RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)

Expansion card questions: Hi, I understand that it has been ruled that “(defense)” abilities such as Jump Flip may be used outside of…

Question

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?

Answer

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