From some of the comments I’ve got, it seems that people have got a bit confused about the Martian (and Human) decks of cards for Deadzone. These cards are for Deadzone only, and are written as if Mars Attacks (the game) does not exist. You are not expected to use anything from Mars Attacks except the models. So, when it refers to an ability on a card, it is the Deadzone version of that ability it refers to. As I said, the cards are for Deadzone.
Several of the ability names are the same in both games. This is to remind you of the general effect of a rule at a glance if you already know it, and is a perfectly good name if you don’t. However, because the game rules are different, the detail of how they achieve this similar effect is sometimes different.
A few people have got the cards early, and not the accompanying text. They seem to have jumped to the slightly odd conclusion that the cards refer to the Mars Attacks versions of the abilities and discovered that they don’t work properly in a different game (not terribly surprising when you think about it). The MA rules refer to things that are not used in DZ like heroics and critters.
Rather than thinking that there might be some clarifying rules missing, folk have assumed that it was all a horrible blunder. A classic piece of internet panic. The truth is that the cards, and their accompanying rules, were written back in May and have just been waiting for the world of production to catch up. Alles in ordnung, as they say.
Where/when will these rules be published? I’ve no idea. Not long would be my guess. Probably when the main batch of the cards go out when the last of that wave of items comes into the warehouse. Those decks that have already been sent out are very few in number and are something of an oddity to do with the distribution process (apparently they were sent to people who ordered a very limited and unusual selection of items – the bulk of the orders aren’t out yet).
Either way, there is no need to worry. The rules are written for DZ and don’t rely on using other games to make them work. DZ and MA are two separate and different games. You can play either separately. As this deck is for DZ it has DZ rules and needs nothing from MA (other than models).
I’ll be seeing the folks at Mantic today and will ask about the details. Stay tuned for an update when I get back.
Quirkworthy 