The Rules Corner – Definitions and more Definitions – Amber Kennedy

by Amber Kennedy

Hi guys and welcome to the Rules corner, an article series where we go over rulings recently made on the WIN Rules Forum and how they affect the greater game. Today we’re going to be talking about a brand new definition that can have a big effect on ID characters.

Definitions, Definitions Everywhere

Heroclix is an ever evolving game, players from the brand new to the veteran tend to be acutely aware of this fact. Our main source of rules no longer comes from the printed document that comes in Starter Sets but from an ever mutating, living online document (also known as the WIN Rules Forum) Due to this, it’s not unusual for brand new definitions or clarifications to seemingly come out of nowhere. They are [mostly] collected in one place – the Heroclix Errata & Clarifications page – but every so often an important clarification gets buried within a regularly posed question. Such is the focus today.

A Long Time Coming

Before we get too deep into the ruling that has separated two definitions for us, we need to go back in time a little bit. About two years ago, around the time that the Deadpool set released, Zombies became a viable option for Competitive play and much like any new powerful element a slew of rulings came with them. The most relevant of which being what happens to a character who has a ‘Begins the game’ effect when they’re brought into the game from an outside effect? Like, say, through the Zombie Infection trait.

ZOMBIE INFECTION: When Magneto damages an opposing character, give that character a Virus token if it has less than 5 Virus tokens. When an opposing character is KO’d by this character, you may add it to your force, turn to its first KO click, remove all of its Virus tokens and heal it that many clicks.

Now this is important because the character that comes back as a zombie had to have been KO’d in the first place. Which means for all game purposes (action tokens, lingering effects like Perplex/Outwit, etc.) it is considered a brand new character. So what happens now? Unfortunately at the time we never got an answer.

If You Ask it, They Will Answer [Maybe]

Last year we saw the introduction of Call In ID Characters, introducing a brand new way to bring characters into the game midway through and surprisingly it took almost another year before someone finally asked:

maximkiller asks: “If a Friendly Character is given a power action to use “CALL FOR HELP!” to place Green Arrow adjacent, would he have his 6 Arrow tokens and be able to be given a free action to remove an Arrow token and choose power from “AN ARROW FOR EVERY SITUATION” trait?”

hcrulesteam responds: Yes. He begins the game with 6 Arrow tokens. When he is brought in via CALL IN HELP that is when he begins the game.

What Maximkiller is referring to here is the Monthly OP Kit Brave and the Bold Green Arrow (WK D16-004) with the following trait:

TRICK ARROWS: Green Arrow begins the game with 5 Trick Arrow tokens. Give Green Arrow a free action and remove a Trick Arrow token and choose: Energy Explosion, Incapacitate, Precision Strike, or Penetrating/Psychic Blast. Green Arrow can use that power this turn.

The most important thing to note in that trait is the use of ‘begins the game’ which is very different from the phrase ‘At the Beginning of the game’

A Heroclix to English Dictionary

This ruling is significant because it gave us a brand new definition that we previously didn’t have. That’s not to say they’ve never used this wording before. In fact it was this exact wording – with a certain Black Order Mistress – that caused the entire debate back when zombies were first introduced. However we were never given a clarification as to what those three words mean in the grand scheme of the Heroclix language. Now that we have one let’s see what that newest entry looks like:

Begins The Game
Key phrase

1. When this character is placed on the map for the first time during a game
2. This effect may occur at any time during playConversely let’s look at the entry for the key phrase this is commonly confused with:

Beginning of The Game
Game Phase

• The “beginning of the game” phase occurs after all applicable game elements have been placed on the map for game setup, but before the first player takes their first turn. The player chosen as first player resolves all of their “beginning of game” effects first. That player must resolve all of their “beginning of game” effects before the next player resolves all of their “beginning of game” effects.

Now that we have this definition we can extrapolate it onto other characters that use the wording ’begins the game’ to determine how and when to resolve their game effects. Here’s hoping we see this clarification show up on the main Clarifications page.