Skills and Abilities: Turning the Tide of Battle with Special Powers
In Devacurse, many cards have unique powers that are represented by a few keywords printed in bold. This post looks at these keywords and explains them all, from the basic ones introduced in the Half-Blood Deal base set to more recent additions from the Vengeful Kindred expansion set. Although Skills and Abilities can have a profound effect on strategy, in and of themselves they are fairly straightforward and easy to learn.
What’s the difference between an ability and a skill?
An ability is an automatic action that activates itself during the normal course of game events.
A skill is an action that needs to be activated, either by depleting the card in question, paying a blessing cost, or doing something else as the card directs.
Read on for full explanations of all of the skills and abilities currently available to players of Devacurse.
Half-Blood Deal cards introduced the following skills and abilities:
Pierce: When a Soldier or Hero blocks an attack from this card, any unblocked damage is subtracted from their Deva’s Faith Points. (Example: A card with Pierce and AT 4 is blocked by a Soldier with DF 2. The Soldier takes 2 damage and is killed, the remaining 2 damage is subtracted from the Deva’s Faith Points.)
Field: Field is always used in conjunction with a specific element, designated on the card by the symbol following the Field keyword. A card with the Field ability may not be blocked except by Soldiers or Heroes with the same Field element ability. (Example: A card with Field: Wind can only be blocked by Soldiers or Heroes who also have Field: Wind).
Revive: A Soldier or Hero with the Revive ability is not sent to the Cenotaph / Black Hole when it is slain, but put in the rest position.
Poison: When a Soldier or Hero with the Poison ability inflicts damage on an enemy Soldier or Hero, that Soldier or Hero receives X amount of Poison counters, with X being equal to the amount of damage received. As the card above illustrates, Poison can also be inflicted by certain Event cards, and some Soldier and Hero cards can “spit” Poison, depleting or paying a blessing cost and then placing one or more Poison counters on the targeted enemy. The poisoned Soldier or Hero may not prompt during the Prompt Mode Loop, remaining in the rest position. Instead, their Deva may remove one Poison counter from them during every Prompt Mode Loop. When all Poison counters are gone, the Soldier or Hero may enter prompt mode during the next Prompt Mode Loop.
Windwalk: Only Heroes may have this ability. Ordinarily, a Hero may not attack an enemy Hero if any enemy Soldiers remain on the battlefield – they have to be targeted and removed first. A Hero with Windwalk does not need to clear enemy soldiers before he can attack an enemy Hero – he “flies over” them.
Burn X: When a Hero or Soldier with the Burn ability inflicts damage on an enemy Hero or Soldier, that enemy’s Deva must deplete X number of cards. (The number X represents is printed after the Burn keyword.) The depleted cards produce blessings. If the enemy Deva cannot spend those blessings by the end of the turn, they must subtract them from their Faith points.
The Vengeful Kindred expansion added these abilities to Devacurse:
Pounce: A Soldier or Hero with Pounce does not need to be called during the Soldier / Hero calling phase. Instead, they may be played at any time, as a flash.
Transform: By paying a given blessing cost, a card with Transform may be turned into a different card type. The most common examples are Inventions that may function as either independent Soldiers or as equipment that augments other Soldiers.
Flip: Flip indicates a supplemental power that may only be activated if the card with the Flip keyword was played from a closed prayer (closed prayers begin face down, hence the “flip” when a player turns them over and brings them into play) in the temple zone, not from a player’s hand.
Curse X: A Curse is essentially a sort of countdown. A card with a Curse upon it receives one Curse counter every prompt mode loop. When the Curse counter reaches X, the predetermined number printed after the Curse keyword, the curse will take effect. Upon activation follow the instructions for the specific curse on the card, and remove all curse counters from that card. Curses may trigger effects that are beneficial or detrimental for their owner Deva. Most confer some advantage on their owner, but sometimes a detrimental Curse serves to counterbalance a powerful card.
Taba (Focus) counters: Taba counters are not Skills or Abilities, but markers used to keep track of them and their effects. Many cards will instruct you to place Taba counters on them or their targets to measure the duration of an effect they initiate. You can use anything to represent a Taba counter – coins, beads, plastic dinosaurs – it’s up to you. ”Taba” means concentration, or focusing your mental energy. So you could translate these as “Focus counters”, representations of the mental energies being used by the Devas as they wield their magic and direct their minions.
As of the time of this writing, these are all the special abilities and skills that are available to Devacurse players. I have little doubt that future expansions will introduce more, and this website will endeavor to chronicle them when they appear.
