Punch to interrupt the attack so that the villain is attacking me, and then play Flash Freeze to reduce his ATK by 3?

No; the timing point for “When the villain attacks you” Interrupt abilities is the point in which the villain determines it’s activating against you. You cannot use Flash Freeze if you’re not the player the villain is activating against (regardless of if you become defender of that attack).

-Alex – November 16, 2022

204 – If the green goblin villain has “hysteria” attached and you reveal “I see you” as an encounter card, does he get a boost card?

In that situation, Green Goblin should not be given any boost cards.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

205 – A couple rules questions: If I play “Parental Guidance” while “George Stacy” is in play, can I add events to him above 3? If I play “Assess the Situation” while playing the “Ironman” Hero, can he have a hand size greater then 7?

No. George Stacy cannot have more than 3 event cards attached facedown to him. Parental Guidance would not have an effect if George already has 3.
No. Iron Man cannot have a hand size greater than 7. Assess the Situation would not affect this number.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

206 – Based on this ruling https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#158, where Sinister 6 villains’ “When Defeated” still triggers and removes threat from Light at the End while defeated with Taunting Presence attached, an attachment that prevents threat being removed from Light at the End; does a minion that has been turned into an ally and had its text blanked by Mind Control, still trigger its “When Defeated” effects when defeated?

No. Mind Control treats the text box of the minion as blank, also blanking any “When Defeated” abilities. Because Mind Control and the minion-ally leave play at the same time, the blanking should still be in effect as the minion leaves play, so any “When Defeated” abilities should not resolve.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

207 – If a minion with The villainous keyword flips over a boost card during its activation and it’s “hydra exo-soldier.” Would you give the villain “another” boost card it didn’t have? Would it change if the villain already had a boost card some how? Does the boos card know it’s attached to a minion? If it didn’t say “another”, would it change anything?

If a Villainous minion flipped Hydra Exo-Soldier as its boost card, you would:
- Give the villain a tough card, always, assuming it’s not already tough.
- Check if the villain has a boost card already. If it does, give it another. If it doesn’t, don’t give it any.
The “another” in Hydra Exo-Soldier’s boost effect should be thought of as “additional”, and only applies if there’s already a boost card on the villain.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

208 – My confusion doesn’t lie in the interaction between Armor Up and statuses per se, but with this Master Mold ruling in particular: https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#34

I am happy to hear that the Forced Interrupts on Webbed Up and Ebony Maw interrupt the same window, because that lines up with my previous (pre-Armor-Up) understanding.

1. Does the “would” in Webbed Up’s triggering condition have any effect, making it trigger before Ebony Maw?

2. If these two abilities trigger at the same time, should Master Mold and Armor Up trigger at the same time as well? (with Master Mold triggering first by being “Forced”?)

Thank you for that observation; given that there are rules on “Would” I did not initially consider, we are adjusting our previous answer. The presence of “Would” in Webbed Up does mean it has priority over Ebony Maw’s Forced Interrupt; “would attack/activate” has priority over “attacks/activates.”
This conversation has brought us to an errata we’d like to give to Armor Up, that it should have said “When the villain would activate” instead of what it says now. Does adding this to Armor Up clear up the interaction between it and Master Mold?

-Alex – November 17, 2022

209 – We recently heard that Heroic Strike has to deal its damage to an enemy for the player to be able to stun “that enemy.”

1. This ruling (https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#127) seems to say the opposite about a similar situation, are these in conflict?

2. Is the stun from Heroic Strike only prevented in cases where the damage “dealt” is replaced (like Bell Tower or Armored Rhino Suit), or is it also prevented in the case where damage “taken” is replaced (like Tough or Magnetic Bubble), and/or where the damage is reduced to 0 (like Wide Stance x6), and/or where the damage is prevented (like Temporal Shield), and/or when the target “cannot take damage” (like Sanctuary)?

3. Psychic Assault, Swinging Web Pig, Phased Strike, and Web-Trap are worded very similarly to Heroic Strike. Do they work in the same way? 4. What about Drop Kick? If I pay for it with all physical and all 4 of its damage doesn’t land, do I stun the enemy? can I draw a card? 5. Can I play Tackle or Concussive Blow against a stalwart or already-statused enemy, damaging it if I paid the appropriate resource type? (similarly, can Vision play Phase Disruption against a Stalwart enemy to discard an attachment?) 6. How does Sonic Rifle work? Can I deal 3 damage to “that enemy” if i did not confuse it?

For the linked ruling, Venom Blast dealt damage to 1 specific target, and that target become “that enemy” for being able to “stun that enemy.” The difference with Bell Tower is that the target of the Heroic Strike attack was directed at Bell Tower, which is not an enemy, and cannot be Stunned.
As long as the damage was dealt to a targeted enemy, that enemy can be Stunned with Heroic Strike. Maybe it would help to phrase it as, an enemy must be the target of the damage from Heroic Strike, whether or not that damage is taken/applied.
1. Each of the mentioned cards do not prevent the enemy from being the target of the damage (and therefore “dealt the damage”) except Armored Rhino Suit, which specifically replaces the dealing of damage.
Yes, they work similarly. If their damage was dealt to a targeted enemy, their secondary effects can also apply to that enemy.
Yes, Drop Kick works just like the others, you’d be able to stun the targeted enemy and draw 1 card regardless of if the damage was all “taken.”
1. Also, if you paid for Drop Kick with only physical resources but dealt its damage to Bell Tower instead, you’d still be able to draw the card, because the card draw is not dependent on there being a targeted enemy.
Yes, you can play Tackle and target a Stalwart/“unstunnable” enemy.
1. Yes, you can play Phase Disruption and target on a Stalwart Enemy.
Your two options with Sonic Rifle are either to Confuse an enemy, or deal 3 damage to an already Confused enemy. You could not deal 3 damage to an enemy that isn’t (or can’t be) Confused.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

210 – If I play Pinned Down on Controller (from Crossfire’s Crew), does his Forced Interrupt still apply though his attack is reduced to 0, thus not dealing damage?

No, Controller’s Forced Interrupt would not trigger. “Any amount of damage” in Controller’s ability implies that he needs to be dealing “1 or more damage,” but Pinned Down would make it so he isn’t.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

211 – If the Thanos villain initiates an attack against me and I play “grasping tendrils” to interrupt that and cancel that attack. Would his “infinity gauntlet” attachment forced response trigger?

No. Infinity Gauntlet triggers after attached villain “activates”, in other words, after the villain finishes resolving an attack or scheme. Grasping Tendrils “cancels” the attack, making it so that the activation did not resolve, so Infinity Gauntlet cannot trigger its response.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

212 – While playing against Klaw I flip “Sweeping Swoop” (Spider-Man Nemesis #3) and “Concussive Blast” (Under Attack #4) as Boost cards during the Villain’s attack. “Sweeping Swoop” states to stun the attacked character if the activation deals damage, and “Concussive Blast” says to deal 1 damage to each character I control. The attack itself doesn’t do any damage since there’s no Boost Icon in either card and Klaw (stage I) has an ATK of zero. But does the damage from Concussive Blast qualifies nonetheless as damage dealt by the activation and should I therefore Stun the attacked character because of that? I know that a previous ruling stated that damage resulting from a Boost ability during an attack does not count as damage dealt by the attack, but does it count as damage dealt by the Activation? Is the Attack just a part of the activation or the activation itself?

Our ruling on this is that Sweeping Swoop would not stun the defending character (or undefended identity) if no damage is dealt during Step 4 of the villain’s Attack Activation. Damage from a boost ability is not considered “damage from an attack” and should then not be considered “damage from the activation” either.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

213 – The “M-Type Sentinel” card from the Magneto set (Mutant Genesis) has a boost ability that states: “Give Magneto a Tough status card and a facedown boost card”. Generally abilities that give facedown boost cards to enemies are meant for those boost cards to be used for later activations. Meanwhile effects that are meant to give boost cards for current activations usually state to give additional boost cards to the enemy (with no “facedown” specification). But in “M-Type Sentinel’s case it is a boost ability that happens while resolving boost cards. If this boost ability was resolved during Magneto’s activation, should that “facedown” boost card be flipped during that same activation or should it be saved for a later activation? In a more general sense how are the steps for dealing with boost cards meant to be resolved? The rules state to flip boost cards one at a time, but they aren’t clear (to me) whether resolving boost abilities (which is only mentioned in the next bullet point) is something that you do after each individual flip or after all boost cards are flipped.

When you reveal M-Type Sentinel as a boost card, you’d give Magneto a tough status card and an additional boost card to be revealed during that same activation. In hindsight, the “facedown” specification was not needed for this card.

