The goal of these articles are to expound upon rules found in the Learn to Play and Rules Reference Guide, incorporating relevant interactions that may fall outside either of the above. Hopefully these provide some insight and answer any questions you may have.
Forms are one of the unique features of Marvel Champions that help to capture the thematic element of being a superhero. As a baseline, each identity card has two forms: alter-ego and hero.
Alter-ego form is essentially your time away from the fight. While in alter-ego, the villain will progress their scheme, pushing toward one of their win conditions. There will be a number of cards and abilities that are exclusively usable in alter-ego form, and they will be labeled as such.
Hero form is when you’re in the fight and messing up the villain’s plan. Most of your identity’s attacking and thwarting will happen in hero form. As above, there will be cards and abilities that are only usable in hero form. If a card ability is not labeled “hero” or “alter-ego”, it is usable in any form.
As a baseline, you can choose to flip your identity card once per turn to change from one form to another. In addition to this, there are abilities that cause you to change form. These abilities do not count as your once-per-turn flip. It’s worth noting that the once-per-turn flip and changes from card abilities are not connected, so one cannot prevent the other from happening.
Beyond these two built-in forms (alter-ego and hero), some heroes feature additional forms. Three heroes feature a “three-sided,” folding identity card that has an additional hero form (Angel, Ant-Man, and Wasp). Three others feature separate upgrade cards with the form keyword (Shadowcat, Spectrum, and Vision). Your once-per-turn flip can be used for the “three-sided” identities, but not for the separate form cards.
Upgrades with the form keyword.
There are a number of abilities that trigger on changing form. While you will find these abilities on all types of cards, all the current aspect and basic cards that trigger on changing form are Hero Response abilities. Most heroes will only be able to use them when flipping from alter-ego into hero form. This means at best they are only usable about half the game, and often less. Ready to Rumble and Moira MacTaggert stand out from the others, because they are played to the board and usable when needed. Moira also can be triggered when other players change to hero form, making it even more useful.
Cards triggering on changing form.
The heroes that have additional forms have more access to triggering these abilities. Changing from one hero form to another or changing your non-identity form upgrade meets the triggering condition for the "after you change form" abilities. This means these six heroes have more access to the form changing abilities throughout the game.
Summary
Additional Form Heroes:
"Three-Fold" Identity
Angel
Ant-Man
Wasp
Form Upgrades
Shadowcat
Spectrum
Vision
Form Changing Cards:
Lay Down the Law
Moira MacTaggert
Moxie
Perseverance
Ready to Rumble
Surprise Attack
Relevant RRG Sections:
Ability (specifically Triggered Abilities)
Form, Change Form
Identity