Confusing Card of the Week #3 – Polymorph, Basic Action Card

Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

This week’s card is Polymorph, Basic Action Card from the Dungeons and Dragons Battle for Faerûn Starter set. This card has many uses on it that you may not have realized if you aren’t using it.

Rulings

Let’s look at its Global first.
This is definitely useful for your own characters. If you’re trying to get that level two Hulk to level three, pay a Mask Energy, spin down one of your other characters and then spin Hulk up one level. Sidekicks are immune to this ability because they only have one level. If your Hulk is level one and you have a level 3 Beast, you can pay a Mask Energy to spin Beast down to level two and spin Hulk up to level two. You can then spend another Mask Energy to spin Beast down another level to level one and spin Hulk up to level three.

This Global can be extremely useful for your characters, but can also help against your opponent’s characters. You could spin down one of your characters to spin an opponent’s character up a level to get them off of a burst ability. Even if this makes the character’s stats bigger, having them off a burst could benefit you. You would still have to spin down one of your own characters to do this, but depending on your opponent’s character’s burst it could be worth it.

Now let’s look at the black text, which is the Action Die part.
If you draw and roll the Action Die on the Action side, you can swap any character die in a used pile with a character die in that player’s Field Zone. You can swap two of your own character dice or swap two of your opponent’s character dice. This can give you an advantage by swapping one of your opponent’s big characters with one that’s smaller or less useful. It can also give you an advantage by swapping a character you need that turn with something in your Field Zone that you may not need at that moment.Pair that with it’s Global ability and you have a fairly powerful action! This Action is all about timing.

You can swap a character from the Used Pile and into the Field Zone with the Action Die, then use the Global to raise that character’s level, all in the same turn! This Basic Action is very high on my list as a go-to Basic Action.

*** EDIT ***

Adding this for clarification.

When you swap a character with the Action Die, it literally puts the active character into the Used Pile. Apparently some folks were thinking that the character would go ‘out of play’ first and then to Used Pile at the end of turn. I never interpreted Polymorph to function that way, so I didn’t think it needed to be said.

But now there is an official ruling in regards to this. You can find it here.

Competitive Play Rating
This is a Basic Action that has already seen quite a bit of competitive play, and for good reason. It has an offensive and defensive function on the Action Die portion and the Global ability is extremely good. Even though your opponent will be able to use the Global, it’s not a Global that can be particularly detrimental to your own team (like Distraction or Relentless). I can’t sing the praises of this card enough for competitive play and it’s one of the top Basic Actions.

Polymorph, Basic Action gets a competitive play rating of four and a half out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating
If there is one major thing I’ve learned about playing competitive games on a casual field, you do not want to use cards that are overpowered or too good. Using your best cards could make a newer player turn away from the game if they think they don’t stand a chance. You never want to discourage players from a game because without a player base, a game fails. Polymorph is really good for competitive play, but it’s also super good for casual play. Your opponent has an opportunity to buy the Action Die and they have access to the Global, just like you. With an Action this good, there really isn’t a downside to using it in any atmosphere.

Polymorph, Basic Action gets a casual play rating of five out of five stars.

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Roll on, Dice Masters!