-Alex – November 17, 2022

December, 2022

214 – I’m confused about how a couple recent rulings can both be true, regarding Exploit Weakness. In this recent ruling https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#195, you indicated that exploit weakness only works when the target would “take any amount of damage” (so it does nothing when the target takes no damage). But in this ruling, https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#191, you indicated that exploit weakness only works on the attack, not when the target takes an amount of damage (so if the target takes 3 damage twice it only increases one of them). Which is correct, does the target take an extra damage when it is attacked, or does it take an extra damage when it would take any amount of damage from an attack?

Exploit Weakness is essentially saying that the attached enemy will take 1 additional damage from each attack. The attack against that enemy has to deal 1 or more damage to it for Exploit Weakness to have an effect.
The second ruling was made based on the fact that Ricochet Beam is making a single attack, and Exploit Weakness increases the damage attached enemy takes “from each attack” by 1. Whether Ricochet Beam deals 3 damage once, or 3 damage twice, is irrelevant; only one attack is being made, and Exploit Weakness only affects the enemy once.
- This would be different if the Ricochet Beam specifically made multiple attacks, like Dance of Death · MarvelCDB does.
- This would also be different if Exploit Weakness increased the damage that events dealt, like Embiggen! · MarvelCDB does.

-Alex – December 1, 2022

215 – I have a couple of questions regarding Wolverine’s signature ally, Jubilee. 1. Who or what is the target of Jubilee’s ability? Is it the chosen enemy or is it Jubilee and/or Wolverine? 2. As the ability is a lasting effect, I assume it remains in effect even if she leaves play the same phase she enters play, is that correct? And, if so, how does her ability stack if she re-enters play during that same phase? I assume the player can either choose the same enemy again, or a different one, but if they choose the same enemy, will both Wolverine and Jubilee get +4 ATK against that enemy, or only Wolverine?

Yes, Jubilee’s ability is a lasting effect, so it remains in effect even if she leaves play. And yes, if she re-entered play in the same phase, her effect would stack if you chose the same enemy: both Wolverine and Jubilee would each get +4 ATK when making a basic attack against that enemy. (You could also choose a different enemy when she re-enters play.)

-Alex – December 1, 2022

216 – I have a couple of questions regarding the second scenario in the Mutant Genesis campaign (Project Wideawake) 1. What happens to the scenario allies (Project Wideawake #6-9), if they’re defeated by something other than an enemy attack? The rules on Ownership and Control (RRG v1.4, page 22) imply that they should go to the discard pile of their owner, but they’re scenario cards, so does that mean they go to the encounter deck discard pile? Even though they have player card backs? 2. Similarly, what happens to the Jubilee and Magneto allies if defeated by an enemy? Do keywords have priority over a Forced Response, causing them to go to the victory display? Or will they get tucked under the Operation Zero Tolerance side scheme?

Once you’ve earned the allies from the scenario, they’re considered a part of your deck. They will go to the discard pile of the player that “owns” them. Jubilee and Magneto would first get placed in the victory display following the “Victory” keyword, but then they would get placed under Operation Zero Tolerance immediately after. They will end up placed beneath Operation Zero Tolerance.

-Alex – December 1, 2022

217 – (1) Are triggered abilities like the Hero Action on Upgraded Ultron Drones considered performed by the player’s identity who resolves the ability? (2) What kind(s) of triggered abilities on encounter cards is this true for? (3) If the answer to (1) is “yes”, is taking that Hero Action considered to defeat any drones that had 1 damage on them before taking that action? Would Unleash Nova Force trigger after the Nova player took that action? (4) Would Unleash Nova Force trigger after the Nova player empties The Search For Spiral by taking the Hero Action on it? (5) Does playing Go For Champions mean that the Nova player can take that action, and trigger Unleash Nova Force, any number of times? (6) is resolving the “Special” ability on a weather support considered to be performed by Storm’s identity?

1-3) If the Nova player took the Hero Action on Upgraded Drones, then no, Nova is not considered to have “defeated” all of the drones that would leave play as a result of losing the hit point.
4) If Nova removed the last threat from The Search for Spiral via the Hero Action, then yes, he could activate Unleash Nova Force.
5) The Hero Action on The Search for Spiral should be a cost. The taking of 2 damage cannot be prevented if a player wants to remove 3 threat from the scheme.
6) Yes, in the sense that Storm would “remove 2 threat” via Hurricane or “deal 2 damage” via Thunderstorm.

-Alex – December 1, 2022

218 – We’d like to learn more about “dealing” and “taking” damage. 1. Would you describe the process of dealing damage to us? 2. What happens if Nimrod is dealt 11 damage by an attack with Overkill? 3. What happens if Nimrod has a Tough status card and is deal 11 damage by an attack with Overkill? 4. What happens if a 9-HP minion with a Tough status card (and no other abilities) is dealt 11 damage by an attack with Overkill?

Damage dealt refers to the damage that one character is attempting to place on another character. Damage taken is the damage actually placed on the targeted character.
The Overkill damage would be calculated based on the target’s remaining health. Nimrod’s ability would not affect this calculation. If Nimrod had all 9 health, and was dealt 11 damage, only 2 of that damage is considered “excess” and would be placed onto the villain. Meanwhile, Nimrod’s ability means he would only take 3 of the damage that was dealt to him.
- To summarize, 11 damage was dealt, Nimrod took 3, and the villain took 2.
The Tough status card would prevent any Overkill damage from being dealt to the villain.

-Alex – December 1, 2022

219 – Looking at the Rogue spoilers I was wondering how the Trait gaining with Touched works, particularly when the character with touched attached leaves play, or when Touched is moved to another character, such as with Energy Drain. Do you still have the Traits of the character Touched was initially attached to until the end of the round? Or do you lose those traits once Touched is no longer attached.

Yes; Rogue’s “Skin Contact” ability is a lasting effect. When she attaches Touched to a character with this ability, she will gain that character’s Traits until the end of the round, even if that character leaves play or if Touched is moved to another character that same round.

-Alex – December 8, 2022

220 – I have a few questions about the third scenario in the Mutant Genesis campaign (Master Mold). 1. On Rescue Captives (Mutant Genesis 173B) it says “Response: After you defeat a Sentinel minion, spend 1 resource of any type -> choose a facedown ally under this card and put it into play under your control. (Any player may trigger this ability)”. We played the trigger condition as ‘identity you’, even though the rest of the ability, and the parenthetical, implies ‘player you’, were we correct, or could, say, the first player use Magneto to defeat a Sentinel and then trigger the Rescue Captives response to rescue an ally? 2. When a player triggers the response on Rescue Captives, can they choose an ally they do not own, or must they choose the ally they put under Find the Prisoners (Mutant Genesis 173A) during scenario setup? 3. Can this response ‘cheat in’ an ally, allowing a player to put into play an ally that otherwise could not play?

4. Can it ignore the uniqueness rules? 5. If a player can rescue an ally they do not own, I assume that ally goes to their owner’s discard pile when they are defeated, is that correct? 6. During setup of the scenario, the players are given the Captive allies recorded in the campaign log, to shuffle into their decks. Does a player now own the ally shuffled into their deck in this way? 7. Do these allies remain a part of the players’ decks for the remainder of the campaign, or should they be removed at the end of the scenario?

8. In the Victory instructions for the scenario it says “Record the name of each ally that ended the game under Find the Prisoners or Rescue Captives. These allies cannot be used for the rest of the campaign”. What does “used” mean in this context? 9. Can the recorded allies be included in a player deck? 10. If they can be included in a player deck, can they be used as a resource? 11. If they cannot be included in a player deck, what happens if they are an ally from a hero’s signature card set?

1. To trigger the response on Rescue Captives, your identity must be the one to defeat a Sentinel minion.

2. The ally that you choose does not need to be the same one you placed underneath Find the Prisoners.

3. Yes, it would be possible to put an ally into play this way that you couldn’t normally.

4. No, the rules of uniqueness would still apply to these allies.

5. Yes, if the rescued ally is defeated/leaves play, it would go to its owner’s discard pile.

6. Yes, a player is considered to “own” earned campaign cards (Captive allies, in this case).

7. Earned campaign cards (i.e. Captive allies) are considered part of the player’s deck during that campaign and will remain in the player’s deck during future scenarios in that campaign unless otherwise stated. When the campaign ends, these cards should be removed.

8-10. “Cannot be used” in this case means that the named card cannot be included in player decks during the rest of the campaign.

11. If a hero’s signature ally was recorded as “cannot be used”, then they should not be included in that deck for the rest of the campaign. If this would cause a hero to have less than 40 cards in their deck, they should add another eligible card to their deck to get back up to 40 (e.g. an aspect card or basic card).

-Alex – December 8, 2022

221 – Can you explain how the cards “Scarlett witch’s crest” and “preemptive strike” can work together if possible?

Sure—Scarlet Witch’s Crest can increase or decrease the number of boost icons “counted” in a card. This includes when a boost card is turned faceup during a villain activation. It’s possible to then turn up a boost card, exhaust Scarlet Witch’s Crest to treat that card as having +1 boost icon, then use Preemptive Strike to deal +1 additional damage for the boost icon added/canceled.

