Quick question. When can a team ability be turned off?

Say Player A is playing a mind control piece and Player B has all mystics.

Player A's turn he declares he is going to mind control a character on Player B's team. Would Player B be able to turn off his mystics team ability since it's not his turn.

My initial thought is yes but he has to turn it off when Player A declares he is using mind control.

Your initial thought is correct.

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. (Norm, you should be careful. This is EXACTLY the kind of answer from the RA I've been looking for on this issue, and I know you didn't mean it. )

Mind Control is an exception to the general rule.

Ordinarily (ie, not MC) you must cancel a power or team ability at the beginning of an action (or switch a WC's copied TA). Once the action begins, the power or TA cannot be canceled, even if a new action is declared. For example, I declare a Charge and move next to two of your guys. You didn't cancel anything because you were expecting me to hit figure A. I declare my free close combat action against figure B (who also has Charge). You cannot decide to cancel that Charge ('cause you would like to be KBed, if possible) on the close combat action because the power action of Charge has not yet resolved. Similarly, since my Charging guy is a Wild Card, I could not copy Ultimates on the power action to ignore the hindering terrain between us and then switch to 2000AD on the cca to get the attack bonus.

With MC, however, you have the exceptions (which I hate). These things all CAN be done at the declaration of the MCed figures' free actions.

So with MC, you can cancel someone's TA then have another character attack them?

Yeah, right? But it's the only action you could do with the MC.

I have a related question - are TAs optional?

Example: I have Brilliant Tactician on Vet Night Thrasher. He has perplex ONLY on his second click - which is active. Fellow New Warrior and FF TA piece, Gee, dies. Is taking that healing click optional (wild carding FF, of course)?

That is incorrect. Canceling a team ability is not an action of any kind. You can cancel the ability AND still give the mind-controlled character a free action.

TAs are always optional. In the case of a wild card, they do not need to cancel their team ability to stop the copying/using - all they need to do is simply not copy a team ability for that action.

Wouldn't cancelling a TA be in the same vain as MC someone to outwit another piece?

That's what I was thinking - that the nature of MC allows only one action, whether it's a free action or not. Cancelling a TA would be an action.

Canceling a power or TA is not an action of any sort.
With Outwit it is a Free Action there for it is the only action that u can give them.
The way that it would work is when u give the figure an action you also declare that you are turning off the TA, this is the same time that they choose what WC will copy for this action.

Here's another example of something that is not an action... Probability Control.

I Mind Control a character with Probability Control. I use them to make an attack and they miss. I can use their PC to reroll the attack because the action I gave them is not over and PC is not an action.

As soon as the action you give the MC'd character is resolved, they are immediately no longer friendly. But from the time you successfully hit them until the time that the free action you give them is resolved, they are friendly.

Another example: Let's say you MC 2 characters - a SHIELD sniper and a Hydra. If they are adjacent and the Hydra character can use their TA, while they are friendly to you, they can boost the SHIELD's attack value with their TA (assuming the SHIELD guy goes first) and then you get to do something else with the Hydra guy (like punching the adjacent-and-now-back-to-opposing-you SHIELD guy).

Even better is to use the PC of a CSA guy (either yours or the MCed one) and give the token to the MCed figure. Similarly, if you MCed two guys, during the first one's action, the second one could use your theme PC(s) and take the token(s).

That's pure gold! Hadn't considered it (don't use much MC or CSA).