This is a working compendium of frequently-asked questions and frequently-missed rules for Marvel Champions: The Card Game. The relevant section(s) of the online Rules Reference are given for each answer, as well as the BGG user who helped provide the question or answer (if applicable). If one of the references is “FFG”, it means this ruling comes directly from Fantasy Flight Games. You can find the online Rules Reference here, and you can find the FAQ discussion thread here if you have any unanswered questions.
NOTE: While most of these questions have a definitive answer, some are still ambiguous; answers to these questions are in red, and have a note after the given answer describing the ambiguity. In these situations, the answer is decided according to the Grim Rule.
You can use the links below to jump to a specific question, or click here to jump to a list of frequently-missed rules for your first few playthroughs.
Q: When setting up the game, which phases of the villain do I use?
Q: During setup, when do I create and shuffle the encounter deck?
Q: Can I use my character’s special action when they’re exhausted? (Thanks to SlikkRikk)
Q: Does my identity’s hand limit apply during the player phase? (Thanks to SaisonLife)
Q: Can I play upgrades or supports into other players’ play areas?
Q: Is there a limit to the total number of Upgrades or Supports I can have in play?
Q: Is it possible to heal past your maximum health points?
Q: When can a wild resource be used as another type of resource?
Q: Do I have to pay for cards with specific resources?
Q: Do I exhaust my hero whenever I play or use a card with an "attack” action?
Q: If you defeat the first stage of a villain, does that count as "defeating an enemy"?
Q: After I defeat a villain and it advances to the next stage, do attachments stay attached to it?
Q: Do I exhaust my hero whenever I play or use a card with a “thwart” action?
Q: Can I spread the effects of a thwart action across multiple schemes?
Q: If my hero defends against the villain's attack, do they also defend against the minions?
Q: If I exhaust my hero to defend an attack, when does that hero ready again?
Q: Can I use a “(defense)” ability when another player is being attacked?
Q: Can I use allies to attack if my character is in alter-ego form?
Q: Can an enemy attack me when my character is in alter-ego form?
Q: Does the villain draw a boost card every time it attacks/schemes?
Q: If a boost card has a star icon, do I resolve its "When Revealed" effects?
Q: Can I use Resource abilities during the villain phase?
Q: Do minions draw a boost card when they attack/scheme?
Q: In what order do minions activate against you?
Q: If I am unable to resolve either action on my obligation, what do I do?
Q: If my hero is exhausted and I draw my obligation, can I re-exhaust them?
Q: Does threat on side schemes contribute to the advancement of the main scheme?
Q: If a minion engaged with me has the "Guard" keyword, can my allies still attack the villain?
Q: When I am dealt indirect damage, can I split it among multiple characters?
Q: How many attacks does Webbed Up prevent?
Q: If I defend for another player as Spider-Man, does Spider-Sense trigger?
Q: Does Spider-Sense trigger if a stun or Webbed Up prevents the villain from attacking?
Q: If Spider-Man is exhausted, can I still play Backflip?
Q: Can I play Counter-Punch after I play Backflip?
Q: Can I use Legal Practice to remove threat on multiple schemes?
Q: Can I use Jennifer Walters’ ability to reduce threat placed on schemes during setup?
Q: If War Machine only has 1 health left, can I still use his action?
Q: Can I use Ancestral Knowledge to shuffle 3 copies of Wakanda Forever! into my deck?
Q: If I exhaust Embiggen when playing Melee, how much damage is done?
Q: Can I exhaust Shrink when playing Emergency to remove 2 threat from a scheme?
Q: If Thor is stunned, can I still play Lightning Strike?
Q: Can I choose to ignore Loki’s ability?
Q: If I play Inspired on Hulk, can I use him to thwart?
Q: What actions cause Interrogation Room to be triggered?
Q: If I play Inspired on Hulk, can I use him to thwart for one scheme?
Q: Can I play Inspired on any ally, or just an ally under my control?
Q: Can I play multiple copies of Counter-Punch in response to defending an attack?
Q: Can I use Emergency when a minion schemes?
Q: Can I use Emergency after the villain has already schemed?
Q: If Rhino has two Charge cards attached to him and he attacks, do both cards boost his attack?
