Star-Spangled Block Party

Everyone is invited to the block party. Unfortunately for the villain, every attack just brings Captain America more cards, more threat removal and another excuse to hit back.

Star-Spangled Block Party turns the villain phase into an extension of Captain America’s own turn. The plan is to establish a high permanent DEF, defend without taking damage, and then collect as many rewards as possible from every attack.

While the villain unsuccessfully throws punches at the shield, Cap draws cards, removes threat, damages enemies, applies stuns and repeatedly readies himself. That gives him the time and control needed to assemble his upgrades before converting all that DEF into serious ATK and THW.

Setting up the block

Captain America’s Shield is found during setup, immediately increasing Cap’s DEF from 2 to 3 and giving him Retaliate 1.

Innate Reflexes can also be added to the opening hand through Starting, providing another guaranteed +1 DEF. Together, those two cards let Captain America begin building from a reliable 4 DEF without depending upon the opening draw.

The remaining defensive upgrades are:

• Armored Vest
• Defensive Conditioning
• The Best Offense…

With all the permanent upgrades installed, Captain America reaches 6 DEF. The Best Offense raises that to 7 DEF for the round and allows him to use DEF in place of both ATK and THW.

The wall eventually becomes the weapon.

Every block comes with benefits

Stopping the damage is only the entry fee. Once the engine is assembled, a single perfect defense can trigger an entire party of responses:

• Unflappable draws a card.
• Three copies of Hard to Ignore can remove three threat from the main scheme.
• Electrostatic Armor deals one damage to the attacker.
• Captain America’s Shield retaliates for another damage.
• Flow Like Water deals damage whenever a Defense card is played.

An attack that began as the villain’s opportunity can therefore end with the attacker damaged, the main scheme reduced and Captain America holding another card.

“Stop Hitting Yourself” provides the largest counterpunch, dealing damage equal to Cap’s DEF for that attack after a successful defense.

Combine it with Riposte and Captain America receives +2 DEF for the attack, deals three damage through Riposte and then uses that increased DEF for “Stop Hitting Yourself.” Flow Like Water, Electrostatic Armor and Retaliate can all add further damage around the edges.

At maximum setup, the villain can take considerably more damage from initiating an attack than Captain America does from receiving it.

Ready for another round

Defending usually costs a hero their next basic activation. Captain America has other ideas.

“I Can Do This All Day” declares Cap as the defender without exhausting him. He uses his full DEF and activates the perfect-defense rewards while remaining ready for the next attack or the following player phase.

Desperate Defense supplies +2 DEF and readies Captain America after a damage-free defense. Never Back Down provides the same defensive increase while potentially stunning the attacker.

Stand Alone offers another ready whenever no allies are under your control. It is particularly useful against additional attacks or subsequent minion activations and naturally becomes active between ally deployments.

Finally, Captain America can discard a card to ready himself once per round. Situational events or cards that are not currently needed can always be converted into another basic activation.

Block, ready, repeat.

Taking the party into the player phase

The Best Offense… is where all the defensive investment becomes proactive.

At full setup, Cap can use 7 DEF as either ATK or THW. He can make one basic activation, discard a card through his identity ability and activate again:

• Attack twice for up to 14 damage.
• Thwart twice for up to 14 threat.
• Divide the activations between attacking and thwarting according to the board state.

This gives the deck a powerful answer to whichever problem is currently most urgent. Its defensive upgrades never become wasted setup because the same statistic protects Cap, controls schemes and defeats enemies.

Heroic Strike provides direct damage and stun control, while Shield Toss clears groups of minions before they can overwhelm the table.

The deck retains Captain America’s familiar stun package, but it is not completely dependent upon it. Steady and Stalwart enemies weaken Heroic Strike, Never Back Down and Iron Fist, but they do not disable the DEF-conversion or counterattack engines.

Keeping the villain, minions and threat under control

The ally package provides immediate answers while Captain America establishes his board:

• Agent 13 offers efficient thwarting.
• Professor X provides a large burst of threat removal and can confuse the villain.
• Iron Fist brings damage and additional stuns.
• Nick Fury supplies whichever combination of cards, damage or thwarting is currently required.

These are utility allies rather than a permanent army. They stabilise the game, absorb dangerous attacks when necessary and then leave the board, allowing Stand Alone to become active again.

Threat is controlled through Hard to Ignore, Cap’s basic activations, Fearless Determination and the thwarting allies. Minions can be cleared through Shield Toss, Heroic Strike, the allies or simply by defending their attacks and allowing the counterattack engine to remove them.

Visiting alter-ego

Ready for a Fight provides a route back to Steve Rogers without surrendering the following villain phase.

Cap can change to alter-ego, use the larger hand size, activate Steve’s Apartment and benefit from Living Legend when playing an ally. When an enemy would scheme, Ready for a Fight changes him back to hero form and turns that scheme activation into another attack.

That attack immediately feeds the defensive engine again.

Playing the deck

The opening objective is to establish enough DEF to begin producing reliable perfect defenses without allowing the villain’s board to develop.

Prioritise the shield and Innate Reflexes, followed by whichever of Armored Vest or Defensive Conditioning appears first. Super-Soldier Serum and Nerves of Steel then provide the resources needed to keep playing events without sacrificing the entire hand.

From there, respond to the scenario:

• Use Hard to Ignore, Fearless Determination and high-DEF basic thwarts to control threat.
• Use Shield Toss and the allies to contain minions.
• Use Heroic Strike and Never Back Down to stun vulnerable enemies.
• Use Riposte and “Stop Hitting Yourself” to punish larger attacks.
• Use Cap’s numerous readies to ensure defending never costs the following player phase.

The 50-card size provides a broad collection of answers, but many of those cards are upgrades that remain in play. As the block party fills up, those upgrades leave the draw deck and its effective size steadily contracts. Cards that are not useful in the current matchup can also fuel Captain America’s built-in ready.

The result is a Captain America deck in which very little is truly defensive or offensive—it is all part of the same engine:

Block the attack. Punish the attacker. Remove the threat. Draw another card. Ready Captain America. Keep the party going.