Alien Symbiote wording

[gameplan.exe]

The wording isn't exactly clear and this came up yesterday.

Can I use Alien Symbiote to heal my teammate?

The issue was that Mr. Fantastic (actually, Phineas & Ferb homemade  ) had been hit with a GA-Special (Target cannot play Specials for remainder of Battle). There was already a Power Card on Permanent Record and I wanted to use Alien Symbiote to remove it. My brother said it's a no-no, since the GA was in place, but looking at the wording of the card - I'm not sure that's a personal-use-only Special. Much like Confusion, it seems like this Special can be used by any character to affect any other character (self, teammate, even opponent).

Is there a restriction that Alien Symbiote only heals the character playing it?

* ALIEN SYMBIOTE (AL) <HF> {C}  Symbiote
        Symbiotic bonding! Remove 1 hit from the Permanent Record of any hero.

[Jesse]

The way that  i have always taken it is that the "any hero" is the hero that will be using it, but I can definitely see validation for your question.

[Jack]

If you were to go by its literal wording, you could even remove hits from your opponent's permanent record. Subsequently, you couldn't use it for DC characters with V...

[Demacus]

Yeah, I think it's based on the "he's playing it, he benefits from it" subtext. If it were designed to be used the way you are implying, it would state "Remove 1 hit from the Permanent Record of any hero or teammate." Similar to the EE coded specials.

[gameplan.exe]

... If it were designed to be used the way you are implying, it would state "Remove 1 hit from the Permanent Record of any hero or teammate." Similar to the EE coded specials.

except that it's from a series earlier in the game development. So, clarifying use through text wouldn't have been there, yet. The IQ edition of the card simply mimics the Hillshire Farms edition.

For that matter, if it needed to be specified in the text, a la Master Mold, then the Confusion Any Hero would only protect the character playing it.

I guess, given the nature of Any Hero/Character cards, it seems like a character should be able to use it for their teammate. With all of the Any's, it's a foreign character who's actually performing the action, so what diff would it make which of the FL is initiating the Special?

Similarly, Guardian Angel says, "Any hero may avoid 1 attack." so, if a character who cannot use Specials (through the aforementioned GA, for example), it seems like their teammate should be able to play Guardian Angel for them. Like, "Hey Guardian, please go 'give warning' to so-and-so"

All of this is kinda moot, I guess, if there is an official ruling about it - but it's how I feel about it.

[Bios]

I guess, given the nature of Any Hero/Character cards, it seems like a character should be able to use it for their teammate...
... Similarly, Guardian Angel says, "Any hero may avoid 1 attack." so, if a character who cannot use Specials (through the aforementioned GA, for example), it seems like their teammate should be able to play Guardian Angel for them. Like, "Hey Guardian, please go 'give warning' to so-and-so"

All of this is kinda moot, I guess, if there is an official ruling about it - but it's how I feel about it.

I think Guardian Angel can only be used to avoid attacks against the character who played it, and not to defend a teammate. My opinion is based in the following facts:

I) Guardian Angel is coded as AG and every other AG can only defend the character playing it, while "teammate avoids" are coded as AD.
II) Flight (Image Any Character special) was designed as the Guardian Angel version for Image set. Assuming that Guardian Angel can be used to defend teammates would turn Flight into a weaker version from the previous releases.




About "Alien Symbiote", I think that the wording "any hero" is just a way to replace the name of the character who is playing the special. So I would say it could not be used to remove hits from teammates. But I don't have anything to reinforce my opinion.

[gameplan.exe]

...
II) ... Assuming that Guardian Angel can be used to defend teammates would turn Flight into a weaker version from the previous releases.

Flight IS a weaker version from previous releases because it has that lame artwork that was so common to Image comics! ZING!

I jest. In truth, I concede that these Any Character/Hero cards should be only for the Character playing them. If for no other reason, it's the simplest way to keep rules straight so there aren't extra rules for some Any Character/Hero cards and other rules for other cards. We know there is plenty of existing errata