Q: If The Immortal Klaw is defeated, does Klaw immediately lose that health?
A: Side 1A of the villain's main scheme will give you explicit instructions, but generally, you use villain stages I and II for Standard mode, and stages II and III for Expert mode.
A: You should combine and shuffle the villain’s encounter cards, the Standard/Expert encounter cards, and the modular cards together before setup. The players’ obligations do not get shuffled in until step 11, after resolving any “When Revealed” abilities on the villain or main scheme.
A: No. You only have to exhaust your hero if you use their basic ATK, THW, DEF, or REC, or if an ability requires you to exhaust. You only need to exhaust a card if the action on that card requires you to exhaust it.
Reference: p.9, "Initiating Abilities, Playing Cards"
A: Generally speaking, yes. Any action that doesn’t specifically require you to exhaust can still be used when you’re exhausted. However, if your character’s action requires you to exhaust your character (like Ms. Marvel’s), you would not be able to use that ability if exhausted.
Reference: p.7, “Exhausted”, p.9, “Initiating Abilities, Playing Cards”
A: No. Your hand limit is only checked at the end of the player phase. During the player phase, you may have as many cards in your hand as possible.
Reference: p.8, “Hand Size”
A: Generally speaking, no. Unless otherwise specified, cards must be played into your play area.
Reference: p.12, “Ownership and Control”, p.12, “Play, Put into Play”
A: No. Except for cards with specific limitations (like Avengers' Mansion), there is no limit to the number of Upgrades or Supports you can have in play.
Reference: p.16, "Support", p.18, "Upgrade"
A: No. Each character has a maximum hit points, which is their printed hit points, plus or minus any "gets" modifiers on cards, and you cannot heal past that value.
Reference: p.11, "Maximum Hit Points"
A: All encounter cards are revealed in step four of the villain phase, one at a time.
Reference: p.19, "Villain Phase"
A: Wild resources can be used as any other type of resource, unless a resource requirement has the modifier "printed". For example, Repulsor Blast tells you to flip the top 5 cards of your deck, and deal 2 damage for each printed energy resource. In this instance, wild resources would not count for this purpose.
Reference: p.13, "Printed", p.19, "Wild Resource"
A: The other player pays the cost. They are still the one taking the action, so any costs/consequences would affect them.
Reference: p.9, "Initiating Abilities, Playing Cards", p.13, "Player Turn"
A: Generally speaking, no. Unless otherwise specified, costs can be paid for with any resource. However, some cards, like Photonic Blast, provide a benefit if you spend a specific type of resource to pay for that card.
Reference: p.14, "Resource"
A: No. When attacking, you only exhaust your hero when you use your basic ATK power, unless otherwise specified.
Reference: p.4, “Attack”
A: No. Excess damage/threat does not transfer between stages.
Reference: p.10-11, "Main Scheme", p.18, "Villain Defeat"
A: No. The side scheme and minion are independent of each other, and stay in play until they are defeated.
A: Yes. Each stage of a villain is considered an enemy, so when you defeat a villain's stage, you are defeating an enemy.
Reference: This thread, p.6, "Enemy", p.18, "Villain Defeat"
A: Yes. All attachments and status effects remain on a villain when it advances.
Reference: p.18, "Villain Defeat"
A: No. When thwarting, you only exhaust your hero when you use your basic THW power, unless otherwise specified.
Reference: p.17, “Thwart”
A: No. Unless specified by the action (Crisis Interdiction, for example), you can only remove threat from a single scheme whenever you thwart.
Reference: p.17, “Thwart”
A: No. Because defending using your DEF requires you to exhaust your hero, defending only applies to a single attack.
Reference: p.5, "Defend, Defense", p.7, "Exhausted"
A: You ready your hero at the end of the player phase.
Reference: p.13, "Player Phase"
A: No. As soon as an ally is defeated, you discard it; since the boost effect defeats the ally before the attack’s damage is resolved, you would not have a defender at that point, so the damage from the attack would be dealt to you. (Thanks to LemonyFresh)
Reference: p.6, “Enemy Attacks”, FFG, This thread
A: No. Defense abilities can only be played when you are the target of the attack.
