Defending your Battlesite

[The Dude]

I too would agree that Negates should be able to defend a battlesite because of their broader use. Similarily I would say a teamwork on a Battlesite would have be defendable by a card like TroubleMaker simply because the follow-ups could still target a hero and the only way to make Troublemaker effective is to play it to counter the initial teamwork attack.

[Nostalgic]

So I had to resurrect this thread as I was looking at Nick's old site and found that he actually said the following:

" The Battlesite may defend itself by playing a Power card that is usable by any of your front line characters.  The normal rules for defense still apply, i.e., a level 4 attack can be blocked by a level 4 or higher power card.  Also, you may play an Activator card to retrieve a defensive Special to defend the Battlesite, except that a "Teammate avoid..." may not be used. Your front line characters may NOT play Special cards to defend the Battlesite, including a negate. "

http://justabgkid.com/ripayuheadoffs/op/part11.html

Earlier in this thread, but of course years after the site was made, Nick said:

Yes, you can play the Negate offensively to remove the special from the Battlesite on your turn.

I'm pretty sure that you can play a Negate defensively in this case, even for an attack against the Battlesite, as long as the Negate does not have any restrictions like "Target Teammate" or any other such wording.  A Negate, while it is being played defensively, is not the same as a defensive card like an "Avoid 1 Attack," so it is not subject to the same restrictions for defending your Battlesite.  An avoid is character specific and a teammate avoid implies that another character is involved, while most Negates do not require that a character be the target of the attack.

So I guess I reverse my previous opinion which agreed with that in light of the fact he was closer to the game's intent "back-in-the-day".   It's not that the negate itself does or does not require a character to be the target of an attack to be played, its that playing the card itself results in 'defense of the battlesite.'  Since 2 and only 2 very specific options are listed in the rules for 'defense of the battlesite,' unmodified power cards and specials from the battlesite itself, a negate is not an option to be played.