"As I said, the meta rules are for the most part useless and confusing. Meta rule 162 is a great example. It says that "If a card "is not affected" by a specific type of card, then cards of that type may be used during the defensive action, but any cards already in play before the attack was made are considered not in play until the defensive action is resolved."
Therefore, if I use a card that states that it may not be affected by a card with the word 'teammate,' according to the meta rule I may still use a teammate avoid to stop the attack, but I wouldn't be able to use a card already in play that had the word teammate to do anything. That's dumb, as far as I'm concerned, because avoiding the attack is also affecting it. No card with the word teammate should be playable in any capacity against said card, either to avoid, absorb, shift, or remove."
Are there any other circumstances where a card isn't affected by "anything except special cards" already in play?
I think the wording is just clunky... and probably only applies to this particular kind of special (NJ).
It seems that what they mean is that you can still use specials to defend the card, just not specials that are already on the board.
Example 1: Savage Dragon - Dragon Brawl: Acts as a level 5 fighting attack. May not be affected by a card with the word "teammate" on it.
Example 2: Angel - Avenging Angel: Acts as a level 4 strength or intellect attack. Attack is not affected by Special cards already in play.
These two specials don't seem to be the same. Meta Rule 162 doesn't seem to relate much to example 1, where it seems to relate to example 2 much clearer.
Am I making sense? The tag at the end of meta rule 162 specifically deals with circumstances where cards are on the board (in play). The Angel special gets around in play effects. But you could still defend the attack with a special card, because it only looks to be resolved at "in play" effects (which it can't be resolved by in play effects).
The Dragon special doesn't seem to look to this meta rule for a clear definition of what cards may not affect it because it doesn't look specifically at "in play" effects to resolve it. It can't be defended or altered in any way by a card with the word teammate, which looks to cards in play, from hand, placed, etc. That's much broader than the NJ special, and might need a different meta rule for a clear definition of what can't affect it.
I just read the meta rule a little different than BBH and wanted to throw my 6 cents in... I won't argue with you, my man, that the meta rules are confusing, and I haven't read them exhaustively as you have... which is why I constantly ask the same questions over and over (I'm always confused). But I'm trying to understand the complexity of the rules, and the "teammate" example given to show contradiction didn't seem to be the same as the Aspect effect that started the discussion. They seemed like 2 entirely different cards/circumstances to me. But I'm also the guy that thought using a teamwork at the top of the turn mean at the top of the battle.

I enjoy discussion, and hope I made a little bit of sense here.
