I Defended All Day At MC/DC 2025

With the release of Civil War a week before the inaugural MC/DC 2025 convention, I had an opportunity to add the new Protection cards to my Captain America deck to solidify a perfect defense strategy. In a majority of my games I did not take damage (outside of a Hulk ally swinging for 1 damage at the whole table). The only game where I did take hefty damage was a 5-player game with all players using Captain America with each aspect, fighting against the Captain America Leader from Civil War (dubbed Hydra Cap). I found it ironic that Captain America was the only one able to seriously damage Captain America. This deck does take a turn or two to get set up, so it is best to go last so you can put the team first with Cap's alter-ego ability. Let's get started with detailing each card's purpose.

As you can see, there are no allies (outside of Agent 13) as Captain America would never put someone else's life on the line for himself. "I Can Do This All Day", Desperate Defense, and Never Back Down will be the cards used to frequently defend for others. Shield Block an attack when needed to prevent damage. At minimum, this deck can hit back for 2-5 damage a turn. Cuts Both Ways can stack retaliate with Captain America's Shield to do retaliate 2 against each enemy you defend against that phase. Combined with Flow Like Water, Dauntless, Electrostatic Armor, and Excelsior, you can hit back for 7 damage in one defend. Cuts Both Ways can stack with Flow Like Water so you can use two of them in one turn to defend against the villain (or minion) with 9 damage if your board is set up. Quincarrier and Nerves of Steel are here to ensure you hit the required resource for their respective targets (Excelsior and Defense trait cards, respectively). Armored Vest and Defensive Conditioning add the extra defense and health to keep Dauntless active. When you get to draw cards from Unflappable and possibly Change of Fortune, you could use a Heroic Strike to hit the villain and stun them to prevent at least one attack. I included 1 copy of Indomitable as a panic button card and because it features Captain America in a pose that he would be doing all game, which is defending for all!

Depending on the scenario, you could sub in 3 copies of Hard to Ignore to help with threat removal. Since you likely will never take damage, I found damage mitigation cards (Energy Barrier, for example) to be ineffective so I cut those prior to the event. I cut Jocasta too as I wanted to stick to a theme and ideology of who Captain America is. A selfless leader who is always trying to do the right thing. He would put his life on the line to protect others, no matter what...even if he stands alone. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this past weekend at MC/DC. The best part of Marvel Champions is working together as a team to defeat a villain. Even if the odds are stacked against us and we might lose: