RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)

Colossus: Had a couple of questions about the recently revealed Nightcrawler protection ally. Scenario is that I am…

Question

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”?

Answer

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