-Alex – December 8, 2022

222 – Questions about the “Nano-Sentinel Tech” and “Snitches get stitches” attachments and the “public outcry environment. They all have Victory 1, suggesting it’s meant to go to the victory display when defeated, but I can’t find any evidence in the rules after checking under attachments and the defeat entries that attachments or environments can even be “defeated”. “Snitches get stitches” specifically says you add it to the victory display specifically when venom is defeated by an enemy attack, but also gives you an action to discard it by paying resources. 1.Does Snitches Get Stitches go to the victory display when “discarded” with that action? 2.Can Nano-Sentinel Tech or Public outcry ever go to the Victory Display under the current rules as written?

We are planning to adjust the definition of Victory X in our next Rules Reference update. The answers I give you will also be added there.
Snitches Get Stitches only goes to the Victory display if Venom is defeated with it attached. The Action ability allowing you to “discard” it will only place it in the encounter deck discard pile.
Nano-Sentinel Tech, also being an attachment, functions similarly to SGS. If the attached minion is defeated, Nano-Sentinel Tech will go to the Victory display. If attached minion is discarded, NST will also be discarded.
~~Public Outcry’s “Uses (2X counters)” is meant to be understood as, once those counters are removed, Public Outcry will get placed in the discard pile.~~

-Alex – December 19, 2022

223 – 1. Shadowcat is stunned. Can I play Shadowcat Surprise (while in player phase) to get rid of the Stunned condition and the still ready? During the villain phase, can I play Powerful Punch while in solid form, to discard Stunned, flip over to Phased form, and defend and take no damage? 2. We understand, that you can defend for another player by exhausting your identity and using your basic defense to defend for them. The issue is this. I am playing a Protection Deck, and I use the following cards: Mutant Protectors, Powerful Punch, Preemptive Strike, Shadow and Steel, Quick Shift, and warning. Can I defend for another player, without exhausting my identity, and using one of these cards? If possible could you help with the timing on this. 3. Will there be an updated Rules Reference Guide coming soon, as the current one is from April of 2021?

To discard Stunned with an attack event, you must pay any costs on the card, then replace all that card’s “effects” with the removal of Stunned. You would not be able to ready with Shadowcat Surprise if you were also removing Stunned. If you played Powerful Punch to discard Stunned, you would not flip your mass form because removing Stunned replaced your attack. You would still be in Solid form while the villain attacked.
It’s possible to play Defense-traited cards and defend for another player without exhausting your identity. However, you would not reduce the damage you’d take by your DEF stat unless the card you played stated such.
1. The timing of when to play each card & become a defender depends on the card.
2. When a villain initiates an attack against another player, you may either exhaust to declare yourself defender of the attack, or play a Defense-traited event with that specific timing window as a way of declaring yourself defender without exhausting (e.g. Powerful Punch, Shadow and Steel, Quick Shift). Mutant Protectors is also played at this time, but it specifically makes the X-Men ally put into play the defender of the attack.
  
  If you did not have a card you could play in that window, the attack would have to instead be undefended up until the point in which you played that card, since only one character can defend an attack at a time. (Ex. Preemptive Strike can only be played when a boost card is turned faceup; you would become the defender of the attack upon playing it, and you would then be the target that attack’s damage.
  
  Currently Warning has an errata where it’s no longer a Defense-traited event. Without the Defense trait, you cannot use it to become the defender of an attack.
3. The developers are working on a Rules Reference update. That’s all I can say at this time.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

224 – Does overkill damage considered as damage from attack? Per previous ruling: “Overkill damage is damage from an attack.” In this case does the below scenario involving overkill resolves correctly? 1 Power Stone (Ronan scenario) 1.1 Power Stone attaches to Hero (Forced Response: After a hero or villain deals 3 or more damage to attached character with a single attack, attach Power stone to the attacking hero or villain). 1.2 Villain attacks and ally declares as defender. 1.3 There are at least 3 overkill damage dealt to the Hero. 1.4 I assume the Power stone is now attached to the villain since 3 or more (overkill) damage is dealt to the Hero with a single attack? 2 Exploit Weakness (Cyclops’ Upgrade) 2.1 Exploit Weakness attaches to Villain (Increase the amount of damage attached enemy takes from each attack by 1). 2.2 Hero attacks and defeats the minion. 2.3 Excess overkill damage is dealt to Villain. 2.4 I assume the overkill damage is now +1, as overkill damage is considered damage from attack?

Yes, if the hero that Power Stone was attached to was dealt 3+ Overkill damage, Power Stone would then attach to the villain.
Yes, if the villain had Exploit Weakness attached, it would take 1 additional damage from any Overkill damage dealt to it.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

225 – If Rhino has the Armoured Rhino Suit and a tough status card which will take priority. If I attack him and deal damage does he loose tough or do I assign the damage to the Suit?

I realized I answered your first question incorrectly after mixing up rulings, so I wanted to let you know right away what the answer should have been. A Steady character should only be given one status card if they encounter an effect stating “you are stunned” or “you are confused.” (There exists an exception, but most of the time, it should just be one! Otherwise the Steady keyword wouldn’t mean anything.) As for your second question—if Rhino is Tough and has the Armored Rhino Suit attached, and you deal damage to him, he would lose Tough. You’d have to attack/damage him in a separate instance to start putting damage on the Suit.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

226 – I’m wondering how Rogue interacts with one of Shadowcat’s cards, Quick Shift. I’m assuming simply paying the cost of Quick Shift does not procure a defense because per the defense rules you must resolve a defense ability in order to be considered defending. So, if Rogue has Quick Shift in hand and the condition on Quick Shift becomes true is Rogue able to pay the cost to play it at all, just to defend, or does Quick Shift have to change the game state via its effects / ability resolution?

Rogue could play Quick Shift when an enemy initiates an attack in order to become defender of the attack.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

227 – In a previous ruling, you said that resolving the “Special” ability on weather supports is considered to be performed by Storm’s identity, in the sense that Storm would “remove 2 threat” via Hurricane or “deal 2 damage” via Thunderstorm. > > Why is this the case? Generally speaking, triggered abilities that resolve from supports in play under a player’s control are not considered to be performed by that player’s identity. > > If an ability on your ID, or on a card that is an ID extension, explicitly tells you to resolve another ability, is that instance of that other ability considered to be performed by your ID?

I made an error on the previous ruling. Triggered abilities on Support cards—including on cards in Storm’s Weather Deck—should not be considered performed by the hero’s identity. This is the rule as written and should remain consistent.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

228 – (1) Are triggered abilities like the Hero Action on The Search for Spiral considered performed by the player’s identity who resolves the ability? Is it “yes” because Nova can trigger Unleash Nova Force after emptying Search with it? > (2) What kind(s) of triggered abilities on encounter cards are considered to be performed by the ID of the player who triggers them? Is this only true of a “Hero Action”? Would it also be true of an “Action”? Would it be true for any kinds of Interrupts or Responses? > (3) I’ve heard that “The Hero Action on The Search for Spiral should be a cost.” Should we consider this an errata to the card? How should it read?

Yes, Nova would be able to trigger Unleash Nova Force upon removing the last threat from The Search for Spiral.
Yes, The Search for Spiral will be issued an errata. The Hero Action should read, “Take 2 damage → Remove 3 threat from here.”

-Alex – December 19, 2022

229 – From previous rulings about Miles we know that if an (attack) ability tells us to resolve a second ability, that second ability is not considered an attack. Storm gives us that same interaction (Lightning Bolt + Thunderstorm) as well as a similar thwarting one (Torrential Rain + Hurricane). We also have learned that Storm is considered to have performed the Special Ability on her weather support when one of her abilities triggers it. (1) I’d like to confirm that the same principle applies to Torrential Rain and Hurricane- although Torrential rain is considered a thwart, is the Hurricane Special it causes considered a thwart? (2) If I attack an enemy with Lightning Bolt, and that enemy is defeated by the Special ability of Thunderstorm, can I play Chase Them Down? (“Response: After your hero attacks and defeats an enemy…”) (3) If I thwart a scheme with Torrential Rain, and the last threat on that scheme is removed by the Special ability of Torrential Rain, can I play Turn the Tide? (“Response: After your hero thwarts and removes all threat from a scheme…”)

The “Special” ability on Hurricane is not labeled as a thwart, so no, it’s not considered one.
Thunderstorm is not labeled as an attack. You could not play Chase Them Down if you defeated a minion with Thunderstorm’s Special.
Same situation: Hurricane is not a thwart, so you cannot play Turn the Tide upon resolving Hurricane’s Special.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

230 – Rogue’s recent announcement generated a bunch of excitement and questions. One question was in regard to if she’s able to play cards with costs that involve elements she does not control. My understanding is this is not possible, per the “Costs” entry of page 10 of the RRG 1.4. However, many cards in game like Defender of the nine realms, Remy Lebeau Alter-Ego, Natural Agility (Gambit), and the Brothers Grimm modular set attachments have you pay costs with elements you do not control. Rogue’s own, Superpower Adaptation, also lets you search another player’s deck which you do not control, as a cost.

