RulingHall of Heroes (rules 1.0–1.4)

Shadowcat: I’m now curious, though, how [defense] works with Vision’s Intangible form, or the upcoming Shadowcat’s…

Question

I’m now curious, though, how [defense] works with Vision’s Intangible form, or the upcoming Shadowcat’s Phased form. For example, Vision, in Intangible form, is being attacked by Crossbones, and Crossbones’ Machine Gun is in play, the interrupt on the Machine Gun triggers, an encounter card is flipped, and it has at least one boost icon.
Vision is now taking damage, but it is not from an attack, so the damage reduction on Intangible doesn’t kick in, however, can Vision now play Side Step, despite the other part of Intangible saying he “cannot attack or defend”? I assume he can, because the damage is outside of an attack, and so he not considered to be “defending”, even though he played a “(defense)” labelled ability. Is that correct?
Similarly, I assume Shadowcat’s Phased form response would not trigger, in this same scenario, if she were in Vision’s place, for the same reason. Is that also correct?

Answer

We affirm that defense events can be played outside of an attack if their triggers are otherwise met, and we affirm that you cannot be considered to have “defended” against a “non-attack”.
Crossbones’ Machine Gun is interesting because it has an Interrupt ability which means it must resolve before its trigger, Crossbones attacking. By that logic, it can be treated as damage from a non-attack, for which you COULD use Side Step in response to it while in Vision’s Intangible form, because you are not making “a defense.” (This would be different if the ability wasn’t an Interrupt, or if it instead boosted Crossbones’ attack, because a Defense event played during an attack is by definition “a defense”, and an Intangible Vision cannot defend.)
Your assumptions about Shadowcat’s Phased form seem correct, if she uses Side Step as a response to Crossbones’ Machine Gun, she has not made “a defense.”

-Alex