Hi All,

Here are some answers to the multitudinous questions you’ve sent in about the New Hotness that is the X-Men expansion, plus a couple more from some other recent sets. Please keep them coming to vsrules@gmail.com!

I have a question and it would be great if you could clear it up for me. It concerns Magnetic Force. Once it starts resolving, can an opponent react to the exhaust effect? In other words, does the “if you do” part use the chain again? I don’t mean the exhaustion of the Energy character (that part is not targeted and is chosen on resolution); I mean the part after “if you do.” It uses the word “target,” which implies that it’s checked twice (on announcement and resolution), but I’m not absolutely clear about this card.

Harold D.

This question touches on a number of important points, so I’m glad you sent it in.

First of all, yes, targets are chosen on announcement and rechecked on resolution. And yes, you don’t choose which Energy character to exhaust (or whether to exhaust one at all) until resolution.

However, the key to your question is that an effect always resolves as a single indivisible unit during which no players get priority. In other words, if an effect requires a decision on resolution, there is never a window in which to respond after that decision has been made but before the rest of that effect resolves.

So, when Magnetic Force resolves, you may choose and exhaust an Energy character you control and then immediately exhaust the target if its cost is less than the cost of the character you exhausted. No player gets priority between the two exhausts.

The CRD says that effects go on the chain at the start of the recovery phase (like recoveries from evasion), and then we move to the wrap-up, during which players recover one stunned character and check endurance totals . . .

Albert

The full sequence is as follows:

* Recovery phase starts

* Start-of-recovery-phase triggered effects (including evasion recoveries) go on the chain

* Primary player gets priority

* After successive passes on an empty chain, wrap-up starts

Before wrap-up, players can use powers and play plot twists as normal. During wrap-up, no player gets priority and players compare endurance totals before choosing their one character per turn to recover.

My question is: I control Healer (Morlocks) and have evaded him this turn. I have also evaded three other Morlocks characters I control. I also control The Alley. If my endurance is -2 and my opponent’s is 2, what happens as we start the recovery phase? Do I choose what effects happen first? Can I choose to recover Healer first and then recover the other three evaded characters, thus gaining 3 endurance from Healer’s effects and causing my opponent to lose endurance from The Alley?

Albert

Sounds like a fine play. When multiple triggered effects you control are waiting to go on the chain (as they are at the start of the recovery phase in this case), you decide the order. As you say, the optimal play is to put Healer’s evasion recovery on the chain last so that it resolves first. Healer’s recovery will trigger The Alley, causing your opponent to lose 1 endurance. Then, as each of the three other characters recovers, your opponent will lose a further 1 endurance and you will gain 1 endurance.

After all triggered effects have resolved, you will have gained a total of 3 endurance (putting you at 1 endurance) and your opponent will have lost a total of 4 (putting him or her at -2). If there are no further changes to endurance before wrap-up, you will win the game when endurance totals are compared.

When does a character attack? Is it before it becomes an attacker?

Scott W.

Nope. A character “attacks” at exactly the same time it “becomes an attacker.” The two expressions are identical, as are “defends” and “becomes a defender.”

Yesterday in a Hobby League match, my opponent moved his character to his hidden area in response to my Chill Out! to negate the effect. That character was already an attacker when he moved it. Was it a legal play?

Scott W.

A couple of things here:

1) You should optimally play Chill Out! before the target becomes an attacker, because the “cannot ready this turn” effect triggers whenever the target becomes an attacker this turn. Generally, the best time to play Chill Out! is in response to the target being proposed as an attacker.

You can legally target an exhausted attacker, but that character will be able to ready during the recovery phase this turn (unless it somehow manages to ready and attack again).

2) Your opponent can indeed negate Chill Out! by moving the target to his hidden area in response.

However, the target’s visibility is rechecked only on resolution. After Chill Out! has successfully resolved, moving the character that “cannot ready during the recovery phase this turn” to a hidden area will not allow it to ready during the recovery phase.