1. Can Rogue play a card like Shield Toss (while Cap’s Shield is in his play area) to resolve Shield Toss, even if she doesnt control the Shield? 2. Do some cost arrow abilities need errata to preserve the function of only paying costs with game elements you control? 3. Is a “search” free from the “elements you control” restriction? 4. Should there be an exception in the cost entry for costs that involve dealing damage, removing/placing threat, or placing counters etc. for costs that involve those elements? Relevant abilities: Shield Toss — Hero Action (attack): Discard X cards from your hands, then return Captain America’s Shield from play to your hand —> deal 4 damage to X enemies. Superpower Adaptation — Hero Action: If Touched is attached to a friendly character, search it’s owner’s discard pile for an event that belongs to the same classification as that character (identity-specific, aspect, or basic) —> add that event to your hand. Defender of the Nine Realms — Hero Action (thwart): Discard cards from the top of the encounter deck until you discard a minion. Put that minion into play engaged with you —> remove 3 threat from a scheme. Remy Lebeau — Action (thwart): Exhaust Remy LeBeau and look at the top 2 cards of the encounter deck. Discard 1 of those cards —> remove threat from a scheme equal to the number of boost icons on that card. Natural Agility — Hero Interrupt (defense): When you defend against an attack, place 1 charge counter on Gambit —> for each charge counter on Gambit, you get +1 DEF for that attack.

With Superpower Adaptation, Rogue is permitted to search another player’s discard pile for an event and add it to her hand. However, the event that she chooses must be paid for using elements she controls.
For instance, Rogue would not be able to play Shield Toss if she does not have “Captain America’s Shield” under her control, because part of that event’s cost is returning CA Shield (which she does not control) to her hand.
The rules entry for cost specifies that the player must pay costs with cards/game elements they control. Costs that involve searching generally permit the player to look at cards in the searched area without issue, such as Angela · MarvelCDB allowing you to search the encounter deck. Rogue must be able to search another player’s discard pile for Superpower Adaptation to function as intended.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

231 – I’ve seen a ruling that preventing damage with a card like side step which has the same timing as a tough status card would have priority and the tough would remain. Trying to understand. So is there a difference between damage “reducing” effects and damage “preventing” effects. Groot’s hero ability would now function that he would lose his growth counters while tough when taking damage and would hurt him alot 😦 Trying to understand if the goal is to have damage “reducing” effects like the vision hero in intangible form where he reduces all damage from attacks by 2 as a constant ability or the victor mancha ally that reduces damage from attacks by 1 also as a constant ability in that your reducing the damage that would have been dealt and the tough never receives it so the tough remains. VS “Preventing” effects like “side step” and “shield block” that would directly compete with Tough.

I will do my best to address your questions. Note, some of the rulings we made recently are no longer accurate, and we plan to address many of them in our next rules reference update. The following notes are our current rulings on this subject.
First, status cards like “Tough” should have priority over constant effects and interrupts.
This means that if Groot was Tough and was dealt damage, “Tough” would get discarded before any growth counters were removed.
This also means that Tough would have priority over the text on Side Step and Shield Block—Tough would get discarded first, before interrupts could resolve.
Let me know if you have other questions in light of this information.

-Alex – December 19, 2022

January, 2023

232 – Is Regroup a replacement effect? If so, what does it replace?

Regroup’s ability includes a replacement effect. The “Interrupt” part of its ability replaces the discarding of a defeated ally with returning the ally to its owner’s hand—this is the replacement effect.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

233 – Hi, can Deft Focus’s ability be used outside of active player’s turn (i.e. another player’s turn)? As the card stated “this turn”, I wonder – is there any restriction?

It’s possible for the controller of Deft Focus to use its ability outside of their turn when another player takes the action “Ask another player to trigger an ‘Action’ ability on a card they control in play or in their hand.” The phrase “this turn” in Deft Focus’ ability refers to whichever player turn its controller exhausted it during; that’s the turn in which the discount from Deft Focus would apply.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

234 – If I use Last Stand on an ally that has 1 health and would take 1 consequential damage after that attack, would the ally be discarded by Last Stand or be defeated from the consequential damage? Last Stand states that the discard happens “after that attack resolves”, is taking consequential damage a part of resolving an attack?

Consequential damage is considered part of that ally’s attack, so that ally would be discarded via consequential damage, before Last Stand’s effect would discard it.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

235 – If Thanos removes half of my deck and the rest of it are all allies, upgrades and supports and I decide to play all of them, what happens when my discard pile and deck are empty at the same time? Do I draw infinite encounter cards, because the new deck is instantly empty again? Which lead to infinite acceleration tokens once no encounter cards are left, which leads to a game loss? If not, what happens?

In the unlikely event a player would have no discard pile or deck, we would have them do the following: The player, being unable to make a new deck with their discard pile, would not deal themselves an encounter card. They would continue to play with whatever cards they had in play and in their hand. If at any point a card of theirs entered their discard pile, then they’d immediately make a new deck with it and deal themselves an encounter card as normal.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

236 – What does “starting hit points” mean? as seen on Dauntless is it the same as printed or can it change like in expert campaign where you can start with reduced HP?

Your “starting hit points” is whatever hit point value you are at after finishing setup. In some campaigns it’s possible for your starting hit points to be different than your printed hit points.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

237 – Some questions. 1.Can you choose to change energy or mass form with cards like “Threat or menace” from the down to earth encounter set? Or do effects like that mean specifically Hero, Alter-Ego forms? 2.If your resolving a villain attack activation and a minion comes into play from a boost ability (weapons runner) and has quick strike(the mojo files),how do you handle this situation? 3. Does the upgrade you choose need to have been exhausted for you to draw a card with the ability on the spider-man (Otto octavius) basic ally?

1. Yes; unless specified by the ability text, “you may change form” means you may change Energy form, Mass form, or Hero/Alter-Ego form.

2. If a minion enters play from a boost ability and has Quickstrike, the minion will interrupt the villain’s attack to make its own attack (you’d pause Step 3 of the villain’s attack). Once the minion’s attack finishes, you’d continue resolving the villain’s attack (Steps 3-4).

3. Yes, the upgrade you target with Spider-Man: Otto Octavius’ Response ability must be exhausted if you want to draw 1 card.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

238 – Can an eliminated player reveal a card? Playing against Magneto as Cyclops and Phoenix. Scott Summers revealed Metal Shards. He had 1 HP so this eliminates him. RRG says to continue resolving the encounter card. It places the 3rd magnet counter on the main scheme. The main scheme now triggers. What happens? The main scheme says “you” reveal a card. So, 1) Does the ability not trigger because “you” is eliminated? 2) The ability triggers and “you” reveal the magnetic card as an eliminated player. 3) The ability triggers and you do the discarding from encounter deck until you hit a magnetic card, but then it fizzles as an eliminated player cannot reveal a card. 4) The ability transfers to the next player in player order and they become the “you” and they reveal the encounter card. If it matters, the revealed card is Magnetic Bubble.

Alex: In this case, we rule that the eliminated player should finish resolving Metal Shards by placing the magnet counter on the main scheme, but they should not resolve the Forced Response on the main scheme.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

239 – Can you answer some questions in regards to the soon-to-be-released Rogue hero? 1. Since it was ruled that Rogue can play Quick Shift to be declared the defender, can Rogue also play Wasp Sting even though she has no Tiny/Giant form? Maybe to remove a stun? 2. Can Rogue resolve the abilities of other heroes’ cards if prompted by a card she plays? Can she trigger Spider Camouflage after playing Swing In or one of Storm’s weather supports after the matching event is played? 3. Can Rogue play Parental Guidance to put a card like Bulletproof Belle under George Stacy, that the Ghost Spider player can then play normally? 4. Can Rogue play Superdense Strike if Vision is in Dense mass form? 5. What happens when Rogue plays Pulsar Shield? Is it unplayable because its triggering condition means another player is already defending? 6. Can Rogue declare the Valkyrie player the defender of an attack by playing Shieldmaiden herself?

We would be happy to comment on Rogue shenanigans. If Rogue were to play…

… Wasp Sting · MarvelCDB, she could only use it to discard Stunned, since she can’t resolve any ability text relating to Giant or Tiny forms.
… Swing In · MarvelCDB, she’d remove 4 threat and resolve as much of “Spider Camouflage” as possible—based on how it’s written, Spider-Man would get a Tough status card, and Rogue would choose an enemy to Confuse.

