Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!
For this week’s confusing card of the week article, we’re going to take a look at Captain America: Anti-Reg from the Marvel Civil War Starter set. I wanted to go with a patriotic theme since today is Independence Day here in the US, and what better character to choose than Captain America himself!
Ruling – Resistance Ability
Resistance is a keyword that can be found in the Civil War set. A character with Resistance will grant you some kind of benefit if a character you control was KO’d. These benefits from the different Resistance abilities will vary and the keyword can be found on characters, Basic Actions, and non-Basic Actions.
Any game effect that KO’s a character could trigger a Resistance ability. For example, Fabricate – if you have Captain America active and you Fabricate two characters, you will gain the benefit from his Resistance ability and gain one life at the end of your turn. Another example would be if your opponent used the Unstable Canister Global during your turn to KO one of your Sidekick dice while you have Captain America active.
When you Sacrifice a character die, that is not the same as KO’ing them, which will not trigger a Resistance ability.
If a character with Regenerate is successful in regenerating, you will not gain the Resistance ability. Regenerate is a considered a KO replacement effect.
Captain America’s Resistance ability is a While Active ability. A While Active ability is one that works regardless of how many of the character’s dice are in the Field Zone. While Active abilities are like a light – it’s either on, or it’s off.
Captain America’s Resistance ability says that as long as he’s active at the end of your turn, if a character die you control was KO’d this turn, you gain one life. This ability only checks that the requirements were met and not how many times they were met.
This ability is not optional and you must gain life if the Resistance ability was triggered. You cannot go above 20 life, so if you’re already at 20 life, you will not gain life.
Ruling – Ability
Captain America has a second ability on his card and it is also a While Active ability. At the end of your turn, as long as Captain America is active, you spin each of your Captain America dice up one level.
In the picture above, you can see the sides of the dice as shown on the bottom of Captain America’s card. All character dice levels are displayed in the same place on character cards. The first three images are of the energy faces and do not have levels. The first character face is Level 1, the second character face is Level 2, and the third character face is Level 3. This is the same for all character dice, except for basic Sidekick dice. Basic Sidekick dice don’t have a character card and while they are in the Field Zone, they’re only Level 1.
If an ability instructs you to spin a character die to a different level, always reference the character card to confirm the correct level, then spin that character die accordingly. Basic Sidekick dice do not have multiple levels and they cannot spin to a different level.
This ability is not an optional ability. At the end of your turn, you must spin all of your active Captain America dice up one level from their current level. A level two Captain America die will spin up to level three and a level one die will spin up to level two. Any level three Captain America dice will not be affected by this ability because they are at the maximum level for a character die.
Miscellaneous Card Information
~ Captain America is a Shield type character card.
~ He has the Avengers affiliation.
~ He has a max dice of four.
~ This card is a Common and is #4 of 142.
Examples
These examples are for information purposes only, to show what would happen in certain scenarios. I am not suggesting that these examples are the best outcomes for each scenario and each example only features relevant parts of the turn, not the entire turn.
Example One:
Triggering Captain America’s abilities.
Game State
~ I have a level one and a level two Captain America die in the Field Zone. I also have a Sidekick die.
~ My opponent has two Sidekick dice in the Field Zone.
~ My Attack Step has just begun.
(Attack Step – Assign Attackers)
~ I assign my Sidekick die and my level one Captain America die to attack, moving them into the Attack Zone.
(Attack Step – Assign Blockers)
~ My opponent decides to block with both of their Sidekick dice.
~ My opponent assigns the first Sidekick to block my attacking Sidekick, moving it into the Attack Zone and placing it in front of my attacking Sidekick.
~ My opponent assigns the second Sidekick to block my attacking Captain America die, moving it into the Attack Zone and placing it in front of my attacking Captain America die.
(Attack Step – Assign and Resolve Damage)
~ My Sidekick deals one damage to the blocking Sidekick and the blocking Sidekick deals one damage to my Sidekick. Both will be KO’d.
~ My Captain America die deals two damage to the Sidekick die that’s blocking him, and that Sidekick deals one damage to Captain America. Captain America has a defense of four, so that one damage will not KO him. The Sidekick will be KO’d because it only has a defense of one.
(Clean Up Step)
~ Character dice that were KO’d by combat damage during the Attack Step are now placed in the Prep Area. My opponents two Sidekick dice go to their Prep Area and my Sidekick goes to my Prep Area.
~ Characters blocked, but not KO’d are removed from the Attack Zone, but stay in the Field Zone. The Attack Zone is part of the Field Zone, but only attacking and blocking characters can be in the Attack Zone.
~ All effects end unless otherwise specified (like a While Active or ‘End of Turn’ ability).
~ All damage is cleared, so Captain America will no longer have the one damage from the Sidekick.
~ End of turn abilities will resolve. Captain America’s Resistance ability will trigger and allow me to gain one life if my life total is below 20 because a character that I control was KO’d this turn. His other ability triggers as well and my level one Captain America die spins up to level two and my level two Captain America die spins up to level three. Since both abilities happen at the same time and I control both abilities, I can choose the order in which they resolve.
~ My turn is now over and my opponent’s turn will begin.
Official Sources
WizKids Official Rules Forum (WORF)
You can find a relevant ruling, here.
Basic Information
You can find more info about specific Keywords on the WizKids Keywords page.
Turn Order Summary Reference
Opinion and Strategy
This is one of my favorite Captain America cards that is currently legal for Modern Age. I love the art, love the die, and really dig the ability on it. There are plenty of ways to KO your Sidekick dice, like a force block Global, Fabricate, or even a burn Global. Captain America is one of those cards that just dares your opponent to Unstable Canister Global your little dudes. When they do and Cap sees it happen, you gain life back! I have yet to really be able to play with this card outside of Limited constructed events that we held for Civil War. I think I may try to add him onto a current Lockout League build I’m working on for Saturday. I don’t think he’s necessarily worthy of a competitive team spot, but I’ve seen much less deserving cards on highly successful teams in the past. I hope someone sees what a gem this guy can be and tries using him. His major downside is that atrocious fielding cost, but at least he’s not really expensive to purchase. A four cost character that just needs to stay in the Field is not a terrible purchase. I think the best place for this Cap to shine is in the casual and Limited areas.
I also want to take a moment to say Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Dice Masters here in the US. I hope that everyone has a safe and fun holiday!
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