Reference: “Defend, Defense”
A: No. Consequential Damage occurs after an ally thwarts/attacks; because the attack/thwart never occurs, the consequential damage never occurs either.
Reference: p.3, "Ally", p.5, "Consequential Damage", FFG
A: Yes. Your allies can attack and thwart independently of your character's form.
Reference: p.3, "Ally”
A: Yes. Technically, an attack can resolve against you, even if you are in alter-ego form. However, any card that specifically refers to your hero would not resolve if you are in alter-ego form.
Reference: p.8. "Form, Change Form"
A: Yes. Whether a villain activates during step 2 of the villain phase, or through an encounter card (like Assault), it always draws a boost card, unless specified otherwise.
Reference: p.3, "Activation"
A: No. When a boost card is revealed during a villain's activation, you only look at the text in the "Boost" section of the card (i.e., the text beneath the dividing line).
Reference: p.4, "Boost", p.15-16, "Star Icon"
A: Yes. Resource abilities can be used whenever you’re paying a cost.
Reference: p.14, “Resource Ability”
A: No. Minions never draw a boost card for their activation.
Reference: p.6, "Enemy Attacks", p.7, "Enemy Schemes"
A: If that minion engages with you before the end of your minions’ activation step, it will also activate. If the minion engages with you after the end of your minions’ activation step, it will not activate.
Reference: p.19, “Villain Phase”, FFG
A: Minions activate in the order of your choice. However, all minions activate after the villain activates. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.15, “Simultaneous Resolution”, p.19, “Villain Phase”, FFG
A: The other player would resolve the following encounter card. Surge affects the player resolving the current encounter card; since the other player has to resolve their obligation, surge would affect them.
Reference: p.10, "Keywords"
A: No. The Hazard icon would take effect in step 3 of the villain phase.
Reference: p.15, "Side Scheme", p.19, "Villain Phase"
A: You would simply choose the second action. Although the first action has a required cost (denoted by an arrow), the second action does not have a required cost, so you could resolve the rest of the action even if you cannot perform the first part of the action. (Thanks to Nitewolf)
Reference: p.4, “Choose”, p.5, “Cost”
A: No. Although you control the cards in your hand, those cards are considered out of play; card abilities only affect cards that are in play, unless otherwise specified.
Reference: p.9, “In Play and Out of Play”, p.12, “Ownership and Control”
A: No. If you’re discarding cards from either your player deck or the encounter deck, and the deck runs out, you do not continue to discard once you have re-shuffled that deck.
Reference: p.6, “Empty Encounter Deck”, p.6, “Empty Player Deck”
A: No. In this case, the search just wouldn't be successful, and nothing would happen.
Reference: p.15, "Search”
A: No. You would just shuffle the encounter deck.
A: Yes. You control all cards in your play area, and your hero/alter-ego is a character, which means it is a character that you control.
Reference: p.4, “Character”, p.12, “Ownership and Control”
A: No. You can only exhaust a card if it is in a ready state. If you drew your obligation while you were exhausted, you would not be allowed to exhaust your character to remove the obligation. However, you may still flip to your alter-ego form.
Reference: p.7, "Exhausted"
A: Yes. Players resolve their cards until none are left; so, once all players have resolved their original encounter cards, players who were given new encounter cards would resolve those, again in player order, until no encounter cards remain.
Reference: p.19, “Villain Phase”
A: No. The main scheme only advances based on how much threat is on the main scheme; it does not depend on how much threat is on any side schemes.
Reference: p.10-11, “Main Scheme”
A: Acceleration tokens only ever add one additional threat, regardless of player count.
Reference: p. 3, "Acceleration Token", p.10-11, "Main Scheme", p.15, "Side Scheme", p.19, "Villain Phase"
A: Yes. The Crisis icon prevents you from removing threat from the main scheme, but not from other side schemes. (Thanks to Lag0s)
Reference: p.15, “Side Scheme”
A: No. Only one extra encounter card is dealt for each Hazard icon.
Reference: p.15, "Side Scheme"
A: No. Whenever a card says "you", it refers to you as a player whenever possible. Thus, you are prevented from making any attack against the villain, until the minion with Guard is defeated. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.10, "Keywords", p.19, "You"
A: No. If you play an attack or a thwart event, and you are stunned/confused, that attack/thwart attempt would be replaced by removing the relevant status card.
