Mystics doesn't key off of being the target of a successful attack, just taking damage from an attack. It has been somewhat useful for me to think this way: was an attack roll compared to the Mystic figure's defense value and then damage was applied from it? If yes then Mystics triggers. Poison isn't an attack and has no attack roll. Normal Incap deals no damage (the pushing comes from the token, not the attack). Of course this logic fails if/when WizKids makes an attack that does not need an attack roll, so use with caution.

Since nobody has yet quoted the relative text...

PAC:
Rulebook, page 18:
Again, nothing in Mystics has anything to do with targeting. EE uses an area of effect for attacking. As per the Area of Effect rules, the characters in the area of effect are attacked.

That might be it (thanks IceHot). Like I said, as long as I've been playing again I remember EE triggering Mystics so it's not something I think of. At the time, however, it was an out of date ruling (I think, maybe it was one of those cases of people citing an incorrect rule they made up in their head) in a thread specifically about avoiding Mystics damage and ways to do it.

I can't get the forum search to go back that far (because it's probably scrubbed). Just more annoys me because I wish I could remember why it made sense at the time....

Yeah there was a really thorough discussion about this when avx cap was released.

I wanted to link the thread but apparently can't search on my kindle.

Another great way to deal with mystics is forceblast. Either normally or via SMWW Red Tornado.

FYI, it takes a search engine to dig into the Realms' archives, as Realms' own search only looks back a few months.

I'm not inclined to hunt the particular old thread(s) that you seek, but here's a map:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22e...iw=640&bih=360

From Hypertime PAC

ENERGY EXPLOSION. This character’s ranged combat attack can affect all characters in squares adjacent to the target. (Optional) Give this character a ranged combat action and reduce his damage value to 1. A successful ranged combat attack affects the target character and every character in a square adjacent to the target, delivering 1 click of damage to each character successfully hit. Make only one attack dice roll; compare that result to the defense value of the target character and every character in a square adjacent to the target.

So, 1 damage, period

Compare to Icons PAC

ENERGY EXPLOSION (optional): Give this character a ranged combat action. This
character’s damage value becomes 1 until the attack has been resolved. For each target that was hit, compare the attack roll to the defense value of each character adjacent to the target to determine if the attack succeeds against them. Ignore any hindering terrain modifier resulting from character(s) adjacent to the target when determining if the attack succeeds against additional characters. If the attack succeeds against an adjacent character, they are hit as well. If more than one target was hit by the attack, characters adjacent to multiple targets may be hit more than once. Each character successfully hit is dealt damage equal to the number of times the character was hit by this attack. A critical hit with this attack automatically hits the target(s) and any characters adjacent to the target(s) and deals 1 additional click of damage, even if a character would be hit multiple times by the attack. Powers that allow a character to evade attacks are rolled once against all hits by this attack. If a character with a power that evades attacks is the target of this attack and evades it, it evades all hits by this attack. This power may not be used to target blocking terrain or objects.

This is the era of overlap kaboom

So, EE has had some serious evolution

Try this one on for size, Icons PAC

MYSTICS When this character takes damage from an attack, the attacker takes 1 damage. This damage is not an attack and cannot be reduced.

So Mystics had not even become unavoidable yet! (not because it wasn't, at the time, unavoidable did not exist yet, it just had that wording)

Not that it matters, but I'm not crazy! (Well...not on this)

This is the thread I meant: http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248649

Harpua gives almost the same example. It was a situation where a player thought "it didn't used to activate Mystics" but I corrected them. Ironically, the notion of a "direct attack" comes up back there, too.

I kind of like Heroclix history...

Pulse Wave is the only attack which causes damage that doesn't trigger the unavoidable damage from the Mystic TA .

Force blast doesn't like your use of the word only

Force Blast isn't an attack. I'm talking about the power action.

Pulse Wave doesn't like you thinking that Force Blast is an attack.

That's not to mention that Force Blast never causes damage. Force Blast causes knock back. That knock back might lead to damage, but it isn't Force Blast causing the damage.

Thanks very much for the help. That worked like a charm.

http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...=489204&page=2

Is the thread I was thinking of.