Why? Because just about everyone will have at least three of the four of these, unless you've yet to find your starter set. If that is your situation, well, I can do nothing for you, son.
And so, without further ado, let us examine those Captains America. Captain Americas? Captains Americas...?
The Die
I was actually kidding, I need to explain one thing before I detail our dear Cap'n. I'm judging the expense of fielding a die on a scale of one to six. This is because I am looking at the total fielding cost if you add up all three non-energy faces of the character die. The most expensive dice in this game are 6s to this point, usually costing one, two, and three for each respective level. The least expensive, excluding sidekicks, cost just one overall. For now, I'll call this the "Total Fielding Cost" unless I think of a sexier name.
Ok, now we'll move to the subject at hand.
Captain America's die provides shield energy and is one of the more expensive dice that you can field with a TFC of five. The die's stats are rather well balanced between offense and defense, with A & D ranging from three to five.
While one of my Captain America dice shows a slight flaw, he is probably in the top third in terms of apparent die quality for the ones that I have.
The Cards
Three Captain Americas come in the starter set and one uncommon is found in the boosters. The purchase cost ranges from 4-6, putting him decidedly in the mid-to-higher tier of purchasing cost.
His abilities all have to do with supporting his sidekick characters, which thematically makes sense to me. Captain is a soldier and a leader, with plenty of concern for those with him he serves. Let's look at each:
- "American Hero," when fielded, allows you to roll a sidekick from your used pile.
- "Natural Leader" gives your sidekicks +1/+1 while active.
- "Star-Spangled Avenger" knocks out your opponent's sidekicks when fielded and gives you one life for each one knocked out.
- "Sentinel of Liberty" gives your sidekicks +2/0 while active and adds one energy to the cost of fielding sidekicks for your opponent.
"American Hero" acts as a dice engine, but I feel that his usefulness is at its greatest when paired with Beast in the intro game described in the rulebook. Otherwise, since he costs four and can only effect sidekicks, I feel that there are better options for this.
"Natural Leader" essentially gives you the same ability as "Green Goblin: Goblin Lord," but Green Goblin has a TFC of 2 compared to Cap'n's 5. Greeny also costs one less to purchase, though in the early turns you can still only purchase one. That said, the Captain America is preferable if you plan to run the Nick Fury that enables you to field Avengers for free.
"Star-Spangled Avenger" is pushing it with a purchase cost of five, but could be a good answer to either a weenie deck that's using the aforementioned Green Goblin to throw a lot of sidekicks at you. By the time you're getting a five-cost die out there, it's possible that your opponent has a wall of sidekicks out there to thin out his dice pool and this could get rid of all of them. Combine it in an Avengers-themed deck with the other Nick Fury that allows your unblocked Avengers to deal double damage to your opponent, and this could be a big move if your opponent is relying on sidekicks.
"Sentinel of Liberty" has a lot of potential if you can get to him quickly, but I'm not sure that he's my favorite six cost die. I don't think that the additional energy cost for opponent's sidekicks is as meaningful by the time you'd get this one out. This might be a "win more" card - a card whose utility is that it lets you win more when you're already winning and doesn't have enough of an impact when you're even or losing. Of course, I could be wrong.
My Favorite:
It's entirely possible that this will change since this is early and there is zero meta at this point, but I like "Natural Leader" combined with Nick Fury at this point. I think that Captain works better as a support piece, and this one provides the most support for a strong set of dice on the field early. The heavy hitter with this setup could easily be one of the other Avengers.
Coming in at a close second is "Star Spangled Avenger" due to the strategy detailed above. However, he only knocks out sidekicks, so his usefulness could be limited depending on how your opponent uses sidekicks. This one has potential, but is more likely a situational piece.
I've read all the articles, and I like them. Keep doing the good job!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words!
Delete