Reference: p.4, "Attack", p.14, "Replacement Effects" p.17, "Thwart"
A: The damage would apply to you. Whenever you defend using an ally, excess damage from the attack is dealt to you, since you are controlling the defending ally.
Reference: p.5, "Defend, Defense", p.10, "Keywords"
A: Characters cannot have more than one status card of each type. If an ability would add a second status card of a certain type, that status card is discarded instead. (Thanks to Nitewolf)
Reference: p.16, “Status Cards”
A: Yes. Overkill damage is dealt to the identity controlling the defending ally, so the damage is dealt regardless of what form you’re in.
Reference: p.8, “Form”, p.10, "Keywords", FFG
A: No. The tough status is a replacement effect; it replaces all damage dealt with the discarding of the status card. Since all damage was replaced by this effect, there is no excess damage to be dealt.
Reference: p.14, “Replacement Effects”, p.16, “Status Cards”
A: No. Retaliate only triggers if the character in question is attacked; since the minion/ally is the target of the attack, and not the character themselves, the Retaliate ability wouldn't trigger.
Reference: p.10, "Keywords"
A: Yes. Indirect damage can be assigned among any characters you control.
Reference: “Indirect Damage”
A: No. You can only assign as much damage as their remaining hit points, without accounting for interaction with other abilities.
Reference: “Indirect Damage”
A: Two. Webbed Up prevents the first attack, and then adds a stun status card, which prevents a second attack.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: The stun card would trigger first. In this scenario, if you attached Webbed Up to an already stunned enemy, that enemy would be prevented from attacking for three attacks.
Reference: p.16, “Status Cards”
A: No. Spider-Sense triggers before any of the steps for attacking, so he must be the initial target of the attack for Spider-Sense to trigger. Note that this means Spider-Sense still triggers if another player/ally defends for Spider-Man.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. Spider-Sense only triggers when an enemy initiates an attack; however, stun and Webbed Up are replacement effects, which means they replace the attack entirely. Since the attack never initiates, Spider-Sense never triggers.
Reference: p.14, "Replacement Effects", p.21, "FAQ"
A: Yes. Backflip does not require you to exhaust your hero, which means your hero does not have to be ready in order to play Backflip.
Reference: p.9, "Initiating Abilities, Playing Cards"
A: No. Resources must be generated simultaneously to pay for a card.
Reference: p.5, "Cost", p.14, "Resource", p.14, "Resource Ability"
A: No. You must exhaust your hero or an ally to defend against an attack; using a defense ability does not count as defending against an attack.
Reference: p.5, “Defend, Defense”
A: Yes. The abilities are independent from each other; although each ability is limited to once per round, you can use both abilities.
Reference: p.10, “Limit”
A: No. All of Hellcat's damage or statuses clear when you return her to your hand.
A: No. Side schemes come into play with threat already on them, which means the threat is not placed on it. However, it is unclear whether you could reduce the threat placed due to any "When Revealed" text on the side scheme.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. Legal Practice must be used to remove threat from a single scheme.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. Abilities without the “Setup” trigger cannot trigger during setup.
Reference: “FAQ”
A: No. All resources must be paid simultaneously, and then discarded.
References: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. Pepper Potts is the card generating the resources, not "The Power of Leadership," so the text wouldn't apply.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. All side schemes with a Crisis icon must be discarded before you can remove threat from the main scheme.
Reference: p.15, “Side Scheme”, p.15, “Simultaneous Resolution”
A: Yes. You can exhaust and deal two damage to War Machine, then deal one damage to each enemy, as long as War Machine is ready. If that two damage would cause him to have zero or less health, you would then discard him. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.2, “Ability, Card Ability”, p.5, “Cost”, FFG
A: Yes. If damage is moved to a character, it is considered to be dealt to that character.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ", p.11, "Move"
A: No. You must shuffle in three different cards by title.
Reference: p.21, "FAQ"
A: No. Retaliate only triggers if you receive the attack. If you defend as Black Panther, Retaliate still triggers, but not if an ally defends for you.
