Marvel Champions Codex

RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)

Mutant Genesis: A ruling we received about Armor Up and Master Mold has been confusing me. That ruling suggests that an…

⚠ This ruling is from an older rules version (Hall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)) and might be outdated.

Question

A ruling we received about Armor Up and Master Mold has been confusing me. That ruling suggests that an interrupt to “when the villain activates” is a different (earlier) timing than an interrupt to “when the villain schemes”. The first (like Armor Up) can be triggered, and resolved, entirely before the second (like Master Mold) triggers, even if the latter is Forced. 1. If the window to play Armor Up is before the villain is determined to be either attacking or scheming (that is, before an interrupt like Master Mold’s can trigger), how is it possible for Confused to happen at that time, before Armor Up is playable?

Why do status cards “know” what kind of activation is about to happen before an interrupt like Master Mold’s does? 2. As an example of an existing interaction that is “changed” by this shift in my understanding: What happens when Ebony Maw tries to activate against my hero while Ebony Maw is Webbed Up?

Answer

  1. I will do my best to explain where we landed on this interaction. If the villain were Confused when it went to activate against an Alter-Ego Colossus, it must discard Confused; doing so replaces its entire activation. Armor Up can only be played as an interrupt to an activation, so it cannot be played if there is no activation to interrupt. Status cards need to be able to recognize the type of activation about to occur, otherwise they wouldn’t work as they were designed to.
  2. If the villain were Confused when it went to activate against an Alter-Ego Colossus, it must discard Confused; doing so replaces its entire activation. Armor Up can only be played as an interrupt to an activation, so it cannot be played if there is no activation to interrupt.
  3. Status cards need to be able to recognize the type of activation about to occur, otherwise they wouldn’t work as they were designed to.
  4. If Ebony Maw had Webbed Up attached and went to make an attack activation, Webbed Up and Ebony Maw both have Forced Interrupt triggers, so they would resolve in the order of the players’ choice.

-Alex