Because the tutorial explaning evasion made absolutley no sense to me...
Nice and simple: Any time you have priority - be it your initiative, or a reaction to something else - you can choose to voluntarilly stun a character. If you evade a character this way, that character automatically recovers at the start of the recovery phase.
The best example of evasion in action is the Morlocks, who have a whole bunch of effects that trigger off either your guys evading, or are based on the number of stunned guys you have in play.
But assuming theres no bonus like that on the card, why on earth would you WANT to ?
Let me Elaborate: The tutorial Puzzle for evasion is the following:
You have 3 life points, your opponent has 5
You have 3 resources in play, your opponent 0
You have no cards in play. Your opponent has Shape, augmented by the Armored Spider Suit card, making his stats 8/3 (Given that your opponent has no resources or cards, Shapes special abilities really dont come into play)
You have the Following Cards:Jessica Drew(3/2)- special ability other Spider Friends Cards with evasion get +1 attk; Cost 2
Dusk(2/3): Special ability other Spiderfriends cards with evasion get +1 def; Cost 2
Julia Carpenter(7/7) Special ability discard 2 spiderfriends cards amd target character cannot attack;cost 4
Object of the puzzle: Defeat your opponent before the turn is over
Other than the ATK/DEF bonus which dont make the card strong enough to solve the puzzle, I see no use for evasion...
So recruit Jessica and Dusk. Because of Jessica's boost, Duck is 3/3. Attack and stun Shape, doing 2 damage to your opponent, and 2 to yourself. He now has no defenders, swing to the face with Jessica for 3 damage and the win.
In this case, evasion is being used as a referential keyword - the fact that they can self-stun is irrelevent, the fact that they have the evasion trait (and thus the stat bonuses from each other) is the key.
As for why you'd want to self-stun, it's mainly to avoid effects that will cost you board presence, or to remove a potential breakthrough point from your opponent's options. If you have a 2-drop and a 7-drop on turn 7, do you want your opponent swinging through your 2 for massive break, or do you want his only option to be to take on your tank?
Ah, I overthought it. I do that alot. Thx.
Any time you need something underthought. I'm your man!