Reference: p.21, “FAQ”
A: No. You cannot choose an option that would have no effect on the game, unless you have no other viable options. If you are in alter-ego form and ready, and you have no Black Panther upgrades in play, you must exhaust T’Challa.
Reference: p.4, “Choose”, FFG
A: No. Living Legend only applies to the first ally played each round; if an ally has already been played by the time you flip to Steve Rogers, Living Legend cannot be used.
Reference: FFG
A: No. Steve’s setup ability tells you to search your deck and discard pile for his shield and add it to your hand; if his shield is a Drone minion, it is in neither of those two locations, so you would not be able to add it to your hand.
Reference: p.15, “Search”
A: Melee would deal 5 damage to 2 enemies. Embiggen increases each instance of damage done by an attack event, so it would increase both instances of damage dealt by Melee.
Reference: FFG
A: No. As with Embiggen, Shrink increases each instance of threat removal by a thwart event. Since Emergency only prevents threat, there are no instances of threat removal, so Shrink would have no effect.
Reference: FFG
A: Yes. Lightning Strike is not an attack, so it is not affected by the stun keyword.
Reference: “Attack”, “Keywords”
A: No. Discarding a minion and putting it into play is a required cost, so you would not be able to remove threat from a scheme. The ability would fizzle out, an acceleration counter would be added to the main scheme, and no threat would be removed.
Reference: “Cost”
A: No. Early printings listed Loki’s ability as a “Response,” which would imply it could be ignored, but his ability should be a “Forced Response”.
Reference: FFG
A: Yes. Overkill still applies even if the attack does not actually defeat Loki.
Reference: FFG
A: Widowmaker triggers after you resolve the Preparation. Widowmaker is listed as a Response, and notes that it happens “After” you trigger the Preparation; so, you would resolve the Preparation text, then resolve the Widowmaker ability.
Reference: “Response”
A: No. Attacrobatics is listed as an “attack” and targets the villain, so you would not be able to trigger it if a Guard minion is engaged with you.
Reference: “Attack”, “Keywords”
A: No. Star icons do not count as boost icons, and Attacrobatics only cancel boost icons.
Reference: “Boost”, “Star Icon”
A: Yes. The second stun would not apply to the minion (since a character can only have one status card of each type), but you can trigger multiple different Responses to the same event.
Reference: “Response”
A: No. Unlike Widow’s Bite, one copy of Attacrobatics cancels the boost icons on the boost card, so the second copy of Attacrobatics has no more boost icons to cancel, and so would have no effect.
Reference: “Initiating Abilities, Playing Cards”
A: No. Grappling Hook specifically references when “you” reveal a treachery, so the player controlling Black Widow can only use Grappling Hook on a treachery they reveal.
A: Yes. Unlike something like Melee, Dance of Death does not refer to “different” enemies, so each attack could be done against the same enemy.
A: Black Widow would take three points of retaliate damage. Each instance of damage from Dance of Death is a separate attack, and there are three attacks, so attacking an enemy with retaliate three times would trigger retaliate all three times.
A: Yes. Multiple different Interrupts can be triggered off the same triggering condition.
Reference: “Interrupt”
A: Yes. Thunderclap is not listed as an “attack”, so it is not affected by the Guard keyword.
Reference: “Keywords”
A: No. Unstoppable Force is an Action, so it can only be played during the player phase.
Reference: “Action”
A: No. Hulk's THW is a "-", which means he cannot be exhausted to thwart.
Reference: p.5, "Dash"
A: No. Combat Training boosts your hero's ATK, which only affects their basic attack.
Reference: p.4, "Attack"
A: Tigra heals before receiving consequential damage. All responses to an attack resolve before you apply consequential damage, so the healing effect would occur before consequential damage is dealt.
Reference: FFG, This thread
A: The Forced Response would occur after the villain advances. The villain's defeat occurs before the end of the attack, and advancing to the next stage is an immediate response to the villain being defeated. So, the villain would be defeated, then advance to the next stage, and then Hulk's Forced Response would trigger. The timing would be similar to the Tigra question above.
A: Yes. You can use Chase Them Down after defeating a villain stage.
