Because it says "Characters cannot be saved during military challenges", if someone were to use a player action that targeted and killed a character during one of the player action windows of a military challenge, would this passive apply to that kill as well? Also, a slightly more (seemingly) obvious question, does the ability apply to all players, including the owner/controller of Bitter Crone?

J_Roel said:

Yes to both. If her effect was meant to affect only military claim , it would have said so. (Something like "Characters chosen for claim in a MIL challenge cannot be saved.") And yes, since her effect specifies "characters" and not "your characters" or "opponents' character", her ability applies to everyone.

Cool, that's the way I interpreted it, thanks. I may have to reconsider having it in my dragon themed deck in that case, since it would leave my dragons vulnerable to targeted kill (since the duplicates would become useless), though I could simply get rid of her to satisfy military claim if need be…

I have another question about this card, does the effect extend to responses to winning a military challenge? The responses must occur before the challenge's window closes, but they are not "during" the challenge in the literal sense, as they come after the challenge is decided.

I believe that the challenge is considered active until the final framework action window shuts, so anything played as a response to winning/losing would be covered by the crone.

Underworld40k said:

Right. Per the framework, the challenge is not actually complete until after Moribund characters leave play. That means they are literally "during" the challenge to the game mechanics. (This might be an overly simple explanation, but it should suffice)

Underworld40k said:

I figured as much, but I wanted a second opinion before an opponent tried to claim that Drogon's kill could be saved from, lol