IACP card of the day posts are back! I needed to take a break last week due to being too busy with life and the IACP community vote (deadline postponed to 9/2 btw), but I'm happy to be back for this week. Lists of the week will also be back, starting this Wednesday.
Today's card is the Royal Guard Champion. In IACP the Royal Guard Champion, or RGC, has only received a recost, though it's a fairly massive one going from 15 points down to 10. Other than its point cost reduction, the RGC is exactly the same as its original version, so most of the differences between how it plays in IACP vs FFG is based on indirect benefits from new cards introduced around it.
Iron Will and Get Behind Me! are 2 great cards introduced for Guardians that work especially well for Royal Guard Champion. Iron Will protects the RGC from taking a huge amount of damage from one big attack, and having other cheap Guardians in the list with RGC allows them to use Get Behind Me to protect him from an attack. Even better is if that attack kills the target while it's adjacent to RGC, it will trigger his Executor ability to allow him to make a surprise counter attack. In fact, Get Behind Me!'s restrictions were specifically designed to allow it to be used with the RGC specifically.
Feint is a new IACP card for Brawlers that allows the Champion to trade one of it's lesser dice results in order to ensure his attacks hit through a dodge or triple block result. The improved Parry can also be used as a timely defense boost in a pinch to keep the RGC alive, especially effective in conjunction with Zillo Technique. And finally, even though RGC packs a healthy Pierce 2 surge ability, playing Expose Weakness before firing off an attack can ensure that no damage is getting blocked, especially useful against high defense targets and traitorous Empire lists using Zillo Technique to otherwise blunt the RGC's Pierce 2.
RGC also received some great new supporting cast in IACP as well. Mara Jade is an efficient figure that shares the Brawler trait with RGC, but most importantly brings the ability Fast Learner to use RGC's signature command card, Flurry of Blades, and 3 attacks from Mara in a single activation is one of the most powerful things she can do with that ability. Agent Kallus also shares the Brawler trait with RGC, while also bringing along the Spy trait for access to powerful Spy Command Cards. But most importantly his his Fulcrum ability, which gives RGC access to increased Command card flow, which is important for drawing into powerful cards like Iron Will, Parting Blow, Looking for a Fight and Pummel to unlock the RGC's maximum potential. And if you bring Mara and Kallus together, Mara can make use of Kallus's Command card, Face Me!, for even more fun Command card combinations.
