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Tabletop Tactics: Side by Side with Legendary Marvel Featuring Captain America & Hawkeye

Tabletop Tactics: Side by Side with Legendary Marvel Featuring Captain America & Hawkeye

 

Welcome back to the 3rd installment of Side by Side! Today’s head-to-head features half  of Cap’s Kooky Quartet This is going to be an interesting matchup for me as Hawkeye tends to be hit or miss, which is contradictory to what his Marvel character should be. As for Captain America, he has the potential to be a one man wrecking crew if need be which I feel accurately represents his character in the Marvel universe.

“Avengers Assemble” Captain America vs “Quick Draw” Hawkeye

Early Game: At first glance, both of these cards seem underwhelming. Quickdraw will help you filter past your deck quicker to get to your legendary heroes, while Avengers Assemble resembles a vanilla Officer Maria Hill that only gets you 2 recruit points. However, that is not the case at all as Captain America can quickly ramp up the more colors you pick up as the game progresses. The recruiting of heroes is a natural progression of the game, so Captain America can quickly ramp up to 3 or more recruit power.Advantage: Captain America 3 points

Late Game: Hawkeye’s Quick Draw becomes more potent as it will help you reach your legendary heroes much faster, however his 1 attack power won’t contribute much when trying to tackle a tougher mastermind at this stage of the game. By this point Captain America has the potential to recruit heroes all on its own really making it feel as though he is assembling the Avengers. Advantage: Captain America 3 points

“Perfect Teamwork” Captain America vs “Team Player” Hawkeye

Early Game: Again, both of these cards seem to be at a stalemate as they’ll both more than likely have 2 attack power to start off with. The difference comes with Hawkeye being much more restricted in his avenues to get +1 attack, whereas Captain America can benefit off any other card regardless of team faction with Perfect Teamwork. Advantage: Captain America 3 points

Late Game: Late game only gets worse for the supposed Team Player as he can only ever get +1 attack with his own ability. Captain America is the clear choice again because he gets better as the game goes on. Advantage: Captain America 3 points

“Diving Block” Captain America vs “Covering Fire” Hawkeye

Early Game: Hawkeye is easier to recruit by 1 point which is huge in the early game. Add on an ability that can slow down opponents and it can be game changing. Captain America’s Diving Block is very useful if you manage to draw a Scheme or Mastermind that works off of wounds, or a hero that he can combo with to prevent you from gaining wounds. Remember though, the purpose of this article is to work within the confines of choosing characters based solely on their own merits. It is possible you may encounter a scenario that involves no wounds whatsoever rendering Diving Block rather useless. This was a tough decision as I know how good Diving Block can be, but Hawkeye takes the edge here as it may not be that difficult to pull off his ability and disrupt your opponents early on. Advantage Hawkeye 2 points

Late Game: Diving Block becomes more accessible as 6 recruit power should be easier to come by.however it still sufferers from the same restrictions as before in that it may never even trigger because you need to have it in hand when you gain a wound. Hawkeye’s Covering Fire can put in a lot of work by messing up your opponents at this stage in the game. As a bonus, if you notice you are falling dangerously behind and might lost to the Mastermind, Hawkeye can quickly turn the tides by allowing each other player to draw a card to try and mount a comeback. Remember you are a hero after all. Advantage: Hawkeye 2 points

“A Day Unlike Any Other Day” Captain America vs “Impossible Trick Shot” Hawkeye

Early Game: Let’s say you manage to recruit either of these heroes early in the game. Captain America will be sitting at 3 attack power very often unless you manage to recruit more Avengers. If your opponents are clever they’ll try and clear the board of any Avengers who may be able to help increase its attack, and if you’re lucky you’ll still have to draw the other Avengers in the same hand to increase its attack. Hawkeye will sit at 5 attack consistently and rescue 3 bystanders effectively increasing your victory points which may put you out of reach very early in the game. Advantage: Hawkeye 1 point

Late Game: Captain America becomes much more dangerous here. He is still dependent on you having some Avengers in your roster to increase his attack power, but the potential to get 6, 9, or 12 attack power becomes very doable .I am not overlooking Hawkeye’s ability to still grab 3 extra victory points, but at this stage in the game the Mastermind usually takes precedence over other objectives and the higher attack power will come in handy more often than not to ensure you don’t lose to the Mastermind. Advantage: Captain America 1 point

Final Totals

Captain America wins by a large margin with 13 points to Hawkeye’s 5. As I mentioned in the beginning, Hawkeye tends to be hit or miss, and going up against the freight train that is Captain America he didn’t stand a chance. Hawkeye really thrives in decks that have other Avengers and draw cards like Iron Man from the base set as they can draw an insane amount of cards between themselves. Whereas Captain America can honestly squeeze into almost any deck and just give you a huge boost. Add in some Avengers and Cap can really get you ahead. Thanks for reading!

About Me: I’m a video/tabletop game reviewer, content creator, and game member of the Drop the Spotlight Gaming Crew. If you have questions about any of my content, reach out to me at maurogarcia@dropthespotlight.com. You can also view our gaming content on our FacebookTwitter, & Instagram pages, check out our gaming podcast on Anchor FM, and our videos can be viewed on the Drop the Spotlight YouTube.