RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)

Phoenix: How does Psychic Manipulation interact with Crisis, Patrol, and Spiral? Does the “by any player” from crisis…

Question

How does Psychic Manipulation interact with Crisis, Patrol, and Spiral? Does the “by any player” from crisis not affect this because the villain activation is removing threat, not the player? Where does the threat removal come from? Since this is a (thwart) event, does Patrol block it, regardless of where the threat removal comes from? If Crisis prevents the removal of threat, does this still prevent the addition of threat from the villain activation?

Answer

Psychic Manipulation is a Thwart event, which means that it is considered a thwart “performed by the identity.” This is the same way all other Thwart events are treated; Psychic Manipulation just has a unique triggering condition.
Psychic Manipulation cannot be played while there is a crisis icon in play, while a Patrol minion is engaged with the player who owns Psychic Manipulation, or while Spiral IA (who states threat cannot be removed from the main scheme) is in play.
Psychic Manipulation replaces the adding of threat with removing it; this is not the same as simply preventing threat from being placed.

-Alex