… Parental Guidance · MarvelCDB, Rogue (in Alter-Ego) could attach an event to George Stacy if he’s in play. Ghost-Spider could then play that event.
… Superdense Strike · MarvelCDB, Rogue could deal 5 damage w/piercing assuming Vision was in Dense mass form at the time.
… Pulsar Shield · MarvelCDB, she couldn’t play it at all, because Spectrum would have to already be defending, and Rogue can’t play a Defense event during that time.
… Shieldmaiden · MarvelCDB, we were actually planning to errata it and give it a Defense trait. In that regard it would be just like Pulsar Shield, where Rogue couldn’t play it at all.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

240 – I’ve seen a ruling that preventing damage with a card like side step which has the same timing as a tough status card would have priority and the tough would remain. Trying to understand. So is there a difference between damage “reducing” effects and damage “preventing” effects. Groot’s hero ability would now function that he would lose his growth counters while tough when taking damage and would hurt him alot 😦 Trying to understand if the goal is to have damage “reducing” effects like the vision hero in intangible form where he reduces all damage from attacks by 2 as a constant ability or the victor mancha ally that reduces damage from attacks by 1 also as a constant ability in that your reducing the damage that would have been dealt and the tough never receives it so the tough remains. VS “Preventing” effects like “side step” and “shield block” that would directly compete with Tough.

I will do my best to address your questions. Note, some of the rulings we made recently are no longer accurate, and we plan to address many of them in our next rules reference update. The following notes are our current rulings on this subject.
First, status cards like “Tough” should have priority over constant effects and interrupts.
This means that if Groot was Tough and was dealt damage, “Tough” would get discarded before any growth counters were removed.
This also means that Tough would have priority over the text on Side Step and Shield Block—Tough would get discarded first, before interrupts could resolve.
Let me know if you have other questions in light of this information.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

241 – Telepathic misdirection, if you target a villain and it does over kill on another enemy, does that overkill damage go on to the villain itself or to the player who played misdirection? Follow up question to telepathic misdirection, since it uses the key word “defense” would I be triggering “prefect defense” cards such as unflappable and hard to ignore. If yes, I would also do retaliate damage to the target I used misdirection? Second question: if Phoenix has her telepathic shield and forced field generator in play and takes damage, can I pick between both of them to remove or add counters since they both use “force interrupt” or must I choose only one.

The definition of Overkill states that if a minion is dealt excess damage by an attack with overkill, the excess amount is dealt to the villain. If you used Psychic Misdirection causing the villain to redirect the damage from its attack, the excess damage would be dealt back to the villain.
Yes, with Psychic Misdirection, you have defended and (presumably) took no damage, so you could trigger Unflappable.
If you had Retaliate X, and used Psychic Misdirection on a villain’s attack, then yes, you were still “attacked” and you would still deal X damage to the villain.
If you had both Telekinetic Shield and Forcefield Generator under your control, they share the same timing trigger for an enemy attack dealing damage to you, so you would choose the order in which they resolve. However, only one card at a time can affect the damage; you can’t choose to split the damage between them, but excess damage from one can be blocked by the other. For example, if you were the target of 7 damage from an enemy attack, you could choose to resolve Forcefield Generator’s effect first, but it would have to prevent as much damage as possible (let’s say it had all 6 counters, so it would prevent 6 damage) and only then could Telekinetic Shield block the rest (1).

-Alex – January 11, 2023

242 – What happens in the sabretooth scenario, if the player has Robert Kelly and you exhaust and defend with night crawler but use his ability what happens?

If Nightcrawler exhausted to defend an attack, then he is considered to have defended the attack, even if he leaves play due to his ability. Robert Kelly wouldn’t take any damage.

-Alex – January 11, 2023

243 – When the notoriety counters are all removed from the environment card public outcry from the sinister motives campaign, does it get discarded to the encounter deck discard pile or go to the victory display? “Uses” VS Victory keyword Thanks!

When all notoriety counters are removed from Public Outcry, it should be placed into the victory display.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

244 – How much damage does relentless assault deal to a dragon minion from the mojo mania pack? I understand it to deal 5 damage and then the dragon takes 10 because of RA having a energy resource on it. But I’ve seen where it was ruled that damage it deals to the the dragon is based off of the remaining HP of the dragon so I’m trying to understand. Overkill is involved here as well. Help me if I have these examples wrong 1.Relentless assault deals 5 damage to the dragon who only has 5 HP remaining. The dragon would take 10 which is double the amount needed to be defeated but there is no overkill because the 5 damage only looked at the remaining HP of the target when determining overkill damage. 2.The dragon is at full 10 hp in a solo game, relentless assault would defeat it by dealing 5 and the dragon taking 10 but again no overkill. 3. The dragon has 1hp remaining and relentless assault deals 5 damage to it and the dragon takes 10 but only 4 is applied to the overkill to the villain.

All three of your examples are correct 😊 Dragon will always “take” 10, but Relentless Assault only ever “deals” 5.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

245 – Does it work to use one copy of the basic resource card “the power in all of us” to pay for the hero action on the basic support card C.I.T.T? Not sure if you get double resources in this situation.

Yes, the resources generated by The Power in All of Us can be applied to an ability cost on a basic card like C.I.T.T. (We’re planning to specify this in a future Rules Reference update.)

-Alex – January 18, 2023

246 – I was looking over recent rulings on damage being “dealt and “taken” and came across a question. Is the official FAQ entry in the mojo mania booklet about overkill and wild wild mojo still correct? WWM seems to increase damage taken not damage dealt from an attack with or without overkill

That FAQ entry is now outdated; it was written before we made the take/deal distinction.
Under the updated rules, Wild Wild Mojo only has characters “take” additional damage, but the damage “dealt” to them doesn’t change. The example given in the FAQ is off by 1 point of damage.
To illustrate: imagine a 1-HP ally is dealt 2 damage from an attack with overkill. Under standard circumstances, the ally takes 1 and the hero takes 1. With WWM, the amount the characters take increases by 1 each, but the damage dealt to them is still 2 total. With WWM the ally takes 1+1 and the hero takes 1+1.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

247 – I’m playing the Red Skull scenario, during Setup it has me create the side scheme deck which will have its own discard pile. If side schemes come into play later in the game outside of that created deck during setup like a Nemesis side scheme from the shadows of the past treachery, do those go to the encounter deck discard pile or the side scheme deck discard pile? I couldn’t be sure from the Rise of red skull booklet

When leaving play, Nemesis side schemes are placed in the side scheme deck discard pile during the Red Skull scenario.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

248 – I just wanted to get some things clarified. Minions can attack players their NOT engaged with if an ability like “titania’s fury” is revealed by player 1 while “titania” is in play engaged with player 2. That Correct? Also with player elimination. If player 1 resolves the activations in step 2 of the villain phase and then player 2 resolves their activations and is defeated by the villain while being engaged to a minion WITHOUT quickstrike, that minion will engage player 1 but will it activate since it didn’t activate yet or will it not activate because player 1 already resolved step 2 against them?

Correct, Titania’s Fury allows her to attack a hero she isn’t engaged with.
No, the minion that passed from Player 2 to Player 1 would not (normally) activate. Minions activate when the engaged player resolves step 2 of the villain phase; any engages after that point wouldn’t cause the minion (without Quickstrike) to attack until the next villain phase.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

249 – I have a question about a ruling I’ve seen about the event “sneak attack” in combination with the ally black panther. It was ruled that the black panther ally could respond and grab the same copy of sneak attack that put it into play because the sneak attack event was considered resolved and discarded after the first part of its effect. Trying to understand how to resolve these types of cards. Help me do it correctly, do I.. 1.Read sneak attack entirely and then apply the second part of it at the same time as the first and discard the event even though it’s not an alteration effect. 1.Read sneak attack entirely but resolve one sentence at a time and since the second part doesn’t have an effect right now (because it’s a “delayed effect” based on the RRG) discard it right away. 3.Read sneak attack entirely and resolve one sentence at a time. Put the black panther ally into play with the first sentence and even though the Response window opens right away for black panther, the window stays open until I close it so then you can resolve the second part of sneak attack that tells us what the delayed effect is and then discard it and because the window for black panther wasn’t closed yet, grab that copy and put it under black panther.

We’ve gone back and forth on this one but we have ultimately come to this ruling: the Black Panther ally cannot attach the Sneak Attack that played him. Sneak Attack’s first sentence resolves to put Black Panther into play, then Black Panther’s Response triggers and targets a discarded card, then Sneak Attack’s second sentence “resolves” before it’s put in the discard pile. It’s not in the discard pile when BP’s Response triggers.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

250 – I have a question about dealing damage with an attack with overkill that targets a minion with a tough status card. So reading the current rules reference… If you attack a minion, your “dealing” damage to it and simultaneously the overkill keyword “deals” the excess damage to the villain. The tough status card states “the next time this character would “take” any amount of damage, discard this status card instead”. I’ve seen your ruling that a tough status card on a minion would prevent both the damage dealt to the minion and the overkill damage dealt to the villain. Since the tough status card triggers off of damage taken and not damage dealt and the fact that both the attack damage and overkill damage is dealt simultaneously, shouldn’t the tough status card only prevent the damage done to the minion? While the overkill damage based on what the excess would have been, should still hit the villain?

