I was reading coverage of the Pro Circuit, and, for example, when Player A was about to recruit Mark II, Player B activated Alfred before Player A had a chance to negate the effect with Mark II. How exactly does this work? (i.e. when does the player activate Alfred to avoid its effect being negated?) Do you activate Alfred while Mark II is being recruited but before it comes into play, or what? How does the player declare this?

Thanks for any explanations you can give.

When a character is played you may respond to it's coming into play. By doing such the character played cannot activate in responce to effects.

You do it when they play the character, just like you where chaining "In responce to your recruit"

I did not think you could chane to a character being recruited

Recruiting a character does start a chain. Anything that happens as that character is recruited (ie, 7 Drop Thing) is placed on the chain and resolves in order as normal (last).

Whenever you recruit a character, the recruitment effect is placed on the chain.

You have to pass priority to your opponent before the recruitment effect resolves.

So your opponent can do something before your character is officially recruited.

Ok, thanks everyone.

So I guess my next questions are...

How does this idea of responding to a character coming into play apply to characters with loyalty? Say my opponent is recruiting Terra, and their only characters on the field are Hawk/Dove. If I Reign of Terror the Hawk/Dove during their recruitment of Terra, will my opponent be unable to recruit Terra? Or has the loyalty already been checked?

And how does this relate to Dr. Doom (4 drop)? Do players flip up plot twists they intend to flip back down in response to him coming into play, or in response to his effect triggering (can you respond to a triggered effect before it resolves?)? I'm guessing plot twists like Mystical Paralysis would have to be chained to his effect triggering because he wouldn't be able to be exhausted if he was still "coming into play" (right?).

Sorry for the confusing technical questions, but a big thanks for anyone who can help explain them to me.

Ok, first the Loyalty question. Loyalty is checked when the recruit effect is added to the chain, but not on resolution of that effect. So, in your example, using Reign of Terror on Hawk and Dove after your opponent has added Terra's recruit effect to the chain would not stop her from coming into play. Doing it before your opponent has priority to recruit would stop her from being recruited.

Second, when Doom comes into play, his triggered ability is added to the chain. Before it resolves you can play plot twists from your resource row, and then flip one of them down when his triggered ability resolves.

Hope that helped.

What seems to be missing is that for some characters there are actually two different points for effects to be added. You can chain to the recruit of a character. Let's take 4drop Doom for example. Let's say the opponent has another Doom character on the field. They declare a recruitment of Dr. Doom. Knowing that you won't be able to play plot twists from your hand after he hits the field you can chain to his recruit by playing plot twists from your hand. Then when everyone passes and the chain finishes he is successfully recruited, he has now entered play.

After they are successfully recruited if a character has a "come into play" effect it will now go on the chain and effects can be added by players again. So yes you could play Mystical Paralysis and then turn it face down with Doom's effect.

To make sure it is perfectly clear, you can NOT respond to a character coming into play.

You can respond to the recruit effect while it is on the chain and if there is a power that triggers upon the character coming into play, you can respond to the triggerest effect.

cdaniel- what exactly do you mean? are you saying that, instead of responding to a character "coming into play", I instead respond to a character "being recruited" (to be technical about the declaration of my response)? I understand what you're saying about responding to a triggered ability, though.

Another random question:

If my opponent flips a team-up (lets say Marvel Teamup or Millennium), and I have Total Anarchy face up, can I play Flame Trap in response to stun (and subsequently KO) the characters they were attempting to team-up (keeping them from teaming up the characters)? Or do they name the teams upon activation of the team-up? And if the player does name the teams before I can play Flame Trap, when does the game check for legality of the named teams? Upon activation of the team-up, or resolution?

cdaniel was simply making it clear that a character coming into play does not grant any player priority to play effects. What it can do, in certain cases, is trigger an effect which is placed on the chain, which then grants priority to the active player.

Once a character has come into play, it is in play. Any continuous powers it possesses become active and its controller may use any of its payment powers whenever he has priority. "Responding to a character coming into play" is not technically possible, nor would it be very effective if it were. However, you do receive priority prior to recruit effects resolving, and this is the time that you would slip in effects that that character might otherwise hinder.

