Protection
Ally
Cost: 2.
Health: 3.
Attack: 1. Thwart: 2.
Resource:

Response: After Daredevil defends against an attack, move 1 damage from him to the attacking enemy.

"Quiet breaks, shatters down, so the city reaches out. Listening… Waiting… Another station for a signal, and we're all some kind of noise. Be the good kind, Peni."
SP//dr #14.
Daredevil
Reviews

Daredevil is worth consideration for most solo protection decks, and close to a must include for solo or multiplayer in certain scenarios. First of all, he's a two-cost ally that can ping twice for one and then block, or more importantly, thwart for two and and then block, which is great value and something most solo Protection decks sorely need.

What really sets him apart from other Protection allies though is his ability to deal with annoying minions that ping you for one damage, like Ultron I and II drones, against which he's like an Energy Barrier that never runs out of reflection counters — you can keep him out for a long time as long as you promptly discard Upgraded Drones attachments.

He's perfect tech for dealing with annoying guard and patrol minions that only attack for one damage but have tough, like Armored Guards or Ultimate Bio-Servants — in multiplayer, instead of having him chump a villain attack, I would consider leaving him on the board as long as I could to defend against those guys and remove their tough status cards, unless another player has a lot of piercing attacks. For this kind of minion, Daredevil is the clear choice over Victor Mancha. While V.M. also allows you to ignore one of those minions, Daredevil can remove it from the board after a few turns if your hero is too busy dealing with side schemes, other minions, etc.

Oops, forgot that Ultimate Bio-Servants don't have guard. Still, Daredevil is great for handling one of those if your hero is too busy putting out fires elsewhere. — eclecticMel · 4

This Daredevil has an odd ability for such a low health total. It should be said from the start that a 2-cost ally who attacks or thwarts for two then blocks is already a fine deal. The response seems made for defending minion attacks, but the best way to handle minions is usually to not let them attack in the first place. Another knock against this card is the absence of a trait like Champion or Web-Warrior that would help justify it in one of those archetypes. All in all, Daredevil is a serviceable ally even if you never use the response, but it is not an effect you should plan around.

I do need help on this ruling though...if Daredevil defends against an attack that kills him is the damage still moved? Or what if it dealt exactly 3 damage, does he move the 1 and survive? Couldn't find an answer on Reddit. If so, then Daredevil moves into the staple Protection ally category but still will be on the fringes of archetypes that reward certain group traits.

Stretch22 · 1257
It is a response, which happens after the attack. As taking damage and being defeated is part of the attack, i think Daredevil doesn't have a chance to move the damage if he dies. — vidinufi · 1
I feel like since the trigger is "after Daredevil defends" the ability should trigger before he dies, but I could be wrong — DarthTempest2 · 2
Since the "Defence" action involves both declaring him as the defender, and then resolving the damage afterward, it's most likely that the response cannot be used if he is defeated by the attack. Even if it could be argued, the Grim Rule states that the worse scenario is the one to go with if you're unable to find a rule about it. — BravoXray · 2

For a two cost ally, Daredevil is a pretty good card. If you're playing a Protection deck against Ultron, he's a solid pick to counter the Ultron Drones Environment. You can use him specifically to tank one Drone, then move that damage back to the Drone and discard it. Another good use is to specifically deal with enemies with a Tough status card, as moving the damage from him to the enemy causes the Tough status card to trigger when you try to apply the damage.

It's important to note that if you're trying to chump block with Daredevil, because his ability is a Response, he has to SURVIVE the attack in order to move 1 damage from him to the enemy, meaning a fresh Daredevil can only block up to 2 damage. (I'm about to submit this and I noticed @Stretch22 beat me to the punch 3 years ago, so if you see this before you see their post and this answered your question, please give their review a like too!)

Daredevil's capabilities can be extended with cards such as Med Team and First Aid, and/or expanded on using the growing collection of Honorary Upgrades provided to us in card packs/expansions. Some current options could include:

I'm still new to the game and have been in the trenches with several X-Men builds and saw that this possible combo exists to maximize your use of this ability to really deal with 1 HP Minions and Tough statuses:

While I don't believe the above combo is an optimal use of these resources, I do think it's a funny build challenge to get working and really does help deal with some damage mitigation and annoyances like 1 HP minions and Tough status cards.

My primary reason for writing a review was to submit a rules clarification that took a while to find and I'm just hoping to save another, newer player, some time on a search engine:

  • Despite being from different universes, Daredevil and Daredevil cannot be in play at the same time.
  • Per the rules under the Unique Icon portion of the v1.6 Rules Reference : An Ally without a subtitle cannot coexist with an Ally that has a subtitle if those Allies share the same title.

This only came up because I wanted to have two Daredevils out and about with Spider-Woman at the same time, but my scheme was thwarted by the rules. I know the Earth-14512 version of Daredevil would be something like Mike, Mat, or Levi, but it was never confirmed, so here we are. Then again, a lot of people play Nebula against Nebula and THAT'S against the rules, so I guess if you have a cool table who doesn't mind, you can do it anyway.

BardicMonk · 1