We are planning to adjust the wording of “Tough” rules to align with our take/deal damage distinction. A Tough status card prevents all damage dealt to the character. If a Tough ally/minion was attacked with overkill, no overkill damage would be dealt to the hero/villain, and the ally/minion wouldn’t take any damage either.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

251 – If we defeat the side scheme “Fetch Quest” and I search my deck and play “Thwip Twhip” do I still need to pay the text cost → or does “Free” mean we don’t have to pay any costs whatsoever? And while we’re at it, I’m assuming since your still “playing” it for free, the requirement keyword on others cards would still be in effect? Or is that ignored as well because of “Free”?

The “When Defeated” effect on Fetch Quest should be understood as you may play the searched card and ignore its resource cost (but not other costs or restrictions in effect). So, you would not be able to play a card with Requirement, because that card cannot be played unless the listed resources are spent.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

252 – In a very recent ruling we heard that “status cards like “Tough” should have priority over constant effects…” How is that possible? How can anything have priority over a constant effect? If status cards have “one-time” effects, but constant effects are “active as soon as its card enters play and remains active while the card is in play,” what does the presence of a status card change? Do status cards cause us to treat the cards they are on as if they are blank? For some specific examples: If Vision is Intangible and Stunned, he can ignore the text of Intangible and remove Stunned? If Vision is Intangible and Tough, and he is dealt 2 damage, the text of Intangible does not reduce the amount of damage he takes to 0, instead he loses Tough? If a Champion is Tough and dealt damage when Go For Champions is active, Go For Champion’s effect does not prevent them from taking damage, instead Tough replaces the damage and is discarded?

If Vision was in Intangible form and Stunned, he would not be able to remove Stunned because he cannot make attacks. No attack attempt can be made that removing Stunned would replace.
If Vision was in Intangible form and Tough before being dealt 2 damage, Tough would be removed before Intangible’s constant ability affected the damage.
We are planning to adjust the wording of “Tough” to align with our take/deal damage distinction. Tough prevents damage from being “dealt” to a character, instead of damage they would “take.” That in mind, with “Go For Champions!” in effect, a Tough Champion can still be “dealt” damage, leading to the removal of Tough, before GFC’s effect is accounted for.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

253 – There was a ruling recently that since Slice and dice and Berserker Barrage make multiple attacks rather than being single attacks that deal multiple instances of damage (like melee) then cards like warrior skill or wolverines claws would only buff one of the attacks, not all the attacks made. I had assumed that aggressive energy would work the same and if you used it to pay for slice and dice only the first attack would be buffed not both of them. However it’s been pointed out by other players that the wording on aggressive energy is slightly different than warrior skill. Warrior skill says “that attack deals 1 additional damage” but aggressive energy says “that event deals one additional damage” (wolverines claws also say “that attack gains piecing” not “that event…”).

Based on this it’s been suggested that while warrior skill or wolverines claws buff one attack made by slice and dice aggressive energy buffs the whole event and so buffs both attacks; meaning slice and dice will make two 4 damage attacks. Is this correct or does aggressive energy only buff the first attack meaning slice and dice makes a 4 damage and then a 3 damage attack. If both attacks are buffed then how does this effect Berserker Barrage? Are all attacks increased to 5 damage if you pay with aggressive energy?

With the upcoming Rogue pack I assume that if the character touched is attached to leaves play touched goes into Rogue’s discard pile then when the player phase begins rouge’s forced response will set it aside again. Can I only use Rogue’s ability or energy transfer to attach touched to a character if touched is set aside or attached to another character already? I can’t use those abilities to attach touch from the discard pile can I?

Aggressive Energy is worded in such a way to buff an Attack Event, meaning it buffs each instance of damage in an Attack Event.
- Using Aggressive Energy on Slice and Dice applies a buff to both attacks on Slice and Dice. (4 damage each)
- Using Aggressive Energy on Berserker Barrage applies a buff to each attack made with Berserker Barrage. (5 damage each)
Yes, Touched would go into Rogue’s discard pile if the character it was attached to left play. And yes, Rogue can use her ability or Energy Transfer to attach Touched from the discard pile.

-Alex – January 18, 2023

254 – will you help us out with the protection ally Nightcrawler and his ability, do these two rulings contradict? https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#latest#95 https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#latest#242 #95 seems to rule that the attack is considered undefended when nightcrawler defends and leaves play with his ability and #242 seems to rule that the attack is still considered defended when nightcrawler defends and leaves play with his ability. We understand the damage is prevented either way but it matters for other interactions.

Yes, those two rulings are in conflict, but the newer one is more in line with other recent rulings we’ve made. We believe that if Nightcrawler defends an attack, that attack will be considered defended, even if he leaves play due to his ability.

-Alex – January 26, 2023

February, 2023

255 – I couldn’t find this in the rules and need clarification. What happens to boost cards a villain has that they got from an effect for a future activation when they advance to their next stage?

If a villain had an unrevealed boost card during the point they advanced to their next stage, the boost card would remain where it was. It would be revealed during the villain’s next activation.

-Alex – February 1, 2023

256 – I’m confused regarding how the Goliath, Vision and Jubilee allies’ Lasting Effects work when they reenter play. We have a ruling that, since Jubilee creates a Lasting Effect, if she was to enter play twice in one turn (with a card such as Rapid Response), her original Lasting Effect both remains and still affects her. But we have an old rulings from Caleb years ago, that the Vision and Goliath allies are not affected by their original Lasting Effect if they reenter play. As I understand it, the copies of an ally who reenter play are considered new instances of that copy, which is why the original lasting effects are not applied to them. Because they are new/different copies. This is at least our interpretation from Caleb’s old rulings. Is there a reason Jubilee is ruled differently to the others? Is it because she targets an enemy first, and the other two (Vision + Goliath) target themselves directly? Or is one ruling out-of-date/incorrect? Or something else? Any clarification on how each of these allies’ original Lasting Effects work on themselves when they reenter play would be greatly appreciated!

Our ruling on the Vision ally set a precedent that we would like to continue following. The Goliath, Vision, and Jubilee (Wolverine #3) allies have “self-referential” abilities, and these abilities only apply to that instance of the card, and not instances where the card re-enters play during the same phase (these instances can be thought of as “other copies of the card”).
- Goliath’s ability has a max once per phase anyhow, which applies to all copies/instances of his card.
This means that our Jubilee ruling needs to be adjusted. If Jubilee re-enters play during a single phase, the +2 ATK from her first instance would not apply to her second instance. (However, her bonus could be applied multiple times to the Wolverine hero.)

-Alex – February 2, 2023

257 – If a character is dealt damage by Overkill, is that damage dealt by the source of the original attack? And if not, what is that damage dealt by? For example: Rocket Raccoon plays Relentless Assault (with Overkill) targeting a 1 HP minion, when the Villain is also at 1 HP. Overkill deals excess damage to the villain. Does Rocket draw a total of 1 card or 2?

Rocket Raccoon would draw 2 cards in that case, because he dealt excess damage to multiple targets.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

258 – When one card effect tells “each player” to do something, what order should the players do that thing in? Some such effects are easy to resolve simultaneously (such as Maria Hill), but some require an order (such as Past Machinations).

If an effect instructs “each player” to do something without specifying “in player order”, then the players are able to decide the order in which each of them resolves the effect. If they cannot decide as a group, then the first player should decide the order.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

259 – Where does the Magneto ally from Mutant Genesis (which is double-sided) go when he is defeated while Beguiled is attached to him?

The Magneto ally should be placed in the victory display when defeated, even if he had Beguiled attached to him.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

260 – How do the recent rulings regarding Tough and the “take/deal distinction” affect effects that deal damage as a cost? For example, if my hero has a Tough status card, and I attack and defeat a minion, with my hero, whilst I have Battle Fury (Thor #18/Wolverine #15) in play, may I “deal 1 damage to [my] hero and discard Battle Fury” to “ready [my] hero”?

With the take/deal distinction, you would be able to use Battle Fury’s ability even while your hero was Tough. If you must “deal damage” as part of a cost, you can consider that cost paid even if the target of the damage didn’t “take” all of that damage.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

261 – 1) Star-Lord’s first hero ability says “Each ally you control gains the Guardian trait”. How does this interact with the basic support card Knowhere?

2) Star-Lord’s first hero ability says each Guardian you control gains the Guardian trait. Do his allies lose the Guardian trait if he goes alter-ego and thus no longer have the constant ability that says they gain the trait affecting them?

