Defense Action

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When attacked, you have an opportunity to defend by performing a Defense action. After the attacker announces their Attack Total, you may reveal exactly one card from your hand and discard it, to perform its Defense action.

A Defense action is different from all other actions:

You cannot perform a Defense action on an already played card! It can only be performed in response to an attack targeting you, by discarding exactly one card from your hand.
A Defense action does not count towards your 1 card per turn limit. You can defend each time you are attacked, as long as you have cards in your hand.

Calculate Your Defense Total

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Defense value on your card.
+ Bonus defense from the card text, if any.
+1 for every Defense item you have.
+ Minion defense modifiers

If your Defense total is equal or higher than the Attack Total, you successfully defend the Attack.

You cannot defend without discarding a card.

If you cannot defend successfully, or choose not to defend, you are defeated.

Secondary Defense Value 5

Primary Defense Value 4 (The “+” sign signifies that the value can be increased by the card text).

Wasp’s Lift Up card, with Brogan attacking Wasp next to a friendly melee minion

Brogan performs the non-Ranged Attack action on his Red “Mad Dash” card. He moves 2 spaces in a straight line and announces that he is attacking Wasp with an attack total of 6.

Wasp discards her “Lift Up” card, with a defense value of 5. The adjacent friendly melee minion increases Wasp’s defense total by +1, allowing her to successfully defend. Because Defense is a Secondary action on “Lift Up”, its card text is ignored.

Dodger’s Vampiric Shield card, with two empty minion spawn points within 2 spaces of her highlighted

This time Brogan chooses to attack Dodger with his “Mad Dash”.

Dodger uses her “Vampiric Shield” card to defend, with a defense value of only 4, which is not enough to defend Brogan’s Attack of 6. However, since Defense is the Primary action of “Vampiric Shield”, the card text is applied, giving Dodger +2 Defense for the 2 empty minion spawn points within a radius of 2 spaces from her space. This allows her to successfully defend Brogan’s attack.

Minion Defense Modifiers

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+1 for every adjacent friendly melee or heavy minion.
-1 for every adjacent enemy melee or heavy minion.
-1 for every enemy ranged minion in radius of 2 spaces around you.

Defense/Skill Cards

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Cards with this icon can be used as either a Skill card, or as a Defense card, as if it had both icons.

You can perform a Skill action by playing the card, or a Defense action, by discarding it. The card text is applied whether you play this card as a Skill card, or discard it to defend, as a Defense card.

While in hand, or discard, it counts as both a Skill and a Defense card. When played, it counts as a Skill card.

Block

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Defense cards with an exclamation mark on the icon allow you to Block an attack by fulfilling a Block condition in the card text. If the Block condition is fulfilled, you successfully defend, regardless of the attack value. If not, you are defeated.

Attack/Defense Detailed Order

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In most cases the exact order of Attack and Defense action will not matter, but when it does, follow the order below:

Attacker applies “Before the attack” text, if any.
Calculate minion defense modifier.
Defender may reveal and discard a card.
Defender applies Defense action text, if any.
Calculate the Defense total.
Check if the attack was successful; if it was, remove the defending hero.
Apply “After the attack:” text on the Attack card, if any.
Defense action ends.
Attack action ends.