As for the team-up question, for the specific cases of the two cards you mentioned, (Marvel Team-Up at least, and I think Millenium is worded the same) you choose the teams only once, upon resolving the effect. If you do not control a specific team, you cannot choose that team. Note that this does not apply many other team-ups.

To expand on MadCow's (and cdaniel's) post:

As was said, you can't respond to "coming into play;" part of that misunderstanding comes from the vague use of playing effects "in response." When people talk about playing effects "in response to X," they normally mean playing effects while X is on the chain, before it resolves.

Look at that with recruitment for a moment. I want a Puppet Master, so I accounce that I'm recruiting him; I pay 2 resource points and place the recruit effect on the chain. When both players pass, allowing the effect to resolve, Puppet Master will then come into play. His coming into play was part of the resolution of an effect, and so you cannot play anything "in response," the way most use that term.

For anyone who needs a practical demonstration of this distinction, imagine a Titans deck on turn 6, with no characters in play. I want to recruit Dawn so that I can fulfill Garth's Loyalty requirement. I put Dawn's recruit effect on the chain, and after we both pass, Dawn comes into play; since we're in my recruit step, I then get priority. And since the chain is empty, I can immediately recruit Terra, without you having any chance to play effects that would get rid of Dawn. This is because Dawn comes into play as part of resolving the recruit effect.


Team-ups have text both before and after the word "Ongoing." When you play that team-up (or any ongoing plot twist), the text which comes before "Ongoing" is placed on the chain; the text which comes after "Ongoing," on the other hand, is immediately active.

If a team-up instructs you to choose team affiliations, that only happens at effect resolution; you can only choose affiliations from the characters you control when the effect resolves. If you KO all of his characters before the effect resolves, then he won't be able to choose any affiliations, and the team-up will be useless.

Ok, I think I get it now. So, for instance, if I wanted to activate Alfred before Mark II enters play, I would declare that I have a response to the recruit effect of Mark II being put on the chain?

A few other random (and somewhat related) questions:

When a character with a continuous ability enters play, does that create an initial chain to which I can respond (like a character's triggered ability would)? Or is there no chain created when a character's continuous ability becomes active? And is this rule the same for plot twists or locations with continuous effects that become active when they are flipped?

And if my opponent plays Micro-Sentinels, targeting my Alfred (which for some reason is exhausted, lets say he was recruited this turn), can I activate him (returning him to my hand) after he readies during the recovery phase to prevent him from being KO'd next turn? Or is there no opportunity (under normal circumstances) to activate his effect after he readys during the recovery phase? Is there any way to save him?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really greatful for the responses. I hope I don't sound dumb- I'm just trying to increase my depth of understanding for the game, which will (hopefully) increase my playing skills as well.

You are correct about Mark II. Alfred can be used while the recruitment is on the chain.

If a character has a continuous effect, then you can avoid it by playing effects before he is recruited, but once the character is in play the continuous effect does not use the chain, and is immediately active. For example, an opponent recruits 7 drop Magneto. You can use Children of the Atom before he comes into play (chain to the recruit effect) but once he's down, the "cannot recover" ability is active.

Micro-Sents triggers (the ongoing part) at the start of the draw. Triggered effects go on the chain, and you receive priority before it resolves. You can use Alfred even if he would be KOed by Micro-Sents.

Continuous powers (such as Dr. Doom 6 drop [the 4 drop has a continuous power as well, but just to not confuse people]) are in effect immediately when the character comes into play. There is no way to chain to Dr. Doom's 'cannot play Plot Twists from the Resource Row' effect because there is nothing to chain to.

You may activate Alfred in your situation. You activate Alfred in chain to the triggered effect that Micro-Sentinels puts on the chain. This will remove him from the field before the resolution of Micro-Sentinels. There is no way to activate him in the recovery phase if he is readied during the wrap-up. The earliest point of priority after the wrap-up is in the draw phase in chain to the 'Draw 2 cards' effect (or triggered effects that chain to that, if applicable).