Reference: p.6, “Enemy”, FFG
A: Yes. The side scheme is revealed simultaneously when the villain’s new stage is revealed, which occurs simultaneously with the villain’s first stage being defeated. The timing of Chase Them Down is after you defeat an enemy, so the side scheme would be in play by the time this timing window triggers.
Reference: p.3, “After”, p.18, “Villain Defeat”
A: Interrogation Room triggers whenever you perform an activity that results in a minion being defeated (including attacking with an ally, removing an attachment, or dealing damage with a non-attack action). (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.14, "Response", p.19, "You"
A: The Power of Leadership would only count as one resource. You are still paying for a non-Leadership card, so the text of Power of Leadership wouldn’t apply. That said, Power of Leadership would still count as two resources if you used it to pay for a Leadership ally using Make the Call.
Reference: This thread
A: No. Hulk's THW is a "-", which means he cannot be exhausted to thwart.
Reference: p.5, "Dash"
A: Yes. The "When Revealed" text is resolved when the minion enters play, but Hawkeye's response doesn't occur until after the minion enters play.
Reference: p.14, "Response"
A: Inspired can be attached to any ally in play. However, if it is attached to an ally under another player’s control, that player would gain control of Inspired. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.3, “Attach To”, p.18, “Upgrade”, FFG
A: Yes. The Weapons Runner was still revealed, so any Surge or When Revealed effects would still occur. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.10, “Keywords”, FFG
A: Yes. Multiple responses can have the same timing trigger, so you could play as many Counter-Punches as you have in your hand, assuming you defended against an attack.
Reference: p.14, “Response”
A: No. Emergency reads "When the villain schemes, reduce the amount of threat placed on the scheme by 1." Since the card specifies "villain," it does not apply to minions.
A: No. Emergency must be played “When the villain schemes”, which means you must play it before boost cards are revealed and threat is placed.
A: Yes. You would apply the +3 ATK twice, resulting in an attack with +6 ATK and overkill. Once that attack has been resolved, you would then discard both copies of Charge.
Reference: p.3, “Attach To”
A: No. The stun would replace the attack; since the attack never triggers, you would not discard the Charge card.
Reference: p.14, “Replacement Effects”, p.16, “Status Cards”
A: No. The "you" referenced in the boost action on this card is referencing your hero card, so if an ally blocks the attack and sustains damage, your hero will not exhaust from this effect. (Thanks to Lag0s)
References: p.19, "You"
A: Yes. When a card that gives a character additional HP is discarded, that character immediately loses that much health. This can cause that character to be defeated.
Reference: p.8, "Gets"
A: No. If possible, you would have to spend the resources, if all the characters you control are already exhausted.
Reference: p.4, “Choose”, FFG
A: The Drone minion will engage with the defending player. When a player defends against an attack, they become the target of the attack, which means any responses after the attack will apply to that player. Note that the Drone minion would still engage with the defending player, even if that player used an ally to defend. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.5, "Defend, Defense”
A: The Drone minion would engage with the original target. Ultron II’s response timing is “When Ultron attacks”, which refers to step 1 of the “Enemy Attacks” sequence. This step occurs before defenders are declared, which means the resulting Drone would engage with the original target, before anyone has the chance to defend. This is different from Ultron I’s response, which triggers after the attack has resolved.
Reference: p.6, “Enemy Attacks”
A: No. Because the triggering condition did not occur, any responses to that triggering condition also would not occur. (thanks to Theorel)
Reference: p.8, “Forced”, p.14, “Response”, p.17-18, “Triggered Ability”, FFG
A: No. Ultron’s invulnerability is absolute, which means any damage that would be dealt to him would be cancelled while drone minions are in play. Note that this holds even if that action would remove all drone minions from play; since all damage is dealt simultaneously, and the drone minions are in play when the damage is dealt, the damage would not be dealt to Ultron. (Thanks to Theorel)
Reference: FFG
A: Norman would attack you with a base ATK of 0, plus the value of the boost cards flipped. A star icon is treated as a 0, and his “Forced Interrupt” wouldn’t trigger because the timing window has already passed.
Reference: “Star Icon”, “FAQ”
A: No. A villain stage is not revealed by a specific player, so Media Coverage does not apply. It only applies to encounter cards that you specifically reveal.
Reference: FFG