RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.7)2025-12-17

Context: The following 3 questions focuses on better understanding “after the villain attacks you” and its…

Question

Context: The following 3 questions focuses on better understanding “after the villain attacks you” and its meaning.
Question (1): What does the phrase “After the villain attacks you” refer to – the character or the player? Based on these RRG below, “after the villain attacks you” should reference the player rather than the character? Relevant Rules Referenced [RRG v1.6]: 1) Abilities that trigger “When/After [enemy] attacks you” are resolved when/after a player is attacked, regardless of which character they control was attacked… [RRG v1.6. Pg 8] 2) Abilities that resolve while/when/after the attacking enemy “attacks you” resolve against the attacked player [RRG v1.6 Pg 10] 3) Exception: For abilities that trigger “after [enemy] attacks you” “you refers to the attacked player, even if that player defended with an ally [RRG v.16 Pg 44]
Question (2): Are there differences when the text originates from a player or encounter card? For example Drax’s Payback and Concussive Bombs have the exact same triggering condition. Does that mean both cards can be triggered when an ally [controlled by Drax] defends? Question (3) Building upon questions 1 and 2, should we consider Nick Fury’s Stealth Suit and Iceman’s Flash Freeze to be based on the player? Or the respective hero characters?

Answer

The rules for abilities that reference “you” are that “you” refers to the player’s identity where able, and otherwise refers to that player; with the exception being “After [enemy] attacks you” abilities where “you” refers to the player, because such abilities also trigger when an ally that player controls is attacked.
Drax’s Payback and Concussive Bombs are both phrased the same as the “you” exception in the Rules Reference, so both can be triggered when Drax’s ally is attacked.
Nick Fury’s Stealth Suit triggers “when” an enemy would attack, and Storm’s Flash Freeze triggers “when” the villain attacks, neither of which fall into the “you” exception. Stealth Suit only triggers when Nick Fury would be attacked, and Flash Freeze is only playable when Storm is attacked.

— Alex