RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.5)2024-02-15

147 – So in a multi-sentence ability, if an earlier effect sentence initiates an attack, does that attack…

Question

147 – So in a multi-sentence ability, if an earlier effect sentence initiates an attack, does that attack wait, for the later effect sentence(s) to resolve, before it (the initiated attack) itself resolves? For example, I’m playing against Crossbones and he has crossbones machine gun attached with 1 ammo counter left. While in hero form I reveal the weapon master treachery card placing it on the table to resolve it. The first sentence has crossbones attack me, does that attack happen immediately or does it initiate but wait for the second sentence to check to see if he has a weapon which would cause it to gain surge before losing the machine gun from its last ammo counter? There seems to be at least 2 types of these treacheries that cause attacks. Ones where the attack NEEDS to wait for the later sentence (because it modifies the attack) like Avatar of Death and ones where the attack CANNOT wait for later sentence (because it is dependent upon the attack) like Rage of Ultron. Weapon master could be a 3rd type, is there a guide y’all could say that we could follow to resolve these? Bonus question! Does the Teamwork keyword work like quickstrike in the sense of that that those activations “initiate” but responses would resolve before those activations fully resolve?

Answer

First, to address your example—if Crossbones has Crossbones’ Machine Gun in play with 1 ammo counter remaining, then you reveal Weapon Master, the sequence of events is as follows:

Resolve the first sentence of WM’s “Hero” effect, making Crossbones initiate an attack.
CMG’s interrupt triggers. Remove the ammo counter, resolve the effect, and discard CMG.
Resolve the second sentence of WM. There is no Weapon attachment in play at this time, so WM does not gain surge.
Resolve Crossbones’ initiated attack.

Second, yes, the Teamwork keyword shares the same general timing structure as the Quickstrike keyword: the character enters play, their keyword resolves (resulting in an activation initiation), Interrupts to the activation and/or Responses to them entering play resolve, then the activation resolves.

Third, I’m hesitant to provide a generalized answer regarding treacheries but want to add that it’s always best practice to read an entire ability before resolving it, looking out for either alteration effects or what I’ll refer to as “dependent” effects, e.g. “this attack gains [keyword],” which must resolve with the initiated activation. We otherwise try to rule where abilities are resolved sentence by sentence.

— Alex