Freeze, fire, shields and armor

Most cards do their work and leave. A teleport moves a piece and is gone; a revert undoes something and is gone. A good share of the Built Deck catalog leaves a mark instead, on a piece that stays after the card is in the discard pile: a piece that can't move, a piece that can't be taken, a piece that's on fire, a piece that has for the moment become a king. The board shows each mark, so this is a page to come back to when a piece has a symbol on it. Each mark gets the same questions: what the card does, how long it lasts, what the piece can and can't do meanwhile, which cards can't reach it, and what removes it.

Freeze

What it does. A frozen piece can't move. It stays on its square, still blocking everything behind it, but it does nothing for its owner until the freeze ends. It can still be captured like any other piece. It also attacks nothing while frozen: a frozen piece gives no check, and whatever it was defending is defended by nothing. That second part is the one players miss. Freezing the knight that guards a pawn doesn't just park the knight, it hangs the pawn.

How long. Four cards freeze and they differ only in length. 1 Turn Freeze costs one and holds the piece until after your opponent's next turn, so they miss one go with it. Deep Chill costs two and holds it until after their next two turns. Flash Freeze is the Instant at two: the same length as 1 Turn Freeze, but played on their turn, so you freeze the piece they were about to move once they've shown you which one that is. Freeze, also two, has no timer. It holds until a Thaw card frees the piece, and if your opponent's deck has no Thaw in it, that piece is out of the game for two Braincells, cheaper than any kill card in the catalog.

The line Bear Traps freeze too. A Bear Trap: e-file or any of its fifteen siblings sits face down in your actives, and the first enemy piece to land anywhere on that line is frozen for two turns. A king steps over a trap unharmed, and so does a shielded piece.

What can't target it. A frozen piece can't be picked up by the cards that move or mark pieces: no teleport, no Move Opponent Piece, no swap, no Pile On or Consolidate, no borrowed movement, and no second freeze on top of the first. That cuts both ways, because the owner can't shield or armor a frozen piece either. It can still be set on fire, demoted or destroyed, so if you've frozen a piece you'd like gone, the freeze doesn't protect it from your own Lightning Strike.

What removes it. Thaw at one Braincell frees one of your frozen pieces, and Group Thaw at two frees all of them at once. Both are played on your own turn; there's no Instant thaw. A timed freeze also ends on its own, and the board shows when. If you can't say what the frozen piece was about to do, don't play the freeze yet.

Fire

What it does. Ignite costs three and sets an enemy piece on fire. Nothing happens to it straight away. It keeps moving, capturing and giving check as before, and the fire is only a clock. When the clock runs down, the piece burns to nothing, and burning to nothing means destroyed. A destroyed piece is a killed one: ordinary resurrection won't bring it back, only Revival or, from the other side, Necromancy.

How long. The card says a couple of turns, and that's the number to use. The board shows the mark; count from there.

What it can and can't do. Everything. A burning piece has no restriction on it, which is both the point and the weakness: the owner gets a turn or two of use from a piece that's already lost, and a turn or two to find an answer. A burning piece can still be frozen, demoted or destroyed, and it can still be captured, in which case it's a capture, not a kill. A piece already on fire can't be lit again.

What can't target it. Fire protects a piece from nothing. The only pieces Ignite itself can't touch are the king and a shielded piece.

What removes it. Douse costs one and puts out the fire on one of your pieces. Splash does the same as an Instant, so you can spend your own turn on something else and still save the piece on theirs. The trade is three Braincells against one, and against a deck that has shown one Douse you should assume more.

Shields

What it does. A shielded piece can't be captured. It still moves, attacks and gives check. A shield also keeps a piece out of reach of your opponent's cards altogether: no freeze, no Ignite, no Demote, no Move Opponent Piece, no swap, no Pawned Off, no Consolidate, and none of the kill cards, Lightning Strike and Assassinate among them. A teleport can't land on it, a returning piece can't take its square, and it walks over a trap without springing it.

How long. Shield costs one and lasts until after your next turn. Aegis costs two and lasts two full turns. Flash Shield is the Instant at two, lasting like Shield, played after your opponent has moved into position for a capture that now won't happen. Guardian Ward costs two and lasts until the piece next moves, which can be the whole game if the piece sits still, and ends the moment you move it.

The king. The timed shields can go on your king, and a king that can't be captured can't be in check for as long as the shield covers the reply. On your own turn the shield only counts if it will still be up on your opponent's next turn, so you can't leave your king attacked on the shield's last turn and hope. Guardian Ward can't go on a king: a king that never moved would be unmateable for the rest of the game.

What removes it. No card does. A shield expires, or in Guardian Ward's case the piece moves, and that's the whole list. The answer to a shield is patience: wait it out, and attack what the shielded piece was defending in the meantime. Shield your defenders, not your attackers, because an attacker has to move and a ward is wasted the turn it does.

Armor

What it does. Armor is the long shield, with a narrower promise. Pawn Armor costs one and fits armor to a pawn; Plate Armor costs three and fits it to any piece except the king. An armored piece can't be captured, not by a move, not by a teleport landing, not by a piece coming back onto its square. It still moves and attacks freely.

