Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-205.213.134.253-20140122154854/@comment-74.78.203.5-20140202015606

There are three things which one must consider each turn: 1) "Active" abilities require having the required amount of AP of the required color in order to "activate". Storm's "Wind Storm" ability is "active" with a cost of 11 AP. 2) Damage for the match is determined by who would do the most damage for that color. If Storm's "blue" damage is 15 but Black Widow's "blue" damage is 20, then matching 3 blue tiles will do 60 damage (3 * 20) instead of 45 damage (3 * 15). 3) "Passive" abilities, which activate when some set of conditions is met, do just that. It doesn't matter which character of yours (or the opponent's) makes the conditions that activate the ability.

This last point is actually very important, since it's the reason Daken's "Pheromone Rage" ability is so obnoxious: it doesn't matter who makes the match, the strike tiles are placed because the conditions are met.

Probably what is happening, then, is that the opponent doesn't have any blue AP when you make the match.