Pitchback · MarvelCDB

I am surprised that this card has no reviews yet!

For me, it's an auto-include in any Aggression Thor deck. Thor becomes Aerial thanks to Mjolnir and loves to use it to take a Mean Swing or a Skilled Strike against the bad guys, so this card is basically a much better Jarnbjorn with improved resource efficiency (damage/ER ratio of 2, on par with Hand Cannon), AND you can play it for free with Team-Building Exercise since it shares the Aerial trait with you (EDIT: most likely you can't do this, see discussion below).

If you happen to have Mean Swing, Skilled Strike and Pitchback in your hand, you can turn a basic attack into a 12-damage wallop for only 4 ER, which is amazing value! 3 copies of each of those cards are enough to defeat both stages of most villains in the game when playing Solo.

Of course it's good for other Aerial heroes who attack a lot, like Nova (it's in his pre-built deck for a good reason) and Spectrum, and obviously super good for Aggression Angel who draws a card after playing it, slightly less so for Aggression Ironheart who doesn't attack as often. Grab it together with Dive Bomb and you'll have a solid backbone for any Aggression deck based on those heroes.

3/24/25

Michebugio · 13

I would rule you can't use Team-Building Exercise with Pitchback due to TBE being a Hero Action and not simply a resource. Also, your combo is 9 damage, not 12 (every card will look like crazy value if you get to add your basic activation for free all the time :-) — Stretch22 · 975 3/24/25

Regarding damage, you're right - I guess I got carried away with the calculations :) but I'm not sure I agree with your ruling about TBE. From the 1.6 Rules Reference, “Action is a type of triggered ability. Players are permitted to trigger action abilities during their turn, or by request during other players’ turns." I get your point, but the question is: can a Hero Action be triggered during a Hero Response? Nothing in the rules seems to explicitly forbid it. — Michebugio · 13 3/25/25

You can't do Responses outside of a response window, which occurs immediately after the triggering condition. By the time you can do an Action: ability again, the response window is closed. I admit this specific interaction is not called out in the Rules Reference, but the only discussion I could find online agrees with me (https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelchampionslcg/comments/wp50r8/question_about_teambuilding_exercise_and_similar/) — Stretch22 · 975 3/25/25

Interesting discussion, and I see that the interaction between TBE and Pitchback is specifically mentioned: as you say, the main argument is that by the time you use TBE, the response window of Pitchback should be closed. This conclusion, however, seems to be an extrapolation from the rules rather than being confirmed by any specific sentence or rules interaction. The fact, however, that the rules state that only multiple "responses" (and not generically "actions") may be executed from the same triggering condition does seem to lead to the conclusion that responses are only cumulative with other responses and not with any other kind of action. Plus, now it's two against one, so I'll have to admit defeat! Too bad 'cause it did seem a nice interaction. — Michebugio · 13 3/25/25

why is damage not 12 w base att w hammer w mean, skilled, and pitch? 3+3+2+4? — dlouismartin · 1 3/27/25

What Stretch22 meant is that those 4 ER do not DEAL 12 damage, they only RAISE your damage by 9. In other words, you don't count the 3 damage from your basic attack, which you would have inflicted anyway, regardless of the cards you play that turn. — Michebugio · 13 3/27/25

Copy that - for a split second I thought I was losing my mind. — dlouismartin · 1 3/28/25

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