3) Star-Lord’s second hero ability is called “What could go wrong?” and effectively discounts a card in return for the player taking an encounter card. According to the Rules Reference 1.4, you must pay the cost of a card before a card “commences being played.” In other words, rules as written, you can only use Star-Lord’s ability to reduce the cost after having already paid the cost anyway to get it to the point it’s valid to trigger said ability. We assume it’s meant to say something along the lines of: “Interrupt: When paying for a card from your hand, deal yourself 1 facedown encounter card -> Reduce the cost to play that card by 3.” Is that correct?

Yes, when Star-Lord is in hero form, each ally he plays is given the Guardian trait. He is then able to use Knowhere’s response ability with any ally he plays while in hero form.
When Star-Lord is in alter-ego form, he does not give his allies the Guardian trait—they “lose” the Guardian trait if they gained it from his hero form’s constant ability.
The Rules Reference says the following about “Interrupts”: An interrupt ability is executed when its triggering condition becomes imminent, but before that triggering condition resolves. Star-Lord’s ability interrupts the entire process of “playing a card from hand”, including determining the card’s cost and paying that cost. He is able to reduce the cost to play the card with his ability.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

262 -Part of ruling 209 says (https://hallofheroeslcg.com/latest-ffg-rulings/#209) says “The difference with Bell Tower is that the target of the Heroic Strike attack was directed at Bell Tower, which is not an enemy, and cannot be Stunned.” Is it true, strictly speaking, that the “target of the…attack” is redirected? Or does this just work because of the previous sentence of that ruling (because damage is not dealt to dealt to the enemy, there is no “that enemy”)? If She-Hulk basic attacks Rhino while Armored Rhino Suit is attached, does she still attack Rhino? Does Superhuman Strength trigger? If She-Hulk basic attacks Mojo with Stinger Tail attached, does she still attack Mojo? will she suffer Retaliate? Does Superhuman Strength trigger?

Heroic Strike wants to stun “that enemy”, the one that was dealt 6 damage—if an enemy wasn’t dealt the 6 damage, then there’s no target for the stun.
If She-Hulk makes an attack against Rhino, and damage from the attack is placed on Armored Rhino Suit instead, Rhino was still the target of the attack, and Superhuman Strength can still stun Rhino.
This same logic applies to Stinger Tail; Mojo was still the target of the attack, even if the damage dealt was placed on Stinger Tail.

-Alex – February 2, 2023

267 – Hey Alex, If a boost card is flipped over with 0 boost icons while a amplify icon is in play, does it gain an icon before the interrupt window for a card like “attacrobatics”, allowing it to be played?

Yes, with an Amplify icon in play, a boost card with 0 printed icons would be treated as having 1 boost icon when it’s turned faceup. Attacrobatics could then be played to cancel that 1.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

268 – Given the recent changes to damage (dealt vs taken), will Overconfidence be issued an errata to change it to surging if at least 3 damage was taken by the attack activation?

We don’t believe an errata is needed for this card.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

269 – Is Bonebreaker from the new Reavers set supposed to have a Forced Response? If not, when does its interrupt trigger?

You’re right, Bonebreaker’s ability should be a Forced Response, just like Skullbuster’s.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

270 – 1.I just wanted to confirm that with the obligation card “Fear of Kang” from the “Masters of time” encounter set, while in your play area the “You” cannot attack Kang, only refers to your identity and not your allies OR other players identities and allies. Correct? 2.Also in that same encounter set, the Kang (master of time) minion, is his constant ability “fixed” on the player he’s engaged with and his ATK and SCH would increase by the number of obligations the engaged player has when activating against another player? Or does it check the target of its activation and increases its ATK and sch based on the number of obligations that player has Example, Kangs engaged with player 1 who has 4 obligations, BUT he’s attacking player 2 because of “ancient grudge” (same encounter set) who has 0 obligations, what does Kang attack player 2 with, +0 or +4

Correct, Fear of Kang only prevents your identity from attacking Kang, not your allies.
Kang (Master of Time) would get additional SCH or ATK based on the player he was activating against, not necessarily the player he was engaged with. In your example, he would get +0 when attacking Player 2 who had 0 obligations.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

271 – Currently as written, Psionic Shield, from Gambit’s pack does not function with the rules. It says “put it back into play”, but the minion never left play. Because of this, the “then” will never trigger, never discarding the card. Compare to Biomechanical Upgrades from the Core or Thor’s Nemesis, Loki. Should this have an errand to remove “put it back into play”?

We are not planning to errata Psionic Shield. You can discard Psionic Shield when the minion it’s attached to would normally leave play (e.g. via defeat), instead healing all damage from that minion and keeping it in play.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

272 – If Star-Lord plays Bait and Switch, but during the villain attack flips to alter-ego with Bad Boy, can he still reply with Turn the Tide if Bait and Switch clears all the threat off the main scheme? He is currently in alter-ego, but he played Bait and Switch in hero, so does this meet the condition for “your hero thwarts and removes threat”?

You would not be able to play Turn the Tide in the scenario described, because you were in Alter-Ego form when the last threat was removed from the scheme. “Your hero” did not “remove all threat from a scheme”, your Alter-Ego form did.

273 – Can Martyr trigger her ability if she was tough when defeating the enemy? The consequential still happens, but she has to take damage to her health to gain a tough?

If Martyr was Tough when defeating an enemy, the consequential damage dealt to her would be prevented by Tough, so her Response would not trigger. (She did not “take” consequential damage.)

-Alex – February 9, 2023

274 – I want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly. I’ve got two scenarios here for you. Scenario One I’m playing the Colossus hero. I’m Stunned. I play “Steel Fist”. I have to pay the resource cost of 2 and any ability costs, so since part of the cost of steel fist is to deal 5 damage→ I get to deal 5 damage while stunned and then stun only replaces the effects → of stun and confuse that enemy. So I get to deal damage from an (attack) event while stunned and then remove the stun!? 😃 Scenario two I’m playing Colossus. Every enemy in play has stalwart. I want to play “Steel Fist” but I can’t because it’s effect of → stun and confuse that enemy, doesn’t have the potential to change the game state. Correct? 😃 However, If I’m also stunned in this scenario, I can play steel fist, because the removal of the stun status is making it so that it does have the potential to change the game state

To answer your question(s):

· We are planning to issue an errata to Steel Fist that changes the cost arrow to the word “to.” With that, the card should function as we intended.

· Meaning, if you were Stunned and attempted to play Steel Fist, you’d just pay its printed cost of 2 resources, not resolve any of its text, and remove Stunned.

· Additionally, you would be able to play Steel Fist targeting a stalwart enemy with the 5 damage.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

275 – Would that mean if you were tough and triggered say “focused rage” to “take” 1 damage that the damage wouldn’t remove the tough? Or do you mean tough prevents both damage “dealt” to it and damage it “takes”?

Tough should prevent the damage dealt and taken.
Because of its wording, a Tough She-Hulk cannot use Focused Rage, because the cost involves “taking 1 damage”, and she cannot take damage while Tough.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

276 – If I am attacked by an enemy dealing 8 damage with Overkill, I defend with Nightcrawler, who does not have Tough, and I trigger his ability to “prevent all of that damage”, does this also prevent the overkill damage from hitting my Identity? Was reading rules reference and rulings and Overkill is dealt simultaneously Overkill damage is damage from an attack but not an enemy attack itself

It depends.
If Nightcrawler (“NC”)’s ability was used targeting himself as “the X-Men character”, he could prevent all damage that would be dealt to himself, but not any overkill damage being dealt to his player’s identity. This is because overkill damage is dealt simultaneously with the attack’s standard damage, and NC can only prevent damage to one character.
One possibility though is that NC can target his player’s identity with his ability if that identity has the X-Men trait. NC can prevent overkill damage that would be dealt to them, and, because he leaves play, no damage could be dealt to him either. But, this can only work if his player’s identity has the X-Men trait.

-Alex – February 9, 2023

277 – So would that mean if you were tough and triggered say “focused rage” to “take” 1 damage that the damage wouldn’t remove the tough? Or do you mean tough prevents both damage “dealt” to it and damage it “takes”?

Sorry if I was unclear—if She-Hulk is Tough, she cannot take the action on Focused Rage, because the cost on Focused Rage requires her to “take” 1 damage, which she cannot do while Tough.

-Alex – February 13, 2023

278 – Hi, another question regarding Master Mold: If the villain schemes and no minion is discarded, does the villain still draws boost card for activation? Thanks.

No. The instructions on Master Mold state that when MM schemes, you do not give MM a boost card. Whether or not a Sentinel minion was discarded does not matter.

-Alex – February 13, 2023

279 – If I play “legal practice”, one of she hulks events, can I choose to discard 0 cards and therefore remove zero threat? Purpose being to remove a confused status card via legal practices (thwart) label.

No. In order to play Legal Practice (or use it to remove Confused), you must discard at least 1 card from your hand.

-Alex – February 13, 2023

280 – I can’t find anywhere in the sinister motives rules about the sinister six scenario in regards to “player” cards that refer to “the villain”. I’ve seen it ruled that overkill targets the “active” villain, but can we choose the villain with player cards?