How long. Until an opponent breaks the armor with a Weapon. There is no timer. Against a deck with no Weapon in it, a plated queen is simply a queen that can't be taken.

What can still reach it. Here the difference from a shield matters. Armor answers capture and nothing else. An armored piece can still be frozen, set on fire, demoted, moved by Move Opponent Piece, or destroyed by a kill card. Plate Armor on your queen stops the knight fork; it doesn't stop Lightning Strike. A piece wears one suit of armor at a time, and a frozen piece can't be fitted with it.

What removes it. The Weapon in the catalog is Armor Piercing, at two Braincells, which breaks the armor off one enemy piece and leaves it open to capture again. So Plate Armor against a deck with three Armor Piercings is three Braincells that buy a turn or two and cost your opponent two.

Pawn Armor is the better deal more often than it looks. A pawn that can't be captured is a pawn that walks: an armored pawn on the fifth rank is a promotion in three moves unless your opponent finds a Weapon.

A designated king

What it does. A New King, Surprise Coronation, Puppet King and Royal Decoy each cost three and name a square: f5, c6, d3 and e6. Whatever opponent piece stands there becomes their king for this turn. The card is refused if the square is empty, holds one of your own pieces, or is already the king, so you hold it until the right piece wanders onto the right square.

How long. The card says this turn. The designation also holds through your opponent's reply, which is what makes it a threat rather than a label: a knight on f5 that you attack this turn is a knight they have to rescue next turn, the way they'd rescue a king.

What it changes. While the mark is on, both pieces have to stay safe. Their real king is still a king, still can't be captured, still can't walk into check. The designated piece is a second king on top: if it's attacked, they're in check, and a position where neither the real king nor the new one can be saved is checkmate. If the designated piece moves, the designation moves with it. If it's destroyed, burned out or lost to a trap before the mark ends, the real king is the only king again.

What removes it. Time. No card strips a designation. The defense is the same as for any check: move the piece, block, or take the attacker. The keeping your king safe article covers the attacking side.

Borrowed movement

What it does. The "Like" cards leave a friendly mark. Rook Like, Knight Like, Bishop Like, Queen Like and King Like give one of your pieces another piece's movement for this turn. Pawn Like gives a piece a pawn's moves, double step, en passant and promotion included. The Royal cards, Royal Queen among them, are the one case where a king borrows a pattern.

How long. This turn, for most of them. Lasting Rook and Lasting Queen stretch it to the next two turns.

The hostile version. Pawned Off gives an enemy piece a pawn's moves on your opponent's next turn. Their queen becomes a pawn for a turn. It's not a freeze, because a pawn can still move, but a queen that can only step forward one square is close enough. Pawned Off can't be aimed at a shielded piece or at their king.

What can't carry it. A frozen piece can't be given a pattern, and a pattern doesn't survive Demote: the borrowed movement belonged to the old piece.

What removes it. Nothing but time. If your opponent has given a rook queen's moves for two turns, keep your pieces out of its lines for two turns, or freeze the rook, which stops it moving however it was going to move.

Jump

What it does. Jump costs one and gives one of your kings or pawns the ability to step onto a wall square, breaking the wall. It's a mark on the piece, not on the wall, and it's the only way a piece gets through a Wall that's still standing; otherwise you wait for it to crumble or knock it down with Wrecking Ball or Probe.

How long. The next few turns, as the card says, and the mark shows on the piece.

What removes it. Time. No card takes Jump away.

Marks on squares, not pieces

Two things in this family sit on the board rather than on a piece, and read the same way.

A wall blocks movement onto its square and sliding through it, and crumbles after a few turns. A wall holds no piece, so it can't be captured; it's broken by a jumper, torn down by Wrecking Ball, or picked off one square at a time by Probe.

A buried piece is what Pile On makes: one of your pieces stacked onto another. Only the top one moves or can be captured, so the piece underneath is safe until the top one is gone, and does nothing until then. A king can't go in a stack, in either position, and a frozen piece can't be the one you move. Each piece in a stack carries its own marks: a buried piece can be on fire, and burns down on its own clock.

Iron Wall isn't a mark on anything, but it's the one that gets confused with a shield. For three Braincells, none of your non-king pieces can be captured this turn: your whole army for one turn, your king not at all.

Reading the marks before every move

Every mark above shows on the board, and the habit that makes them useful is cheap: look at them before each move, not after.

Start with your opponent's pieces and the marks you've put there. A freeze ending next turn is a piece about to be dangerous again, so this is the turn to use the gap. A fire about to burn down is a piece they're about to lose, so don't spend a capture on it.

Then your own pieces and the marks they've put there. Count the turns on a freeze and decide whether a Thaw is worth a card or whether waiting is fine. A shield about to expire is a defender about to be hanging, and an armored pawn is a Weapon your opponent will be looking for.

Last, whenever you spend a card on a mark, look at the answer first. Thaw clears a freeze for one Braincell, Douse clears a fire for one, Armor Piercing clears a suit of armor for two. The player who holds the answer decides what the mark was worth, and a mark your opponent can clear for one Braincell was never worth three of yours. The vision cards article covers the same habit from the other direction, reading a board a card has just changed.