What if you recruit Black Panther, King of Wakanda and grab an equipment card from your deck, but you are holding another equipment card in your hand that you would rather equip to him? Can you grab one piece (say, a Jetpack, for example) but then equip the Mindtap Mechanism you had in your hand all along?

i3ullseye

Nope. The equipment card goes directly from your deck to Black Panther. It doesn’t travel via your hand or anything like that.

What if you are already holding what you know is your only equipment card in your hand when you recruit him? Can you search your deck and find nothing, and then proceed to equip that equipment to him?

i3ullseye

Well, you can search your deck and find nothing, but again, his power doesn’t let you equip him with a card from your hand.

The basic question is, can you only equip him with an equipment card which you specifically searched your deck for and found when he came into play?

i3ullseye

Correct!

My opponent controls Magneto, Black Lord. If he uses Magneto’s power to target a Physical attacker I control, can I play Special Delivery in response? If so, does my character become stunned? Does his?

Al B.

You can certainly play Special Delivery in response to Magneto’s payment effect. If Special Delivery resolves, the target character cannot be stunned by Magneto’s effect or anything else this attack.

Once an effect has been played, costs are never refunded, so the character stunned to play Magneto’s effect stays stunned.

If my opponent uses Evan McCulloch ◊ Mirror Master’s power to target two character cards in our KO’d piles, and I respond by using Avalon Space Station to return the target in my KO’d pile to my hand, does my opponent still get to return his target to his hand?

Like B.

No. In this scenario, Evan’s effect is negated because his targeting spec is “character cards from different KO’d piles.” Even if just one of the targets is not in a KO’d pile on resolution, then the other cannot be from a “different KO’d pile” and so is also illegal. When all of an effect’s targets are illegal on resolution, that effect is negated.

How about if I use Avalon Space Station to target two character cards in my KO’d pile, and my opponent responds by removing one from the game with Tar Baby? Do I still get to return the other character card to my hand?

Like B.

This is a little less complicated. Here, only one of Avalon’s two targets is illegal on resolution, so the effect is not negated. You do as much as you can with the legal target that remains, so it does indeed return to your hand.

My question is about Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar. If my opponent controls Sinestro, can I attack, and then after the attack concludes, evade the character I attacked with so it’s not stunned by Sinestro’s effect?

Cornelius

Yep, that works. After Sinestro’s triggered effect goes on the chain, you can evade the character to be stunned in response.

Also, does Mob Mentality protect my Physical characters from Sinestro’s effect?

Cornelius

It certainly does. Great question! By the time Sinestro’s triggered effect resolves, the character to be stunned is no longer attacking and so is protected by Mob Mentality.

Also, I had a judge tell me that I can’t play a plot twist during the formation step unless the card says otherwise.

Cornelius

That’s not right. You can play a plot twist any time you have priority (unless the card says otherwise).

Note that no players get priority while a player is actually rearranging characters at the start of his or her formation step. However, that player gets priority after the rearranging is finished, and his or her formation step doesn’t end until successive passes on an empty chain.

If I play Null Time Zone during my opponent’s formation step, can he chain cards like Mega-Blast before I name it?

Cornelius

Yep. Any player can play any plot twist in response to Null Time Zone (as long as it’s playable during the current step of the build phase, of course).

If you play Shake, Rattle, and Roll from your resource row, can it replace itself to satisfy the additional cost of replacing a face-up resource?

Adam S.

Yep. From the FAQ: You may replace Shake, Rattle, and Roll itself as an additional cost if you play it from your resource row.

If I stun my opponent’s Felix Faust, his effect goes on the chain, right? So then I can play Finishing Move in response to his effect?

Corey B.

Yes and yes. His triggered effect will do nothing if he is no longer in play when it resolves.

The Vs. tournament season is about to kick into hyperdrive with $10K Los Angeles, PC Atlanta, $10K Austin, and $10K Auckland on back-to-back-to-back weekends! Please come up and say hi if you see me at one of these events (or, you know, feel free to skip the whole “hi” thing and launch straight into that rules question that’s been bugging you). Good luck to all!