Yes; if you play a card or trigger an ability that refers to “the villain”, you choose which villain in play the ability refers to. (Note, constant effects and keywords on a player card that refer to “the villain” always refer to the active villain.)

-Alex – February 13, 2023

281 – Sentinel Mark VIII has a “Forced Response” ability that when it engages player, it attaches SENTINEL attachments. I got this card during setup stage of “The Sentinel Factory’s” “When Revealed” ability. I wonder does the above “Forced Response” resolves during setup? As I recall only “Setup” and “When Revealed” abilities are resolved, but I wonder does the above Forced Response counts as part of the “When Revealed” ability of the main scheme? Thanks!

Yes, you would resolve the Forced Response on Sentinel Mark VIII even if it engaged you during Setup. Note, Step 11, “Resolve Scheme Setup”, does not exclude or prevent other abilities from resolving.

-Alex – February 13, 2023

282 – Does the sabertooth villains forced response trigger even when he’s already at full health?

Yes, Sabretooth’s Forced response will always trigger after he activates, and the top card of the encounter deck will always be discarded. If he’s at full health, though, he simply won’t heal.

-Alex – February 23, 2023

283 – Can you trigger the judoka skill upgrade from the upcoming rogue pack, after defending with a (defense) labeled damage preventing ability like side step and effectively reduce 2 more damage? We’re not sure since the damage has already be calculated and dealt and seems to be past the point of reducing the ATK

Assuming you weren’t already defending the attack before playing Side Step, then although you could activate Judoka Skill at that time, it wouldn’t change the amount of damage being dealt to you. This is because the damage being dealt is calculated during Step 3 of an Enemy Attack Activation, and Side Step is played as an interrupt during Step 4. Side Step does satisfy the condition “when you defend against an enemy attack” on Judoka Skill, but the -2 ATK from JS doesn’t affect the damage being dealt to you.

-Alex – February 23, 2023

284 – So, are we correct to understand that a “response: after [thing] resolves…” triggers at a distinct, later timing window than a “response: after [thing]…” does? And that the latter is part of the former’s triggering condition? Does this affect Ghost-Spider’s hero ability or Web Bracelets? For example, Ghost-Spider removes all threat from a scheme with Lay Down the Law (a response). If she has Turn the Tide in her hand, she must trigger it before triggering Web-Bracelets, because Turn the Tide’s “response: after your hero thwarts…” is part of the “resolution” of LDtL’s ability? Or, if Ghost-Spider removes all threat from a scheme with Lay Down the Law, then triggers Web-Bracelets to draw a card after that ability “resolves”. If the card she draws is Turn the Tide, can she play it?

Ghost-Spider is able to respond resolving Lay Down the Law with both Turn the Tide and Web-Bracelet, in the order that she chooses. She is not required to play Turn the Tide before resolving the ability on Web-Bracelet.
If Ghost-Spider plays Lay Down the Law, then uses the ability on Web-Bracelet and draws Turn the Tide, she is able to play Turn the Tide still as a response to removing the last threat with Lay Down the Law–she is still in that window of opportunity.

-Alex – February 23, 2023

March, 2023

285 – What happens when Giant Wasp wants to split her attack between a target with Befuddle and one without? Does the non-Befuddled target take damage from her ATK or THW value? Can this allow her to “double-dip” by dealing damage equal to part of her ATK to 1 enemy and damage equal to her THW to another? Does Befuddled trigger first and make her use her THW for this attack, and is an attack made with her THW still splittable or not? What if she uses Rapid Growth before making the attack, will it boost her THW or ATK for this attack?

When Giant Wasp makes a basic attack, she will initially choose one target for the attack. If that target is the minion with Befuddle, she will use then her THW stat for the attack, and then she can deal damage from her THW split among multiple targets like normal. (She will not be able to “double dip” when she makes a basic attack. And, she will still be considered to have attacked each minion she deals damage to this way.)
It’s possible for Giant Wasp to play Rapid Growth when declaring attack against the minion with Befuddle and boost her THW for the attack. Both are Interrupts so she can choose the order they resolve in—Befuddle first having her use THW, then Rapid Growth boosting that THW by 2.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

286 – I have some questions about Ricochet Beam: If I defeat the last Guard minion with the first half of RB, can I aim the second half at the villain? If I defeat the first villain stage with the first half of RB, can I damage the second stage with the second half of RB? Assuming I can damage both stages of the villain: if the villain has Exploit Weakness attached, does the +1 damage apply to the first game or the second?

Yes, if the first sentence of Ricochet Beam defeats a Guard minion, the second sentence can target the villain (if it has an upgrade attached).
Yes, if you defeat the first stage of a villain with the first sentence of Ricochet Beam, you can target the villain with the second (if it has an upgrade attached).
Exploit Weakness will increase both instances of damage by 1; you’d be dealing 4 and then 4 to the villain.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

287 – My understanding is that both Aggressive Energy and Warrior Skill are alteration effects, but I was unsure how they affect certain cards. With multiple attack cards like Dance of Death, does Aggressive Energy add one additional damage to each attack listed? If Warrior Skill is used with Attacrobatics does it add only 1 additional damage in total or does it add 1 to the “damage per boost icon”?

Aggressive Energy increases each instance of damage in an Attack event, so it will add +1 damage to each bullet in Dance of Death. Dance of Death will then deal 2, 3, and 4 damage.

Attacrobatics is different from Dance of Death because the damage dealt by Attacrobatics is simultaneous, so it’s “one instance” of damage. Warrior Skill increases each “instance” by +1, meaning it will only boost the damage of Attacrobatics by 1.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

288 – With the card “Death factor” in wolverines nemesis set, Can another player trigger that interrupt when their identity makes a basic recovery while it’s attached to your identity? In the rules under player turn it says you can perform “actions” on encounter cards in play but it’s not an action but rules also say whenever an interrupt or response becomes true it can be triggered. And we don’t know the “you” intention here. This may be the first time we’ve seen something like this

No. Each instance of “you/your” on Death Factor can only be resolved by the attached player’s identity. The attached identity is the only one that can trigger the Alter-Ego Interrupt.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

289 – Hey guys, can ANOTHER player trigger the interrupt ability on the attachment “counterspell” from Doctor stranges nemesis set when they play an event while it’s attached to YOUR identity? We understand other players cannot trigger abilities on “obligations” in your area And we understand players can trigger “actions” on encounter cards in play anywhere. But we don’t know if it being attached makes it more like an obligation or different? And or the fact that this one is not an “action”? Thanks for the help!

No. Only the identity with Counterspell attached can trigger the Forced Interrupt by playing an event.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

290 – I have a couple of questions about the new Remy lebeau card. With Thief Extraordinaire, Do I need to pick a scheme to remove the threat from before I see what the top two cards of the encounter deck are? I couldn’t find anything that says you target a scheme from the beginning of a thwart. And if I have a confused status card on Remy, and I try to use Thief Extraordinaire, which is a (thwart), Do I still get to look at the top two cards of the encounter deck and discard one?

No, you aren’t required to determine a scheme before looking at the top two cards of the encounter deck.
And yes, when you are Confused and you attempt a Thwart, you must pay all costs of the Thwart and then replace the effect of the ability with the removal of Confused. So while Confused as Remy, you’d do everything before the cost arrow (exhausting, looking at top 2, discarding 1) and then replace the removal of threat with the discarding of Confused.

-Alex – March 9, 2023

291 – I wanted to confirm how something works in the Kang scenario. The insert says that while players are in separate play areas, play still proceeds in turn order and the first player token is passed at the end of the villian phase. That’s all good but what were not sure on is during the villian phase when players are in separate game areas with their own Kang villain. Does each step of the villian phase happen one at a time or each step all in a row for each player?

For example Does the game add 1 threat to the player 1 main scheme and then Kang activates against player 1 and then player 1 is dealt an encounter card and then player 1 resolves the encounter card. Repeat these steps for player 2 then 3 then 4. OR Does the game add 1 threat to every players main scheme, then starting with the first player, you take turns resolving the Kang activation in each players play area, then starting with the first player, deal each player an encounter card, then starting with the first player, each player resolves their encounter card?

When playing stages 2A/3A in the Kang scenario, players should resolve each individual step of the villain phase in turn order. So, each player should place threat on their main scheme in turn order, then each player should resolve the activation of the Kang in their game area in turn order, then each player should be dealt an encounter card in turn order and resolve it in turn order.

-Alex – March 16, 2023

293 – Hi, If i have 2 allies in play when i play karma to control a minion, should i discard an ally, in order to comply the ally limit rule?

Yes—the minion targeted by Karma is specifically treated as an ally while Karma is in play, so it counts toward your ally limit. You’d need to discard one of your allies immediately upon choosing the minion. Note, it’s technically fine to discard the minion being treated as an ally for this effect.

-Alex – March 16, 2023

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